A story about a historical event five sentences of the titanic. The sinking of the Titanic is not a disaster, it was an execution

1. 3 million rivets were used to build the Titanic, most of which were handmade.

2. To launch the ship into the water, it took 23 tons of fat, locomotive oil and liquid soap to lubricate the gangways.

3. The designers considered the liner unsinkable. The double bottom and 16 watertight bulkheads were know-how for that time. However, the designers did not know how penetrating an iceberg could be.

4. The Titanic did not have such a simple thing as binoculars. The captain fired his second mate, Blair, who, in retaliation, stole the keys to the safe, which contained binoculars for lookouts.

5. The shipwreck happened on April 14, 1912. Events are recreated to the smallest detail. From the very morning, ten times the crews of other liners transmitted reports that icebergs were already nearby, but the Titanic ignored these warnings. The last report was received on the Titanic 40 minutes before the collision. But the radio operator of the Titanic did not even listen to the message and cut off the connection.

6. Many celebrities of that time were on the liner. Among them, for example, was the millionaire and feminist Margaret Brown. She was famous for knowing five languages ​​and swearing at them like a shoemaker. After the collision with the iceberg, Margaret helped to seat people on the boats, but she herself was in no hurry to leave the ship. Finally, someone pushed her into a boat by force and sent her out to sea. Having reached another ship, the Carpathia, Margaret immediately began looking for blankets and food for the victims, compiled lists of survivors, and collected money. By the time the Carpathia arrived at the port, she had raised $10,000 for the survivors.

7. Another famous Titanic passenger, businessman Benjamin Guggenheim, put his companion in a lifeboat. He assured her that they would see each other soon, although he knew that the situation was hopeless. Together with the valet, he returned to the cabin and changed into a tailcoat, and then sat down at a table in the central hall and began to drink whiskey. When someone suggested that they still try to escape, Guggenheim replied: "We are dressed in accordance with our position and are ready to die like gentlemen."

8. An outstanding ticket to the Titanic's launching ceremony went under the hammer at a London auction for $56,300. A menu from the ship with a list of 40 dishes was sold in New York for $31,300. Another similar menu in London sold for £76,000. The keys to the ship's quarters, which housed the lifeboat lanterns, also survived and were sold for £59,000.

9. The liner was sinking to the music. The orchestra to the last stood on the deck and played the church hymn "Nearer, Lord, to Thee."

10. Russian deep-sea submersibles "Mir" in 1991 and 1995 sank to the ship, which is now at a depth of 3.8 kilometers. Then the devices shot a video that was included in the notorious film by James Cameron. This year, in honor of the centenary of the sinking of the liner, our submariners again promised to dive to the Titanic.

11. UNESCO waited a hundred years to declare the wreckage of the Titanic an object. cultural heritage. They have a special convention for such cases. Now UNESCO will ensure that items from the Titanic do not go to uncultured divers.

12. Released in honor of the centenary, Titanic 3D has already grossed an impressive $17.4 million in the US. "Titanic" by James Cameron in 1997 was a phenomenal success and fees for those times are huge: $ 1.8 billion. It was only 12 years later that the movie "Avatar" managed to break this record.

13. The ill-fated black iceberg, or rather, his photograph, was found 90 years after the death of the Titanic. A few days after the tragedy, a certain Stefan Regorek from Bohemia on another liner sailed past the crash site and photographed the iceberg. After a thorough examination, it was proved that the vessel could well have made dents on the iceberg. So the ice block also suffered.

14. Jack Dawson, the hero of the very film that brought fame and fortune to Cameron, is a real character. True, Cameron later assured that he took the name from the ceiling and that this was a coincidence. However, the real Jack Dawson was a collier on the Titanic. True, he was in love not with the green-eyed Kate Winslet (she had not yet been born then), but with the sister of his friend, who persuaded him to become a sailor. In the end, of course, everyone died.

15. Legends still tell about the Titanic. For example, lovers of mysticism point out that in 1898 the writer Morgan Robertson wrote the novel "Vanity" - about a huge transatlantic liner and its complacent passengers. A lot of things coincide in the story: the name of the ship is "Titan" and even a collision with an iceberg on a cold April night.

16. Another legend says that once every six years, radio operators catch the ghost signal SOS from the Titanic on the air. This was first announced by the crew of the battleship Theodore Roosevelt in 1972. The radio operator dug through the archives and found notes from his colleagues that they also received strange radio messages allegedly from the Titanic: in 1924, 1930, 1936 and 1942. In April 1996, the Canadian ship Quebec received an SOS signal from the Titanic.

17. Although official version says that the Titanic sank an iceberg, not everyone believes it. For example, some have claimed that the Titanic was sunk by a German torpedo fired by employees of the company that built the liner in order to obtain insurance. However, this sounds unconvincing, given how many employees of the company died on April 14, 1912.

18. The Titanic was not the only major liner of the White Star Line. The ship "Olympic" began to be built simultaneously with the "Titanic". In 1911, when leaving for the 11th voyage, the Olympic collided with the British cruiser Hawk. At the same time, the latter miraculously remained afloat, while the Olympic escaped with minor damage.

19. The younger brother of the Titanic, the ship Britannic, was supposed to be called the Gigantic, but after the crash of the first liner, the builders decided to moderate their ambitions. The Britannic was the most comfortable of the three ships: she had two hairdressers, a children's playroom, and a gymnasium for second-class passengers. Unfortunately, passengers did not have time to appreciate the merits of the new liner. After the outbreak of the war, she was converted into a hospital ship and soon hit a mine near Greece. True, most of the people on board were saved.

20. The last passenger on the Titanic died in 2009 at the age of 97. At the time of the shipwreck, she was 2.5 months old.

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". On March 31, 1909, construction began on the Titanic, and by 1912, the cost was $7.5 million, which is 10 times that amount today.

3,000 people worked on the creation of a giant ship. The weight of the Titanic was 66,000 tons, and the length was equal to the length of four city blocks. The liner was equipped with 10 meter lifeboats, with a capacity of 76 people and in the amount of 20 pieces. Since the number of passengers on the Titanic exceeded 2 thousand people, this number of boats was clearly not enough, since they could only save 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 the sinking of the Titanic

May 31, 1911 year's largest passenger liner was launched in Belfast ( Northern Ireland), for which it took a record amount of locomotive oil, grease and liquid soap to lubricate the gangways. This process lasted only 62 seconds. April 10, 1912 the ship sails on its first and, unfortunately, last voyage. There were 2207 people on board the Titanic, including 898 crew members and 1309 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 under the weight of the ship he listed very strongly. Water continued to flood all compartments. 2 hours 40 minutes after the impact, the liner sank completely.

