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The Tampa Tribune from Tampa, Florida • 52

Publication:
The Tampa Tribunei
Location:
Tampa, Florida
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Page:
52
Extracted Article Text (OCR)

4-F The Tampa Tribune Tuesday, April 14, 1987 75 years on the bottom of the sea to) A State Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the United States tried to negotiate guidelines for Titanic expeditions last year following a non-binding measure passed by Congress. But France and other countries have shown "little or no interest" in barring a salvage mission. The official said no new negotiations have been initiated since last year. Sue Waldron, an aide to Rep. Walter D.

Jones, chairman of the merchant marine committee, said the panel was considering taking action on its own, perhaps a ban on importing Titanic artifacts. But the State Department official noted that would be difficult to identify what would be an artifact from the Titanic." The mysteries of the Titanic for 73 years had been left to the imagination of readers and to Hollywood producers who tried to re-create the disaster in movies such as "A Night To Remember." But Ballard's tapes from a robot that maneuvered inside the Titanic's wreckage have brought sharp images of coral-encrusted chandeliers and other parts of the ship into American living rooms. "Secrets of the Titanic" has been on Billboard's Top 10 list of videocassettes nearly every week this year. And a cable TV special on the Titanic last month set a ratings record for cable stations, according to the A.C. Nielsen Co.

To commemorate the anniversary, 800 Titanic buffs, historians and survivors met for a Titanic Historical Society conference in Delaware featuring speeches by Ballard and several survivors. Society spokesman Don Lynch said 25 survivors remain. "We are extremely interested in carrying out a new campaign to the Titanic this summer," she said, adding that a contract may be signed with the unidentified sponsors within a month. In February, Vitali-Jacob said the agency had signed a "letter of Intent" for a summer exploration with Texas oilman Jack Grimm and West-gate Group, a Hollywood production company that created the Al Capone TV special, during which the Chicago gangster's vault was opened on live television. Westgate and Grimm had planned to use the same format in a Titanic special, broadcasting from 2'2 miles below the ocean surface, retrieving three ship's safes and opening them on live TV even though many Titanic historians say the safes were emptied before the liner went down.

But Vitali-Jacob said the plan with the Grimm-Westgate team was dropped because Grimm "did not pursue it." Grimm, a self-styled adventurer who financed three unsuccessful missions to find the Titanic, refused comment. But Doug Llewelyn, executive president of Westgate, said the French institute went with the new expedition sponsor, a man he described as an English insurance executive, because he wanted to rent the equipment for 90 days, twice the time Grimm and Westgate had planned on using. Responding to an Associated Press report of the institute's original plans with Grimm and Westgate, the chairman of the U.S. House Merchant Marines and Fisheries Committee wrote Secretary of State George Shultz, urging him to file a formal protest with the French government and begin diplomatic negotiations to agree on terms governing the Titanic site. By CHRISTOPHER CALLAHAN of the Associated Press "We have struck a berg require immediate assistance we have collided with an iceberg sinking." Less than three hours after sending that message, the RMS Titanic, the luxurious, "unsaleable" flagship of the White Star Line, sank on its maiden voyage in the pre-dawn darkness of April 15, 1912, sending 1,513 people to their deaths.

Seventy-five years later, the story of the Titanic is as big as ever. The discovery of the ship 18 months ago has spawned more legends and literature, a top-selling home video and intense debate over the future of the liner's remains. Dr. Robert Ballard, a marine geologist who led a U.S.-French expedition that found the wreckage Sept 1, 1985, and returned to the site last summer to film the Titanic, vehemently opposes more missions and removing artifacts. "It is quiet and peaceful, a fitting place for the remains of this greatest of sea tragedies to rest.

May it forever remain that way," Ballard said shortly after the ship's discovery off the coast of Newfoundland. But officials at the French Institute for Research and Exploration, which joined Ballard's crew from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in 1985, have been open to another exploration and the idea of recovering some of the bottles, dishes and other items Ballard's crew found scattered on the ocean floor. Francoise Vitali-Jacob, a spokeswoman for the French institute, said the agency was negotiating with a European group to lease its miniature submarine and other equipment for a dive this year. The bow of the Titanic was found with icicles of rust and other debris 74 years after its demise. .3 'Z JPrmVMMWmm -limn hhwiiii I in urn i -ri i ll i out into the icy air, they met a ship's crew that knew as little about what happened as they did.

Capt. Smith ran to the bridge and, upon hearing of the iceberg, summoned Thomas Andrew, the ship's designer, who was aboard for the maiden voyage. A quick inspection proved there was no hope for the liner. When it was certain the ship would sink within a few hours, Smith ordered First Operator John G. Phillips to send out an SOS history's first from a sinking ship.

At the same time, Smith ordered the 20 lifeboats and collapsibles readied knowing there was not enough room for all his passengers. Hartley's orchestra assembled on deck and opened with "Alexander's Ragtime Band" in an effort to keep the passengers calm. First-class passengers were herded to the middle of the ship, second-class to the rear, steerage to the bow and stern sections. Despite the pleas of the crew, people refused to step into the first lifeboats. The ship was barely listing and most passengers did not believe the "unsinkable" ship would go down.

