Hey guys Becky had posted some TITANIC bloopers, and one of the bloopers was that you can see a crane between the buildings. So my questions are.... 1) Isn't that what they supposedley used in the movie to load the Renault? 2) If they didn't have cranes in 1912, How did they load heavy equipment on the ship?

ICEBERG RIGHT AHEAD!!!!!!!!!

-- jesse fontes (jestercw@gte.net), April 12, 1998

Answers

Response to How did they load the cars on?

The answer is that they ***did*** have cranes in 1912. They one Becky refers to as a blooper (which I haven't bothered to notice) may be an anachronism, but they most certainly had cranes in 1912.

On Titanic's well deck were two cranes which were used for loading large cargo items into the forward holds. These cranes are still visible on the wreck of the ship. In Robert Ballard's book on the discovery of the wreck there are photos of these cranes, rusted like everything else, but still there.

Nowadays, with ships like the QE2, I believe they have a side door into the area where cars are stowed. If you want to transport your car across the Atlantic you just pay the (huge) fee and some crewman will drive your car into the hold. At the end of the trip, someone drives it back out to you.

-- Thomas Shoebotham (cathytom@ix.netcom.com), April 12, 1998.