Why did the Titanic sink? Add your price to the Comment database. Mystery of the Ocean
April 14th, 2010 , 02:24 am
I saw secret cards
I know where we're going.
Captain, I've come to say goodbye to you, to you
And your ship.
On April 14, 1912, one of the largest shipwrecks in the world occurred. On her maiden voyage, the British White Star Line steamer, the largest passenger airliner world at the time of its construction, the second of the three twin ships of the Olympic type, called the Titanic, collided with an iceberg and sank after 2 hours 40 minutes. There were 1,316 passengers and 892 crew members on board the Titanic, for a total of 2,208 people. Of these, 706 people survived, over 1,500 died. The Titanic disaster has become more than legendary... On the eve of the 98th anniversary of the disaster, we decided to make a post about the history of the Titanic with photographs of this liner.
I went down into the hold
I talked there
With Mr. Chief of the Rats.
Rats come ashore
At the nearest port
Hoping to be saved.
WHAT HE WAS
The Titanic was laid down on March 31, 1909 at the shipyards of the Harland and Wolf shipbuilding company, but two years later - on May 31, 1911, and almost a year later - on April 2, 1912 - it underwent sea trials... Until the fatal The trip was less than two weeks away...
Laying the keel of the Titanic. The very beginning of the story
A comparative outline drawing will help you imagine the dimensions of the Titanic:
Notice how another famous modern liner, Queen Mary 2, is larger than the Titanic. And how grandiose the Titanic is in comparison with other silhouettes... If you use numbers. we can say that the height of the ship from the keel to the tops of the pipes was 53 point 4 meters.
Why was the Titanic considered unsinkable... thanks to fifteen watertight bulkheads in the hold. In theory. they created sixteen watertight compartments. with the help of many more partitions, dividing into 46 waterproof compartments. In theory, the Titanic was built so that it could remain afloat if any two of its 16 watertight compartments, any three of the first five compartments, or all of the first four compartments were flooded... But... only in theory... .
The photo shows the “insides” of the ship: its steam engines, turbines, pipe shaft and rotor.
Lifeboats
One of the remarkable moments in the Titanic disaster was that the people on board were sorely short of lifeboats... It turns out that this is because, in formal accordance with the current requirements of the British Merchant Shipping Code, the ship had 20 lifeboats, which were enough for landing 1178 people, that is, for 50% of the people on board at that moment and 30% of the planned load. This was taken into account with the expectation of increasing the walking space on the deck for the ship's passengers.
Slipway and decks of the Titanic
On the slipway - "Titanic" and its twin brother "Olympic"
This is what the Titanic's propeller shaft looked like.
The hull of the Titanic is ready! The second photo shows the beginning of the Titanic's descent into the water!
The Titanic is slowly leaving the slipway.
Launched!
Towing the Titanic to the dock wall
Installation of boilers on the Titanic
The morning before the official launch. The photo conveys all the monumentality of the liner...
Towing the Titanic through the Belfast waterway
Titanic on its way to England
Celebrities aboard the Titanic
Many celebrities of the time took part in the first and last voyage of the liner, including millionaire and major industrialist John Jacob Astor IV and his wife Madeline Astor, businessman Benjamin Guggenheim, owner of the Macy's department store Isidor Strauss and his wife Ida, eccentric millionaire Margaret Molly Brown, who received the nickname “Unsinkable” after the sinking of the ship, Sir Cosma Duff Gordon and his wife, popular fashion designer Lady Lucy Duff Gordon at the beginning of the century, businessman and cricketer John Thayer, British journalist William Thomas Steed, Countess of Rotskaya, military assistant to the US President Richbald Butt, film actress Dorothy Gibson and many others...
Accepting passengers on board... Who knows, maybe the same “unsinkable” Molly Brown is now in the boat!
One of the most famous photographs of the ship - the Titanic setting sail...
An orchestra is playing on the upper deck,
And couples dance the foxtrot,
Steward pours fire into glasses
And watches the ice melt.
He looks at the dancers, who have forgotten about
That each of them will die.
"Titanic" on the way to New York... To the right of it is another giant of shipbuilding - "Oceanic"
Towing the Titanic into the ocean
"Titanic" from the coast of Ireland. The last two photos of the airliner BEFORE the crash
HOW HE DROWNED
Many works, both in cinema and in painting, are devoted to the moment of the collision of the liner with an iceberg. But we focus on the facts and give a chronology from... to...:
The path of the Titanic...
Wednesday 10 April 1912
12:00 - The Titanic departs from the quay wall of the port of Southampton and narrowly avoids a collision with the American liner New York.
19:00 - stop in Cherbourg (France) to take passengers and mail on board.
21:00 - The Titanic left Cherbourg and headed for Queenstown (Ireland).
Thursday 11 April 1912
12:30 - stop in Queenstown to take passengers and mail on board; one crew member deserts the Titanic.
14:00 - Titanic departs Queenstown with 1,316 passengers and 891 crew on board.
Sunday, April 14, 1912
09:00 - Caronia reports ice in the area of 42° north latitude, 49-51° west longitude.
