Mining for Meaning in the Depths of the Ocean

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Steven Biel’s Down With the Old Canoe: A Cultural History of the Titanic Disaster, asserts that the historical value lies in the ways in which we understand and use the disaster. Biel points out that the Titanic in and of itself, the sinking of a single steamship in the middle of the ocean which in reality did not yield any great policy changes regarding ocean safety, was not actually significant. What was significant, according to Biel, are the ways in which Americans used the Titanic to understand their current anxieties about the world in which they lived. Biel stresses that the Titanic did not flip the switch from enchantment with technology to disillusionment with progress. He emphasizes that it did not signal the end of a happier simpler period. Biel describes the current state of unrest within American society which existed prior to the sinking. It is the way that each of these groups used the Titanic to extract lessons and advance causes that were already near to them which made the Titanic an irreplaceable part of American Culture. It was the way the Titanic served as a powerful metaphor for groups all across American society, groups like women’s suffragists, African Americans, the wealthy, and even traditionalists.

This view of the Titanic allows us to interrogate why we feel that the Titanic signified a simpler time. It allows us to understand more fully the state of American Affairs. It allows us to see the multiplicity of meaning that was invested in the sinking. And it allows us to think critically about this event. Like Wells mentions in his post, there is no true, universal, and singular meaning that arose from the deep waters into which the Titanic sank. The meanings manufactured were as diverse as the tensions experienced at the time. This makes the Titanic more than just a powerful metaphor, but a literal archaeological site for some of the greatest issues of the early 20^th century.