Passenger rescue

The captain of the ship I. Smith was afraid of panic among the passengers. Therefore, the inhabitants of the suites and the two first classes were gently informed by the stewards about the minor damage to the liner and asked to go on deck. Third class passengers were not even aware of the imminent danger. In addition, the exit was blocked for the inhabitants of the lower deck, and many of them, wandering along the corridors of the ship, could not get out of the trap. That is, priority in salvation was given to VIPs and representatives of the upper class. Most of the passengers were confident that the Titanic was unsinkable and refused to board the boats. The captain did his best 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 the boat number 1 was called "millionaire" and was filled with only 12 people out of the required 40. Realizing the dramatic nature of the situation and in order to divert the attention of passengers, the captain of the Titanic asked the leader of the orchestra to start playing. Eight professional musicians, realizing that they were playing for the last time in their lives, gave out clear rhythmic sounds of jazz that drowned out the sounds of screams coming from the third deck and the shots of revolvers. So, when the last boats were lowered, panic began, and the ship's officers had to use weapons. In the engine room, work did not stop until the last. So 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 ship "Carpathia" was the first to respond to the SOS signal, 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. Also near the scene of the tragedy were two more ships. Fishermen on the schooner Samson were engaged in shadow sealing, so when they saw the white signal lights of the Titanic, they thought it was the Coast Guard and hurried away from this place. If the liner had red signal lights, then more lives could be saved. At the same time, the captain of the Californian, seeing the lights, thought of fireworks being set off on the Titanic. The ship's radio station was not working, as the radio operator was resting after the watch. For failure to provide assistance in the sinking of the Titanic, the captain of the Californian was stripped of his rank.

Survivors and dead

Almost all the women and children who lived in the cabins of the first and second classes were saved, in contrast to the passengers and their babies from the lower decks, whose exit was blocked. As a percentage, 20% of men and 74% of all women were saved. 56 children survived, which was slightly more than half of the total. Lillian Gertrud Asplund, an American who witnessed the sinking of the Titanic, died in 2006. At that time she was five years old, and in this terrible catastrophe 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, at the age of 97, the last passenger of the Titanic, who at the time of the shipwreck was only two and a half years old, died.

Crash hypotheses

Versions about the causes of the crash were completely different. But experts clearly name a few of them. The Titanic was built in the shortest possible time and had many shortcomings. So, when building a ship, in some places they used pins made of base material, which was brittle. Therefore, after colliding with an iceberg, the ship cracked the hull exactly where the low-grade steel rods were used. Due to the huge dimensions and weight of the Titanic, it was clumsy, so he could not dodge the obstacle.

Exploration of the shipwreck

On September 1, 1985, the sunken remains of the liner were discovered by an expedition led by Dr. Robert Ballard, director of the Woods Hole Institute of Oceanology in Massachusetts. Depth at the bottom Atlantic Ocean was 3750 meters. The wreck was located 13 miles west of the coordinates where the Titanic had transmitted an SOS signal. The wreck received protection from the 2001 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage in April 2012, one 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 dead. In August 2001, the shipwreck was investigated by diving to the Titanic on the Russian deep-sea submersibles Mir-1 and Mir-2. The initiators of this was director James Cameron. Thanks to the use of small remote-controlled submersibles "Jack" and "Elwood", unique material was filmed, which formed the basis 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 won an Oscar. In the creation of the film, footage from the underwater shooting of the liner was used, 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 the millionaire from Australia, Clive Palmer, announced to the whole world about his desire to build a copy of the sunken ship and create a cruise ship"Titanic-2". Hypothetically, the object 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 running and navigation equipment.

Film "Ghosts of the Abyss" (2003)

Many decades have passed since that terrible disaster, and no one doubted what exactly sent the magnificent Titanic to the bottom of the ocean. When the "unsinkable" ship, the largest, most luxurious ocean liner of its time, crashed into an iceberg on its very first voyage in 1912, it carried more than 1,500 of its 2,200 passengers to the bottom with it. As the ship glided deep into the North Atlantic, so did the secrets of how and why it sank.

Titanic is a British transatlantic steamship, the second Olympic-class liner. Built in Belfast at the shipyard "Harland and Wolf" from 1909 to 1912 by order of the shipping company "White Star Line". At the time of commissioning, it was the largest ship in the world. On the night of April 14-15, 1912, during the first flight, it was wrecked in the North Atlantic, colliding with an iceberg.

The Titanic was equipped with two four-cylinder steam engines and a steam turbine. All power point had a capacity of 55,000 liters. from. The ship could reach speeds of up to 23 knots (42 km/h). Its displacement, which exceeded the twin steamer Olympic by 243 tons, was 52,310 tons. The ship's hull was made of steel. hold and lower decks divided into 16 compartments by bulkheads with sealed doors. If the bottom was damaged, the double bottom prevented water from entering the compartments. Shipbuilder magazine called the Titanic virtually unsinkable, a statement widely circulated in the press and among the public. In accordance with outdated regulations, the Titanic was equipped with 20 lifeboats, with a total capacity of 1,178 people, which was only a third of the ship's maximum load.

Titanic (on the left in the photo) in the port
Titanic in port

Two government investigations that were conducted in the wake of the disaster agreed that it was the iceberg, and not the defects and weakness of the ship itself, that sank the Titanic. Both commissions of inquiry concluded that the ship went to the bottom as a whole, and not in parts. There were no major breaks. The blame for the nightmarish disaster fell solely on the unfortunate captain of the ship, I. Smith, who also died along with the entire crew. Smith was blamed for the fact that the Titanic was rushing at a speed of 22 knots (41 km) through a dangerous ice field well known to sailors - in dark waters, off the coast of Newfoundland. The Titanic incident was over, it seemed, once and for all.

Titanic in front of the ocean
Tail section of the Titanic

The clues lay at the bottom of the sea

However, doubts and questions about what could sink the seemingly indestructible ship remained. In 1985, when oceanographer Robert Ballard, after many years of searching, finally found the remains of the ship at a depth of about 4 km on the ocean floor, he discovered that in fact the Titanic had split in half on the surface of the ocean before sinking.

Why did it split in half? the experts wondered. Was the invincible Titanic weak in design?

Oil painting "The sinking of the Titanic"

Several years have passed since the discovery of Ballard, and now the first wreckage of the ship is raised from the ocean floor. A new hypothesis for the death of the Titanic is the low-grade steel used in the construction of the ship. However, a group of researchers came to the conclusion that it was not the steel that went to the skin of the ship, it was low-grade. Of poor quality were the rivets, the most important metal pins that held together the steel plates of the ship's hull. What's more, the recently found pieces of the bottom of the Titanic clearly indicate that the ship's stern never rose high into the air, as many Titanic experts, including Cameron, initially believed. In fact, the ship broke into pieces and sank, floating relatively flat on the surface of the ocean - a clear sign of flaws in its design, which were hidden after the disaster.

