In 2002 and 2003, a group of Titanic researchers held anniversary gatherings aboard the steamship Willis B. Boyer in Toledo, Ohio. The group retreated to Maine in 2004 to play with a cool ship simulator (which I wish I could have attended as well), but come 2005, plans were underway to return to Toledo. Unfortunately, a depressing turn of events led to an inability to meet on the Boyer. The location of Vermillion, Ohio was decided upon instead.
Vermillion, a small town on the shore of Lake Erie, is home to an impressive Great Lakes historical museum. If we couldn't meet on a 1911-era steamship, then what better alternative than a maritime museum to celebrate Titanic's legacy? The main day of the meet was Saturday 16 April, but the majority of the group did some sight-seeing on Friday and Sunday as well. I only showed up for Saturday since Vermillion is close enough to drive to and back in a day, but is also far enough that one wouldn't want to make the round trip three days in a row. The rest of the members who attended are sure to have stories to tell, and photo galleries of their own from the entire weekend.
Much of Saturday was spent in a round-table discussion of the technicalities of Titanic. New theories were bounced around, and old ones laid to rest. Captain Lord was brought up often enough, but surprisingly in jest. No one was injured over the course of the meet.
If you really want more photos of this event, then you ought to check out Rob Ottmers' gallery as well.
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Marie and I arrived in Vermillion much later than everyone else. This is entirely my fault, and it's because I wasn't ready to go at a decent time. When we arrived, everyone was returning from lunch.
Dave Brown, Erin Ottmers, Denise Hunyadi, John Hays, and Trent Pheifer mingle after the group photos, with Lake Erie in the background. Way, way in the background is a stretch of land upon which lies Cedar Point.
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Mingling, continued.
Erin walks past Rob Ottmers, who seems to be wondering why Dan Cherry can't work the timer on his camera. To the right of Dan is Bill Wormstedt and Mike Standart.
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This little boat was just puttering merrily around the lake with nary a care in the world. More remarkable than the boat though is the far, distant shores of that mythical land to the north, Canada.
Objects in photo are not nearer than they appear.
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Here's a piece of history that I nearly missed had Dan not pointed it out to me. That is Edmund Fitzgerald's damaged sounding board, one of several pieces of wreckage that washed ashore after the vessel foundered on Lake Superior on 10 November 1975.
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Here's me with the sounding board. Why I chose to wear that sweatshirt on such a nice day I will never know. Why didn't I just take the dang thing off? Because that would have made sense.
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This is Fitzgerald's sounding board shortly after it was recovered from the short of Lake Superior in 1975. The board is broken in half and is coated in oil. I had seen this photo hundreds of times, and never thought I would see the piece first-hand.
Source:
Stonehouse, Frederick. The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. 3d ed. AuTrain: Avery Color Studios, 1991.
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Here's little ole me with another piece of Fitzgerald: one of her liferings.
Thanks to Dan Cherry for taking and sending me this picture!
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The 1975 recovery of the oil covered lifering.
Source:
Stonehouse, Frederick. The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. 3d ed. AuTrain: Avery Color Studios, 1991.
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Dan had to leave early, and we broke for dinner at Burger King. When we returned it was time for the Titanic presentation to the public. Early on, Dave called Rob to the front to discuss the massive the two inquiries into the wreck of Titanic, and to plug the Inquiry Project website. Looking back on this, it seems funny telling a room mostly full of senior citizens about an important website they should check out.
Rob looks like a deer caught in headlights.
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Rob holds up the very pricey and very difficult to acquire hardbound copy of one of the inquiries. This is why the Internet is our friend, since no one wants to spend $150 on anything!
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Okay, watch this...
A Night to Remember:
Old and Busted
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Last Log of the Titanic:
The New Hotness
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Dave explains why everything you've ever known is wrong.
By the way, if you've never played with that sinking model of Titanic, you are truly missing out. It seems incredibly perverse at first, but winds up being a real hoot.
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Dave broke the ship. Too bad this wasn't the one that cracks in half in the bathtub. It is now, I guess.
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Explaining to an old guy why Titanic sank the way it did. There were these two guys, one if which is in the foreground, who were making life difficult for Dave.
Rob, Bill and I, sitting in the back row, were planning to announce that Dave is a staunch Lordite, who believes that "Lord is God." I don't know about them, but I thought these two guys were giving Dave a harder time than we could have.
P.S. Those Bruce Beveridge plans are actually way nicer than I'd expected them to be. I'm now considering picking up a copy.
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Lest Rob be the only guinea pig, Bill was invited up to talk. I'm using the word "invite" fairly liberally here.
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I really wish I could say that this picture depicted the aftermath of something really stupid being said, and both guys thinking "he didn't just say that."
Alas, it is not.
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Bill demonstrates using the separated bow section. I would tell you what he's describing if only I could remember. Blast my memory!
Fun game to play: Go back through the photos of the presentation and find out how long it lasted by checking the clock on the wall!
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After the presentation ended we were booted out of the museum, so we relocated at the Holiday Inn where everyone was staying. Marie and I decided to leave around 10, since we had to make the trip back to Toledo.
I had a great time at the Vermillion meeting. It was great to meet up with those who I hadn't seen since the 2003 gathering, and I also enjoyed meeting those who I'd only known from the Encyclopedia Titanica boards. Here's looking forward to the next time we all run into one another!
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