13:42 - Baltic reports the presence of ice in the area of 41°51′ north latitude, 49°52′ west longitude.
13:45 - "America" reports ice in the area of 41°27′ north latitude, 50°8′ west longitude.
19:00 - air temperature 43° Fahrenheit (6 °C).
19:30 - air temperature 39° Fahrenheit (3.9 ° C).
19:30 - Californian reports ice in the area of 42°3′ north latitude, 49°9′ west longitude.
21:00 - air temperature 33° Fahrenheit (0.6 ° C).
21:30 - Second Mate Lightoller warns the ship's carpenter and the watch in the engine room to monitor the system fresh water- water in pipelines may freeze; he tells the lookout to watch for the appearance of ice.
21:40 - “Mesaba” reports ice in the area of 42°-41°25′ north latitude, 49°-50°30′ west longitude.
22:00 - air temperature 32° Fahrenheit (0 °C).
22:30 - sea water temperature dropped to 31° Fahrenheit (−0.56 °C).
23:00 - The Californian warns of the presence of ice, but the Titanic's radio operator interrupts the radio exchange before the Californian manages to report the coordinates of the area.
23:40 - At a point with coordinates 41°46′ north latitude, 50°14′ west longitude (later it turned out that these coordinates were calculated incorrectly), an iceberg was spotted at a distance of about 450 meters straight ahead. Despite the maneuver, after 39 seconds the underwater part of the vessel touched down, and the hull of the vessel received numerous small holes over a length of about 100 meters. Of the ship's 16 watertight compartments, 6 were cut through (the leak in the sixth was extremely insignificant).
“There’s ice in front of us!” Flit shouted and immediately struck the bell hanging in the crow’s nest. Three strikes were a signal that meant that some object was directly ahead. At the same time, he rushed to the telephone connecting the crow’s nest " with the bridge. Sixth Mate J.P. Moody responded almost instantly.
“Ice is straight ahead,” Flit shouted.
“Thank you,” Moody replied (his polite answer later became part of the legend).”
Monday, April 15, 1912
00:05 - the order was given to uncover the lifeboats and call crew members and passengers to the assembly points.
00:15 - the first radiotelegraph signal for help was transmitted from the Titanic.
00:45 - the first flare is fired and the first lifeboat (No. 7) is launched.
01:15 - 3rd class passengers are allowed on deck.
01:40 - the last flare is fired.
02:05 - the last lifeboat (collapsible lifeboat D) is lowered.
02:10 - the last radiotelegraph signals were transmitted.
02:17 - the electric lights go out.
02:18 - The Titanic, rapidly sinking, breaks into three parts (this became known in 1996 after the Narjolet expedition) [source not specified 30 days].
02:20 - Titanic sank.
03:30 - the lifeboats notice flares fired from the Carpathia.
04:10 - Carpathia picked up the first boat from the Titanic (boat No. 2).
08:30 - Carpathia picked up the last (No. 12) boat from the Titanic.
08:50 - Carpathia, having taken on board 704 people who escaped from the Titanic, heads for New York.
The first news about the sinking of the Titanic. By the way, in the early days the newspapers reported incorrect information about the number of victims, based on conflicting rumors
But
While the Titanic is sailing.
Nobody wants to think about it
Bye, bye, while the Titanic is sailing.
Dead and survivors of the disaster
Almost all the women and children from the 1st and 2nd class cabins were saved. More than half of the women and children from the 3rd class cabins died because they had difficulty finding their way up through the labyrinth of narrow corridors. Almost all the men also died. The tragedy of the Paulson family claimed the lives of Alma's mother and all her four young children, for whom father Nils waited in vain in New York.
323 men (20% of all adult men) and 331 women (75% of all adult women) survived, including Violet Jessop, Dorothy Gibson, Molly Brown, Lucy Duff Gordon and others.
In May 2006, the last American eyewitness to survive the sinking of the Titanic died at the age of 99. The Boston funeral home made the announcement. She died the day before at her home. Swedish-born Lillian Gertrud Asplund, who was five years old at the time of the disaster, lost her father and three brothers. Her mother and brother, who was three years old at the time, survived. They were third class passengers and escaped in lifeboat No. 15. Asplund was the last person to remember how the tragedy occurred, but she avoided publicity and rarely spoke about the event.
The last of the Titanic passengers, Millvina Dean, who was two and a half months old at the time of the sinking of the liner, died on May 31, 2009. Her ashes were scattered to the wind on October 24, 2009 at the port of Southampton, where the Titanic began its only voyage.
Sorry... A little "dark humor" about this wouldn't hurt either
The sailors sold the propeller to the Eskimos for a barrel of wine,
And the judge and the priest argue all night,
Finding out whose fault it is.
And the judge says it's all about the law,
And the priest - that it's about love.
But in the light of lightning it becomes clear -
Everyone has blood on their hands.
AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA...
On September 1, 1985, an expedition led by the director of the Institute of Oceanology in Woods Hall, Massachusetts, Dr. Robert Ballard, discovered the Titanic's location at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean at a depth of 3,750 meters. Here are the first photos of the Titanic AFTER the tragedy:
While the Titanic is sailing.