With the construction of the "Titanic" hurried

"Titanic" was created in a short time - in response to the production of a new generation of high-speed liners by a competitive company. The Titanic and its smaller siblings, the Olympic and Britannic, were the most grandiose ships in the history of shipbuilding. They were real colossi! - 275 meters from bow to stern! - even tall skyscrapers gave in to them. Specially equipped to withstand the threats of the North Atlantic, including huge waves and sudden collisions, these sister ships were also - as a matter of course - the safest. The Titanic could keep afloat even if 4 of its 16 watertight compartments were flooded - a real miracle for a ship of such gigantic size!

Titanic at sea

On the night of April 14, 1912, however, in just a few days of the Titanic's maiden voyage, its Achilles' heel played its sinister role. The ship was not nimble enough to avoid the iceberg that the lookouts (at the time, the only way to spot an iceberg) were shouting about at the last minute and in pitch darkness. The Titanic did not directly collide with the fatal iceberg, but drove over it on its right side. The ice tore holes in the ship's steel plates, flooding six "watertight" compartments.
Two hours later, the Titanic overflowed with water and sank.

Frame from the movie "The sinking of the Titanic"

Achilles' heel of the Titanic

Experts continued to look for explanations for the death of a ship equipped in accordance with all safety rules. And they came across a potentially weak link: more than three million rivets that fastened the ship's hull. Taking a sample of 48 of these metal rods, raised from the ocean floor, scientists found in them a high concentration of "dross" - sediment from melting. Because of this scale, the metal becomes brittle and may crack.

Not because of cheapness, but because time was running out, the builders of the Titanic began to use low-grade material. When the Titanic hit the iceberg, the weak steel bars in its bow cracked, exposing the seams in the hull and hastening the ship's demise. It is no coincidence that the water, flooding six compartments fastened with low-grade steel rods, stopped exactly where the high-grade steel rivets began.
Thus, one of the secrets carried away by the Titanic to the bottom of the ocean was discovered. If all the rivets that held the Titanic were made of stainless steel, the disaster could have been avoided. Not without reason, immediately after the death of the Titanic, two other giant ships - the Olympic and Britannic, built at the same shipyard and simultaneously with the Titanic - were urgently and comprehensively strengthened: the steel plating of the hull doubled and were raised much higher than the bulkhead . The shipbuilding company clearly recognized defects and unacceptable miscalculations in high-speed - just to keep up with competitors! - the race to build the Titanic, tried her best to fix them and hide them from experts, insurance agents and all inquisitive mankind.

In 2005, a new expedition went to the site of a long-standing disaster. And very soon I found an answer to the questions that concern everyone. This time, the divers did not look at the main wreck on the seabed, but took a little to the side, where they found two large fragments from the bottom of the ship. When they began to analyze the jagged edges of these fragments of the bottom, they came to a startling conclusion. It was impossible for a ship to split in the way that experts believed for decades - with the stern rearing over the ocean at a 45-degree angle, and before the ship's hull broke in two. From these significant bottom wrecks it can be judged that their split was interrupted in the middle - a sure sign that the ship then listed at a small angle (about 11 degrees), that her stern was still buoyant when it cracked. If the rear of the ship were to rise out of the water at a 45-degree angle, as stunningly depicted in Cameron's film, the stern would quickly break away from the ship's hull and solid bottom fragments found at the bottom would be torn in two.

James Cameron and a team of scientists tried to reconstruct the course of events from the collision of the Titanic with an iceberg, to its complete flooding:

The tilt of the ship is a matter of life and death

It would seem, what does it matter how exactly the ship broke into pieces? For the passengers on the Titanic, it was a matter of life and death. In the cinema, the stern of the ship rises up and then goes, along with the whole hull, to the bottom. This is a long dramatic performance. In reality, the ship listed quite a bit as the water flooded the bow, and the passengers on board had a false sense of security.

The passengers and many of the crew did not understand the gravity of the situation. When the water flooded the bow of the hull sufficiently, the ship, while remaining afloat, broke in two and sank in minutes.

Interestingly, most of the survivors confirm this unexpected course of events. Charlie Jugin, the Titanic's chef, was standing close to the stern as the ship began to sink, but he didn't see any signs of the hull breaking. There was no suction funnel, no colossal splash. Jugin said that he calmly sailed away from the ship without even getting his hair wet.

Farewell, cinematic romantic "Titanic"!

Unlike Cameron's film, a giant wave did not come from the crash site - none of those sitting in the rescue boats noticed it when the stern of the ship disappeared under water. One of former passengers The Titanic told how he slipped into the water, turned around - and did not see the ship.

So, farewell to the heartbreaking image of the Titanic with its stern raised high, plastered with doomed passengers, their common death cry, and now the ship plunges into the water at a steep angle! Unfortunately or fortunately, nothing like that actually happened.

Although some of the lifeboat occupants saw the ship's stern high in the air, this may have been an optical illusion. At an 11-degree tilt with the propellers sticking out in the air, the Titanic, already a twenty-story building, seemed even higher, and its roll in the water even steeper.

Could the Titanic be stronger, more enduring? Undoubtedly. High-quality steel rivets and a tighter, double-skinned hull could have prevented disaster, or certainly kept the ship afloat many times longer.

Many have seen a film about the catastrophe of the largest liner in the history of mankind, the Titanic. They know, for example, in which ocean the Titanic sank, and also that the cause of its death was a collision with an iceberg, but, unfortunately, not everyone is well aware of the history of this disaster, as well as the true causes of the shipwreck.

This ship was indeed a marvel of the time, built by the English company White StarLine. In height, it was about the size of an eleven-story high-rise building, and in length - like three large blocks. The ship was equipped with 8 decks and had 16 watertight compartments, which ensured a high level of safety for this liner.

Despite such a powerful and sturdy design, the Titanic sank on its first voyage. There are still many discussions around the death of this giant of shipbuilding and many questions arise related to its disaster. For example, how and why the ship went to the bottom, in what year the Titanic sank, etc.

In what year did the Titanic sink, the first test and access to the ocean

Let's try to figure it out in order with all the nuances and reveal all the secrets of the death of this giant ship. So, the Titanic set off on its maiden voyage on April 10, 1912. Before that, in 1911, the liner was first released into the waters of the oceans for a test voyage. The ship was on this test cruise until April 1912, when it arrived in the English port of Southampton, and on April 10 of the same year, the Titanic set off on its first and, unfortunately, last voyage. Five days later, on the night of April 14-15, the ship collided with an iceberg, as a result of which it sank in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Of all the passengers on board, more than 1,500 people died.

