A quiet memorial to Chelsea's Titanic victim

The front page of the Boston Daily Globe from April 18, 1912,
announcing the sinking of the Titanic. This hangs in my living
room at my apartment in Clinton.

The Titanic has received a lot of attention this week with the 100-year anniversary of the sinking this weekend.

But something that doesn't receive a lot of attention is a family headstone at Chelsea's Oak Grove Cemetery that is a direct connection with the doomed ocean liner.

The Lingane family headstone is a small memorial to John Lingane, a Sylvan Township resident who died in the ship's sinking while coming back from Ireland visiting family. John's name appears on the stone, with his born and death dates. No remains for him are buried, of course; his body was not recovered from the wreckage.

This leads, however, to an interesting question: What's with our societies obsession with the Titanic?

 Obviously centennial anniversaries are big for any major historical event, but the Titanic has always had this sense of intrigue for me and many others.

Could it be because of its lauded fame when it first launched, being billed one of the greatest things man had built? Or that it sank before completing its first trip across the Atlantic? Or because of the horrible loss of life aboard, including John Lingane?

I think it's a combination of all three, as well as it being rediscovered recently in 1985. For deaces, scholars and the public wrestled with the concept of how it sank. One piece or two? How high in the air did the stern get? What was the last song the band played aboard the ship before it went down?

Several specials are on TV this week trying to find out more information on the boat. One of the biggest ones involves film director James Cameron, along with several other experts.



What questions still remain will likely go unanswered for history, as all survivors from the wreck have now died. But it's still an interesting piece of human history, and a maritime disaster that is the first thing most people think of when they hear the term "shipwreck."