"My father's last words to us were, 'It seems more dangerous for you to get into that boat then it does to stay with said Marjorie Robb, a 98-year-old survivor who lives in Westport Point, describing how she and her sister boarded a lifeboat. "But we got into it and we were saved." Their father's body washed up on the coast of Nova Scotia 10 days later. When the ship's list was more evident, panic ensued. Many lifeboats were over-full and lowered too rapidly, some almost landing atop boats launched moments earlier. The last collapsible to be launched was tossed in the water as the bow went under, forcing people to try to hold on to the overturned craft.

As the bow sank, the three props at the stern lifted out of the water. As it slowly rose, survivors said they could hear Hartley's orchestra begin playing the hymn "Autumn" and then suddenly stop as the ship's angle became too sharp to stand. The sounds of the orchestra were replaced by the screams of people still aboard Experts believe that when the stern rose perpendicular to the water the moorings holding down the ship's 26 boilers began breaking loose, sending them crashing down through the bulkheads until they fell free of the ship. Winnifred Van Tongerloo, 83, another survivor who now lives in Warren, remembers being loaded into a boat and being rowed away. "We heard the boilers breaking and saw the lights going out.

We also heard the people screaming," she said. "As the years go by, these things fade. But that's something you couldn't forget. It was too bad, too terrible to forget." The boilers out witnesses said the Titanic settled back to about a 78-degree angle and went under nose first, spiraling into the water rather than going straight down. The ship dropped about 2y2 miles to the ocean floor.

By comparison, the Andrea Doria and Lusi-tania went down in about 300 feet of water. When the Titanic struck the iceberg, the Leyland liner California was 20 miles away and could have easily rescued most of the passengers, but its radio operator already had retired for the evening when the distress call was sent. The Cun-ard liner Carpathia, which did hear the call, arrived shortly after the Titanic sank and picked up survivors. The Titanic had been scheduled to arrive in New York on Wednesday, April 18, 1912. As a result of the disaster, the first International convention for safety at sea convened in London the following year, drawing up rules requiring lifeboat space for every person on board and lifeboat drills on every voyage.

From then on, ships had to hold a 24-hour radio watch and the International Ice Patrol was established to warn ships of ice in shipping lanes. In the days following the disaster, the White Star line hired boats out of Halifax, Nova Scotia, to go out and search for bodies. True to the privileged upper class to the end, when the boats returned, the first-class passengers already were laid out in coffins. Passengers identified as second-iclass or steerage were simply sewn into canvas bags. Today, a wreath is dropped annually on the area of the North Atlantic where the ship sank.

Survivors now mostly in their 80s and 90s and numbering less than two dozen have gathered every five years to commemorate the sinking. pic, she had a 17-foot-wide, 33-foot-long swimming pool below decks and a racket court amidship, also reserved for the wealthy. Before setting a course west, the liner anchored at Queens Harbor off the coast of Ireland, there picking up Irish peasants escaping the famine and hoping to find new lives in America. The poor were packed into the steerage section hidden deep in the ship, well away from the sunlight that washed over the polished decks above. When the passengers were settled, Capt.

Edward J. Smith set a course for New York and within minutes the huge liner began cutting through the blue Atlantic at a speed of 21 knots. Despite ice warnings', the first days of the voyage were uneventful. The passengers soon got used to the constant rhythmic vibration of the ship's engines and the low hum of the triple screws churning the water. The voyage had clear weather from the day it sailed, and only the cold, 30-degree weather suggested how close the ship's path was to the Arctic Circle.

On the moonless Sunday night of the 14th, at 11:40 p.m., Wallace Hartley's orchestra had just completed a show in the first-class lounge. Suddenly on the starboard side, Lookout Frederick Fleet saw a black mass appear on the dark sea. He immediately called down to the bridge "Iceberg right ahead," and the ship's officer began spinning the wheel to port trying to make the giant craft dodge the massive chunk of ice. But before the Titanic could make a perceptible change in course, the ship rammed the iceberg and glanced off. In those brief seconds, however, the ice crumpled the iron hull like aluminum foil.

Experts originally thought a 300-foot gash had opened on the starboard side, but Ballard's expedition determined the impact actually ruptured thousands of rivets holding the steel plates In place. To those deep in steerage, the sound was a terrorizing shri.ek of ripping metal. Those on the upper decks reported hearing a tinny metallic tearing. Within seconds, however, the most noticeable change was the growing silence. The triple screws slowly came to a halt and the once-constant vibration slowly dulled and died away.

As the rich and poor tumbled Titanic From Page IF a long way to go. I don't see it as a setback. I see it as a sober reminder before we move on." By all accounts of the day, the Titanic was the grandest ship ever constructed by the prestigious Har-land Wolff shipyard in Belfast, and when it sailed on April 10, 1912, it not only carried the reputation of the White Star Line but also the pride of England. It rose 11 stories high from its keel to its mast, an imposing 75 feet from its waterline at deck to the A deck promenade for the wealthy. With a black hull trimmed in white, and four black smokestacks trimmed in gold, the ship stretched 882 feet long and weighed 46,328 tons on the day it majestically sailed from Southampton to the cheers of thousands.