Secrets and mysteries of the Titanic disaster

The commission that investigated the death of this ship was unequivocal in its conclusions and placed all responsibility on the captain of the ship, Smith. He was accused of moving too fast at night on the ice field, although he was warned of the danger. But there are many other mysteries and mysteries in this story.

So, in 1985, a group of oceanographers led by Robert Ballard managed to raise a lot of debris from the ship from the bottom and examine them in detail. As a result, scientists made a sensational discovery. It turns out that the structure of the ship was made of low grade steel, which caused the ship's bottom to split.

And there was also a hypothesis that the Titanic broke up even before it collided with the iceberg. Low-quality steel could not withstand such loads and cracked. After carefully examining the metal from which the rods and rivets were made in the structure of the ship, scientists found a high level of scale concentration in it. It makes the steel very brittle, which can subsequently lead to its rapid destruction. As proof of the validity of this version is the fact that the creators of the Titanic planned to complete its construction as soon as possible. This haste was the second reason for the death of the ship.

Scientists believe that if high-quality steel was used as the material for the manufacture of rods and rivets, which play a major role in the safety of the vessel, then perhaps the disaster could have been avoided.

Of course, in the crash of the Titanic, in addition to the use of low-quality material, other factors also played a role:

• ignoring the ice danger at night by the captain's staff;
• negligent attitude of the ship's crew to their duties (after all, the entire captain's staff was warned that there was an iceberg ahead);
• inconsistency of seats in lifeboats - for example, out of more than 2 thousand passengers, only about 700 were landed on boats, the rest went under water. But also in confirmation of this there is the fact that these boats were originally designed only for 1178 people, and according to various sources, there were more than 2 thousand people on board.

conclusions

As you can see, despite the fact that the Titanic was one of largest liners of that time and equipped according to all safety rules, the slightest neglect of simple rules, the negligent attitude of the captain's staff to their duties and the haste in the process of building this vessel led to its crash during the very first exit into the open ocean. Until 1985, not all the facts were known about this terrible disaster. People knew in which ocean the Titanic sank, how many people died approximately, and also that the ship was wrecked as a result of a collision with an iceberg. But after the research, a team of scientists led by Ballard managed to reveal many new details about the true cause of the disaster of this ship.

Exactly ninety-seven years ago, on a cold night from April 14 to 15, the most famous maritime disaster in the history of mankind occurred in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The ship of the company "White Star Line", bearing the proud name "Titanic", having died in the middle of its first voyage and taking with it one thousand five hundred and four human lives, was doomed to become the most famous ship in the world.

Why did the most perfect ship of that era sink - a ship that was considered completely unsinkable? For almost a hundred years, the active human mind has been building versions of the catastrophe, since there is no shortage of riddles here. I have been interested in this story since childhood - now, probably, I don’t even remember how it all began. Today I want to tell you about the most famous versions of the tragedy.

Version one. Conspiracy theory

"Olympic and Titanic: the largest steamships in the world"

Few people know that the Titanic had a twin brother - the Olympic ship, an exact copy of it, also owned by the White Star Line. How is it, the reader may wonder, because the Titanic was considered a unique ship, the largest ship of that era, and now it turns out that there was another ship that was not inferior to it in size? No, the Titanic was indeed longer than its twin. By two inches. Just imagine - the length of a matchbox! - but still longer. Another thing is that it was almost impossible to notice these inches with the naked eye (and the armed one, perhaps, too), so that an outsider, looking at the twins standing side by side, could not tell which of them was who.

The Olympic was a year older than its brother (so it would be more correct to call the Titanic a copy of it), and not much luckier. Probably, it was necessary to write something like “from the very beginning, evil fate hovered over each of the ships,” but more on that later: of course, the greatest maritime disaster could not but acquire mystical rumors. I'll talk about them later, but for now let's not get ahead of ourselves. Gemini: Titanic (right) and Olympic

Well, fate, not rock, but the fate of the "Olympic" was indeed full of trouble. His career began with the fact that during the launching the ship crashed into a dam. After that, minor and major accidents rained down on him one after another, and the ship did not even seem to have been insured. Rumor has it that after a series of accidents, the owners would be happy to insure their ship, but the insurance companies refused to deal with the failed liner. The most serious accident was a collision with the British military cruiser Hawk, which led the White Star Line company to tangible financial problems: expensive repairs were needed, and the company's financial situation was very sad. So the Olympic was put in the Belfast docks to await a decision on its future fate. And now - attention! Take a look at the photo on the left - this is almost the only photo in existence that shows the Titanic and the Olympic, standing side by side. It was made in Belfast. The final rig of the Titanic
at the shipyard in Belfast

Why not assume, some researchers said, that the White Star Line had decided to pull off a grand scheme. To patch up the old "Olympic" in a hurry and ... pass it off as the new "Titanic"! Technically, it would not be difficult at all: to swap the plates with the names of the ships, and even the interior items on which the monogram of the ships is applied - for example, cutlery (Olympic and Titanic, of course, had some design differences - well, yes who knows about them?). Then the Olympic, under the guise of a new, prestigious, widely advertised (and, of course, honor by honor insured) Titanic, will set off on a journey across the Atlantic, where it will collide (quite by accident, of course) with an iceberg (fortunately, the lack of them at that time there was no year). Of course, no one was going to sink the liner - and no one believed that some kind of iceberg could send the most reliable ship in the world to the bottom. It was planned to arrange a small collision, after which the ship will slowly reach New York, and its owners will receive a tidy sum insured, which will come in handy for the company.

This version is supported by the strange behavior of the ship's captain, Edward Smith. Why is such a seasoned, experienced seabass so careless about the safety of his vessel? Why did he stubbornly ignore reports of drifting icebergs coming from other ships, and even himself, it seems, steered the liner on a course where it is easiest to meet an icy mountain? What was he doing this for, if not to carry out the White Star plan? Personally, it seems to me that it was for this, that's just ... the plan was completely different. But more on that later. Screw "Titanic". In this photo, however, the numbers can not be seen.

