Today my daughters Phoebe and Julia were competing to play “My Heart Will Go On” from Titanic on her piano. She’s proud to be playing a “real song” now. It triggered a memory of a game my friend Duke and I used to play when we were 14 or 15, it was called “Sink the Titanic.” We must have played that game for a whole summer. It was the most morbid game ever, but it sure sparked the imagination.
Duke was fascinated by disasters, and had long since been a foremost expert in Titanic lore. He was an expert on just about any type of disaster, including Marilyn Monroe. Imagine our elation at hearing about the release of the game that centered on our favorite man-made disaster.
Thinking back on it now, the game was really, really twisted. The game begins as the iceberg strikes the ship. Every time someone takes a turn, the boat sinks another notch. Meanwhile you, as a porter, have to rescue as many of the passengers as possible. I’m hoping I’m right about this, but some of the passengers were worth more points than others. J.J. Astor for example, was worth 10 points later in the lifeboat, whereas Joe Schmoe lost points for taking up too much space.
You rescued as many people as possible, and then got to your waiting lifeboat without going down with the ship. All the cards, representing people not rescued, sat in an ominous pile off the board.
But… wait…. it didn’t end there. Oh no. The game was only half over. Next you were stranded in a lifeboat, and you floated endlessly at sea. You drew cards, and if you drew a shark, or any of the host of catastrophes that could befall people in the middle of the Atlantic on a lifeboat from a sinking ship.
When you were out at sea, the other end of the Titanic came up; it was the rescue ship. It took a lot longer, but when it finally arrived the player who reached it first, with the most points, was the winner. If the player didn’t have enough points, they have to wait to try to catch up in points to the other player, and linger out in the ocean for a bit longer.
Duke was a whiz at it. I was too romantic. I’d try to save a lot of people, but it wasn’t all philanthropic. It’s always good to go to the lifeboat with as many points as possible. I’d get stuck on the ship though, and Duke would win without ever doing the lifeboat thing. It was like getting skunked in horseshoes.
I wonder if James Cameron ever played “Sink the Titanic?”
Jim, if you’re out there… I’m dying to know.
Did YOU play “Sink the Titanic” or am I the only one?