The Sinking of the RMS Titanic and other ships.

[Robert]

Nats, I haven't found them in 1911 but there was a Dobbin family in 1901 living 36 Beechfield St, Belfast. James 33 shipwright, Rachel 29, James 7. All born Belfast.

[Natalie Severn]

I can't remember Robert.I know she had red hair! I never met my maternal grand father as he died when he was only 45 of asthma.

[Robert]

Nats, was James snr's wife called Rachel?

[Errata]

He looks kinda like Harry Connick Jr.

[Natalie Severn]

Hi Jeff and Graham,
Thanks for the Dobbin link---intriguing!You never know.....very very distant if so!
I can't scan as I haven'y brought the software for the scanner! But hey---Have managed to do it with my phone camera.....Nanna and Granpa Dobbin on their wedding day circa 1917 [James Dobbin son of James Dobbin sr killed during launch of Titanic]
Best
Norma

[Mayerling]

My great grand father,James Dobbin, was killed in the launch of the Titanic---the fist launch in the Harland and Wolff shipyard.He was a shipwright.100 years ago yesterday I believe!
Poor man.Its sad.It was why they said it was launched with blood.
Norma

Hi Natalie,

The following is oddly true - but I thought you might find it interesting. Our 14 th President, Franklin Pierce, besides being a total failure in that office, is the only President so far whose cabinet remained the same for all four years of his term. His Secretary of the Interior was James Dobbin (who may very well be distantly related to your great grandfather. Shortly after the end of the Pierce administration in 1857, James Dobbin returned to his home in North Carolina and took sick and died. He had a brother who was in California, and headed back east to help comfort his famiy. This brother travelled on the steamship Central America, which sank with heavy loss of life in a hurricaine off Cape Hatteras. Mr. Dobbin (the brother of the late Secretary of the Interior) drowned. The Captain of the Central Ameica was William Herndon, a former officer of the U. S. Navy, who had distinguished himself in explorations at the mouth of the Amazon. Herndon had a daughter named Ellen, who (in the 1850s) married an up-and-coming New York attorney and member of the Republican Party named Chester Alan Arthur. Ellen Arthur died in 1880, before her husband was elected Vice President or succeeded his assassinated President James Garfield

Jeff

[Adam Went]

Hey all,

For anyone interested, and especially for you, Nats, i've done a search and found a few links re James Dobbin....

Here's a discussion thread about him on the Encyclopedia Titanica message board:

http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/discus/messages/5811/8238.html?1014414253

A website where the author believes James Dobbin was trying to communicate with him from the spirit world (yeah, I know):

http://www.trueghosttales.com/stories/kris-paranormal-experiences3.php

His death certificate:

http://www.titanic-titanic.com/death_certificate_dobbins_james.shtml

Apparently he was from Merret Street, Belfast, and was aged 43 at the time.

Hope that's of interest. Will keep an eye out for anything further I happen to come across in the future...

Cheers,
Adam.

[Natalie Severn]

Thanks Graham,
AllI was told by my grandmother was that he had been crushed by one of the massive timbers that supported the Titanic falling on him ,as the ship moved forward ,during the launch.I have no photos of him but I do have a wedding photo of his son,also James Dobbin,marrying my grandmother.I can scan it and post it here.His death certificate has been posted by someone on line under death certificates/titanic.
Cheers,
Norma

[Graham]

Nats,

I visited the old Harland & Wolff dock a few years ago, and it's still very impressive. Also went to Belfast Loch were they gave The Titanic her sea-trials (if you can call them that - they didn't last very long).

I have a (very) vague memory of reading about James Dobbin. How was he killed? And is there a memorial plaque to him at the shipyard?

Reminds me of the legend that there was a skeleton between the double plates of the Great Eastern...actually there wasn't, but the legend lives on, as that ship was also ill-omened according to superstition.