It turned out to be quite difficult to refute the conspiracy theory, especially since White Star went out of its way to save its reputation: it distorted information about the disaster in every possible way, bribed witnesses, and so on. Actually, convincing arguments were found only after the sunken liner itself was discovered (and this happened only seventy-three years later - the remains of the ship were discovered by the expedition of Robert Ballard in September 1985). So, the participants of one of the expeditions, descending to the wrecked ship, took photographs of the propeller, which clearly shows the minted serial number of the Titanic - 401 (his older brother had exactly 400). Conspiracy theorists claim, however, that the Olympic damaged its propeller after colliding with the Hawk, and White Star replaced it with a propeller from the then unfinished Titanic. But the number 401 is also found on other parts of the sunken ship, so the charge of a planned disaster with the White Star Line can be dropped. The following theory looks much more plausible - we will talk about it now.

John Pierpont Morgan Did you know that...

One of the arguments in favor of the conspiracy theory was the fact that the industrialist John Morgan, one of the owners of the Titanic, was supposed to sail aboard his ship, but canceled the ticket a day before the ship left the port.

And they also say (here the mysticism began) that the tycoon was dissuaded from going by Nikola Tesla, endowed with the gift of foresight, the development of which was financed by Morgan.

Second version. Blue Ribbon Chase

It all started a long time ago, when regular sea traffic was established between England and America, and, therefore, competition between ship-owning companies began to flare up. The faster the ship crossed the Atlantic, the more popular it was. In 1840, the Cunard company came up with a prize for ships that set a speed record: now the ship crossing the Atlantic Ocean faster than all its predecessors received the Blue Ribbon of the Atlantic as an award.

Actually, there was no material prize. The winner did not receive a cash prize, the captain was not awarded a commemorative cup that can be put in a prominent place in the wardroom. But the ship acquired something more - an invaluable prestige that cannot be obtained by other means. In addition to honor in maritime circles (and, therefore, fame and popularity), the winner of the award received a contract for the transportation of mail (including diplomatic mail) between America and Europe, and this is a very profitable shipping item. And in general - see for yourself: if you are a rich businessman, maybe even a millionaire, on which ship would you prefer to travel? Isn't it on the most prestigious and fastest?

At the time of the Titanic's departure from Southampton, the Blue Ribbon was owned by the Mauritania, a ship owned by White Star's archrival. Naturally, it was impossible to put up with this, and White Star decided to bet on its favorite. The conquest of the Blue Ribbon by the Titanic would be a triumph for this corporation, allowing it to correct its precarious position: the Cavalier of the All-Atlantic Ribbon usually had four times as many passengers as other similar ships.

Due to the threat of collision with floating ice, the prescribed route of the Titanic (and any other vessel, next topic same course) did not run in a straight line, but made a small detour, skirting a dangerous ocean area where most icebergs drift. Of course, this maneuver lengthens the road. That's why it might seem that Captain Smith was sailing his ship right into a bunch of icebergs - he just needed to take a short cut and get the Blue Ribbon by all means. That is why the Titanic went at full steam and did not slow down even after receiving several radiograms warning of ice danger from other ships. Let other ships worry - and the Titanic has nothing to fear. In the "crow's nest" - a special observation platform on the front mast - there are two lookouts who, in case of danger, will be able to report it to the captain's bridge in the blink of an eye with the help of telephone communication: "Titanic" is equipped with the latest technology. And if a collision does occur, well, it only means that the record will be set another time. Icebergs do not pose a danger to the ship - after all, it is known that the Titanic is completely unsinkable. Its hold is divided into sixteen watertight compartments, so that if suddenly it gets a hole (which, of course, cannot be), then only one of the compartments will be filled with water, and the ship will calmly continue its journey. That one - the liner will not sink, even if four compartments are filled! And a ship can only receive such damage in a war.

Well, it’s not for nothing that pride is one of the deadly sins. She played a cruel joke with the Titanic: the iceberg damaged five compartments - one more than was permissible. A piece of the Titanic skin lifted from the bottom

But how could the ice break through the steel of the ship's plating? In the mid-nineties, a piece of the Titanic's skin was lifted to the surface and subjected to a fragility test: a sheet of metal, fixed in clamps, had to withstand the impact of a thirty-kilogram pendulum. For comparison, a piece of steel used in shipbuilding today was also tested. Before the experiment, both samples were placed in an alcohol bath with a temperature of just over a degree - this is exactly what the ocean water was on that fateful night. Modern metal came out of the test with honor: under the blow of a hammer, it bent, but remained intact. Raised from the bottom, it split into two parts. Maybe he became so fragile after lying eighty years at the bottom of the ocean? The researchers managed to get at the Belfast shipyard, where the Titanic was built, a steel sample of those years. He endured the strength test no better than his brother. The conclusion of the experts was that the steel used in the construction of the Titanic was of very poor quality, with a large admixture of sulfur, which made it brittle at low temperatures. Alas, at the beginning of the twentieth century, the level of development of metallurgy was far from today. If the lining of the liner were made of high-quality steel, the hull would simply bend inward from the impact, and the tragedy could have been avoided.

American press about the sinking of the Titanic Did you know that...

On the Internet you can find not only Western newspapers of that time (see photo on the right), but also pre-revolutionary Russian publications, which reported on the crash in the Atlantic Ocean. A strange feeling arises when you read these dry lines - for the people of that time, the Titanic had not yet become a legend ...

To the death of the Titanic.

LONDON. The sessions of the commission to investigate the circumstances of the sinking of the Titanic were opened by the representative of the Department of Commerce, Isaacs, who indicated that from the moment she left her ship at sea, the Titanic had been traveling at a speed of 21 knots per hour, and this speed was not reduced until the very moment of collision with the ice mountain despite receiving warnings of moving ice. The investigation will pay special attention to the insufficient number of lifeboats on the ship and to the installation of watertight bulkheads.

* * * * *

But the publication of Iskra, as it should be for an "artistic and literary magazine", describes the situation in the best traditions of the yellow press:

The death of the Titanic.

Russian press about the sinking of the Titanic April 1, at 10:25 pm, a real floating city - the greatest in the world, a luxurious nine-story steamer "Titanic" (length ¼ verst (126 sazhens), displacement 66,000 tons, cost at 20,000,000 rubles, with machines of 55,000 horsepower, reaching speeds of up to 38 miles per hour) on the way to New York, having 2,700 people on board, ran into floating ice at full speed. At midnight, from the Titanic, by wireless telegraph, they reported: "We perish."

Stunning scenes played out on the deck of the sinking steamer. Millionaire passengers (there were 7 of them, with a total fortune of 3 billion) offered fabulous sums for seats in lifeboats. Because of these places, people fought, pushed each other into the water, smashed their heads with oars ...

1,410 people died.

William Stead died aboard the Titanic. A convinced journalist, with boundless faith in the power of the printed word, Stead exposed the horrors of the depravity of aristocratic London, its brothels, the sale of children, vigorously advocated an end to the Anglo-Boer War, for rapprochement with Russia. In 1905, Stead came to Russia with the aim of reconciling Russian society with the government.

