There’s a reason Titanic fever is rekindling. James Cameron’s heartbreaking blockbuster is set to be re-released in three excruciating dimensions next month in time for the 100-year anniversary of the tragedy. It happened a century ago, but our fascination with the event is still fresh. Maybe it’s the image of Kate and Leo on the frozen water, or maybe it’s all the recent accidents on the Carnival Cruise line.
Whatever it is, a great many of us are willing to re-live that long, cold, inevitable sink into the black depths once again. What, you may ask, is wrong with us?
Maybe, in the end, it’s because experts are still debating the reason the unsinkable ship sank in the first place. Everybody does love a mystery. This month’s issue of Smithsonian Magazine presents some brand new theories as to why the Titanic steered into an even-more-titanic iceberg, including a fatal optical illusion that created a false horizon and obscured the ship’s distress signals. The New York Daily News reports of astronomers at Texas State University who discovered that an unusual full moon that January may have multiplied the number of icebergs in the Atlantic.
Then there’s The Telegraph, which cites a letter written home by a passenger who claims Captain Edward Smith was passed out drunk on the night in question.
It is some pretty fascinating stuff, even I have to admit. And the only thing that could make watching Leo drown once again more rewarding is some history research at the library! Come peruse this month’s issue of Smithsonian Magazine, and definitely brush up on your facts in American History Online. You can even read over the Chicago Tribune‘s front page account on April 15!