Titanic history of creation and collapse. How the titanic sank

For the first time, the Titanic hit the headlines as the largest ship in the history of mankind, and its first voyage was to make a long journey across the Atlantic in April 1912. As everyone knows, instead of a triumphant voyage, the history of shipping was supplemented by the greatest catastrophe. On its fourth day of travel 105 years ago, 643 kilometers off the coast of Nova Scotia, the ship collided with an iceberg and sank within 2 hours and 40 minutes. On that terrible day, 1,500 passengers died, who mostly died not from injuries or asphyxia, but from hypothermia. Few managed to survive in the icy water of the Atlantic Ocean, the temperature of which in April 1912 dropped to -2 ° C. Don't be surprised, water may well remain liquid in this cold, given that in the ocean it is a solution of salt with other nutrients, and not pure H2O.

But if you study the history of the Titanic more deeply, you will also find stories about people who, during an unforeseen catastrophe, acted decisively, avoided death and helped other drowning people. Over 700 people survived the disaster, although for some of them it was a fluke. Here are 10 stories of survivors of the most tragic disaster in the Atlantic.

10. Frank Prentice - Crew Member (Warehouse Assistant)

Just before the Titanic finally sank, the ship's stern briefly rose into the air perpendicular to the water level. At the same time, team member Frank Prentice, one of the last people on the ship, along with 2 of his comrades, decided to jump off the sinking liner into cold water. One of his colleagues hit the Titanic propeller during the fall, but Prentice managed to fly 30 meters to the very water, where the lifeless body of a friend was already waiting for him. Fortunately, Frank was soon picked up by a lifeboat.

Prentice's story is easy to verify, especially since his clock stopped at exactly 2:20, which is the exact time the Titanic finally sank into the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Remarkably, Prentice survived another shipwreck a few years later while serving aboard the warship Oceanic during World War I.

9. Eight Chinese passengers from the third class

It may surprise you, but if you read the reports of the large-scale evacuation of the sinking Titanic, you will realize that at first it was a very civilized process. All the passengers obediently obeyed the orders of the crew of the ship, and many of them were glad to give their places in the lifeboats to women and children. They did it voluntarily and without coercion. Panic did not deprive people of prudence and honor. At least not all of them, and not all at once.

But if you want to know how passengers survived an early 20th century shipwreck with a more practical approach to testing, you might be interested in hearing about the 8 Chinese immigrants who boarded the legendary ship all on the same ticket. It was a group of people from Guangzhou who lost their jobs due to the coal crisis and sailed home to Hong Kong.

In various immigration reports, their names have changed, but today this is no longer important. When the iceberg struck, seven of them crept into the lifeboats before the lifeboats were directed to the landing pads. The Chinese hid in boats under blankets, and for a long time remained unnoticed. Five of them survived. The eighth Chinese also suffered a shipwreck - he was picked up by lifeboat number 14 (which also saved Harold Phillimore, whom we will talk about a little later). Saving 6 people from a group of 8 comrades is a good statistic, but it is difficult to call their behavior heroic.

8. Olaus Jorgensen Abelzeth - Second Class Passenger

Olaus Jorgensen Abelseth was a Norwegian shepherd who worked on a livestock farm in South Dakota. He was returning from a trip home after visiting relatives, and in April 1912 boarded the Titanic with five members of his family.

During the evacuation from the Titanic, people were seated in lifeboats for certain reasons. An adult male could get on board a lifeboat only if he had a good experience in navigation, which would be useful for managing a craft in the waters of the open ocean. There were only 20 lifeboats, and each of them had to be attended by at least one experienced sailor.

Abelset had six years of sailing experience, a former fisherman, and was offered a place on another boat, but the man refused. And all because some of his relatives could not swim, and Olaus Jorgensen decided to stay with them to take care of the survival of his family. When the Titanic completely sank, and Olaus' relatives were washed into the water, the man remained afloat in the cold ocean for 20 minutes until he was rescued. When Abelset was in the boat, he actively helped rescue other shipwreck victims, pumping out the frozen ones in the icy water.

