Titanic – 3D

The RMS Titanic sank on April 15, 1912 – 100 years ago today.  There has been an incredible amount of interest around this event.  At the time, it was advertised to be designed to be unsinkable and yet an iceberg had other plans.  For me, it’s a reminder that there are no absolutes.

The National Geographic Channel has been providing some very interesting historical coverage of the event and has used both television and their web presence to promote it.

As can be imagined, social media is there to help us relive it.  You can follow re-enactments by following a couple of Twitter accounts.

• RMS Titanic, Inc
• Titanic Voyage
• or follow the hashtag #TitanicMMA

A year ago, the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic did a re-enactment on Twitter and I followed that with fascination.  It was also the first opportunity for me to use Storify.  As I followed the stream, I assembled all of the Twitter messages into a story.

I plan to follow the above streams again this year.

And, Google has helped us understand the event too through Google Earth.  They didn’t send the Google Car to take images but instead created a 3D simulation of what the Titanic might look like now.  As such, you can dive down and manipulate the object to see the ship from all angles.

It’s just an addictive way of looking at and manipulating such a historic event.

The easiest way to get there is to load Google Earth, turn on 3D Buildings, and then just search for “Titanic”.  You’ll be plopped in the North Atlantic Ocean with some information pins surrounding the location.  If you look closely, you’ll see a green vertical image on the screen.  That’s it!

Use the browsing tool to zoom in to see the Titanic representation.  Use the navigation tools in the top right of the screen or your mouse to manipulate and explore.  What a terrific way to add interactivity to your understanding of the event.

Other than the wreck, there is a modern sadness to the sinking.  This article from the Telegraph is just sad.

Sigh.  Perhaps using these contemporary tools will help ignorance like this in the future.

[View the story “Titanic Twitter Reenactment” on Storify]