Until today, I’ve never seen this photo before and because I like it so much, I want to share it with all of you :)

Baby Nisa in Africa.

The Titanic in Southampton (Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons).

Only 160 minutes after colliding with the iceberg, the RMS Titanic sank.

She got the attribute “unsinkable”, was the pride of its building contractors and should bring its passengers from the old world into the new world. No one expected that an iceberg would put an end to the Titanic. Here’s a short chronology of the events of April 14, 1912:

March 20, 1912: This actually was the planned date of departure but due to repair work on another ship in the same shipyard, the work on Titanic is not done yet.

March 31, 1912: The end of the construction work at Belfast.

April 10, 1912: At noon, the RMS Titanic sets its sails from Southampton. Almost all passengers stand on deck. When leaving the port, the Titanic generated such an undertow that the ropes of two nearby ships (“New York and “RMS Oceanic”) ripped. Both of ships are about to collide with the Titanic – only with “full speed ahead”, a collision was prevented.

April 14, 9.00 am: The Titanic travelled about 1.500 miles when at 9.00 am the first iceberg warnings come in.

April 14, 11.40 pm: Sailor Fleet sights and iceberg and gives the alarm. The course is changed but it is too late. The Titanic hits the iceberg with full speed.

April 14, midnight: Captain Edward John Smith talks with the constructor of the Titanic, Thomas Andrews. He estimates, that the Titanic will be able to hold herself above the water for another 60 – 90 minutes. The captain then gives the order to send a distress signal and to man the rescue boats.

April 15, 12.05 am: Crew and passengers are given life jackets. The rescue boats can’t hold all passengers.

April 15, 12.15 am: The distress signal of the Titanic are received by other ships but they are all too far away. Even the “Carpathia”, the closest ship (58 miles), will only arrive after the sinking. The band starts playing.

April 15, 12.45 am: The first rescue boat (Nr. 7) casts off – but only with 28 people instead of the possible 65. Many passengers still believe that the Titanic is unsinkable and prefer to stay on board. The fourth officer Boxhall believes to have seen lights of another ship and tries to make contact with Morse signals – unsuccessful. Which ship this could have been was never solved.

April 15, 1.15 am: The water is now all the way up to the ships name and the oblique position becomes more dramatic, which results to panic. Finally the boats are better occupied.

April 15, 1.30 am: When rescue boat Nr. 14 is ready to launch with 60 passengers, officer Lowe has to pull his handgun and fires off a warning shot to keep other passengers from jumping onto the ship which could result in the capsize of the boat.

April 15, 1.38 am: The foredeck is flooded; panic and chaos are getting greater.

April 15, 1.45 am: The “Carpathia” receives the last distress signal of the Titanic.

April 15, 1.55 am: John Jacob Astor, the richest man on boat the Titanic, says his goodbyes to his wive, since only women an children are allowed onto the rescue boats.

April 15, 2 am: Only three more meters until the water reaches the promenade deck.

April 15, 2.05 am: The last rescue boat leaves the Titanic. Again warning shots have to be fired so that the boat is not overrun. There are still about 1.500 passengers on board. The bow is fully flooded.

April 15, 2.08 am: Lights go out.

April 15, 2.20 am: Shortly before the end, the ship raises steeply and breaks into two pieces. The Titanic sinks. Only one rescue boat returns to look for survivors.

April 15, 4.10 am: The “Carpathia” arrives.

The Titanic in Southampton (Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons).

Titanic rudder before the launch (Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons).

The iceberg that is believed to have sunk the Titanic (Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons).

One of the rescue boats (Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons).

One of the first Pan Am planes. © Pan Am Historical Foundation.

A Pan Am Yankee Clipper. © Pan Am Historical Foundation.

For years Pan Am has dominated the flight business – until it died about 20 years ago (this had a lot to do with the crash/bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie in Scotland. The airlines was found negligent and their security measures where lacking. People simply lost confidence and stopped flying with the airline – it all went downhill from there on). The carrier started operating in 1927 with a flight from Key West to Havana. By 1930, Pan Am offered flights to many international destination. It didn’t take long for the airline to become the market leader in flight aviation and innovations (such as the jet aircraft an jumbo jets).