7. Hugh Woolner and Maurits Bjornström-Steffanszoon - First Class Passengers

Hugh Woolner and Mauritz Björnström-Steffansson were sitting in the smoking room when they heard about the iceberg collision. The gentlemen escorted their girlfriend to the lifeboats and helped the crew of the Titanic to get the women and children onto the lifeboats. Hugh and Maurits were on the lower deck when they decided to jump into the last boat while it was descending. Their jump was made 15 minutes before the final sinking of the Titanic, so it was a now or never attempt.

Bjornström-Steffanszoon successfully jumped into the boat, but Woolner was less fortunate and missed. However, the man managed to grab onto the edge of the boat, and his friend managed to stop Hugh while he hung over the ocean. Ultimately, Woolner was helped into the boat. It was a rescue full of drama.

6. Charles Join - crew member (chief baker)

Most of the victims of the Titanic crash died of hypothermia (hypothermia) within 15 to 30 minutes in icy water, but Charles Joughin is real proof that there are exceptions to every rule. Join was drunk when the steamer hit an iceberg. Despite the extreme conditions and his drunken state, the baker greatly helped other drowning people, throwing deck chairs and chairs overboard the Titanic so that people had something to grab on to and not drown. After the liner finally submerged, Charles drifted in the area of ​​​​the crash site for more than two hours, until he was nailed to one of the rescue boats.

Survival experts attribute Joinin's success to the fact that the alcohol increased his body temperature, as well as the fact that, as the baker himself claimed, he tried not to submerge his head in ice water. Some critics doubt that the man was in the water for that long, but the fact remains that Join has witnesses from the lifeboat.

5. Richard Norris Williams - First Class Passenger

Richard Norris Williams was traveling with his father first class and together they sailed to a tennis tournament. After the iceberg collision happened, both of them kept their cool, demanding that the bar be opened, and spent some time at the gym. The Williamses even managed to help one passenger when they realized that it was not the time to chill.

As a result, Richard had a chance to watch how his father was covered by a chimney and swept into the sea by one of the waves, which washed away the Collapsible A model collapsible boat into the ocean. It was one of the last 2 boats aboard the sinking Titanic, and the crew did not physically have time to prepare both these life-saving appliances for boarding people and properly launching them into the water.

Later, on board the British steamship Carpathia, the first to come to the rescue of the victims of the Titanic, doctors advised the surviving Norris to amputate both frostbitten legs. The athlete opposed the recommendations of the doctors, and contrary to the initial forecasts of the doctors, not only did he not lose his legs, but also restored their functionality. Moreover, the man returned to the sport of tennis and won a gold medal at the 1924 Olympics. In addition, he was decorated for meritorious service in the First World War.

4 Rhoda "Rose" Abbott - Third Class Passenger

Everyone knows the “women and children first” maritime rule, but not everyone knows how strict it was. If a boy was over 13, he was no longer considered a child. This did not sit well with third-class passenger Rhoda Abbott, who was not going to give up her two sons, 13 and 16 years old. Abbott gave away a place on the boat so that she could stay with her children until the end. She was a woman of strong convictions, a member of the Christian humanitarian mission The Salvation Army and a single mother. Rhoda grabbed each child's hand and together they jumped over the side of the sinking ship.

Unfortunately, both of her sons drowned, and the mother-heroine surfaced without them. Like Richard Norris Williams, Rosa hopped aboard the capsized Collapsible A. Her legs suffered from hypothermia almost as badly as the legs of a tennis player. Abbott spent 2 weeks in the hospital, but that doesn't change the fact that she was the only woman alive after swimming in the icy waters of the Atlantic Ocean on the night of the Titanic crash.

3. Harold Charles Phillimore - crew member (steward)

The famous character of Rose Decatur, played by Kate Winslet in the James Cameron film, was fictional, but Harold Charles Phillimore, the steward, could be the prototype for this romantic story.

The man was found clinging to floating debris amidst a sea of ​​corpses as the last lifeboat arrived at the crash site in search of survivors. Phillimore shared part of a drifting wooden beam with another passenger, which in Cameron's story Rosa Decatur did not do, allowing the love of her life to die of hypothermia. After a tragic shipwreck, Harold Phillimore continued his nautical career, achieved outstanding success and earned medals for his service in the Navy during the First World War.

