Woke Mob Tries to Sink Children's Ride. Owner Doesn't Give a Ship.

A handful of parents in England decided a Titanic-themed children's slide was the iceberg to die on. The slide has been there for years. Nobody cared until the slide's return this summer.

At Graveley Fruit Farm near Hitchin, Hertfordshire, just north of London, £2 buys a turn on the ride. Children climb into a replica of the ship's stern, which rises and sends them down four slides onto a crash mat.

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Graveley opened in 1981 and offers fruit picking in summer, crazy golf, a playground, and water slides. The Titanic ride ran for several years before returning in May; the online complaints showed up this summer.

Before each turn, the children get boarding passes. The farm calls the trip a "wreck," and about 500 people use the ride on a busy day. Roughly 500 children happily abandoning ship, and until recently, very few adults demanding an inquiry.

That changed on Facebook. One critic compared the slide to an Auschwitz or Twin Towers ride. Another said the farm could make it less offensive by changing the ship's name or color. The Titanic sank 114 years ago. Apparently some people are still rearranging the deck chairs.

"This is one of the most distasteful, disrespectful and strange attractions for children," one commenter complained. "This is sickening."

Once a £2 children's slide has been placed in the same rhetorical cargo hold as Auschwitz and Sept. 11, there is not much room left for escalation. Perhaps the United Nations could appoint a special rapporteur for insensitive playground equipment.

The farm initially tried to settle the matter. Staff groveled, said it was making no joke about the disaster, and promised to change the name as soon as possible. Then actual customers weighed in; far more of them than the critics. Those customers told the farm not to give in to the "woke brigade," and Will Gilpin, the farm's owner and manager, restored the Titanic name. Only a handful had complained in the first place.

"We get around five hundred people a day using it," Will said. "As far as I'm aware it has offended only a handful of people."

Will said that no Titanic survivors or children of survivors are still alive. In his view, the victims would probably offer a "kindly smile" at a slide that children enjoy. He also pointed to the full Titanic immersive attraction in London.

The real Titanic struck an iceberg during its maiden voyage and sank on April 15, 1912. Nearly 1,500 of the 2,220 passengers and crew aboard died. Sixty children were among the victims. Those facts are awful and unchanged. A £2 slide at Graveley does not change any of them.

The critics briefly got what they wanted. The farm apologized and promised a new name. Then the actual customers showed up and outnumbered them.

The ride is still called the Titanic. Children still get boarding passes. It still costs £2. Sanity won out.

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