Mum's Monday: An Example of How First Impressions Can Change

I have an interest in the Titanic story. It started when I was recommended to read Danielle Steels, ‘No Greater Love’, which was about a mum and dad who perished on the Titanic, leaving the eldest daughter to look after her siblings in the years that followed the tragedy. From then, my interest in the titanic grew. The fact that it is still there and you can still see it on the ocean floor intrigued me further.

Which brings me to sitting down and watching Raise the Titanic which was made before the ship was found and was still believed to be in one piece. However, at the time I watched the film, we knew that it was in two pieces at the bottom of the ocean, and had watched James Cameron’s Titanic which was a detailed representation of the Titanic story, but my interest in the film was still there. I thought the film was slightly irrelevant and not a good film at all the story seemed farfetched and didn’t make any sense at the time.

Then I was on holiday in Ibiza and bought a book Clive Cussler Inca Gold, which also included the character, Dirk Pitt and others. They find a Spanish Galleon in South America. Dirk Pitt is a retired Navy Personal. I read the book and thought it was a great story, and Dirk Pitt was a great main character.

Inca Gold was the first Clive Cussler I read. I was intrigued at what other books he wrote and surprisingly found that he also wrote Raise the Titanic, of which the film of the same name is based on. I also discovered that the book included the same main character, Dirk Pitt. In 1911, an American minor found a mineral, which has the potential of being used as a weapon deterrent, or as a weapon. The Americans wanted to use it for a deterrent; they didn’t want it to fall into the Russian’s hands, who may make a weapon out of it. The Americans carry it through Scotland and England, and was believed to be loaded onto the Titanic, in 1912, which would make its way to America. The Titanic hit an iceberg and sank, along with what was thought to be the rare mineral, byzanium. Years later, the Russians wanted it back, but the Americans wanted to get it first, and so the search for byzanium began once more, and that search lead to them to believe it was on the Titanic. An operation to raise the ship began, and was successful, but retrieving the rare mineral was not. It was later discovered that it had actually been buried at Southby near Southampton. Due to unpredictable politics, they came to the decision to leave byzanium buried.

The film was an adaptation of the book, and with all adaptations, certain pieces of information may be left out, and the book is normally the best way to know the whole story. Upon reading this book, I was able to understand the film, and why the felt they needed to raise the Titanic more than I had before, which I had mainly watched due to my liking of Titanic.

It does go to show, although the initial first impression counts, new information can change your second or third impression of something.