2. Harold Bride - Representative of Marconi Wireless

Harold Bride was one of two telegraph operators of the British company Marconi Wireless, whose task was to provide communication between the ship's passengers and the mainland. Bride was also responsible for navigational messages and warnings from other ships. At the time of the crash, Harold and his colleague James Phillips were allowed to leave their post in order to be rescued as soon as possible, but both of them kept the Titanic in touch with the rest of the world until the last minutes of the legendary steamer.

The telegraph operators worked until the water began to fill their cabin. Then they realized that it was time to leave the ship. Colleagues boarded the last lifeboat, known as Collapsible B. Unfortunately, during the launch, she turned upside down, and all her passengers were in freezing water. Harold Bride got so bad in his legs that he struggled to climb a rescue ladder aboard the British steamship Carpathia when it arrived at the scene of the accident to help the surviving victims.

On the way to his rescue, Harold swam past a dead body, which turned out to be his comrade James Phillips, who died that terrible night from hypothermia. Subsequently, Bride did not enjoy talking in public about what happened because he was "deeply affected by the whole experience, especially the loss of his colleague and friend Jack Phyllis."

1. Charles Lightoller - Captain Second Rank

Charles Lightoller began his maritime career at the age of 13, and by the time he served on the Titanic as a captain second rank, he had seen a lot. Before entering into a contract with the British shipping company White Star, which owned the giant steamer, Lightoller had already survived a shipwreck in Australia, a cyclone in the Indian Ocean, and hitchhiking from western Canada all the way to England after participating in an unsuccessful exploration for gold deposits in the Yukon (Yukon) .

When the Titanic hit the iceberg, Lightoller was one of the first to launch lifeboats into the water. At about 2:00 (20 minutes before the liner was completely flooded), his superiors ordered him to get into the boat and save himself, to which Charles bravely replied something like this: “no, I’m not damn likely to do it” (not damn likely).

In the end, he ended up in the water, swam to the overturned Collapsible B, which we already mentioned above, and helped maintain order and morale among the survivors. The officer made sure that the boat did not capsize again with all the passengers on board, and seated people so that no one was washed away into the icy ocean.

Captain Second Rank Charles Lightoller was the very last person to be rescued from the Titanic into the Atlantic Ocean, and he was taken aboard the Carpathia almost four hours after rescuers from other ships appeared. In addition, he was the most senior among all the surviving crew members, and, according to the charter, participated in the hearings of the US Congress on the tragic sinking of the Titanic.

More than 100 years have passed since the tragic sinking of the Titanic. Largely thanks to the efforts of James Cameron and his film - one of the highest grossing and rated in history, everyone learned about this ship. But despite the fact that every first person on our planet heard about the Titanic, many of the fundamental details associated with the catastrophe on April 14, 1912 are still little known. Let's correct this omission.

The weather was perfect

On the day of the sinking of the Titanic, absolute calm reigned in the sea

It is easy enough to imagine how the Titanic liner struggles with high waves, how fog and downpour hide an iceberg, which subsequently sent the ship to the bottom. But it wasn't like that at all. When the Titanic was heading to the place of her death, the weather was beautiful, one might even say frighteningly calm. There was no wind or waves, and the surface of the sea was perfectly smooth, like a mirror. Perhaps the fine weather contributed to the tragedy.

Even a slight swell on the water surface could push the phosphorescent plankton right up to the edges of the iceberg, and they could be noticed in advance. The second captain of the Titanic, Charles Lightoller, singled out the absence of luminous plankton as one of the causes of the disaster. Perhaps the absolute calm also prevented the abrupt change in temperature that always warns the crew of a dangerous approach to an iceberg.

Unfortunately, by the time Frederick Fleet, looking ahead, spotted a block of ice directly ahead, it was already too late to avoid a collision. In the course of an investigation conducted in 1912, experts found that from the moment the iceberg was discovered, the steamer had only 37 seconds left to change course. Other experts said that the time was a little more - about 65 seconds. In any case, the Titanic was doomed, because even if the “complete stop” command had been given, the liner would have been moving by inertia for about 3.5 minutes.

As luck would have it, immediately after the accident, a strong cold wind arose, which literally froze people who were fighting for life in icy water.

This is interesting: In total, 1514 people on board (including the crew) were killed in the crash of the Titanic, 710 were saved. 76% of women, 51% of children and only 18% of men were able to survive. Of the 908 crew members, 696 were killed.