Third version. Fire in the hold

On September 20, 1987, French television told the world sensational news: the cause of the death of the Titanic, it turns out, was a fire that broke out in the hold of the ill-fated liner, and not a collision with an iceberg at all. Apparently, the supporters of the new hypothesis assured, spontaneous combustion of coal occurred in one of the ship’s coal storage facilities (well, this is actually possible), the fire spread to the entire hold, reached the steam boilers, which exploded from this, which is why the ship went to the bottom. As for the iceberg, it just happened to be nearby, so it was accused of crashing the liner. One of the watertight bulkheads of the Titanic

Yes, indeed, there was a fire on the Titanic - and this is no longer guesswork, but an established fact. However, could he cause a disaster? Oh, hardly. How do you imagine a fire in a coal bunker? A roaring flame that throws ominous crimson reflections on the metal sheathing of the walls, sailors rushing about with a bare chest, someone pumps a pump, and a jet of water disappears into a raging wall of fire? I must disappoint you - in fact, everything is much more prosaic. In general, a fire in the coal bunker of steamships of that time was a fairly common thing. Coal in such a fire does not burn, does not burn, but quietly and peacefully smolders, sometimes for several days. They fought such fires in the simplest way - out of turn they burned smoldering coal in steamship furnaces. So a fire in a coal hold is, of course, an unpleasant phenomenon, but, as a rule, it does not promise any serious troubles to the ship. And certainly not under any circumstances not capable of producing such monstrous destruction, which supporters of the version of the death of the Titanic from the flames attribute to him. Moreover, the fire on the ship was extinguished even before it went on its last voyage. The bunker was emptied and inspected by specialists from the shipyard where the Titanic was docked. It seems that the most serious consequence of the fire was a slight deformation of one of the watertight bulkheads, which could not affect the fate of the liner.

Did you know that...

The Titanic is one of the first, if not the first ship in history to send an SOS signal.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the letters "CQD" were adopted as a distress signal - short for "Come Quick, Danger" ("Hurry here, danger"). But this signal was inconvenient in that it was also used to warn on land of railway wrecks. In 1906, at the International Radiotelegraph Conference, it was proposed to introduce a special signal for maritime disasters. Then the letters known to the whole world today were chosen - SOS. Contrary to popular belief, this is not an acronym for a phrase like "Save Our Souls". Such letters were chosen simply because their combination is very easy to recognize in ethereal Morse code: three dots, three dashes, three dots.

However, habit is second nature, and the CQD signal was still used in water crashes. The radio operator of the Titanic, twenty-five-year-old John Philips, also sent him: “CQD, here are our coordinates: 41.46 north 50.14 west. We require immediate assistance. Tonem. You can't hear anything over the roar of the steam pipes." He repeated this message for the next quarter of an hour, until his partner suggested sending a new distress signal over the air, joking cynically: "Man, try tapping out an SOS signal - we will not have such an opportunity again in our lives." Philips smiled sadly at the joke, and at 00:45 on April 15, 1912, one of the first SOS signals in history was sent from the Titanic.

Fourth version. German torpedo

German submarine during World War I

1912 The First World War is two years away, and the prospect of an armed conflict between Germany and Great Britain is becoming more and more likely. Germany is the owner of several dozen submarines, which during the war will unleash a ruthless hunt for enemy ships trying to cross the ocean. For example, the reason for America's entry into the war will be that the U-20 submarine will sink the Lusitania in 1915 - the twin of the same Mauritania that set the speed record and won the Blue Ribbon of the Atlantic - remember?

Based on these facts, in the mid-nineties, some Western publications offered their own version of the death of the Titanic: a torpedo attack by a German submarine that secretly accompanied the liner. The purpose of the attack was to discredit the British fleet, famous for its power throughout the world. In accordance with this theory, the Titanic either did not collide with the iceberg at all, or received very minor damage in the collision and would have remained afloat if the Germans had not finished off the ship with a torpedo.

What speaks in favor of this version? Honestly, nothing.

First, there was a collision with an iceberg - this is beyond doubt. The deck of the ship was even covered with snow and ice chips. Cheerful passengers started playing football with ice cubes - that the ship is doomed, it will become clear later. The collision itself was surprisingly quiet - almost none of the passengers felt it. A torpedo, you see, could hardly have exploded completely silently (especially since some claim that the submarine fired as many as six torpedoes at the ship!). Supporters of the theory of the German attack claim, however, that people in the boats heard a terrible roar just before the Titanic sank - well, that was two and a half hours later, when only the stern lifted up into the sky remained above the water and the death of the ship did not raise any doubts. It is unlikely that the Germans would have fired a torpedo at an almost sunken ship, would they? And the roar that the survivors heard was due to the fact that the stern of the Titanic rose almost vertically and huge steam boilers fell from their places. Also, do not forget that at about the same minutes, the Titanic broke in half - the keel could not withstand the weight of the rising stern (although they only find out about this after finding the liner at the bottom: the break occurred below the water level), and this is also unlikely to have happened silently . And why would the Germans suddenly begin to sink a passenger liner two years before the start of the war? This seems, to put it mildly, doubtful. And to put it bluntly, it's absurd.

Did you know that...

Before filming Titanic, director James Cameron worked closely with the crew of the Russian scientific vessel Akademik Mstislav Keldysh and personally made twelve dives with a movie camera to the ship's wreck on the Mir-1 and Mir-2 bathyscaphes - they can be seen in documentaries movie fragments. During each dive, Cameron could shoot only fifteen minutes due to the fact that only so much film could fit in the camera.

Five years later, the Mir-1 and Mir-2 submersibles will be used to dive to the sunken submarine Kursk.

Fifth version. Curse of the Egyptian Mummy

The very first horror movie about a mummy

Yes, yes, imagine, there is such a version! I purposely saved it for the end.

So, in the eighties of the nineteenth century, a perfectly preserved mummy from the time of Amenhotep IV was discovered near Cairo, named either Amen-Otu, or Amen-Ra, or Amennofis (lovers of mysticism, as you know, do not bother with such trifles. Mummy, and mummy). During her lifetime, the mummy worked as a famous soothsayer, and therefore, after her death, she was awarded a magnificent burial: with jewelry, figurines of gods, and, of course, magical amulets. Among them was the image of Osiris, adorned with the inscription: "Wake up from your swoon, and your look will crush everyone who gets in your way." Others, however, insisted that it was written "Arise from the dust, and only the look of your eyes will triumph over any intrigues against you", but what, in essence, is the difference? That's when the third timidly suggested that nothing of the kind was written on the mummy, then it was certainly clear that this was nonsense.