Nobody wants to think about it
Bye, bye, while the Titanic is sailing.
I saw sharks astern
Sharks swallow saliva
Captain, all the sharks are aware,
That we will soon go down.
That, in fact, is all... Of course, one could say that Cameron is going to shoot his film in 3D - exactly for the centenary of the disaster, one could recall other works, from books to other films, but why... From the point of view of reflecting the Titanic disaster in art, I personally am more impressed by the song from Butusov. By the way, what’s funny is that nowadays tourists are offered to tickle their nerves on a voyage similar to the route of the Titanic:
“The new superliner Golden Princess, accommodating 3,800 passengers, will soon set sail for the shores of Antarctica, Vzglyad reports.
This is the most big ship throughout the history of Antarctic tourism. The huge cruise ship, like the infamous Titanic, does not have ice protection and will sail in little-explored waters, making a voyage to Antarctica a very risky undertaking.”
Ahead stands like a cold wall
Arctic ice.
But no one wants to think about it
Where is the Titanic sailing?
Nobody wants to think about it
Bye, bye, while the Titanic is sailing.
I didn’t compose all this myself at night, I simply collected in one post the fruits of other people’s work - rather for myself (since childhood, obsessed with the Titanic disaster - long before the film, by the way). I would like to thank these people:
1. For the most complete photo selection of the history of the Titanic - thank you.
UPD: Stories of several men who died on the Titanic, found in LiveJournal mi3ch and carried away with his kind permission:
Lieutenant Colonel John Jacob Astor IV - American millionaire, businessman, writer, participant in the Spanish-American War. In 1894, he wrote the novel Travels to Other Worlds, which describes travels to Saturn and Jupiter in 2088. Astor was the richest passenger aboard the Titanic.
He put his wife on the boat along with a maid and a nurse. He asked permission to sit with them. He was refused. He didn't insist.
Major Archibald Willingham Butt - chief military aide to US Presidents Roosevelt and Taft. Helped women and children find their places in boats.
Benjamin Guggenheim is a millionaire. He put his beloved and her maid into the boat. Realizing that the situation was much more serious and he would not be able to escape, Guggenheim returned with the valet to the cabin, where they changed into tailcoats. Together with him, he sat down at a table in the central hall, where he leisurely sipped whiskey while watching the disaster. When someone suggested that they try to escape, Guggenheim replied: “We are dressed according to our position and are ready to die like gentlemen.”
Lieutenant William McMaster Murdoch was the officer in charge on the bridge on the night of the Titanic's collision with the iceberg. After the collision, Murdoch supervised the starboard evacuation of passengers, during which he launched 10 lifeboats, saving 75% of all survivors of the disaster.
Francis Davis Millett is an American artist and sculptor. He was last seen helping put women and children into lifeboats.
Juozas Montvila is a Lithuanian Catholic priest. According to surviving eyewitnesses, he did not take the opportunity to take a seat in the lifeboat, but instead consoled people and listened to those who wanted to confess.
James Paul Moody - sixth officer of the Titanic. Helped lower boats 12, 14 and 16. When loading boat 14, fifth officer Harold Lowe wanted a junior officer to board, but Moody gave him his place.
William Thomas Steed is a British journalist, publicist, social activist, Esperantist, propagated the principle of “Peace through Arbitration”, a likely contender for the 1912 Nobel Peace Prize, and one of the pioneers of investigative journalism. After the ship hit an iceberg, he helped put women and children into lifeboats. Then he went into the smoking room, where he was last seen reading a book in a chair.
George Danton Widener is an American businessman and millionaire. After the ship collided, he put his wife and maid into a lifeboat.
John George Phillips was the eldest of the Titanic's radio operators and the first operator in history to issue an international S.O.S. signal. Until the last minute he did not leave the radio room, transmitting signals for help.
Wallace Henry Hartley - British violinist and leader of the Titanic orchestra. After the Titanic hit an iceberg, Hartley and his orchestra began playing music to keep passengers calm while boarding lifeboats. Many survivors said that the orchestra continued to play until the very end. None of the orchestra members survived.
Isidor Strauss is a German-American entrepreneur, co-owner of the largest American chain of department stores, Macy's. Member of the US House of Representatives. After the disaster, one of the officers invited Isidor and his wife Ida to get into the boat together, but Isidor refused, deciding to share the fate of the other drowning men ship. He tried to put Ida in the boat, but she refused to leave her husband. The Strauss put their maid in the boat instead.
Thomas Andrews Jr. - Irish businessman and shipbuilder, designer of the Titanic. During the evacuation, he helped passengers board the boats. He was last seen in the smoking room near the fireplace, where he was looking at a painting of Port Plymouth. It was assumed that the Titanic would visit him on way back. According to other accounts, Thomas Andrews was last seen throwing deck chairs into the water from the promenade deck so that stranded passengers could use them as life rafts.
On the night of April 14-15, 1912, the most modern passenger liner at that time, the Titanic, making its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York, collided with an iceberg and soon sank. At least 1,496 people died, 712 passengers and crew were rescued.
