Once again, RLSA will host a Court Observance Week program at the John Marshall Courts Building on November 17, 2011.  In addition to welcoming remarks by Hon. Bevill Dean, Clerk of the Richmond Circuit Court, a court reporting demonstration, and information on courtroom security, Cullen D. Seltzer, Esq., of Sands Anderson PC, will preside over a mock trial presentation entitled The Estate of Hans Jensen v. White Star Line, a mostly true account of a case involving the operator of the R.M.S. Titanic.  Hans Jensen and his finance, Carla Jensen, were passengers on the Titanic along with Carla’s uncle and cousin.  Carla had quarters in the single woman’s section on the lower deck of the ship and left the Titanic in Life Boat 16.  The evacuation process was supervised by Second Officer Lightoller, a witness in the trial.  He was able to launch Collapsible Boat D, but this was the last lifeboat launched from the Titanic before it sank.  As Boat D was being lowered past A-Deck, the other witness, Swedish Military Attache Bjornstrom-Steffanson, really did dive into the partially full lifeboat.  The amazing story of Officer Lightoller being sucked under by the sinking ship and then blown back to the surface by an exploding boiler is also true.  The account of what happened to Hans Jensen that night is speculation, however, because neither he, nor either of Carla’s relatives survived.  The sinking of the Titanic deeply affected Carla and when she died in 1980, she was buried in the nightgown that she wore the night she was lowered in Lifeboat 16 into the dark, freezing waters of the North Atlantic.