Empress and Fireships
Apr. 23rd, 2004 11:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hildy89The latest "Deep Sea Detectives" focused on the "Empress of Ireland" who sank in the St Lawrence River after ramming into a Norwegian coal ship. Two years after the Titanic, the Empress lost over 1000 lives, sinking in under 14 minutes, compared to the slow descent of the Titanic. Not unlike the Titanic and Estonia, public inquiries went back and forth trying to shift the blame for the accident. Who blinked in the fog? Who forgot to leave the doors opened? The show mainly focused on what happened to sink her with only a brief excursion at the wreck herself. The dive appears to be one of the more dangerous ones they've covered on the show, claiming seven divers in its history. So I'm a little shocked to see pieces of the Empress, including china, being sold off on ebay. Not surprised, but still a little shocked.
I also watched a charming program on the Science Channel called "Ancient Arsenal" which reminded me of Junkyard Wars for the Ancient World. In this program, they were recreating the Byzantine fire ship, with one group devising the catapult, one the flamethrower and an explosives expert on the "greek fire". The Byzantine emperors decreed the technology a state secret, so extremely little is known on how they were made. The Byzantine military historian kept arguing for the historical accuracy, claiming the texts said they heated the fuel before spraying it through the nozzle. The engineering experts, including a very very good looking metal working expert with a nice accent (like no one knows I'm a sucker for a good British accent, right?), pleaded with him to consider safety. At one point, the metalworker said he would make it but he wouldn't want to be actually pointing the thing, especially when it was dripping fuel all over all the place in its early stages. They were actually slightly more successful than the catapult. The latter worked, but it didn't seem particularly effective. I was amused by using mayonnaise and egg yolks as the main ingredient in the ancient Molotov cocktail. Inventive at least.
I also watched a charming program on the Science Channel called "Ancient Arsenal" which reminded me of Junkyard Wars for the Ancient World. In this program, they were recreating the Byzantine fire ship, with one group devising the catapult, one the flamethrower and an explosives expert on the "greek fire". The Byzantine emperors decreed the technology a state secret, so extremely little is known on how they were made. The Byzantine military historian kept arguing for the historical accuracy, claiming the texts said they heated the fuel before spraying it through the nozzle. The engineering experts, including a very very good looking metal working expert with a nice accent (like no one knows I'm a sucker for a good British accent, right?), pleaded with him to consider safety. At one point, the metalworker said he would make it but he wouldn't want to be actually pointing the thing, especially when it was dripping fuel all over all the place in its early stages. They were actually slightly more successful than the catapult. The latter worked, but it didn't seem particularly effective. I was amused by using mayonnaise and egg yolks as the main ingredient in the ancient Molotov cocktail. Inventive at least.