The Titanic disaster very quickly became overgrown with a mass of legends and speculation. At the same time, for several decades, the place where the lost ship rested remained unknown.
The main difficulty was that the location of the death was known with very low accuracy - we were talking about an area 100 kilometers in diameter. Considering that the Titanic sank in an area where the depth of the Atlantic is several kilometers, finding the ship was very problematic.
Titanic. Photo: www.globallookpress.com
The bodies of the dead were going to be raised with dynamite
Immediately after the shipwreck, relatives of wealthy passengers who died in the disaster came up with a proposal to organize an expedition to raise the ship. The initiators of the search wanted to bury their loved ones and, to be honest, return the valuables that had sunk to the bottom along with their owners.
The decisive attitude of the relatives came across a categorical verdict from experts: the technology for searching and lifting the Titanic from great depths simply did not exist at that time.
Then a new proposal was received - to drop dynamite charges to the bottom at the supposed site of the disaster, which, according to the authors of the project, were supposed to provoke the ascent of the corpses of the dead from the bottom. This dubious idea also did not find support.
Started in 1914 First world war postponed the search for the Titanic for many years.
Interior of the veranda for first class passengers of the Titanic. Photo: www.globallookpress.com
Nitrogen and ping pong balls
They started talking about searching for the liner again only in the 1950s. At the same time, proposals began to appear on possible ways to lift it - from freezing the body with nitrogen to filling it with millions of ping-pong balls.
In the 1960-1970s, several expeditions were sent to the area where the Titanic sank, but all of them were unsuccessful due to insufficient technical preparation.
In 1980 Texas oil tycoon John Grimm financed the preparation and conduct of the first large expedition to search for the Titanic. But, despite the availability of the most modern equipment for underwater searches, his expedition ended in failure.
Played a major role in the discovery of the Titanic ocean explorer and part-time US Navy officer Robert Ballard. Ballard, who was involved in improving small unmanned underwater vehicles, became interested in underwater archeology and, in particular, the mystery of the Titanic sinkhole back in the 1970s. In 1977, he organized the first expedition to search for the Titanic, but it ended in failure.
Ballard was convinced that finding the ship was only possible with the help of the latest deep-sea bathyscaphes. But getting these at your disposal was very difficult.
Photo: www.globallookpress.com
Doctor Ballard's Secret Mission
In 1985, having failed to achieve results during an expedition in French research vessel Le Suroît, Ballard moved onto the American ship R/V Knorr, with which he continued the search for the Titanic.
As Ballard himself said many years later, the expedition, which became historic, began with a secret deal concluded between him and the command of the Navy. The researcher really wanted to get the Argo deep-sea research vehicle for his work, but the American admirals did not want to pay for the work of the equipment to search for some historical rarity. The ship R/V Knorr and the Argo apparatus were supposed to carry out a mission to survey the sites of the sinking of two American nuclear submarines, Scorpion and Thresher, which sank back in the 1960s. This task was secret, and the US Navy needed a person who could not only carry out the necessary work, but also be able to keep it secret.
Ballard's candidacy was ideal - he was quite famous, and everyone knew about his passion for finding the Titanic.
The researcher was offered: he could get the Argo and use it to search for the Titanic if he first found and examined the submarines. Ballard agreed.
Only the leadership of the US Navy knew about the Scorpion and Thrasher; for the rest, Robert Ballard simply explored the Atlantic and looked for the Titanic.
Robert Ballard. Photo: www.globallookpress.com
"Comet tail" at the bottom
He coped with the secret mission brilliantly, and on August 22, 1985, he was able to again begin the search for the liner that died in 1912.
None of the most advanced technology would have ensured his success if not for the previously accumulated experience. Ballard, while examining the sinkhole sites of the submarines, noticed that they left at the bottom a kind of “comet tail” of thousands of fragments. This was due to the fact that the hulls of the boats were destroyed when sank to the bottom due to enormous pressure.
The scientist knew that during the dive on the Titanic, the steam boilers exploded, which meant that the liner should have left a similar “comet tail.”
It was this trace, and not the Titanic itself, that was easier to detect.
On the night of September 1, 1985, the Argo apparatus found small debris at the bottom, and at 0:48 the camera recorded the Titanic’s boiler. Then it was possible to discover the bow of the ship.
It was found that the bow and stern of the broken liner were located at a distance of approximately 600 meters from each other. At the same time, both the stern and the bow were seriously deformed when sank to the bottom, but the bow was still better preserved.
Ship model. Photo: www.globallookpress.com
House for underwater inhabitants
The news of the discovery of the Titanic became a sensation, although many experts hastened to question it. But in the summer of 1986, Ballard carried out new expedition, during which he not only described in detail the ship at the bottom, but also made the first dive to the Titanic on a manned deep-sea vehicle. After this, the last doubts were dispelled - the Titanic was discovered.
The last resting place of the liner is located at a depth of 3750 meters. In addition to the two main parts of the liner, tens of thousands of smaller debris are scattered along the bottom over an area of 4.8×8 km: parts of the ship’s hull, remains of furniture and interior decoration, dishes, and personal belongings of people.
