Okay so we all know that Titanic is the world's most famous shipwreck and really the most infamous sinking in general. Even if you don't know anything about the ship herself, you've definitely heard of James Cameron's Titanic........the entire tragedy got turned into a freaking commercial. I'm not kidding.

Somehow a tragedy where 1,496 people died got turned into a cheap and shitty way to make money or got romanticized. Anyone ever hear about Titanic 2? Not the shitty Asylum movie but the actual ship that someone was trying to make as a actual sailing ship? Titanic 2 feels very much like a romanticization of the ship that's currently rotting away at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean for 110 years now. Hell China was trying to do their own Titanic thing and um......they thought of a freaking iceberg simulation.......they rightfully got called out for that one. But in general the merchandise is seriously questionable. And I don't mean James Cameron's Titanic.

James Cameron's Titanic for all of his faults DID cause a lot of people to get interested in the actual ship's story and it made people care about the lives of the people aboard. Why is there a literal Titanic ornament? Would literally anyone else feel wrong about putting a Titanic Christina's tournament on a tree knowing full well that those people who didn't drown would have also frozen to death because of hypothermia? Or how about the fact that 1,496 people didn't get to see their families at Christmas time? Or shit alot of kids were made orphans?

There exists a Titanic snow globe where she's literally sinking, Titanic T-shirts that aren't the 1997 movie, Titanic hats, and Titanic socks. A Titanic shirt saying 1912 swim team. A literal nazi propaganda piece of shit where Smith, Ismay, and Astor are vilified and you better believe Ismay was made out to be Jewish. There was a Titanic movie a MONTH after the sinking called Saved From The Titanic starring actual Titanic survivor Dorothy Gibson in the same clothes she wore on the night of the sinking. I'm not a huge fan or fan of her at all but just think about how tough that probably was for her.

There exists a Titanic candle where the ship is sinking. A literal escape the Titanic theme whatever it was in Belfast which feels very distasteful when you remember that Titanic was built in Belfast, Ireland and there was a good chunk of Irish passengers who died on the ship including Thomas Andrews. The very idea of selling Titanic artifacts from the wreck itself is disrespectful to me. That's directly profiting off of the deaths of 1,496 people for the sake of money. Those artifacts either belong with the family of the victims and survivors or a museum. NOT sold off.

It's bad enough of that I constantly see ships get compared to Titanic. Bring up to someone literally ANY ship that's sunk that isn't strictly Titanic and someone will call it Titanic probably. Hell if you show someone a picture of a ship that isn't Titanic they'll call it Titanic. Costa Concordia literally got compared to Titanic despite the NUMBER of differences. Costa Concordia sunk because of a collision with underwater rocks, Titanic because of a iceberg. Costa Concordia had 30 deaths, Titanic had 1,496 deaths. Costa Concordia was a cruise ship, Titanic was a ocean liner. Costa Concordia's Captain survived, Titanic's Captain didn't. See what I mean? News media couldn't wait to compare these 2 apparently. This is why I refuse to refer to Dõna Paz as Asia's Titanic or the Empress of Ireland as Canada's Titanic. They aren't the same ship and they never will be. I've literally seen a person once ask another person why they research Empress of Ireland instead of Titanic as if every single person should just research Titanic. Titanic has enough research, why can't we get more done on other ships. Empress of Ireland isn't a less important tragedy just because Titanic existed. Empress of Ireland had 840 people die. Those lives were just as important as Titanic's deaths were, no less then or more then.

It's like the more time that passed the more people felt less care towards it. Like they pretty much disassociated themselves from it and forgot that so many people died in that sinking. And it's really fucking crazy for me because my research into the passengers and crew refuses to let me desensitize myself from it like all those people never died. Crazy but not surprising. The last Titanic survivor died in 2006. There is NOBODY but historians, descendants, and enthusiast left to tell her story. And let's talk about those damn clickbait channels on YouTube who use Titanic's sinking for views and money.

Bright Side is a channel you should NEVER go to research for. They literally only use it for views and will as far as to make stupid shit up. Like for example: they once made a about a survivor who claimed an iceberg didn't sink Titanic and presented it as fact. Except......there was NOBODY with that name anywhere on the ship. That's all I need to say about that shit. But you know what? There is some very good channels who have actually done research on Titanic and other ships. Historic Travels, Part Time Explorer, The Great Big Move, Big Old Boats, and Nautical Study is some I know of. There's probably more.

This chapter was inspired by Nautical Study video called "The Commercialization of A Tragedy":

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]