"Magic Lantern" slides - "The Loss Of The Titanic"
The story of the sinking of RMS Titanic has been portrayed both on television
and on the "Big Screen". One of the first films made was "A Night To Remember"
starring Kenneth More and was produced in monochrome by Rank studios in the 1950s.
The most recent and perhaps the most successful film was "Titanic" starring
Leonardo Di Caprrio and Kate Winslet.
Perhaps the very first portrayal of "The Loss Of The Titanic" was shown many decades before as a stunning and dramatic "Magic Lantern" slide show by Bamforth & Co. Ltd. Below
are examples of this very rare Bamforth "Magic Lantern" slide set, with a brief history of
the disaster and explainatory notes for each slide.
On April 10th 1912 RMS Titanic, the 'unsinkable' liner sailed from
Southampton on her maiden voyage to New York, USA. Just before midnight
on April 14th she struck an iceberg some 100 miles south of the Grand Banks.
The impact was to prove fatal for Titanic causing a series of thin gashes
and the fracturing and seperating of hull plates. This ruptured five of her seventeen
"water-tight" compartments.The damaged compartments filled with sea water in
less than thirty minutes causing the bow of Titanic to lower in the water.
The "water-tight" bulkheads did not extend to the full height of the hull, resulting
in sea water overflowing each bulkhead, flooding the next compartment and then the next.
The ultimate fate of RMS Titanic was sealed, some three hours after striking the
iceberg RMS Titanic sank, out of a total of 2224 passengers about 1513 perished.
The following Bamforth "Magic Lantern" slides tell the tragic story of the Titanic disaster.
The first slide on the left shows RMS Titanic sailing from Southampton
and is in fact a 'painted' monochrome photograph. The remaining slides
are all artits impressions. The centre slide shows Titanic striking the
iceberg and the final slide shows one of Titanics' wireless officers
transmitting the recently introduced SOS signal in an attempt to
summon help to the striken ship.
The above and remaining "Magic Lantern" slides are all artists impressions.
The first slide on the left shows women and children being lowered to safety
on one of the all too few lifeboats. The centre slide depicts the bridge
disappearing under the waves and Captain Edward Smith 'Going down with his Ship'.
The final slide shows Tintanic close to sinking with passengers gathering at
the stern, while those lucky enough to be in a lifeboats can do nothing but watch.
The two "Magic Lantern" slides shown on the left show RMS Titanic sinking by the bow,
with the stern projecting from the sea at an ever increasing angle. Both slides have
religious images overlayed. It is interesting to note that the image on the first slide
"Nearer My God To Thee" was also produced as a Bamforth & Co Ltd postcard. The final
slide depicts the memorial service held to remember those lost in the Titanic disaster.
Maybe this last "Magic Lantern" slide shows a survivor or someone widowed by the
Titanic disaster. She is showing what appears to be her children a very sad
picture portraying the last moments of RMS Titanic.