The wreckage of the ship is covered with multi-layered rust, the thickness of which is constantly growing. In addition to multi-layered rust, 24 species of invertebrate animals and 4 species of fish live on and near the hull. Of these, 12 species of invertebrates clearly gravitate towards shipwrecks, eating metal and wooden structures. The interior of the Titanic was almost completely destroyed. The wooden elements were consumed by deep sea worms. The decks are covered with a layer of shellfish, and stalactites of rust hang from many of the metal elements.
A wallet recovered from the Titanic. Photo: www.globallookpress.com
Are all the people left with shoes left?
During the 30 years that have passed since the discovery of the ship, the Titanic has been rapidly deteriorating. His current state such that there can be no talk of any lifting of the ship. The ship will forever remain at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.
There is still no consensus on whether human remains were preserved on the Titanic and around it. According to the prevailing version, all human bodies completely decomposed. However, information periodically appears that some researchers have nevertheless stumbled upon the remains of the dead.
But James Cameron, director of the famous film "Titanic", whose personal account includes over 30 dives to the liner on the Russian Mir deep-sea submersibles, is sure of the opposite: “We saw shoes, boots and other footwear at the site of the sunken ship, but our team has never encountered human remains.”
Things from the Titanic - a profitable product
Since the discovery of the Titanic by Robert Ballard, about two dozen expeditions have been carried out to the ship, during which several thousand objects were raised to the surface, ranging from personal belongings of passengers to a piece of plating weighing 17 tons.
It is impossible to establish the exact number of objects recovered from the Titanic today, since with the improvement of underwater technology, the ship has become a favorite target of “black archaeologists” who are trying to obtain rarities from the Titanic by any means.
Robert Ballard, lamenting this, remarked: “The ship is still a noble old lady, but not the same lady I saw in 1985.”
Items from the Titanic have been sold at auction for many years and are in great demand. So, in the year of the 100th anniversary of the disaster, in 2012, hundreds of items went under the hammer, including a cigar box that belonged to the captain of the Titanic ($40 thousand), a life jacket from the ship ($55 thousand), and a master key first class steward ($138 thousand). As for the jewelry from the Titanic, their value is measured in millions of dollars.
At one time, having discovered the Titanic, Robert Ballard intended to keep this place secret, so as not to disturb the resting place of one and a half thousand people. Perhaps he shouldn't have done this.
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© Commons.wikimedia.org / Survivors attempting to board HMS Dorsetshire
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On April 10, 1912, the huge ship Titanic set off on its first and last voyage, the sad story of which still sounds incredible. Just a few days later he suffered a large-scale shipwreck, and on April 15 we will celebrate the 104th anniversary of this tragedy.
Many people know about the Titanic cruise ship only what director James Cameron showed in his film of the same name.
Namely, that it was the largest ship built at that time, that it cost a lot of money to get on it, and that on its very first voyage it was wrecked, colliding with a drifting iceberg.
The Titanic is about the same length as the Empire State Building
For reference: the New York skyscraper has 103 floors. Take a moment to realize the magnitude of cruise ship. Realized?
The total length of the Titanic is 269.1 m, and the roof of the Empire State Building begins at 381 m. That is, another hundred meters and the ship would be as huge as the largest skyscraper in New York.
Today such airliners exist. For example, Queen Mary 2, Independence of the Seas and Oasis class cruise ships.
The launch of the Titanic was not accompanied by traditional rituals for good luck.
That's the problem. When the ship set off on its first and last voyage, a bottle of champagne was not broken on its side.
Additionally, in the early 20th century, it was common to have cats on board because they helped control rodents. It was also believed that they bring good luck and protect the ship from troubles.
As you may have guessed, there wasn't a single cat on the Titanic. But there were nine dogs, two of which survived the shipwreck.
14 years before the tragedy, a novel was published describing similar events
The disaster that befell the Titanic on the night of April 14-15, 1912 was described by Morgan Robertson in his novel Futility, or the Fall of the Titan back in 1898.
There are so many coincidences with a real disaster in this literary work that it’s hard to believe. Starting from the similar name of the ship (in the novel it was called "Titan") and ending with the details that prevented all passengers and crew members from escaping.
The fictional ship also had a similar design to real Titanic, and it sank under the same circumstances - it collided with an iceberg on a cold April night. And even the area of the crash is the same - 740 km from Newfoundland in the northern waters of the Atlantic Ocean.
In addition, both in the novel and in real life, more than half of the people died because there were not enough lifeboats on the ship.
The Titanic watchmen did not have binoculars
No wonder the watchmen couldn't notice huge iceberg, floating in their direction, in advance. After all, they didn’t even have binoculars.
And given the size of the ship, it is unlikely that they could even see anything at least a kilometer beyond its bow or stern.
It is strange that with such a scale of construction and the desire to make the ship unsinkable, they forgot about such a small but very important detail.
So it turned out that after the iceberg was noticed, only 37 seconds passed before colliding with it.
