Before 2012 fades away in the history a few days from hence, let me write about RMS Titanic tragedy and the postage stamps issued in the memory of the great sunken ship and perhaps the deadliest tragedy that occurred at sea.
Titanic [Photo: Wikipedia]
It was year 1912, just a hundred years from the present time that this large vessel, considered to be the largest ship afloat at the time of her maiden voyage, sailed from London to its maiden journey to New York.
The ship that left Southampton on 10 April 2012, carried carried 2,224 passengers and crew and all went right till the fateful 15th April 1912, when amid the cold waters of the North Atlantic Ocean, the ship struck a huge iceberg that caused it to sink. The tragedy that occurred at night caused 1502 passengers and crew members to die in the frozen water.
The passengers included some of the wealthiest people in the world, as well as hundreds of emigrants from Great Britain and Ireland, Scandinavia and elsewhere throughout Europe seeking a new life in North America - but their destination lied somewhere else.
For almost a century, the tragedy was almost forgotten, and the ship wreckage lied on the bottom of the sea some 12, 000 feet below the surface. A number of expeditions were mounted to find Titanic but it was not until 1 September 1985 that a Franco-American expedition succeeded.
And it was this discovery that led to the making of the Oscar awards studded film 'Titanic' that immortalized the sinking of the ship in the backdrop of a fiction love story.
Many countries have since issued postage stamps commemorating the great tragedy. Some of these stamps are as under:
For details about Titanic, read Wikipedia
