This week’s tragic shipwreck of the Costa Concordia off the Italian coast is a timely reminder in the Centenary year of the sinking of the Titanic, that man is still very much a mortal in the face of the sea and nature in general.

The actions of the Captain of the Costa Concordia defies belief. Not only was he seemingly grossly incompetent and inept, in sailing the ship off course on what was a regular passage, but it appears that he is a coward, allegedly abandoning ship before many of his passengers had escaped to safety!! To exacerbate things further and add insult to injury, apparently he claims “he fell into a lifeboat”!! This defies belief and merely compounds his original felonies of incompetence and cowardice!! We are soon to mark the centenary of the sinking of the Titanic, and it should be remembered that in an era of dignity, decency and duty, the Captain of the Titanic, Edward John Smith, deliberately fell on his proverbial sword and went down below the waves on the bridge of his doomed ship!! That is the ultimate sacrifice, paid by a genuine leader, in a time when people had great integrity, backbone and a heightened sense of honour. You only have to think of the great sacrifices made by millions of men and women in the Great War in that same decade…..

The sinking of the Titanic very quickly found it’s way into the UK public conciousness and has remained there over the last 100 years, probably for four primary reasons – 1) Titanic was on it’s maiden voyage 2) It was the largest ship ever built at the time 3) Titanic was deemed and promoted in the press as “unsinkable” 4) It’s a testimony to man’s enduring arrogance that he thinks he can match and ultimately overcome and pacify nature!!

In the Centenary Year of the Sinking of the Titanic, here are five songs to mark the occasion –

Five Songs to mark the Centenary of the Sinking of the Titanic

1)  Titanic – Sultana ( 1971 )

2)  Rod Stewart – Sailing ( 1975 )

3) Roger Whittaker – The Last Farewell ( 1975 )

4)  Vanilla Ice – Ice Ice Baby ( 1990 )

5 ) Reparata & The Delrons – The Captain of your Ship ( 1968 )

If you want to watch a good film that depicts the sadness of the demise of the Titanic, without sensationalising it like the 1997 Leonardo Di Caprio / Kate Winslet film, then check out the classic 1958 film “A Night To Remember” ( starring  Kenneth More, Ronald Allen, Robert Ayres and Honor Blackman ). Alright it doesn’t have the brilliant CGI special effects of the later film, but in terms of capturing the pathos and human emotions, it is unsurpassable.

Coming soon to our TV screens on ITV is Julian Fellowes’ drama “Titanic”. If  “Downton Abbey” is anything to go by, it will capture the essence of the social divide onboard Titanic very well.