Ripley's Believe It or Not by Ripley’s Believe It or Not! for March 29, 2023

I thought the Titanic — 13 years before the Wilhelm Gustav — was the deadliest maritime disaster of all time; it claimed more than 1,500 people.

I think the deadliest peacetime sinking was of an overcrowded large ferry boat in the Phillipines several decades ago. The Titanic was not the worst peacetime sinking. And it was 33 years before the Gustloff sinking, not 13. Yes, thousand of German refugees fleeing Eastern Europe near the end of WWII drowned on ships sunk by vengeful Soviets.

Speaking of TR watching Lincoln’s funeral, this was decades before he spent A Night at the Museum.

Maybe that 1640s lawlessness was why the Eastern Shore area of Maryland has been so impoverished for centuries.

And I see TR is wearing his trademark-style spectacles at age 6 !?

I knew Teddy Roosevelt was a manly man (for example, getting shot, but decided to continue his speech anyway). I guess him having a moustache at age six, as shown in today’s comic, explains it.

Learn something new every day.

Yesterday, there was an R-BION entry about Harry Houdini. In the comments, I said that legitimate magicians don’t claim to have real magical powers: They create illusions. They resent it when people use the techniques of creating illusion but falsely claim to have supernatural power.

I’m reminded of Robert-Houdin. France had made Algeria a colony, and the French government was concerned about unrest and a potential revolt by the Algerians. Religious leaders of the opposition were using magic tricks to control their followers. The French Government asked Robert-Houdin to help, showing that “French magic” was stronger than “Algerian magic.”

Once relations became friendly, interpreters and others who represented France in the Arab world were instructed to admit that what Robert-Houdin had done was not supernatural, but an art.

Erich Weisz deiced to become a professional magician, he took the stage name “Harry Houdini” after Robert-Houdin.

The Wilhelm Gustoff – terrible tragedy. Same way with the Sultana (post civil war) and the Lusitania. And yet – all we ever hear about is the Titanic.

If an armed ship being escorted by two patrol torpedo boats is sunk in an action of combat does it really classify as a “disaster”?

Since the ship was not marked in anyway to designate that it was doing humanitarian refugee transport.

Jesus loves me, this I know. So I stomp my neighbor’s toe.

Young Theodore’s glasses are plausible.

His moustache? That’s an “…or Not.”

The Wilhelm Gustloff was torpedoed by the Soviets and for good reason, it was a troop transport,a military vessel. But the result was indeed sad. "The three torpedoes which were fired successfully all struck Wilhelm Gustloff on her port side. The first struck the ship’s bow, causing watertight doors to seal off the area where off-duty crew members were sleeping. The second hit the accommodations for the women’s naval auxiliary, located in the ship’s drained swimming pool, dislodging the pool tiles at high velocity, which caused heavy casualties; only three of the 373 women quartered there survived. The third torpedo scored a direct hit on the engine room located amidships, disabling all power and communications.

“Reportedly, only nine lifeboats could be lowered; the rest had frozen in their davits and had to be broken free.”

Perhaps the worst domestic sinking in the US was of a river steamboat going up the Miss River soon after the Civil War ended, carrying just freed Union POWs. I think 1 to 2000 (?) or more were suddenly killed in a huge boiler explosion.

Tony Curtis in HOUDINI was pure bunk

Regarding Lincoln’s funeral procession, Teddy never claimed to have witnessed it and the photo that shows the window with 2 small heads looking out at the procession from above is not clear enough to identify either of the two.