ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, April 13, 1997 TAG: 9704110035
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Tom Shales
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: TOM SHALES
Since there hasn't been a TV special about the Titanic in, oh, at least 20 minutes, the Discovery Channel comes to the rescue. ``Titanic: Anatomy of a Disaster,'' a two-hour documentary about ``the greatest sunken ship of all time,'' is well worth seeing, even if you've already immersed yourself in all the other reports and dramas about the Titanic that have preceded it.
Much of what's uncovered about the ship, which lies in chunks 12,000 feet below the surface of the North Atlantic, is fascinating, and so are the descriptions of how the new information was obtained. But when a microbiologist starts theorizing about tiny organisms now living on the hull, or narrator Martin Sheen speaks in hushed tones of ``manganese sulfide inclusions'' in metal, things do get a big sloggy.
Still, a true Titanic buff will not want to miss the special, which premieres tonight at 9 on Discovery. Two days later the world will mark the 85th anniversary of the ship's sinking, one of the seminal portentous events of the 20th century.
Sheen delivers the narration too melodramatically; he sounds like he's telling ghost stories in somebody's fruit cellar. But the Titanic is, of course, a ghost story, and one of the most haunting ever. Though her fate represents nature's victory over human technology, various technologies are now being used to answer nagging questions about how and why she sank.
Once ``the largest moving object ever built,'' the Titanic lies in pitch-black stillness now. But scientists in a yellow submarine called the Nautile plumb the proverbial murky depths to learn a few more facts. Among the mysteries: Did the iceberg that struck the ship really tear a huge, 300-foot-long gash in the hull, as has been widely assumed since the sinking?
According to the new studies, the iceberg was more likely to have perforated the hull with a series of relatively small holes. Unfortunately the holes extended over six watertight compartments, flooding all of them at different rates. The ship, incredibly, took on 8,000 tons of water in about the first 20 minutes after the iceberg hit.
That is one reason she not only sank but sank quickly, in just over two hours. As for those manganese sulfide inclusions, they may help explain how 25,000 tons of steel could be ``torn to pieces in a matter of minutes'' as the stern plunged downward after the bow broke off. Apparently the steel used to make the Titanic was not nearly so stress-resistant as steel made today.
The most mesmerizing illustrations on the documentary are the underwater shots of the Titanic remains themselves. But coming a close second is the computer-generated animation that shows in various steps how the sinking occurred, making it seem horribly real all over again.
The documentary was executive-produced by Gregory Andorfer and written by David Elisco. We tell you this partly because the closing credits zoom by at about 90 mph. And here is a case where credit is due, for though there are dry patches, in general the program remains spellbinding.
One of the most moving sequences was shot in a French village where preservationists are working on the restoration of some 5,000 Titanic artifacts--bells, whistles, even pieces of sheet music still readable. A man's suitcase is opened, and there, inside, are clothes covered in mold but still neatly folded, ready to be unpacked in New York.
Despite all the naval architects and oceanographers and computer whizzes and other experts assembled, despite all the theories advanced and explanations proffered, ``Titanic: Anatomy of a Disaster'' still can't dispel one basic notion that some people will always have about it. Perhaps for all time, the sinking of the Titanic will be seen as a warning from God about human hubris and arrogance.
Every time the Titanic sinks, that message sinks in again.
LENGTH: Medium: 71 linesby CNB