Graham

[Natalie Severn]

Thanks Jeff and Alan,
I nearly signed up to go to the Belfast Conference this year that Colin Cobb was trying to organise[but didn't get enough callers].Colin is an expert on the Titanic and takes people on tours in Belfast.He knew all about Jimmy Dobbin and was going to show me the street they lived in etc.Another time maybe.
Cheers,
Norma

[Mayerling]

Natalie - fascinating to hear that kind of personal connection. Sometimes it occurs by sheer accident. My grandma Anne told me a story when I was a kid that she visited a girlfriend from school who had become ill, and was unhappy. As a result of her illness she and her family were missing a big church outing that June day. While Anne tried to cheer her friend up they heard yelling and cries in the street - he excursion boat that the friend was supposed to be on was burning up in the middle of the East River. It was (of course) the General Slocum, which burned while carrying a large number of people from the community of "Little Germany" in Manhattan for an excursion and picnic. Somewhere between 900 and 1031 men, women, and children were lost, off North Brother Island where the ship finally sank, in what has been called "the Titanic of Queens". I have often wondered in later years what that girlfriend of my grandmother must have felt like thinking about her illness leading to her survival (and her family's).

Jeff

[Adam Went]

Hey all,

Errata:

Completely understand what you mean about watching a movie like that if you've already learnt most of the facts about the ship and the sinking - it's a bit like sitting through a film about JTR. It's not a bad movie actually but I think the purists' favourite will always be A Night To Remember - now that was a really good film.

For some reason your story about the safe does ring a bell but I can't think of anything related to the Titanic - especially from the late 80's when most people were still interested in exploring the wreck rather than salvaging it. But if there ever was a real Titanic safe raised and opened then it's probably justice served that nothing interesting was in it.

Nats:

What a fascinating story, thanks for sharing....must be good to know that you're tied in some way with Titanic history. IIRC, they had to use 22 tons of soap and tallow on the slipways to help her into the water, and afterwards those who were present took bits and pieces of the soap home with them as a souvenir. (Although I think Olympic would have been the first ship launched off that slipway, she was launched before Titanic?)

Also, for those who were of a spiritual nature, there was concern from the outside that the ship's identification number, when reflected in a mirror or, more importantly, in the water, read "No Pope" - leading many to suggest the ship was unholy. That was among many premonitions and forebodings of doom.

Cheers,
Adam.

[Natalie Severn]

My great grand father,James Dobbin, was killed in the launch of the Titanic---the fist launch in the Harland and Wolff shipyard.He was a shipwright.100 years ago yesterday I believe!
Poor man.Its sad.It was why they said it was launched with blood.
Norma

[Errata]

Hey all,

Errata, I think Jeff has pretty well hit the nail on the head. Sure you aren't thinking about the opening of the "safe" at the beginning of James Cameron's "Titanic", and the bitter disappointment of Bill Paxton at not finding anything worthwhile?

Cheers,
Adam.

I never saw Cameron's Titanic. And I never will. Firstly, DiCaprio gives me the creeps, and secondly my dad lent me out to a Titanic researcher when I was about 12, so I know way too much about the details to enjoy a movie. And no one wants to sit next to the girl saying "thats wrong. And that's wrong. That's not even physically possible... that's wrong..."

On the other hand, might be totally worth it if it showed how a mechanical camel would exercise people.

I swear I remember the safe and the soggy currency. Is it possible they showed that part of the previous program in the beginning of the Savalas one? A sort of whole "last time it was disappointing, but this time it could be awesome" kind of thing?

[Adam Went]

Hey all,

Errata, I think Jeff has pretty well hit the nail on the head. Sure you aren't thinking about the opening of the "safe" at the beginning of James Cameron's "Titanic", and the bitter disappointment of Bill Paxton at not finding anything worthwhile? (Incidentally, Paxton is real life friends with Cameron and he travelled to the wreck again with Cameron in 2001 to film Ghosts Of The Abyss.)

A safe was indeed found at the Titanic site not long after it was discovered by Ballard & Co - they tried to open it and the handle did turn, but the safe would not open. As Ballard was and is very much against salvaging items from the wreck, he wouldn't allow it to be raised. I seem to recall hearing something about it being discovered later that the bottom of the safe had rusted out anyway!

There was indeed a fire in the coal bunker of the Titanic which burned for part of the voyage, but it was nothing serious. The suggestion that has been made in the past was that the constant heat against the hull, blended with the chilling temperature of the ocean on the other side caused the hull to heat up and then cool very quickly, making some of the steel brittle, so that when it hit the iceberg it shattered all the more.

Cheers,
Adam.