The 100th anniversary of the Titanic disaster is approaching. Does the story intrigue or interest you at all?

But please spare us the romantic epic and the Celine Dione song.

Always has, always will!

The ship they said couldn't sink, did on her maiden voyage. It's sad that there are people that don't know that this was a real event.

How could it not be interesting? I was riveted by discovery of it with the deep dive submersible, and the debris field of human artifacts. Pretty spooky seeing it appear out of the inky darkness.

Of course it does. It's romantically tragic, even without the movies.

They said she couldn't sink, and they drove her at full speed, even though there were icebergs. And . . . . she sunk. On her first trip.

They said she couldn't sink, so who needs lifeboats? Uh, but she did sink, and there was not enough to take everybody, and many people died.

But the nascent technology of radio helped save many lives.

And it was a huge disaster, objectively speaking. Although there were larger natural disasters, this is one of the largest man-made disasters of all time.

"Oh, they built the ship Titantic
To sail the ocean blue
And they thought they had a ship
That the water couldn't go through
It was on its maiden trip
When an iceberg hit the ship
It was saaaad when the greaaat ship went down
(it was sad)
(it was sad)
It was sad when the great ship went down
To the bottom
All the husbands and wives,
Little children lost their lives,
It was sad when the great ship went down . . . . . . "

{there's more, but that's enough for now}

It always has since I was a kid, all my book reports would be about either dinosaurs or a different titanic book I read.

Cool ... you could have written a creative-writing essay about how it was really a large sea dinosaur, and not an iceberg, that took the Titanic down.

Lol, the loch ness monster ventured out of Scotland and struck the ship.

The Titanic is interesting however the sinking of the MV Wilhelm Gustloff is just as interesting if not more so. 1,500 people died on the Titanic. However, 9,400 people died on the Wilhelm Gustloff. Everyone knows the story of the Titanic. Few people know the story of the German sinking.

I know about it. I'm a maritime history afficionado. I was in the Coast Guard ... !

Yes, well, the Gustloff was sunk intentionally as a result of enemy action, far from the romance surrounding the Titanic, which was sunk as a result of a string of errors and not a little hubris.

There was also the General Slocum disaster, and the Sultana disaster, both tragic disasters, with similar loss of life as that of the Titanic.

But both of these were kind of run-of-the-mill disasters, and did not have the "she can't sink" juxtaposition with the ironic sinking on the first voyage. And it didn't have the disparity of the upper class vs. lower class and their survival rate. And it wasn't the largest ship built up to that time, like the Titanic was. Although the Sultana had Andersonville survivors aboard, it was almost ignored, having occured one week after Lincoln was shot:

It once did, but I'm a little Titanic-ed out

The Lusitania story is even more interesting.

And the Andrea Doria.

I agree Jen. One thing I do find quite fascinating in regards to the Titanic is the story of Violet Jessop. Have you heard of her? She not only survived the sinking of Titanic, but also survived the sinking of its sister ship Britannic as well as being aboard the third of the ships Olympic when it collided with a Royal Navy warship.

But the Lusitania, there is so much intrigue surrounding its sinking, so many implications which can be drawn from it. that does make for a truly interesting story, where as the Titanic's story is kind of just a tragedy

Yes .. declassified documents from the time now show that certain members of the British government, including then-Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill, had actually HOPED that ships carrying Americans would be attacked by the Germans.

American casualties, they reasoned, would hasten America's entry into World War I, which would be of great benefit to the Allies.

It makes you wonder, then, if they were indifferent to the Lusitania's safety ... knowing that she was carrying some Americans and knowing that the waters near Ireland were infested with German U-boats.

Call me cynical Jen, but it does make me wonder a great deal. And I put nothing past those who pull the strings of world events.

Right. Plus, the Lusitania was carrying munitions for delivery to the British. The Germans knew it, and the British knew the Germans knew it. Not to mention the gun mounts on deck.

Also, the German Embassy in the U.S. issued this warning for Americans traveling on ships such as the Lusitania: