Ana Sofia Ribeiro, a research fellow at the Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon, has studied resilience to natural disasters and eco-anxiety in children. Compared with these, the Titanic is “a disaster that you get to play with,” she said, a romantic fantasy within which children can explore death at a distance.
Stephen Shore, Ed.D., an associate clinical professor of special education at Adelphi University, said encyclopedic knowledge of a topic defined what was referred to as a “special interest area” for autistic or neurodivergent children. Subjects with a deep well of facts to learn — like the one provided by the Titanic — provide “a sense of order to a fairly unpredictable social world for autistic and otherwise neurodivergent individuals.”
An unsinkable interest
Titanic kids — and often by extension, their parents — know all about the sister ships, the R.M.S. Olympic and the H.M.H.S. Britannic; the rescue of the surviving passengers by the R.M.S. Carpathia; and the classes of passengers (first, second and third). They know which of the four funnels was merely decorative (the ship had only three main engines) and the temperature of the water the ship sank into (about 28 degrees Fahrenheit).
They are also quick to explain the reasons the ship met its end.
“Where do you want me to start — 11:40 or … ?” asked Ryley, 12, in Los Angeles, who has memorized the events post-collision (which occurred around 11:40 p.m.), and pointed out the structural flaws in the rivets. He can also speak on the reported tiff between radio operators on the S.S. Californian and the Titanic.
In Manhattan, Charlotte, 13, who built a nearly 10,000-piece Titanic Lego set by herself over six months, flagged a lack of binoculars among the lookouts, as well as the hard turn that caused a larger gash to the ship’s starboard hull that may have resulted from hitting the iceberg head-on, she said.