The whole trip was accompanied by a fire

It turns out that the Titanic was on fire all the time.

Shortly before the first and, unfortunately, the last voyage, a fire broke out in one of the steamer's coal bunkers. Investigators investigating the causes of the disaster were able to prove that the fire was still raging when the Titanic headed for New York, creating a potential danger to everyone on board.

The surviving stoker John Dilly said: "We were unable to put out the fire, and the stokers said that when we disembarked passengers, it would be necessary to empty all the large coal bunkers, and then call fireboats to help us put out the fire." John claims that the flames were extinguished only when an ice block tore the hull. Water instantly flooded the bunkers.

Some other crew members claim that the fire was successfully extinguished on the morning of April 14 - on that fateful day. Be that as it may, the Titanic burned throughout its maiden voyage. It is not certain that the fire would have been catastrophic, as the designers designed the steel bunkers to withstand coal fires. Nevertheless, the risks increased manifold.

Interesting: White Star Line Managing Director Bruce Ismay later claimed that John Pierpont Morgan, the owner of IMM, which owned the Titanic, forced the crew to sail at top speed in order to “sail to New York and disembark people before the inevitable explosions happen.”

By the way, Morgan himself was supposed to be among the passengers, but for some reason changed his mind a few minutes before departure and got off the ship.

The tragic prediction of disaster by William Steed

William Steed - the man who foresaw the catastrophe ... And died in it

Even 26 years before the sinking of the Titanic, British journalist William Steed wrote a fictional story about the sinking of a large Atlantic mail steamer. In the work, most of the passengers drowned due to a shortage of lifeboats. With this story, Steed wanted to draw public attention to the fact that the crews of the ships are not required to have enough lifeboats to save all the passengers on board.

William Steed returned to this theme again in 1892. In the climactic chapter, the ship crosses the Atlantic Ocean with hundreds of tourists on board. Here is an excerpt: “There was a roar, as if a steamer had run into ice. The propellers spun, cutting through the ice blocks. All the passengers carefully climbed onto the deck. The weather was damp and very cold. Every half minute a whistle blew from somewhere in the mist. The roar of the steamer grinding against the side and the ice being crushed by the propellers did not allow talking and being heard. But suddenly a desperate cry was heard from the darkness: “Iceberg on the starboard side!”.

Steed died 20 years later on board the Titanic...

Captain Edward Smith

Captain Edward Smith was shocked when he realized that all passengers could not be saved

The captain of the infamous ship, Edward John Smith, has been the subject of dozens of legends since the day he sank with the Titanic. Many claim that he managed to personally save the life of a child before dying. But it is worth noting that his heroic image is slightly embellished.

In addition to ignoring iceberg warnings and not keeping the Titanic at a reasonable speed, Smith also allowed several lifeboats to leave the Titanic half empty. It is known that in the first boat that departed (out of sixteen), designed for 65 people, there were only 28 passengers, in the second - 36, in the third - 32, in the fourth and fifth - 28 each.

It is said that when Smith learned that the Titanic could not be kept afloat, he realized that even with the maximum load on the boats, at least 1,000 people would remain on the sinking ship. The realization of this fact horrified him. The captain temporarily lost his resolve: he did not demand an early evacuation, did not organize the work of the team, gave only vague and contradictory orders, did not answer the officers and sailors who asked him about something. Edward Smith did not give the order to load the boats to the maximum due to their shortage, did not follow the evacuation and the accuracy of the execution of his orders.

Later, when the last boat was launched, Smith walked the boat deck for the last time. He ordered all crew members to stop working and try to save themselves. The captain repeated "From now on, it's every man for himself."

This is interesting: When the Titanic sank, only a few survived out of hundreds of people who were in the water. Crew members Charles Lightoller, Jack Thayer, Archibald Gracie and about 30 others managed to climb onto the upside down collapsible boat. Realizing the danger of the complete flooding of the boat, they were forced to repel people floating nearby with oars, ignoring pleas for help. Later in his book, Gracie admired the behavior of those left in the icy water: “I did not hear a single reproach after the refusal to help. Rejections were met with courageous words: “Okay, good luck guys, and God bless you!”.

Only in 2012 it became known that Smith at one time could not pass the navigation test on the first attempt. He managed to do this only in 1888. However, the initial failure was perhaps a bad omen.