Aboard were some of the richest of the world's rich. John Jacob As-tor and his wife were lodged in a $4,000 suite. Benjamin Guggenheim and his entourage also walked the teakwood decks, as did magnate Isl-dor Straus, founder of Macy's and Abraham and Straus. Like her sister ship, the Olym $4 1 (Km 8mithtonian News Service photographs The Titanic, top photo, had a reputation of being unslnkable because four of its 16 compartments could be flooded and the ship still would float. But the Iceberg the ship hit In the North Atlantic Ocean opened five compartments.

Capt. E.J. Smith, commander of the Titanic, poses at right, above, with purser Herbert Edward, In a photograph made available by the Titanic Historical Society and the Philadelphia Maritime Museum. Griffith adds character to his character Art 0 M' Andy Griffith says Ben Matlock Is beginning to "take on a personality." "Julie Sommars has been on several times as a prosecutor, and she and Ben Matlock have become friends. Now, I can't dance.

So I got to thinking It could be very funny on the dance floor. We had a scene coming up with Julie, and I played a tape of Ray Templin on the piano for Dean Hargrove, one of the executive producers. Ray also plays the bass drum in the Disneyland Marching Band. The upshot is that we have a scene in a bar where Ray is playing 'Lulu's Back in We're trying to establish a character like Hoagy Carmichael." Griffith says he thinks it's the best role he ever has had on TV. "It's a wonderfully conceived part," he says.

"You're almost unlimited in what you can do in the part The courtroom scenes are fun to do because they have a theatrical quality to them." By JERRY BUCK of The Associated Press LOS ANGELES Performers rarely admit to a lack of talent, and rarer still turn It into an asset as Andy Griffith does on NBC's "Matlock." In Griffith's case, it's merely that he can't dance. Whenever he tries it, his stumbling around turns out funny. And that's what he seizes upon in one episode to help build a "personality" for the series, which has moved into the top 10 in the ratings. Griffith, who's probably best known for "The Andy Griffith Show" in the 1960s, is nearing the end of his first season as Ben Matlock, a canny criminal lawyer who masks his skills behind a folksy Southern manner. "Before we came on the air I couldn't tell you what made us different or what made Ben Matlock different from Perry Mason," Griffith says.

"You just don't know, but once you're on the air a show begins to take on a personality, and that's what's happening now with Griffith says he is trying to build "Matlock" piece by piece, the way "The Andy Griffith Show" developed. "We started with just me and the aunt and the boy," he says. "Then Don Knotts said he'd like to be in it. That started something, because the comedy went to him. Then we added Floyd and Otis and Gomer and Goober.

All those characters enriched, the show." Ben Matlock has an edge unlike any regular character Griffith has ever played. Dig beneath that Southern charm and you find thorns. In the manner of Perry Mason, Matlock always unmasks the real villain while defending his innocent client Matlock has more in common with Lonesome Rhoads from "A Face in the Crowd" than Will Stockdale of "No Time for Sergeants," two roles that first propelled Griffith to stardom. "This character can go in more directions than any I've done before," he says. Griffith is talking about the show over coffee one rainy afternoon at the Lakeside Country Club.

It's one of the few times he has had a break from the show in six months. He says the dialogue, particularly for the courtroom scenes, requires a lot of study. The show, like virtually every other series, is undergoing changes. Writers are finding more facets to Matlock's character and new peripheral characters are being added. The biggest change, of course, is that Linda Purl has left her role as Matlock's daughter and law partner.

A new character, a young law student played by Karl Lizer, may be added to the show. "I'm hoping she'll be a regular," Griffith says. "She played a rock roll singer in the first episode. I knew from the first day that I worked with her I'd never seen her before that I was dealing with someone with talent. To be honest with you, I think she's quite exceptional.

"She's not really replacing Linda Purl. It's not exactly the same function. This character could be in a position of needing love or protection. Or she could do comedy, or serve as an Investigator. She's im- From Page IF in this show is Suzanne Camp Crosby's "Where Babies Come From No.

2," a richly detailed elbachrome photograph that seems right out of a Terry Gilliam film. Crosby, a well-known Bay area artist, places her babies in a lettuce patch and creates an ethereal background of soft colors to suggest the path of their lives. A concentration of works by these artists alone could have made this show infinitely stronger. As the collection stands now, it feels overdone and disparate. The Members' Juried Exhibition was judged by Dr.

Diane Lesko, curator of collections at the Museum of Fine Arts in St Petersburg. Les-ko's first-place award went to Rick Melby, an Ybor City glass artist, whose work hangs in the center's front window. Andy Griffith says "Matlock" is the best television part he has played. petuous, so that's a built-in basis for conflict. She's vulnerable, yet she's aggressive.".

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