TITANIC WEEK, DAY 2!

[asakiyume]

Today my question for Titanic enthusiast Douglas Ross is this:

You've been interested in the Titanic for a long time. How (if at all) has your focus changed?

Doug's answer:

I have always been interested in the general story of Titanic and the lessons incorporated into maritime law, which I call the Civil Rights Act of the sea for its groundbreaking and world-shattering changes that endure until this very day, but now my focus has slightly shifted to incorporate the broader world, such as how racism affected Blacks traveling back and forth between the United States and Europe. I'm also more interested in certain passengers and crew, such as the White Star Line chairman J. Bruce Ismay, who is a very complex man that I have grown to sympathize with on a personal level, but I wasn’t always this way towards Ismay.

J. Bruce Ismay as a young man
(photo courtesy of Wikipedia)



J. Bruce Ismay as played by Frank Lawton in the film A Night To Remember (1958), in a lifeboat, as the Titanic sinks behind him



J Bruce Ismay as played by Jonathan Hyde in James Cameron's Titanic (1997), same scene



ETA --Doug commented on Twitter about film representations of Ismay, saying that there are "several films on Ismay, all bad with the exception of SOS Titanic and A Night to Remember."

His list of other offerings:
--Titanic (1996 CBS miniseries)
--Ghosts of the Abyss (2003) [A documentary film]
--Titanic (2012) [a four-part TV drama]
--Titanic: Blood and Steel (2012) [a 12-part TV drama]
--Titanic documentary (2011)



(Link to Doug's book)

Comments

[sartorias]

Interesting that he's drilling down to the individuals aboard that ship.

[minoanmiss]

*reads and is intrigued*

[amaebi]

I know something about the Titanic and its demise, and have never been interested in it. Now I am interested in Doug's approach.

[teenybuffalo]

I read the wikipedia entry on Ismay because of this exchange, and I feel terrible for him. The public and the media telling him "You should have died because it was the only decent thing to do" is predictable and depressing. And this is the guy whose personal fault it was that the Titanic didn't have more lifeboats! He had to live with that for the rest of his life, and from his actions I imagine it weighed on his conscience.