Titanic sank in 2 hours 40 minutes
After colliding with the iceberg, the ship began to sink to the bottom of the ocean, first very slowly, until the water was just filling the decks, and then picking up speed more and more quickly.
In total, the whole process lasted almost three hours, but the final stage of the death of this titan took very little time - the ship reached the bottom approximately 15 minutes after the start of the dive.
The Titanic sank to the bottom at a speed of 16 km/h. Now it rests at a depth of 3750 m.
Many of the Titanic's passengers had to travel on other ships.
Not everyone boarded the ship of their own free will. The fact is that during the launch of the Titanic, workers staged a strike, which led to interruptions in the supply of coal.
Because of this, transport companies had to cancel the voyages of other ships in order to transport coal from them for the Titanic so that it could take off.
Along with the coal, passengers from ships whose flights were canceled also boarded the ship. This is bad luck.
The ship's chief baker survived because he was drunk
Charles Joughin miraculously escaped from the icy water, the temperature of which was about -2°C, because he was damn drunk.
In such cold water, few could survive for more than 15 minutes, and every fifth person died from cold shock within two minutes.
The baker managed the incredible - he drifted in the cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean for about two hours, and, according to him, he managed not to freeze only because he had drunk whiskey before.
Joughin said he didn't feel the cold. So next time you go on a cruise, take a couple of bottles of alcohol with you. Just in case.
You have already read and heard about the Titanic many times. The history of the creation and crash of the liner is overgrown with rumors and myths. For more than 100 years, the British steamship has been exciting the minds of people trying to find the answer - why did the Titanic sink?
The history of the legendary liner is interesting for three reasons:
Departure day- it was the largest ship in 1912;
- the number of victims turned the disaster into a global failure;
- finally, James Cameron, with his film, highlighted the history of the liner from general list maritime disasters, a.
We will tell you everything about the Titanic, as it happened in reality. About the length of the Titanic in meters, how long the Titanic sank, and who really was behind the large-scale disaster.
Where and where did the Titanic sail from?
From Cameron's film, we know that the liner was heading to New York. The American development city was to be the final stop. But not everyone knows exactly where the Titanic sailed from, believing that London was the starting point. The capital of Great Britain was not among the seaports, and therefore the ship could not depart from there.
The fatal flight began from Southampton, a major English port, where transatlantic flights originated. The Titanic's path on the map clearly shows the movement. Southampton is both a port and a city located in the southern part of England (Hampshire).
See the route of the Titanic on the map:
Dimensions of the Titanic in meters
To understand more about the Titanic, the causes of the disaster need to be revealed, starting with the dimensions of the ship.
How many meters is the Titanic in length and other dimensions:
- exact length – 299.1 m;
- width – 28.19 m;
- height from the keel - 53.3 m.
There is also the following question: how many decks did the Titanic have? There were 8 in total. Boats were located on top, which is why the upper deck was called the boat deck. The rest were distributed according to letter designation.
- A – 1st class deck. Its peculiarity is its limited size - it does not fit the entire length of the vessel;
- B - anchors were located in the front part of the deck and its dimensions were also shorter - 37 meters on deck C;
- C – deck with galley, crew mess and promenade for III class.
- D – walking area;
- E – cabins of I, II classes;
- F – cabins of II and III classes;
- G – deck with boiler rooms in the middle.
Finally, how much does the Titanic weigh? The displacement of the largest ship of the early 20th century is 52,310 tons.
Titanic: the story of the wreck
In what year did the Titanic sink? The famous disaster occurred on the night of April 14, 1912. This was the fifth day of the trip. Chronicles indicate that at 23:40 the liner survived a collision with an iceberg and after 2 hours 40 minutes (2:20 a.m.) it went under water.
Further investigations showed that the crew received 7 weather warnings, but this did not prevent the ship from reducing its maximum speed. The iceberg directly ahead was spotted too late to take precautions. The result is holes in the starboard side. Ice damaged 90 m of skin and 5 bow compartments. This was enough to sink the liner.
Tickets for the new liner were more expensive than for other ships. If a person was used to traveling in first class, then on the Titanic he would have to change to second class.
Edward Smith, the ship's captain, began the evacuation after midnight: a distress signal was sent, the attention of other ships was attracted by flares, and lifeboats were launched into the water. But the rescue was slow and uncoordinated - there was empty space in the lifeboats while the Titanic was sinking, the water temperature did not rise above two degrees below zero, and the first steamer arrived only half an hour after the disaster.
Titanic: how many people died and survived
How many people survived on the Titanic? No one will tell you the exact data, just as they could not say this on the fateful night. The list of Titanic passengers initially changed in practice, but not on paper: some canceled the trip at the moment of sailing and were not crossed off, others traveled anonymously under assumed names, and still others were listed as dead on the Titanic several times.
It is only possible to say approximately how many people drowned on the Titanic - about 1500 (minimum 1490 - maximum 1635). Among them was Edward Smith with some assistants, 8 musicians from the famous orchestra, large investors and businessmen. 
Class was felt even after death - the bodies of the dead from the first class were embalmed and placed in coffins, the second and third classes received bags and boxes. When the embalming agents ran out, the bodies of unknown third-class passengers were simply thrown into the water (according to the rules, unembalmed corpses could not be brought to the port).
