Smoking etiquette

[Bob Godfrey]

You're a hard, cruel woman, Mon. You persist in reminding me of my one failure, of the one piece of information that has eluded me in 73 years of meticulous research. I can envisage my wake, with Titaniacs gathered in groups drinking warm beer in my honour and praising my dogged persistence in the hunt for worthless Titanic trivia. And there you are: "But he never did find the on-board price of Woodbines".

 

[sashka pozzetti]

An asbestos filter in a cigarette. That must win an award for most fantastic historical fact of the year. It must have seemed like such a great idea at the time. A literally breath-talking concept worthy of an art gallery!

 

[sashka pozzetti]

or even breath -taking!

 

[Sam Brannigan]

I wonder if those Titanic dwelling folk and their nappy crisis babies still living down there can grow tobacco?

Asbestos? Pah!

My grandad was so hard he used plutonium filters.

 

[Bob Godfrey]

Call that hard? Kensitas plutonium-tipped? My grandma smoked those. Grandad was on Capstan Full Strength.

 

[Sam Brannigan]

Yeah, well my Grandad had matter/antimatter explosion tipped matches to light up with which induced a wormhole every time he lit up, which pushed him back in time to just before he had started so he suffered no bad effects.

And he walked 10 miles to school backwards in the snow with no shoes on and a hundred weight of coal on his back.

Anyway, back to the Titanic...there's a great photo of Pitman and Lightoller enjoying a smoke outside the London Inquiry with the snottiest looking woman ever staring at them. Perhaps someone would be kind enough to upload it.

Also wasn't Captain Smith fond of a nice cigar. I read somewhere that when he was smoking no one was allowed to enter the room for fear of disturbing the blue smoke.

EJ was a seriously chilled out guy.

 

[monica e. hall]

I was given a Capstan Full Strength once, long ago. It was a surreal experience involving spinning head, heaving guts, and a total admiration for those able to take it. Never again.

Stop trying for sympathy and respect, Bob; you know perfectly well that you've only got 63 years of meticulous research under your belt

 

[Samuel Halpern]

IMM Rule 6. Smoking, Lounging. - (a) Officers, Engineers, and other members of the Crew are strictly prohibited from smoking when on duty, whether at sea or in harbour, or from lounging about the passenger department, saloons, promenade decks or bridge, and, with the exception of the Purser and Surgeon, from using the Public rooms appointed for passengers. ...

 

[Sam Brannigan]

Sorry, it was a pipe Lightoller was smoking and Pitman is sans ciggie.. Sour faced woman just out of shot.

Extremely groovy John Lennon sunglasses on pipe smoking 1912 hippy in background, don't you think? A time traveller perhaps - and what a moustache!

 

[George L. Lorton]

>>Cork tip 'luxury' cigarettes were on sale in 1912 (targetted at women smokers) but filters didn't become popular before the 1950s, by which time they were generally made of crepe paper. Other materials had been tried, including (of all things!) asbestos.<<

Thanks Bob.

 

[monica e. hall]

Obviously the inspiration for I Am the Walrus.

 

[Kyrila Scully]

"Did anyone realise the dangers of smoking in 1912."

Actually, a health reformist named Ellen G. White wrote about the dangers of tobacco back in the mid-1800's. Health reform was a popular issue and led to many new denominations that rose out of that period to ban the use of tobacco and alcohol among their membership.

Kyrila

 

[Bob Godfrey]

The trick is not just to write or speak about it but to get people to listen. And before the last half of the last century the scientific evidence to back up the warnings just wasn't available, so most people shrugged and lit up. Calls for abstention from booze and smokes were often associated more with the saving of souls than of lives, but of course if it's illegal, it's immoral and it makes you fat we can't get enough of it!

 

[Paul Rogers]

Let's be honest, Bob: if you give up the vices of smoking, drinking and um, oh yes, eating cream cakes (what did you think I was going to say?) then you still might not live any longer; but it'll certainly feel that way.

Anyone got a f~~* I can ponce*? I can't drive to buy some 'cos I got hammered on Cabernet Sauvignon. And I'm too fat to fit behind the steering wheel.


*Americans: please don't jump to conclusions!

 

[Bob Godfrey]

I'm making an effort, Paul. Haven't had a cream cake all day.

What are we gonna do after July 1st, eh? Pub or f~~? No man should have to make such a decision. Everyone goes on about 3 million rivets going into the Titanic, but what about the 10 million Woodbines!
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