At the November meeting 35 members of the Arran Historical Society heard Bill Fitzpatrick give his 42nd delivery of his talk on the White Star Line and in particular RMS Titanic. The society are very grateful to him for coming in place of the programmed speaker who had to cancel, writes Norma Davidson.
Bill was a member of the Kilmarnock and District History Group committee in 2011 when someone remarked that 2012 would be the centenary of the sinking of the Titanic. The task for researching a lecture fell to Bill.
The Blue Riband awarded for the fastest crossing westbound of the Atlantic is still held today by the liner United States, but in the early years of the century it had been held by Germany. Nationalistic pride promoted the United Kingdom Government to provide finance for the building of two new liners with the sole intention to beat the Germans. These ships would be built so that their design could be adapted to serve as warships in the future if necessary.