The only Japanese on board

Masabumi Hosono in Japan was hated and greeted as a coward

The only Japanese passenger on the Titanic is civil servant Masabumi Hosono. Before boarding a steamer and starting his journey home, he studied rail systems in Europe for several months. As the Titanic began to sink, Hosono made his way to the upper deck to face death with dignity. He understood that there was practically no chance of survival, because the crew members put only women and children into the boats, and the men were driven away, threatening with a gun. Unexpectedly, Hosono found that he could save himself.

The opportunity arose when a crew member called out that there were 2 empty seats left in the lowered lifeboat. Seeing someone jump into the water, Hosono did the same. If he could have known what consequences this would lead to in the future, he might have preferred to die.

It was then believed that it was better for a worthy man to die with honor than to survive in a shameful manner. After returning to Japan, Hosono was branded as a coward and hated by almost the entire country. He was fired from his government job, albeit a few years later, and hired back. Negative reviews about the Asian who escaped in boat number 13 lead to the conclusion that it was Hosono.

This is interesting: The temperature of the water overboard was -2°C (freezing threshold). Some people, once in it, died of a heart attack immediately. Others died in about half an hour. At first, due to severe hypothermia, severe trembling appeared, then the pulse and body temperature slowed down. Soon the man lost consciousness and died.

In 1997, Masabumi's reputation was partially restored when a handwritten description of the tragedy was found among his belongings. In a letter to his wife, Hosono mentioned that he was in boat number 10. If this is true, then he could not be that Asian.

Real Titanic necklace

The "Heart of the Ocean" necklace actually existed

In the movie Titanic, a magnificent necklace was mentioned called the "Heart of the Ocean". You might think that this is an invention of the director. But it turns out that a similar story happened on a real ship: passenger Kate Philips was presented with a valuable sapphire necklace by her lover Henry Morley.

A wealthy 40-year-old pastry shop owner fell in love with 19-year-old Kate, who worked as an assistant for his competitor. Soon Morley decided to leave his wife and little daughter for Kate. The couple boarded the Titanic to escape and start a new life in California. On the night of the disaster, Kate managed to board the last lifeboat. And Henry Morley died.

After 9 months, Kate gave birth to a baby, whom she named Ellen. It wasn't until the age of 76 that Ellen learned that her father was one of the dead passengers on the Titanic. When she talked to her mother about it, she learned that Kate still had that same sapphire necklace.

Mistakes and theories

Perhaps the Supermoon is to blame for the disaster

Researchers have repeatedly tried to find out why the Titanic collided with an ice block. Immediately after the disaster, British and American experts decided that the ship was moving too fast. At low speed, the damage would be much less, and the chances of avoiding a collision would increase. And so the iceberg, like a can opener, ripped open 5 bow compartments of the Titanic. During the collision, 6 holes appeared in the starboard skin, the total length of which reached 90 meters.

This is interesting: The hull of the liner was divided into 16 watertight compartments using 15 bulkheads built across the ship. The designers calculated that the Titanic would be able to stay afloat in case of flooding of any 2 compartments or 4 adjacent ones (bow or stern) at the same time.

In 2010, journalist Louise Patton, the granddaughter of one of the Titanic's officers, suggested that the ship would have avoided the collision if the helmsman, Robert Hitchins, had not panicked and first turned the rudder in the opposite direction after reporting the iceberg. Louise is certain that her grandfather colluded with the other crew members in an attempt to keep this mistake a secret. The truth could destroy the reputation of the White Star Line and all its colleagues.

At the same time, two astronomers from the University of Texas suggest that a rare "Supermoon" may have caused the movement of the iceberg. Note that the "Supermoon" occurs when, at the time of the full moon, our satellite approaches the Earth at its closest distance. It is known that on January 4, 1912, the Moon approached the Earth at the smallest distance in the last 1.5 thousand years. This happened the day after the so-called perihelion of the Earth (the maximum approach of the planet to the Sun). As a result of the joint gravitational influence of the Sun and the Moon, unusually strong tidal forces could appear. Astronomers believe that powerful flows of water set in motion many icebergs along the path of the Titanic, this created all the prerequisites for a catastrophe.

