{"id":931,"date":"2019-03-27T03:22:10","date_gmt":"2019-03-27T03:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sportsnewsforyou.com\/?p=931"},"modified":"2019-03-27T03:22:10","modified_gmt":"2019-03-27T03:22:10","slug":"the-eyes-of-thomas-andrews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/?p=931","title":{"rendered":"The Eyes of Thomas Andrews"},"content":{"rendered":"

O\u2019Henry walked across the room, took one look at him, and yawned. That was enough for John Lyon. God<\/em>, he said to himself, even the cat thinks I\u2019m boring<\/em>. He could no longer avoid it. Three months into retirement, and his life had become a tedious routine. It was the same thing day after day, and would continue that way until he died. He needed something new and interesting to save his sanity. He needed a project.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to build that,\u201d he declared.<\/p>\n

His wife looked up from her book. \u201cDid you say something, dear?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI said I\u2019m going to build that.\u201d He pointed at the television.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re going to build a television?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat? No. That\u2019s ridiculous. I mean I\u2019m going to build the Titanic<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mary Ann realized that John had tuned to a show on the Discovery Channel about the famous ship. Somewhat befuddled, she looked at the program, then at her husband, then back down at her book. \u201cOkay,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

John didn\u2019t intend to build the ship to its full size, of course. He wasn\u2019t a lunatic. His plan, rather, was to build a meticulously detailed scale replica from scratch.<\/p>\n

He set up shop on the dining room table, laying down sheets of newspaper to catch the excess sawdust that would kick up while he worked. When Mary Ann walked in, she asked if he was out of his mind, ordered him to take everything down to the basement, and warned him that if she found just one <\/em>cut in her table, she\u2019d take the saw and kill him with it while he slept.<\/p>\n

John, remaining dignified, rolled up the newspaper and told her she was being unreasonable. \u201cI bet Thomas Andrews\u2019 wife never threatened to kill him<\/em>,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Thomas Andrews was the chief architect of the RMS Titanic<\/em>. They talked about him on the Discovery Channel show. Painstaking and meticulous, Andrews would walk all over the ship and jot down in a little notebook any improvements he felt were needed. John liked that, and wanted to bring the same kind of fastidiousness to his model. He found in the garage an old book about the ship that contained a glossy black-and-white photo of Andrews. He propped it in the corner of his workbench for inspiration.<\/p>\n

An hour later, he poked his head upstairs and said to Mary Ann, \u201cIf I told you that O\u2019Henry is Krazy Glued to the floor, would you tell me that you had a bottle of acetone handy?\u201d<\/p>\n

After freeing the cat, John worked long into the night, and the late hours soon became a habit. Over a period of weeks, his model started looking like a real ship. More than that, it started looking like Titanic<\/em>. He was delighted by his progress.<\/p>\n

One night, when the light bulb over his workbench blew out, John went rummaging through the closet for a replacement. A pack of 40-watts sat on the top shelf, and behind them was an old, boxy radio with the power cord wrapped around it. Back at his bench, John screwed in a new bulb and plugged in the radio, curious whether it still worked.<\/p>\n

Dialing the stations, he heard mostly static, until he picked up a man speaking in a rich baritone. It was one of those wacky AM talk shows about the supernatural. Callers would recount their experiences with aliens and ghosts and such, and the host (Phil, the guy with the deep voice) would take them all very seriously. John found the show entertaining and kept it on in the background as his work progressed.<\/p>\n

After five months, the replica was ready. John covered it with a light cloth, brought Mary Ann down to the basement, and unveiled it like a magician. She gasped.<\/p>\n

The finished product was stunning in its accuracy. It looked like someone had zapped the real ship with a shrinking ray and placed it on John\u2019s workbench. All Mary Ann could manage to say, in her amazement, was, \u201cNow what?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean what are you going to do <\/em>with it?\u201d<\/p>\n

John said he hadn\u2019t thought about that, but he was open to suggestions.<\/p>\n

A few hours later, she brought him a suggestion.<\/p>\n

\u201cModel Enthusiast<\/em>?\u201d He read aloud the name of a magazine that Mary Ann had taken out of a brown paper bag filled with groceries. \u201cI found it at the supermarket,\u201d she explained. \u201cI never heard of it either. But look here.\u201d She flipped the magazine to the back cover, where there was a full-page advertisement for a competition. John scanned the copy:<\/p>\n

