好吧, actually, she doesn’t. TheCosta Concordia, that is.
We have been covering the shipwreck and massive salvage operation ofConcordiasince almost the very beginning of our Port of Call blog. Bill Edwards-Bodmer brought it to our attention in a short post on January 16, 2012 (see ithere). At that point, no one knew that 2 1/2 years later, that ship would still be off of the island of Giglio.
The Zipse family has been very kind to us and donated another token fromGeneral Slocum, this time from Bill (William) Zipse, another grandson of the survivor William F. Zipse.
Like the other donated token, this piece was in William Zipse’s pocket whenGeneral Slocumcaught fire and sank on June 15, 1904 and he carried it with him for the rest of his life in memorial of those that lost their lives, including his five siblings. We have been unable to find another token like this, so as far as we can tell, it is the only one in existence.
Several pieces of news have recently broken relating to theCosta Concordiadisaster. Here is a brief summary of the latest news, to help you readers understand the current status of theCosta Concordia.
TheCosta Concordiadisaster is not the first time a large cruise liner has come to rest on its side. To some who are well-versed in maritime news and shipwrecks, the images of the cruise shipCosta Concordialying on her side off the Italian coast might look familiar. In 1942, a top-of-the-line cruise ship, theNormandie, was undergoing conversion to become a troop transport ship in New York Harbor when she caught fire and capsized, coming to rest on her side, much likeCosta Concordia.
Harvey Ardman’sNormandie: Her Life and Times, from the Library’s stacks, provides a very detailed history of this legendary ship. Construction began on theNormandiein early 1931. At the time she would be the largest ship ever built: 1,029 ft. long with a maximum breadth of 119 ft., weighing in at a staggering 27,675 tons. Compare this toCosta Concordia‘s 952 ft. long and 116 ft. wide.Normandiewas launched in October 1932, then spent three years being outfitted for her maiden voyage in 1935.
With the bodies of the dead still trapped inside the hull, looters have lost no time in making off withCosta Concordia’s ship’s bell. Evading 24-hour surveillance by the Italian Coast Guard and complicated laser systems measuring tiny shifts in the ship’s position, thieves removed the bell probably 2 weeks ago. The news was reported this morning on the website Todayonline.com. See the full storyhere.
I have always loved ship’s bells and am particularly disheartened by this despicable act. So I thumbed through a book at the library, “The Ship’s Bell: Its History and Romance,” by Karl Wade, to see how salvaged bells tend to get used. Not only did I find that there are a great many people who share a love of the bell and all that it symbolizes, but I also discovered something about The Mariners’ Museum that I didn’t know. It turns out that we may have the oldest ship’s bell in America, salvaged from the bottom of the York River in 1934 off a British warship sunk in 1781. Collections Management dates this bell as early as 1750.
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