Bodies were found within a radius of 80 km from the crash site, and due to the Gulf Stream, many were scattered even further.
Photo dead people Initially, it was known how many passengers were on the Titanic, although not thoroughly:
- crew 900 people;
- 195 first class;
- 255 second class;
- 493 third class people.
Some passengers disembarked at intermediate ports, while others entered. It is believed that the liner set out on the fatal route with a crew of 1,317 people, of which 124 were children.
Titanic: sinking depth - 3750 m
The English ship could accommodate 2,566 people, of which 1,034 seats were for first class passengers. The airliner's half occupancy is explained by the fact that transatlantic flights were not popular in April. At that time, a coal miners' strike broke out, which disrupted coal supplies, schedules and changes in plans.
The question of how many people were saved from the Titanic was difficult to answer because rescue operations came from different ships, and slow communications did not ensure fast provision of data.
After the crash, only 2/3 of the delivered bodies were identified. Some were buried locally, the rest were sent home. For a long time, bodies in white vests were found in the area of the disaster. Out of 1500 dead people Only 333 bodies were found.
At what depth does the Titanic lie?
When answering the question about the depth at which the Titanic sank, you need to remember about the pieces that were carried away by currents (by the way, they learned about this only in the 80s; before that it was believed that the liner sank to the bottom entirely). The wreckage of the liner on the night of the crash went to a depth of 3,750 m. The bow was thrown 600 m from the stern.
The place where the Titanic sank on the map:
In which ocean did the Titanic sink? - in the Atlantic.
The Titanic was raised from the bottom of the ocean
They wanted to raise the ship from the moment of the crash. Initiative plans were put forward by the relatives of the victims from the first class. But 1912 did not yet know the necessary technologies. The war, lack of knowledge and funds delayed the search for the sunken ship for a hundred years. Since 1985, 17 expeditions have been carried out, during which 5,000 objects and large hulls were brought to the surface, but the ship itself remained on the ocean floor.
Titanic underwater. Photo What does the Titanic look like now?
In the time since the crash, the ship has become covered sea life. Rust, the painstaking work of invertebrates and natural processes of decomposition have changed the structures beyond recognition. By this time, the bodies had already decomposed completely, and by the 22nd century, only the anchors and boilers - the most massive - would remain from the Titanic metal structures.
Photo of the sunken Titanic Already, the interiors of the decks have been destroyed, the cabins and halls have collapsed.
Titanic, Britannic and Olympic
All three ships were manufactured by the shipbuilding company Harland and Wolf. Before the Titanic, the world saw the Olympic. It is easy to see a fatal predisposition in the fate of the three ships. The first airliner crashed as a result of a collision with a cruiser. Not such a large-scale disaster, but still an impressive failure.
Then the story of the Titanic, which received wide resonance in the world, and, finally, Gigantic. They tried to make this ship especially durable, taking into account the mistakes of previous liners. It was even launched, but the First World War disrupted the plans. Gigantic became a hospital ship called Britannic.
Titanic: photos underwater now He just managed to carry out 5 calm flights, and on the sixth there was a disaster. Having been blown up by a German mine, the Britannic quickly sank. The mistakes of the past and the preparedness of the captain made it possible to save the maximum number of people - 1036 out of 1066.
Comparison of the Titanic with modern liners: photos Is it possible to talk about evil fate when remembering the Titanic? The history of the creation and crash of the liner was studied in detail, the facts were revealed, even through time. And yet the truth is only now being revealed. The reason why the Titanic attracts attention is to hide the true motive - the creation of a currency system and the destruction of opponents. Do you have any doubts? Then read.
The idea of building the largest ship in the world belongs to Bruce Ismay and James Pirrie, who combined the efforts of two companies - the shipbuilding Harland and Wolf and the transatlantic trade and passenger White Star Line. Construction of the Titanic began on March 31, 1909, and by 1912 it cost $7.5 million, 10 times that amount today.
3,000 people worked on the creation of the giant ship. The Titanic weighed 66,000 tons and was as long as four city blocks. The liner was equipped with 10-meter lifeboats, with a capacity of 76 people and a quantity of 20. Since the number of passengers on the Titanic exceeded 2 thousand people, this number of boats was clearly not enough, since they could save only 30% of the planned load of people. The Titanic was equipped with the most modern high-power radio equipment at that time. The cabins were luxurious. Also on board the famous ship were a gym, a library, restaurants and swimming pools.
First voyage and sinking of the Titanic
May 31, 1911 year, the largest passenger liner was launched in Belfast ( Northern Ireland), which required a record amount of locomotive oil, grease and liquid soap to lubricate the gangway guides. This process lasted only 62 seconds. April 10, 1912 the ship sails on its first and, unfortunately, last flight. There were 2,207 people on board the Titanic, including 898 crew members and 1,309 passengers, among whom were famous personalities, millionaires and industrialists, writers and actors. April 14, 1912 an iceberg was seen from the ship at a distance of about 450 meters. The Titanic made a maneuver, but still collided with an obstacle and received numerous holes 100 meters long. Thus, 16 watertight compartments were damaged, and the ship tilted very heavily under the weight. Water continued to flood all compartments. 2 hours 40 minutes after the impact, the liner sank completely.