The mummy was acquired by some collector, then by another, by a third, and all the previous owners, of course, died under the most mysterious and mysterious circumstances. That is, maybe, in fact, each of them lived to be ninety-nine years old and rested in the arms of a young beauty, but who will check this? The owners of mummies, as everyone knows, are supposed to die, and, preferably, a terrible death.

Ticket for the Titanic

Finally, our mummy was acquired in the British Museum by an American millionaire and sent to his American residence aboard a ship. Well, guess which liner was chosen for this purpose?

An ordinary box served as a sarcophagus on the way, either glass or wooden (not tin, at least, for sure), and it was kept just near the captain's bridge. Mystics of all stripes avidly assure that Captain Edward Smith, of course, could not resist the temptation and looked into this box with a mummy: their eyes met and ... no, they did not fall in love with each other; quite the contrary: a monstrous curse came true. Otherwise, judge for yourself, how to explain what went wrong in the captain’s head, and with his own intrepid hand he sent the Titanic straight to certain death?

And, in fact, why is it believed that the captain's head was clouded, and he sent the Titanic to certain death with his own hand? Well, how could he not get confused in his head if he met the eyes of a mummy? As you can see, there is nothing to object.

It's a shame that the mummy died a thousand years before the birth of Aristotle, so she had a hard time with logic. Otherwise, she would have realized that the immediate consequence of the fact that the ship rammed the iceberg would be the death of her, mummy, precious body - in ocean water it is unlikely to survive more than a few days. And the destruction of the body is the worst thing that can happen to a mummy: her soul will have nowhere to return to. So if the mummy really had magical powers, it would be in her interest to protect the Titanic like the apple of her magical eye. Or maybe she, too, bought into the advertising rhetoric about the unsinkable ship and did not pay attention to the dangerous icebergs?

Be that as it may, but the mummy died in the deep ocean, disappeared without a trace, and cannot stand up for its honest name; this is shamelessly used by the yellow press, which regularly publishes accusations against her under the monotonous headlines: “Sensation! The Titanic was destroyed by the curse of the pharaohs! Let's leave it to the conscience of journalists.

The mummy, by the way, was not the only historical relic that died aboard the Titanic. For art, the death of the original manuscript of Omar Khayyam "Rubaiyat" in the Atlantic Ocean is much more tragic - a relic that truly had no price.

Did you know that...

Immediately after the death of the Titanic, various projects for raising the ship to the surface began to be proposed. One of them was a proposal to fill the hull of the liner with ping-pong balls.

Oh yes, there is another version

She is all in the picture, and there is nothing more to say about her:

Ex-"Giant". What would you name the ship... Did you know that...

The Titanic had not only an older brother (Olympic), but also a younger brother, the Gigantic. At the time of the death of the middle brother in the abyss of the Atlantic, the younger one was still being built on the ropes. To prevent such a tragedy from happening to him, improvements began to be made to his design on the go - for example, the number of lifeboats was increased (you can see them in the photo - on upper deck, one above the other). And the most unexpected of measures taken security was - what would you think? Change of vessel name. Recalling from ancient Greek myths that the fate of both titans and giants was very deplorable, the owners of the ship decided not to step on the same rake again and abandoned the name "Gigantic". What, in fact, the devil is not joking?

They called the new ship patriotically: "Britannick". Tellingly, this did not help: in World War I, the youngest of the ships was sunk by a German submarine.

But how was it really?

Regrettably, but, studying the history of the most famous maritime disaster, one has to admit that the Titanic owes its death to a long chain of fatal accidents. If at least one link of the sinister chain had been destroyed, the tragedy could have been avoided.

Perhaps the first link was the successful start of the journey - yes, yes, that's right. On the morning of April 10, during the departure of the Titanic from the quay wall of Southampton port, the superliner passed too close to the American ship New York, and a phenomenon known in navigation as the suction of ships arose: the New York began to be attracted to the moving nearby "Titanic". However, thanks to the skill of Captain Edward Smith, a collision was avoided. Ironically, if an accident had happened, it would have saved one and a half thousand lives: if the Titanic had lingered in the port, the ill-fated encounter with the iceberg would not have happened. This time. Captain of the Titanic Edward Smith

It should also be mentioned that the radio operators who received the message from the Mesaba ship about the ice fields of icebergs did not pass it on to Edward Smith: the telegram was not marked with a special prefix “personally to the captain”, and was lost in a pile of papers. This is two.

However, this message was not the only one, and the captain knew about the ice danger. Why didn't he slow down the ship? Chasing the Blue Ribbon is, of course, a matter of honor (and, more importantly, of big business), but why did he risk the lives of passengers? Not that much of a risk, really. At that time the captains ocean liners often passed dangerous ice districts without slowing down: it was like crossing the road at a red light: sort of, and you can’t do that, but it always works out. Almost always. To the credit of Captain Smith, it must be said that he remained true to maritime traditions and remained on the dying ship to the very end.

But why was the bulk of the iceberg not seen? Here everything turned out one to one: a moonless, dark night, windless weather. If there were at least small waves on the water surface, the lookouts could see white lambs at the foot of the iceberg. Calm and moonless night are two more links in the fatal chain.

As it turned out later, the chain was continued by the fact that the iceberg, shortly before the collision with the Titanic, turned its underwater dark part upside down, saturated with water, due to which it was practically invisible from a distance at night (an ordinary, white iceberg would be distinguishable for a mile ). The sentinel saw him only 450 meters away, and there was almost no time for maneuver. Perhaps the iceberg would have been seen earlier, but another link in the fatal chain played a role here - there were no binoculars in the "crow's nest". The box where they were stored turned out to be locked, and the second assistant to the captain, taken from the ship just before departure, hastily took the key to it with him. This photo is believed to be the same iceberg.

After the lookout nevertheless saw the danger and reported the iceberg to the captain's bridge, a little more than half a minute remained before the collision. The officer of the watch, Murdoch, who was on watch, gave the helmsman the order to turn left, at the same time transmitting the command "full astern" to the engine room. Thus, he made a gross mistake by adding another link in the chain that led the liner to death: even if the Titanic had crashed into the iceberg head-on, the tragedy would have been less. The bow of the ship would have been crushed, part of the crew and those passengers whose cabins were located in front would have died. But only two watertight compartments would be flooded. With such damage, the liner would have remained afloat and could wait for the help of other ships.

