She may have been going too fast... but this wasn't out of recklessness, necessarily, but because there was a long-burning coal fire in one of her bunkers, & speed was of the essence to get to port sooner. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/11/041108020906.htm

For instance: Titanic had enough space for 40 lifeboats, but the White Star Line (the company that owned her) put only 20 on board - four more than the British Board of Trade decreed for a ship of her size. So she in fact *exceeded* the regulations of her time. 4/

The issue of safety regulations in particular is a major difference. That we even have a concept of maritime "safety regulations" at all is due in great part to the sinking of the Titanic, not because she wasn't following current regulations, but because the regulations of the time were either inadequate or hadn't been established at all. 3/

Comparing the RMS Titanic with the OceanGate Titan is like comparing apples to school buses. And it isn't simply a matter of physical differences: the entire industries each one was a part of are completely different. So are the circumstances. So is the history. So is... all of it, pretty much. 2/

I've heard some comparisons made between the Titanic & the Titan, mostly along the lines of something about a bunch of rich people boarding a fancy new vessel everybody thought was invincible & ending in a watery grave because they flaunted safety regulations.

But this is not an apt comparison. At all. 1/

Twitter just had the audacity to send me an email asking if I'd like to complete a survey rating my recent experience with their support team.

Well, now... why yes I would, Twitter - YES I WOULD.

<locks & loads>

Here's a bit about the SS Monterey. It's Wikipedia, so don't take as a primary source, but a starting point, & check additional sources. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Monterey

It's a song by Australian folk group The Waifs, about the war brides who made the trek from all across Australia after WW2 to meet the SS Monterey, which took them to the US to reunite with their husbands.

Well my grandmother & mom were on that very same crossing, on the Monterey.

While I've got ships on the brain, I just did a bit of poking around in some family history, & I found this really cool thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3k7OncTVHkI

The worst part is that it's all such a senseless, stupid loss, so completely preventable.

I'm sorry for the passengers' families.

I... honestly don't have much sympathy for the CEO himself. Watching videos of him promoting his projects, he was an arrogant, hubristic, reckless dilettante. I cannot say he or anyone *deserved* death, & there remains the truth that he fucked around & found out.

It's sad, and it's just fucking stupidly frustrating as well. Five people are dead because one of them didn't give enough shits about their safety - he was too busy showing off his new toy.

I really don't know why anyone would think of the Titanic wreck as a tourist destination. That mindset boggles me. It isn't.

I guess we have full confirmation now that the Titan did indeed suffer a catastrophic implosion, & what remains of it is now in pieces on the seabed. Now we know the passenger met a quick, merciful death, so fast they didn't even register it.

@KodoAndSangha He was both. An utter cuddlemuffin & he was loved by many who knew him.

@LlamaMountainStudioArts Maybe! Sometimes I look at adoptable dogs online & consider whether it's time.

I miss him, & I miss having a dog at all. I don't have one right now - it's the first time in 25 years or so that I've been dogless for any length of time.

This was my little guy, Peanut. He died this past January, at the ripe old age of 16.

I miss him every single day. I still catch myself weeping sometimes when I wish I could scritch his little ears.

I absolutely love the invention of ROVs, including drones. Both enable humans to explore & map potentially dangerous places without actually risking human lives.

We'll have to wait for confirmation, of course. We'll know more as time passes.

It means that they were dead in a fraction of a second, instead of suffering for days.

If the debris found is remains of the submersible, this is... good news, in a very sad way: it most likely means the vehicle imploded. And if it did, the deaths of the occupants was so fast that they were dead before their brains could even register anything.