Pan Am’s Boeing 747 fleet. © Pan Am Historical Foundation.

Pure luxury.

The carrier launched first class travelling and offered their passengers in-flight movies to pass the time. In its best day’s in the 70’s, Pan Am transmitted the glamor of the beautiful & rich. Fashion was created just for flight purposes. Luxurious interior design, huge seats, sumptuous food, charming service and spacious smoking saloons; all of this was supposed to make flying an adventure – which of course only very few people could afford.

Pure luxury inside the Pan Am planes. © Pan Am Historical Foundation.

You flew with Pan Am airlines. © Pan Am Historical Foundation.

Desired job: Flight attendant.

Pan Am was the first flight carrier where stewards served food to passengers. In 1930, the first female flight attendant was recruited and it only took a couple of years until the job was entirely occupied by female flight attendants. The run on open posts was enormous. The jobs gave women the (rare) opportunity to have a career, even though the requirements for the desired position really made every man fantasize … Being a Pan Am flight attendant was tough; apart from the training, ones figure was very cruicial. The age limit was at 32 and being pregnant was a total no-go. Oh and if you wanted to get married … well you better waited until you passed your 33rd birthday.

Sexy Pan Am stewardesses in Saigon (1960). © Pan Am Historical Foundation.

Only the Logo remained.

The famous blue Pan Am logo was designed by architect Edward Larrabee Barnes in 1955 and is the most famous logo of any aircraft until today. What can I say? I totally love the retro look. Not only from the logo but also Pan Am’s ads. Have a look at these old posters:

Pan Am at your service.

Nothing could stop our idea; the only person who gave some support was a doctor friend, who provided us with medicine, baby syringes, infusions, first aid kits and a brief introduction on what to do in an emergency. With 800 nappies, lots of bottles, heaps of baby food, a good stove & fridge, and also a bit of a queasy feeling, our big truck rolled out of Vienna.

We soon found out, that the entire trip had to be customized to our little girl. Normally, you’re tired after hours of driving on very bad roads, or having to fill up 20 jerry cans, or having to change a tire, set up a tent , plus, plus, plus … Nisa fell asleep in her seat, the minute we started the truck. And as soon as we stopped to fix something, she awoke. When we would need four hands to do some maintenance on the car, it was all but certain that Nisa needed attention.

So the trip on a barge upwards on the river Congo for a few days was a well deserved break for us. After the truck was uploaded (under difficult conditions) onto deck of the barge, our holiday started :)

The floating market along the Congo river provided us with fresh food.

I did not switch my eyes off Nisa during the entire trip; there was no railing and about 2.000 people travelling upriver on this conglomerate of barges roped together…Except a second couple from Switzerland (who also travelled by car), there were no other tourists on this journey. And as you can imagine, most of the local travellers wanted to get a glimpse at the little white girl. Most people there have seen a white person before, but such a tiny one? Well, it didn’t seem like it. It was a “hello” here, a “hello” there. Everybody paraded by at the truck to have a look and Nisa & as soon as they did, it put a smile on their face :)

Anyway, there was this one guy with his own daughter who had the idea with the picture. I took a couple of shots with my old Canon camera and rolls of films with Nisa and this dark Congolese girl. The girl’s father was so happy and proud; unfortunately we did not get an address to send him a copy, I bet he would have loved the picture as much as we do.

Back & White kids in the Congo, Africa.

With this photo we also won the 1st prize in the Amnesty International photo contests “Ja zu Vielfalt! Nein zu Diskriminierung!” (in English this would mean “Yes to diversity! No to discrimination!”

Transport in the desert is very limited and if a truck sets out for one of this dangerous journeys, a lot of people see the opportunity to get a ride on those vehicles. Distances between places (where you can get water, petrol or any help in general) can be days apart.