Elizabeth Shutes

Elisabeth Shutes claims to have smelled ice before the crash

Titanic passenger Elizabeth Shutes claimed that shortly before the disaster, she was shocked by the smell of ice, which prevented her from sleeping normally. It reminded her of a huge ice cave that Shutes had once visited. Elizabeth survived and later wrote her own account of the tragedy.

Shutes was the governess of 19-year-old first class passenger Margaret Gramm. When the liner vibrated for the first time and shuddered slightly, the girl was not very worried about this, being sure that nothing threatened the huge ship. Elizabeth was lying in her cabin when her friend knocked on the door, saying that she saw through the window of her cabin a huge iceberg that the liner collided with. Then Elizabeth asked the stewards if this was true, but received a negative answer.

Only after the first class passengers were herded to the upper deck did Shutes realize the gravity of the situation. As she wrote in her memoirs, there were only 36 people in the lifeboat in which she was (despite the fact that it was designed for 65 seats). Elizabeth was almost forced into the boat against her will. The girl wanted to stay on the ship, because she did not believe that such a huge liner could sink. But when the boat sailed a sufficient distance, the Titanic broke into 2 parts and disappeared under water in a matter of seconds.

Parallels with the crash of the Costa Concordia

Is there a link between the sinking of the Costa Concordia and the Titanic?

This is interesting: Many people draw parallels between the sinking of the Italian ship Costa Concordia and the sinking of the Titanic. First, some survivors of the Concordia claimed that Celine Dion's famous song "My Heart Will Go On" was playing in the dining room when the ship hit the rock. Second, both liners met their end 100 years apart.

There are other strange coincidences as well. The baptism of both ships was unsuccessful - a bottle of champagne did not break on board the Costa Concordia. They say that the same thing happened at one time with the Titanic. Both disasters were caused by human error. Finally, both ships were sailing at maximum speed at the time of the disaster.

Perhaps the most significant difference is the reputation of the two captains. When people remember the captain of the Titanic, Edward Smith, as a hero who died along with the ship and before that saved the life of a child, only curses are heard against Francesco Shchetino. Shchetino, together with the second officer, fled from the ship when there were still 300 passengers on board who could have been saved.

optical illusions

Distress signals from the Titanic were interpreted by the crew of a nearby vessel as mirages.

Distress signals were sent from the sinking Titanic several times. In addition, 8 flares were launched. Closest to the crash site, the California ship ignored the missiles, even though they brightly lit up the night sky. Later, the captain of the California lost his job due to the scandal, because many people believed that he deliberately ignored the signals. But further investigations into the causes of the Titanic disaster allow us to give a more plausible explanation for its behavior - the refraction of light.

It is important to note that on the night of April 14-15, the Titanic sailed through areas of the so-called thermal inversion. It causes incorrect refraction of light, which causes mirages to appear. According to historian Tim Maltin, dozens of mirages were observed from several ships that were close to the accident site on the fateful night. Maltin is confident that the temperature conditions caused the light to be anomalously refraction. This may explain, for example, why the Titanic's lookouts reported that the ship was moving towards the iceberg too late.

These mirages kept the California crew from correctly interpreting the distress signals. Maltin made this conclusion in 2012, 20 years after the British government officially closed its own investigation into the influence of light refraction on the death of the Titanic.

The sinking of the Titanic, more than a hundred years later, remains one of the most famous disasters in history. The dramatic events that took place on board the ship on the night of April 15, 1912, were reflected in art. Interest in the death of a ship considered unsinkable does not weaken even today. Hundreds of books, thousands of articles, documentaries and feature films have been written about the Titanic. And in memory of the victims of the disaster, monuments and memorials have been erected in different countries.

Building

Construction and equipment

Specifications

Bulkheads

The Titanic was built to stay afloat if any 2 of its 16 watertight compartments, any 3 of the first 5 compartments, or all of the first 4 compartments were flooded.

The first 2 bulkheads in the bow and the last in the stern were solid, all the rest had sealed doors that allowed the crew and passengers to move between compartments. On the flooring of the second bottom, in the bulkhead "K", there were the only doors that led to the cooling chamber. On decks "F" and "E" in almost all bulkheads there were airtight doors connecting the rooms used by passengers, all of them could be battened down both remotely and manually, using a device located directly on the door and from the deck that reached bulkhead. To batten down such doors on the passenger decks, a special key was required, which was available only to the senior stewards. But on deck "G" there were no doors in the bulkheads.