\u201cGrand Prize $5,000 \u2026 currently accepting submissions for our annual \u201cMaking History\u201d contest \u2026 your model must be an accurate, scale replica of an artifact, building, transport, or other structure of historical significance \u2026 include with your submission several 8×10 photographs showcasing your work \u2026 deadline is Friday, March 20th.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

John beamed at Mary Ann. \u201cWhere do we keep the camera?\u201d<\/p>\n

He set the old Kodak on the tripod five feet from his model. He started with some wide shots, capturing the grandeur of the ship, and then moved in for the details. As usual, he was working late and listening to the AM talk show hosted by Phil. America the Bizarre with Phil Lazar<\/em> it was called.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s Free Rein Friday, folks,\u201d Phil was saying. \u201cAnything you want to talk about is fine by me. We have Tom on the line. Go ahead, Tom. Welcome to America the Bizarre<\/em>. Where you calling from?\u201d Silence followed Phil\u2019s question. \u201cGo ahead, caller. You\u2019re on the air. What\u2019s your topic?\u201d<\/p>\n

A series of electronic beeps sputtered over the airwaves, stopped, then started again. The beeps sounded faint and far away. \u201cBad connection, caller,\u201d Phil said. \u201cGive us a try again later.\u201d<\/p>\n

John finished his photo shoot, unplugged the radio, and went up to bed.<\/p>\n

The next day, he poked his head out of the back door.<\/p>\n

\u201cMary Ann, magnifying glass?\u201d<\/p>\n

She was working in the garden. \u201cI\u2019ll need a little more, dear.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere do we keep it?\u201d<\/p>\n

She told him that it was probably next to the tobacco pipe and deerstalker cap above the fireplace, so John went to the store and bought one.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook here and tell me what you see.\u201d<\/p>\n

John laid out the photos of the model on the dining room table. He thought there was something strange about one of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see a window,\u201d Mary Ann said, looking through the magnifying glass.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see a window. Anything else? It\u2019s a porthole, by the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

She looked closer, leaning down until her nose nearly touched the glass.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see a window, John.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t see a man\u2019s face as well? Right here? Looking out from the window? Call it porthole, please.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA man\u2019s face?\u201d She looked again. \u201cDid you put figurines inside the model? That\u2019s clever!\u201d<\/p>\n

He told her no, he did not put figurines inside the model. There was <\/em>no inside of the model. It was only a fa\u00e7ade.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, maybe if you look at it long enough, you could make out a face. Like seeing faces in clouds, or something like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

John sighed and plucked the magnifying glass out of her hand. \u201cForget it.\u201d He knew it was absurd, but John could not \u201cunsee\u201d the face in the picture. He went downstairs to the model and examined the porthole in question. All he saw, however, was hollow space, which was to be expected, but he still felt disappointed not to find a little person in there waving at him.<\/p>\n

On the radio, Phil was holding court on America the Bizarre.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cGeorge from Ohio. Hello, sir. You\u2019re on the air.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPhil, thanks. Big fan. Listen, that call from the other night. The one with the weird beeps. You remember?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSure, what about it?\u201d<\/p>\n

The book on John\u2019s workbench was still opened to the photo of Thomas Andrews. He sat up straight, taking new notice of it. Impossible<\/em>, he thought.<\/p>\n

George from Ohio said, \u201cI was in the Army Signal Corps during Vietnam. We used Morse code during that war, if you can believe it.\u201d<\/p>\n

John slapped the photo with the mysterious face in the porthole onto the table. He set the magnifying glass over it and then pulled over the picture of Andrews so that the two were side-by-side.<\/p>\n

\u201cPhil, those beeps on that call, that was Morse code.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re kidding. Morse code? What did it say?\u201d<\/p>\n

George said he did not have time to write it all down, so Phil replayed the tape. As the beeps again pattered over the airwaves, John stared in disbelief at the image of the face in the porthole. It was Thomas Andrews. He was sure of it. It was him or his twin brother.<\/p>\n

\u201cOkay, George,\u201d said Phil when the tape ended. \u201cDecode it for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYep. That\u2019s a CQD distress signal.\u201d He cleared his throat before continuing. \u201cGet this, it says, \u2018We are in collision with berg. Sinking head-down.\u2019 Then it gives the coordinates 41.46 north, 50.14 west \u2014 that\u2019s somewhere in the North Atlantic \u2014 and \u2018Come as soon as possible.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