And if Murdoch, turning the ship to the left, ordered to increase, and not decrease the speed, the collision might not have happened at all. However, frankly speaking, the order to change the speed is unlikely to play a significant role here: in thirty seconds it was hardly possible to execute it in the engine room. Thomas Andrews

So the collision happened. The iceberg damaged the ship's fragile hull along the six starboard compartments.

It should be said that Thomas Andrews himself traveled on the Titanic, a talented designer who built this liner. Of course, after the tragedy, there were people who accused him of the unsuccessful design of the ship. These accusations are groundless - Andrews actually built the most perfect ship of his time. It is to him that the survivors of the crash owe the fact that they had almost three hours to leave the ship and move to a safe distance.

After the accident, Captain Smith woke Mr. Andrews and invited him to inspect the hold in order to obtain an authoritative opinion on the fate of the ship. The designer's verdict was disappointing: it was impossible to save the Titanic. We urgently need to start evacuating passengers.

And here we come to one of the most dramatic circumstances. There were 2,208 people on board the ship (fortunately, not the 3,500 for which it was designed), but there were places in the boats for only 1,178 people. Looking ahead, let's say that only seven hundred and four managed to escape: the next link in the chain of failures was that some sailors took the captain's order to put women and children into the boats too literally, and did not let men go there, even if there were empty seats. However, at first no one was particularly eager to get into the boats. The passengers did not understand what was the matter, and did not want to leave the huge, comfortably lit, such a reliable liner and it is not clear why they should go down in a small unstable boat down to the icy water. However, pretty soon, anyone could notice that the deck was tilting forward more and more, and panic began. Boat deck. Walk to your health.

But why was there such a monstrous discrepancy in the places on the lifeboats? Initially, there were more boats - as many as thirty-five, but it was decided to abandon fifteen of them. Firstly, they “could cause a feeling of insecurity,” but most importantly, they prevented first-class passengers from walking on deck, and this was quickly corrected: the motto of the Titanic was “comfort above all else.” But how could such a poorly equipped rescue equipment ship? It's all about the outdated rules of the British Code of Navigation, adopted back in 1894. In accordance with it, a certain number of boats was assigned to a ship of a certain size. And since the displacement of the largest passenger ships of that time rarely exceeded 10,000 tons, then all such giant ships were combined into a single category with an order for them to have on board the number of boats sufficient to save 962 people. In 1894, they could not even imagine a ship like the Titanic - with a tonnage of as much as 52,310 tons!

The owners of the Titanic, praising the merits of the new ship, stated that they even overfulfilled the instructions of the code: instead of the required 962 rescue places, there were 1178 on the ship. Unfortunately, they did not attach any importance to the discrepancy between this number and the number of passengers on board. Photo of the radio operator of the Titanic, taken by a crooked photographer

It is especially bitter that not far from the sinking Titanic, another passenger steamer, the Californian, stood, waiting out the danger of ice. A few hours ago, he notified neighboring ships that he was locked in ice and forced to stop so as not to accidentally run into an ice block. The radio operator from the Titanic, who was almost stunned by the Morse code from the Californian (the ships were very close, and the signal of one was too loud in the headphones of the other), impolitely interrupted the warning: “Go to hell, you are preventing me from working!”. What was the radio operator of the Titanic so busy with? The fact is that in those years, radio communication on a ship was more of a luxury than an urgent need, and this miracle of technology aroused great interest among the wealthy public. From the very beginning of the voyage, radio operators were literally inundated with messages of a private nature - and no one saw anything reprehensible in the fact that Titanic radio operators paid such attention to wealthy passengers who wished to send a telegram to the ground directly from the ship. And at that moment, when colleagues from other courts reported about floating ice, the radio operator was transmitting another message to the continent. Radio communication was more like an expensive toy than a serious tool: the ships of that time did not even have a round-the-clock watch at the radio station. So the radio operator from the Californian, having finished his shift, went to bed in the evening and could not receive a desperate distress signal - SOS. If it were possible to inform the Californian about the collision, then he could come to the rescue in less than an hour, and the Titanic sank for two and a half hours! They say that from the Californian they even saw signal flares sent by the sinking liner into the night sky, but did not attach any importance to this. Well, missiles, and missiles. Celebrating, probably, something moneybags from the Titanic. Wow, fireworks have arranged for themselves ...

But, fortunately for the passengers, several ships still responded to the distress call. Among them was the Olympic, the twin of the Titanic, but it was too far away - as much as five hundred miles. Apart from the Californian, the closest ship to the sinking ship was the Carpathia, less than sixty miles away. Having received an SOS signal, he changed his course and rushed to the rescue at maximum speed. About two o'clock in the morning, the radio operator of the Carpathia received the last message from the liner in distress: "Go as quickly as possible, the engine room is flooded with boilers." There were no more radio signals from the superliner ... Survivors of the Titanic aboard the Carpathia

There were about seven hundred people in the boats in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The agonizing hours of waiting for help dragged on. Some of the lifeboats searched and picked up drowning people all night, and some, on the contrary, sailed away from the scene of the tragedy, fearing that people overboard, trying to escape, could capsize the boat.

At four in the morning, four and a half hours after the Titanic collided with the ice mass, and two hours after the stern disappeared into the depths of the sea, the Carpathia approached the scene of the tragedy and took up rescuing the survivors. At eight-thirty, the passengers of the last boat were on board. There were 704 people alive. Searching the water for the rest was useless. At this water temperature life vest does not save: a person dies of cold in a few minutes.

At eight-fifty, the Carpathia, ironically owned by the same Cunard Line steamship company, whose laurels the Titanic wanted to take for itself, having won the Blue Ribbon, heads for New York.

P.S.

And finally: a few photos of the Titanic, the legendary ship. Each of them can be enlarged.

Before:

Titanic at the Harland and Wolf shipyard before being launched (colorized photograph) The Titanic leaves Belfast (colorized photograph) Here you can see the "crow's nest" for the lookout on the mast First class cabin First Class Cabin (colorized photo) Third class cabin (reconstruction) Cafe "Palm Yard" Cafe Parisien with Ocean View (colorized photo) Gym on the Titanic The famous front staircase with a clock (here DiCaprio was waiting for a date with Kate Winslet) Glass dome over the front staircase. Only a first-class passenger was allowed to admire this beauty.

You can find many more colorized photos of the Titanic at titanic-in-color.com

After:

3D model of the Titanic on the ocean floor The remains of the Titanic at the bottom Prow of the ship Fragment of the ship's hull Opened port side window Captain's helm Anchor Davit for launching lifeboats Once upon a time there lay a man Ceramic cup at the bottom The wooden crate is long gone, but the porcelain is still lying Glass in the windows of Captain Smith's cabin Captain Smith bath with hot water, salt or fresh as desired