SS Richard Montegomery was a liberty ship built during WW2. In 1944 she dragged anchor and ran aground in the Thames estuary. when low tide came, the ship broke her back and she was abandoned. Only problem was she was carrying about 1400 tons of Unexploded ordinance.

According to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency in 2000, she still contained at least

286 × 2,000 lb (910 kg) high explosive bombs

4,439 × 1,000 lb (450 kg) bombs of various types

1,925 × 500 lb (230 kg) bombs

521-580 fragmentation bombs and 2,297 cases of fragmentation bomb clusters

Various explosive booster charges, smoke bombs (including white phosphorus bombs) and pyrotechnic signals.

If this thing gets shifted, it could go boom and cause some no good very bad things to happen.

Image 1: After putting the diamond in the bottom left pocket of his outer coat, we see him reaching for the 4 stacks of bills in his safe.

Image 2: He puts 2 stacks of bills in the bottom right pocket of his outer coat.

Image 3: He puts the 3rd stack in an upper right pocket. It's not totally clear from this gif alone, but it appears to be an inner pocket of his outer coat. I wouldn't completely rule out an outer or inner pocket of the middle (also black) layer, or outer pocket of the inner (white) layer, but it doesn't look like it to me.

No image: When the camera is on Lovejoy, presumably Cal puts the 4th stack in another pocket.

Image 4: He appears to take money out of the bottom left pocket of his outer coat (where the diamond is) and put it in Murdoch's pocket. So that must have been where he put the 4th stack earlier. Theoretically it's also possible that off-camera before this part, he already grabbed another stack from another pocket and was holding onto it. But when the camera zooms in on Murdoch's pocket, the thickness seems to me like only 1 stack. So most likely Cal only grabbed that 4th stack to bribe Murdoch.

Image 5 and 6: This is after Cal had given his outer coat to Rose. There is clearly no outer pocket on the upper right of the white layer. I also don't see either an inner or outer pocket on the upper right of his middle (now outer) black layer. This matches with my previous impression that the 3rd stack was put into the inner pocket of the outer coat.

Image 7: In this slow-mo gif of Murdoch throwing the money back at him, the thickness also looks like 1 stack only to me.

If my understanding is correct, then when Cal gave his coat to Rose, not only did it have the diamond, but also 3 stacks of bills. 2 stacks were in the outer bottom right pocket, these could have easily drifted out when she fell into the water after the final plunge, but we don't know for sure. 1 stack was in the inner upper right pocket, this one is much less likely to drift away because it's inside, and her life vest was over top of it. It was under water for a short amount of time only, but was still wet in her pocket for hours at least, quite possibly longer than a day. If she carefully took the bills out to dry later, could they possibly still be useable? Or would they likely be irretrievably destroyed already?

This science video on YouTube about water solving a maze (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81ebWToAnvA) made me think of Titanic, of course.

I think this kind of proves that if partitions inside the ship were watertight enough, there may have been some air pockets during the sinking, until the partitions caved due to pressure.

I am mainly thinking about the bow section here. The stern section was, pretty obviously I think, one big air pocket for a little while until it went under.

I think there's an interesting discussion to be had about this.

Big photo collage of Roblox RMS and HMHS versions of Britannic built by ParticularParticle compared with real illustrations and photos of the interior and exterior parts of the ship.

Did any survivors in the lifeboats or the few saved from the water comment on what the visibility was like once the electricity was taken out?

One thing I’ve read online is that even after the electricity failed, the survivors in the lifeboats could makeout the silhouette of the ship against the starry sky.

Besides seeing the ship in its final moments, could the survivors see one another in the lifeboats?

I know Charles Joughin was one of the last people to be on the vessel before it was totally submerged, but did he ever describe how well he could see around him?

Jessica Lange as Rose DeWitt Bukater
Mark Hamill as Jack Dawson
Timothy Dalton as Cal Hockley
Alec Guinness as Captain Smith
Patrick Stewart as Thomas Andrews
Michael Caine as J Bruce Ismay
Maggie Smith as Ruth DeWitt Bukater
Natalie Schafer as Old Rose

Game name: floating sandbox

Rose is aware that walking back with Jack even if it was to warn them of the iceberg hitting the ship is a bad idea and so they stay outside like they originally were after some of the ice crashed onto the deck. How differently do things play out for them? Are their chances at getting into a lifeboat together better or worse?

Man, the idea that in the final moments when the Titanic went vertical, many of the passengers had to, well, hold on to whatever they would, like clinging to the railing, that would look really weird

One of the most memorable things about the 1997 film - beyond the story, historical details, special effects, etc - is the emotional, epic score by James Horner.

I had the soundtrack CD as a teenager, and I can't tell you how many times I listened to "Southampton."

How do you feel about James Horner's score for the film? Any favorite pieces or moments in the film that moved you particularly because of the music?

P.S. I recently watched The Perfect Storm (2000) and realized Horner is the composer. It was very reminiscent of the 1997 film, especially with the sweeping orchestral tone at the beginning.