John was too stunned to move. The eyes of Thomas Andrews stared at him from the black-and-white photograph, but the windows and the portholes on his model of the ship remained dark and empty. \u201cSounds like someone out there is having a little fun with us,\u201d Phil said.<\/p>\n

George laughed. \u201cCould be the first crank call ever with a telegraph, Phil.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBelieve it or not,\u201d the host continued, \u201cMorse Code Tom is calling again on line two. I\u2019m gonna put you on hold, George, okay? Keep your ears open and get ready to do some more decoding.\u201d<\/p>\n

John held the radio in his lap and turned the volume to the max.<\/p>\n

More beeps now, emerging from a shower of static. Phil let it run until it stopped and then switched back to George.<\/p>\n

\u201cClose hatch on D-Deck<\/em>,\u201d George translated. \u201cStarboard side<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neither Phil nor George could make sense of the message. John was equally baffled until he turned his model 180 degrees and looked at the starboard hull. The hatch on D-Deck was wide open. Startled, he reached over and shut it.<\/p>\n

\u201cBack to Tom on line two,\u201d Phil reported. \u201cI tell ya, folks, I\u2019m not sure how much I want to indulge this crank caller.\u201d<\/p>\n

John squeezed the radio as though it were Phil\u2019s head. \u201cTake the call!\u201d<\/p>\n

He did. The Morse code sounded again. Then it was back to George.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Sinking fast!<\/em>\u2019\u201d George said. \u201c\u2018Ship design flawed. Must repair.\u2019<\/em> Well, it\u2019s too late for that, ain\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Phil chuckled and thanked George for his help. \u201cTom,\u201d said the host to the mystery caller. \u201cNot sure what your angle is here, but we can\u2019t take up any more airtime with this. Clever idea, though. Hope you get yourself to a lifeboat!\u201d<\/p>\n

John nearly screamed in frustration. His first impulse was to run for the phone and call the show, but when he jumped from the stool, he was still holding the radio and yanked the power cord from the wall. Desperate, he lunged and plugged it back in. \u201cTop of the hour,\u201d Phil was saying. \u201cTime for the news.\u201d<\/p>\n

John had the phone in his hand a minute later. Phil\u2019s producer answered and asked what topic John wanted to discuss on the air.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about the Morse code caller.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou him?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, not me. It\u2019s Thomas Andrews.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWho\u2019s that?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDesigned the Titanic<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAin\u2019t he dead?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, yes. He went down with the ship.\u201d<\/p>\n

The producer hung up.<\/p>\n

Around noon the next day, Mary Ann came down to the basement. \u201cJohn, I haven\u2019t seen you all morning. Everything all right?\u201d<\/p>\n

John\u2019s head appeared from behind the model.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, hey, hon. Just making some modifications to the ship.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cModifications?\u201d she asked. \u201cI thought it was finished?\u201d<\/p>\n

John came forward, dusting his hands on his shirt like a greasy car mechanic. He took a deep breath.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot quite. Remember the face in the porthole I showed you? Turns out that\u2019s Thomas Andrews. And for the past couple of nights he\u2019s been sending messages to this talk show I listen to on the radio, saying that there were flaws in his original design. So I\u2019m fixing them in my replica.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mary Ann looked at him, gobsmacked.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, I know what you\u2019re thinking,\u201d John continued. \u201c\u2018Why change the model at all?\u2019 Well, truth is, I suspect that my model of the Titanic <\/em>here is connected to the actual Titanic <\/em>back then.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJohn \u2026 \u2018connected\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, like some weird, time-travel, voodoo thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

He began telling her about the oddity of the D-Deck hatch, about how the Morse code caller said to close it, and how John had found it wide open, but Mary Ann suddenly started laughing hysterically. And then John started laughing hysterically, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cJohn, this is really loopy,\u201d she said. \u201cDon\u2019t say what you just said to anyone else, okay? They\u2019ll think you\u2019re serious and send the white coats after you. I don\u2019t want to deal with that right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

She went back upstairs, still laughing to herself. John stood there a moment and then shrugged and went back to work.<\/p>\n

Titanic, <\/em>John learned, had several key flaws that sealed its fate on the night of April 14, 1912. One flaw was that it had only three propellers. Most ships of the day had four. Operating with one fewer propeller made the massive ship difficult to turn. With four propellers, it most likely would have dodged the iceberg entirely.<\/p>\n

Another flaw was the watertight compartments. Titanic <\/em>had 16 of them, but they extended only as high as E-Deck, just above the surface of the ocean. The iceberg punctured the first six compartments, causing them to flood rapidly, and water spilled over the tops of the low bulkheads, flooding one compartment after another, until the ship was irretrievably lost.<\/p>\n

