THE SINKING OF THE TITANIC - It happened 107 years ago tonight (April 14), striking the iceberg at roughly 23:40 ship's time. In fact - not to be too morbid - I've timed the sending of this e-mail to be exactly (adjusted to PDT) when the iceberg was struck. What's most amazing about all of this is that the supposedly unsinkable ship sank in under three hours. Of the 2,200 passengers and crew, only 705 survived. If you're reading this Sunday night, the stern of the ship will go under at 9:20PM PDT. There's actually a real-time animation of all of this on-line. It doesn't show bodies or passengers but they do duplicate orders from the wheelhouse and such. Here's the link if you're interested: REAL-TIME - THE TITANIC SINKS .

COMPARED TO OTHER SHIPS - The obvious comparison is to the Queen Mary, which is actually bigger than Titanic. Titanic was 883' x 92', 46,328 gross tons, and 3,500 passengers and crew. Queen Mary is 1,019' x 118', 81,237 gross tons, but fewer passengers and crew at 3,240. Compare either of these to the largest contemporary cruise ship afloat, the Oasis of the Seas, at 1,189' x 198', 225,000 gross tons, and 8,700 passengers and crew.

WHAT I DID FOR THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE SINKING - At the risk of sounding morbid, for the 75th anniversary in 1987, I called the Queen Mary to see if they had anything planned. They didn't. So I booked a dinner table at their fancy restaurant, Sir Winston's, and had a timeline with me and we dined and went through everything in real time, from the collision to the launching of lifeboats to the sinking. Rather eerie to be on a similar-sized ship and think about what had happened so many years prior.

RESULTS OF THE SINKING - Lessons were definitely learned and things like taller bulkheads, double hulls, and enough lifeboats for all passengers were mandated. If you want to read an engineering-oriented paper about this, I found an interesting study on-line: RAPID SINKING OF THE TITANIC .

SOMETHING MORE PLEASANT . . . CHAMBER DAY - We're about two-and-a-half weeks out and this is one ship that isn't sinking, but by the same token, our ship hasn't come in yet. We've still got room on the boats (check out Sundiver Express and the Pacific Star), as well as at Chamber Eve (but less than 100 seats left), and there's always room for you on the Flying Dutchman. Support our Chamber!!! Sign up and make a donation at www.chamberday.org .

NO BONAIRE TRIP THIS YEAR - Simply put, didn't get enough interest. A few people are going to switch over to Indonesia (which is close to full) in July and there's always the Isla Mujeres Whale Shark trip to keep in mind (August).

CLASSES ANYONE?? - We have Fish ID this Wednesday and - this is a new one - Tables & Computers on May 11. That one is near and dear to my heart because I'm generally appalled at what passes for educating people about nitrogen accumulation in your body these days and IMHO "Just watch your computer" isn't enough. So this will give you a better understanding of what your computer is telling you and why. But best of all, it's FREE!!! Call us at 310/652-4990 to get signed up.

EASTER IS NEXT SUNDAY - Hopefully the Easter Bunny fills you with all kinds of good things.

And that'll do it for now. Have a great week and let's go diving soon!!!