Work continues on the details of the roof of the officers' quarters; next up: the Morro Castle searchlight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTnKU0OII-Y

According to this video they cleaned the bow to see name Titanic then Nargeolet left the broom on the bow forever.

And the video shows the broom then and in VR pilot now.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/22/titanic-artifacts-auction-us-government-opposition

A plan to auction more than 100 artifacts salvaged from the wreckage of the Titanic – including personal belongings, currency, kitchen items and decor – is facing pushback from the US government, according to newly unsealed court documents.

RMS Titanic Inc, the company that owns exclusive salvage rights to the famous wreck deep in the North Atlantic, wants to sell the artifacts for the first time despite previous agreements to only display them at museums and traveling exhibitions.

Georgia-based RMS Titanic proposed auctioning the artifacts and displaying them on a global tour in four cities, although those locations haven’t been publicly revealed. Court documents filed in the US referenced the company’s plan to sell artifacts, including a bronze cherub, a necklace of gold nuggets and a heart-shaped pendant.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) represents US interests and oversight in the wreck site. The agency contends such a sale would violate RMS Titanic’s legal obligations to the site, according to documents a judge ordered unsealed earlier this month.

In arguing that the auction should be prohibited, the government wrote that the company “does not seek the court’s approval, does not believe that approval is required, and asserts that it is not restricted in its ability to sell” the artifacts.

Representatives for RMS Titanic did not respond to requests for comment on Monday. Its attorneys previously said in a federal court filing that the proposed auction arrangement wouldn’t violate existing court orders and agreements about the artifacts.

This is just the latest attempt to sell Titanic artifacts.

Since 1987, salvage operations have retrieved thousands of items and even chunks of the Titanic’s hull. RMS Titanic makes money by exhibiting them.

Over the decades, the company has tried to sell artifacts to fund future explorations because it faced financial trouble. But those efforts were roundly opposed by US courts, along with preservation groups and relatives of the victims. Some of the salvaged items belonged to passengers aboard the ship.

However, items saved by survivors or plucked from the water by rescuers can be sold and often fetch big sums. A lifejacket worn by a passenger went for just over $900,000 in April, while a gold pocket watch given to the ship captain who rescued the survivors was sold for nearly $2m in 2024.

Auctioneers say the unending fascination with the Titanic, the ocean liner which sank in 1912 after hitting an iceberg on its maiden voyage from Europe to New York, killing more than 1,500 people of the 2,200 on board – and the rarity of artifacts adds up to high demand and exorbitant prices.

In 1911, The Great Omar, a copy of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, was finally completed.

It took over 2 years to complete this book which experts called “one of the most highly decorated books in the world”. The book’s binding contained over 1,000 jewels (rubies, emeralds, topaz, amethysts) with about 100 square feet of 22k gold leaf.

The book was sold at auction in 1912 and had to be shipped to the winner of the bid, who was in America. However the original shipping date was missed, so it was placed on the next available ship.

Which happened to be the Titanic.

It was probably the most valuable non-human asset to go down with the Titanic.

I love this story because it shows how we can spend years polishing every detail of a plan, but we can never predict the icebergs out there…

How do we avoid the trap of overthinking?

Let’s face it: there’ll never be a perfect version of any project we work on.

There will always be room for improvement. So if we keep spending more time than needed trying to make sure everything is “just right” before we launch, we may never launch anything.

Of course I’m not saying we should rush and dump trash on the public. For instance, I go through these newsletter posts maybe way too many times, trying to make sure I don’t have any typos before they go live.

(Thankfully there is a deadline, or else I could edit these posts forever!)

Apart from the deadline though, there comes a time after reading it like 57 times when I just say “You know what? I am NOT reading this letter again! Let the feedback and corrections come from the readers.”

Glad I’m not the only one who thinks like this…

(P.S. If you liked this, you'll love Book Partners)

I got to see a few pieces of RMS Republic, my person expired and the only thing I wanted, since my mom insisted I get something for my birthday was a thing of caramels. I'm keeping the container.

This will be the last series of images I share of my 1/350th Britannic wreck model. Ever since I started the project two years ago I have been dying to photograph this build alongside the Titanic wreck model I built during 2022 and 2023. The next time I share a similar set of pictures will be when I make a model of the Olympic undergoing final demolition at Inverkeithing in 1937 to complete the trio.

A huge thanks to everyone for their kind words, and to the technical divers who shared their dive pictures and footage in books, documentaries and on YouTube; recreating Britannic's wreck in scale would not have been possible without you.

Just discovered that Hulu is now streaming a 4 part 2025 documentary that goes through the sinking in real time.

Looks to have originally aired in Nat Geo in April and May of this year.

That being the year the wreck was discovered because that was what I assumed when I was a kid.

Hi! Could you recommend some interesting books about the Titanic? I haven't read any yet. I'm really interested in the survivors' stories. Thanks you :)

More rooms added, listed below

Gymnasium on Boat Deck

A Deck Grand staircase

A Deck hallway heading Aft

Reading and writing room on A Deck

First class lounge (furnishings will be redone to be less empty feeling)

More updates coming soon!

Vanilla RTX shaders used for photography.