The final flaw was that Titanic <\/em>had an insufficient number of lifeboats, enough for only half of the 2,200 passengers on board. Originally, it did have enough lifeboats, but they were removed because they cluttered the deck and ruined the view.<\/p>\n

John corrected the propellers and the lifeboats easily enough, but when he started on the watertight compartments, he determined that he would have to reconstruct the interior of the ship in its entirety in order to make the new compartments match the original layout. He was extending several of the watertight bulkheads as high as B-Deck, and had to ensure that the extensions didn\u2019t overly interfere with the passenger quarters, which was the problem Andrews faced in 1912.<\/p>\n

So he added every deck, every cabin, every staircase, every stateroom, and everything else to his model. He spent long nights lining the corridors with historically accurate carpet patterns, and even constructed a working lift elevator that ran from A-Deck to F-Deck. He added dollhouse furniture, painted balustrades, and generally obsessed over every piece of minutia. All the while, he listened to America the Bizarre, <\/em>hoping that Phil would field another call from Morse Code Tom, but he never did.<\/p>\n

In late September, while John was putting the finishing touches on his modified replica, Mary Ann called to him from the living room, urging him to hurry. Rushing up the steps, John barely noticed O\u2019Henry pass between his legs.<\/p>\n

Mary Ann handed him an envelope with the return address Model Enthusiast, LLC. <\/em>\u201cResults of the contest,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

John read the letter silently:<\/p>\n

\u2018Dear Mr. Lyon,<\/em><\/p>\n

Thank you for submitting your model of RMS TITANIC to the \u201cMaking History\u201d competition. We regret to inform you that while your model is a remarkable piece of craftsmanship, it did not place on our list of finalists. Given the level of effort you have clearly given to this project, we felt it appropriate to share with you the rationale behind this decision.<\/em><\/p>\n

Our knowledge of this particular ship was admittedly rather thin, so our research team looked into its history and gathered the following basic facts: RMS TITANIC was a transatlantic passenger liner built by the White Star Line in the early 20th<\/em> century. It set sail in 1912 and operated without interruption until it was decommissioned in 1929 with the onset of the Great Depression.<\/em><\/p>\n

Aside from a mishap with an iceberg on its maiden voyage, which delayed its arrival in New York Harbor by two days, and a kitchen fire in 1916, which left three cooks badly burned, RMS Titanic operated successfully though without distinction. Our panel of judges, therefore, does not feel that this ship is of sufficient historical significance to place highly in our competition. We nevertheless encourage you to submit your other historical projects (should you have them) to the \u201cMaking History\u201d competition in the coming years.<\/em><\/p>\n

Best regards,<\/em><\/p>\n

Barbara Murdoch<\/em><\/p>\n

Special Events Coordinator<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cWell?\u201d asked Mary Ann. \u201cWhat\u2019s it say?\u201d<\/p>\n

It worked<\/em>, John thought. The changes worked<\/em>. I saved the ship!<\/em><\/p>\n

He handed her the letter in a daze, too astounded to say aloud what he was thinking. As Mary Ann took the letter, a tremendous crash came from the basement.<\/p>\n

They rushed down and froze on the staircase, because there was O\u2019Henry, prancing among the ruins of the replica, which lay in an unrecognizable heap on the floor.<\/p>\n

After several minutes, John overcame his initial shock and wandered among the wreck. Kicking away a piece of the hull, he uncovered the book that he had displayed on his workbench for so many months.<\/p>\n

\u201cJohn,\u201d Mary Ann said, \u201cIn a moment like this, it\u2019s best to focus on the positive.\u201d<\/p>\n

The book was lying face down. John picked it up and turned it over. He asked his wife what positive she possibly saw in the situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy, John, didn\u2019t you read the letter?\u201d<\/p>\n

John found himself looking at the familiar black-and-white photo of Thomas Andrews. He had the unnerving impression that the architect was staring directly at him with a profound look of disappointment.<\/p>\n

\u201cDidn\u2019t you read the letter?\u201d Mary Ann repeated, holding it up victoriously. \u201cYou won first place!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

O\u2019Henry walked across the room, took one look at him, and yawned. That was enough for John Lyon. God, he said to himself, even the cat thinks I\u2019m boring. He could no longer avoid it. Three months into retirement, and his life had become a tedious routine. It was the same thing day after day,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}