ROB HAMILTON
Last Thursday then Club was happy to welcome ROB HAMILTON who shared his knowledge and family's experience in the ill-fated voyage of the RMS TITANIC in 1912. Rob who has degrees from Cornell, U of Virginia, and Northwestern, and was a professor at Temple where he also chaired the School of Business, is also the grandson of Gretchen Longley who was one of the706 survivors of the sinking disaster of the worlds fastest, largest , and most luxurious (at the time) passenger steam ship . Rob is also a book author, but not on the Titanic. His book is "Not Exactly Rocket Scientists and Other Stories"
Rob chronicled the critical events leading up to the disaster; an out of control fire in one of the boilers which probably damaged the hull ; the orders from the White Star president to beat the present record for travel to NYC; tricky visibility at night; lack of binoculars and lack of response to warning bells, and the crew ignoring warnings about ice in the area.
Rob gave us several points of interest that are not widely known; he showed the path the Titanic took around the ice flow , and noted that , due to the fire and demand for top speed, there was not enough coal to alter the route, and that there were too few few firemen onboard, and no fire evacuation drill, and that the White Star company threatened the crew to remain silent on the many mistakes that had been made.
He personalized the story by relating the actions taken by his grandmother. After the collision and stoppage of the ship, she was told twice that all was ok and to go back to bed. The third time, the steward told her to get her warmest coat and head to the life boats. Once lowered to the sea, she found out that she was the only person in her boat that knew how to row, and took command. In spite of this experience , she continued to go on several more cruses.
We thank Rob very much for bringing this very entertain story to our club.
He suggests the site below for more information on the Titanic.
This is a link to all of Rob's slides
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0?ui=2&ik=f076146200&attid=0.1&permmsgid=msg-f:1845533030504375105&th=199ca6836076a341&view=att&zw&disp=safe