Passenger rescue
The ship's captain, I. Smith, was afraid of panic among the passengers. Therefore, the stewards gently informed the residents of the suites and two first classes about minor damage to the liner and asked them to come on deck. The third class passengers were not even aware of the impending danger. In addition, the exit to the inhabitants of the lower deck was blocked and many of them, wandering along the corridors of the ship, were unable to escape from the trap. That is, priority for rescue was given to VIPs and representatives of the upper class. Most passengers were confident that the Titanic was unsinkable and refused to board the boats. The captain made every effort to persuade them to leave the ship.
By order of I. Smith, women and children were the first to be saved, but among them there were many men. The first boats, which were already in short supply, left half full. So boat No. 1 received the name “millionaire” and was filled with only 12 people out of the required 40. Understanding the drama of the situation and in order to distract the attention of passengers, the captain of the Titanic asked the head of the orchestra to start playing. Eight professional musicians, realizing that they were playing for the last time in their lives, produced clear rhythmic sounds of jazz that drowned out the sounds of screams coming from the third deck and shots of revolvers. So, when the last boats were lowered, panic began, and the ship's officers had to use weapons. Work did not stop in the engine room until the last minute. So the mechanics and stokers made every effort to ensure that the liner was provided with electric lighting for the operation of the radio station. The Titanic did not stop sending requests for rescue to ships that were near the liner.
The first to respond to the SOS signal was the ship "Carpathia", which rushed to the rescue at maximum speed. Within two hours, 712 people were picked up, and the remaining 1,495 people died. People who did not get on the boats jumped into the water, wearing life jackets, but the water was icy, so even a healthy man could only survive in such conditions for about an hour. There were also two other ships near the scene of the tragedy. The fishermen on the schooner Samson were engaged in shady seal fishing, so when they saw the white signal lights of the Titanic, they thought it was the coast guard and hastened to move away from this place. If the liner had red warning lights, the lives of more people could have been saved. At the same time, the captain of the Californian, seeing the lights, thought about the fireworks being launched on the Titanic. The ship's radio station did not work, as the radio operator was resting after his watch. For failure to provide assistance during the sinking of the Titanic, the captain of the Californian was stripped of his rank.
The survivors and the dead
Almost all the women and children living in the first and second class cabins were saved, unlike the passengers and their children from the lower decks, whose exit was blocked. In percentage terms, 20% of men and 74% of all women were saved. 56 children survived, which was slightly more than half of the total. In 2006, American Lillian Gertrude Asplund, who was an eyewitness to the sinking of the Titanic, passed away. At that time she was five years old, and in this terrible disaster she lost her father and brothers. It is worth noting that they were third class passengers. In boat number 15, her mother and three-year-old brother escaped with her. Lillian rarely spoke about the tragedy and always avoided questions and public attention. In May 2009, the last passenger of the Titanic, who was only two and a half years old at the time of the shipwreck, died at the age of 97.
Crash hypotheses
Versions about the causes of the crash were completely different. But experts clearly name several of them. Titanic was built in as soon as possible and had many shortcomings. So, during the construction of the ship, in some places they used pins made of low-grade material that was brittle. Therefore, after colliding with an iceberg, the ship cracked in the hull exactly where low-grade steel rods were used. Due to its enormous dimensions and weight, the Titanic was clumsy, so it was unable to dodge the obstacle.
Study of the ship's remains
On September 1, 1985, the sunken remains of the liner were discovered by an expedition led by Dr. Robert Ballard, director of the Woodshall Institute of Oceanology in Massachusetts. The depth at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean was 3,750 meters. The wreck was located 13 miles west of the coordinates where the Titanic sent an SOS signal. The remains of the liner received protection under the 2001 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of Underwater Marine cultural heritage in April 2012, a hundred years after the sinking. Thus, the ship has protection from plunder, destruction and sale. Such measures are necessary to ensure proper treatment of the remains of the deceased. In August 2001, the shipwreck site was explored by diving to the Titanic on the Russian deep-sea submersibles Mir-1 and Mir-2. The initiators of this were director James Cameron. Thanks to the use of small remote-controlled underwater vehicles "Jack" and "Elwood", unique material was filmed, which formed the basis of the documentary film "Ghosts of the Abyss: Titanic" (2003), where you can see the remains of the ship from the inside. In 1997, the public saw the film Titanic, which received an Academy Award. The film was made using underwater footage of the liner, capturing its interior and exterior.
Despite the fact that many years have passed since the crash of the liner, this topic is still relevant. So Australian millionaire Clive Palmer announced to the whole world his desire to build a copy of the sunken ship and create the Titanic 2 cruise liner. Hypothetically, the facility will be ready by 2016. It will have four steam pipes, like its counterpart, but at the same time it will be equipped with modern propulsion and navigation equipment.
Film "Ghosts of the Abyss" (2003)
