Titanic thoughts

15 April 1912 will forever be etched on human history as the date when the unthinkable happened: the mighty, 'unsinkable' passenger liner RMS Titanic sunk to the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean, and a total of 1503 passengers and crew perished, representing some 68% of the total number of people on board.

I have recently read a book about the Titanic, written in 1912 by journalist Filson Young, written partly from eye-witness accounts of survivors.  The book was reputedly the first to be published about the disaster, coming as it did only 37 days after the liner sank.  By all accounts it is a well written and researched volume, and has been used as a basis for a number of films etc.

I found the book fascinating to read, and I gained many new insights into the whole Titanic story.  One rather tragic fact which emerged from the book was the following:

'The Leyland liner Californian, bound for Boston, was only seventeen miles away from the Titanic when she struck [the iceberg], and could have saved every soul on board; but her wireless apparatus was not working, and she was deaf to the agonised calls that were being sent out from only a few miles away.'

Other ships eventually did come to the rescue, but by the time they arrived many had already perished in the icy waters (Titanic only carried enough lifeboats for 1,178 people - slightly more than half of the number on board, and several of the lifeboats launched with far less than full capacity).

Lots of facts from the book have caused me to pause and think, but none more so than the fact that every person on the Titanic could probably have been saved if only the Califormian had received and acted on the distress signal.  

At one of my churches we are currently focusing in our Sunday morning services on the "Our Calling" document which the Methodist Church produced some time ago, setting out its vision and values.  The subject for this coming Sunday's service, which I am leading, is "Caring."  We will be looking at how we are called by God to love and care for one another.  Part of what that means is having the willingness to respond to each other's needs, to 'be there' for each other in troubled times.  Of course, in order to respond in this way, we need to be sensitive to those situations of need.  The question is: are we seeking to develop that awareness and sensitivity, or are we sometimes deaf to the distress signals?