In the bulkheads "D" - "O", directly above the second bottom in the compartments where the machines and boilers were located, there were 12 vertically closed doors, they were controlled by an electric drive from the navigation bridge. In case of danger or accident, or when the captain or watch officer deemed it necessary, the electromagnets, on a signal from the bridge, released the latches, and all 12 doors lowered under the influence of their own gravity and the space behind them turned out to be hermetically closed. If the doors were closed by an electric signal from the bridge, then it was possible to open them only after removing the voltage from the electric drive.

Deck "G" captured only the bow and stern, between which the boiler rooms were located. The forward part of the deck, 58 m long, was 2 m above the waterline, gradually lowered towards the center of the liner and at the opposite end was already at the level of the waterline. There were 26 cabins for 106 third class passengers, the rest of the area was occupied by the luggage compartment for first class passengers, the ship's mail and the ball room. Behind the bow of the deck there were coal bunkers, which occupied 6 watertight compartments around the chimneys, followed by 2 compartments with steam pipes for reciprocating steam engines and a turbine compartment. This was followed by the aft part of the deck 64 m long with warehouses, pantries and 60 cabins for 186 third-class passengers, which was already below the waterline.

Masts

One was aft, the other was on the forecastle, each was steel with a teak top. On the front, at a height of 29 m from the waterline, there was a mars platform (“crow's nest”), which could be reached by an internal metal ladder.

Service premises

In front of the boat deck there was a navigation bridge, 58 m away from the bow. On the bridge there was a wheelhouse with a steering wheel and a compass, immediately behind it was a room where navigation charts were stored. To the right of the wheelhouse were the navigational cabin, the captain's cabin and part of the officers' cabins, to the left - the rest of the officers' cabins. Behind them, behind the front funnel, was the cabin of the radiotelegraph and the cabin of the radio operator. In front of deck "D" there were living quarters for 108 stokers, a special spiral ladder connected this deck directly to the boiler rooms, so that stokers could leave for work and return without passing by the cabins or saloons for passengers. In front of deck "E" there were living quarters for 72 loaders and 44 sailors. In the first part of the "F" deck there were quarters of 53 stokers of the third shift. Deck G contained quarters for 45 stokers and oilers. RMS in the name stands for Royal Mail Vessel. The ship had a post office and a warehouse on decks "F" and "G", where 5 postal workers worked.

Second bottom

The second bottom was located about one and a half meters above the keel and occupied 9/10 of the ship's length, not capturing only small areas in the bow and stern. On the second day, boilers, reciprocating steam engines, a steam turbine and electric generators were installed, all firmly fixed on steel plates, the remaining space was used for cargo, coal and drinking water tanks. In the engine room section, the second bottom rose 2.1 m above the keel, which increased the protection of the liner in case of damage to the outer skin.

Power point

Propellers of the Titanic before launching the ship

The registered power of steam engines and turbines was 50 thousand liters. With. (actually 55 thousand hp). The turbine was located in the fifth watertight compartment in the stern of the liner, in the next compartment, closer to the bow, steam engines were located, the other 6 compartments were occupied by twenty-four double-flow and five single-flow boilers that produced steam for the main machines, turbines, generators and auxiliary mechanisms. The diameter of each boiler was 4.79 m, the length of the double-flow boiler was 6.08 m, the single-flow boiler was 3.57 m. Each double-flow boiler had 6 fireboxes, and the single-flow boiler had 3. In addition, the Titanic was equipped with four auxiliary machines with generators, each with a capacity of 400 kilowatts, generating electricity at a voltage of 100 volts. Next to them were two more 30-kilowatt generators. High-pressure steam from the boilers went to 2 triple expansion steam engines, which rotated the side propellers. From the machines, the steam then entered the low-pressure turbine, which drove the middle propeller. From the turbine, the exhaust steam entered the condensers, from where fresh water went back to the boilers in a closed cycle. The Titanic developed a decent speed for its time, although it was inferior to the competitor's turbo ships - Cunard Line.

Pipes

The liner had 4 pipes, each of which had a diameter of 7.3 m, a height of 18.5 m. The first three removed smoke from the boiler furnaces, the fourth, located above the turbine compartment, served as an exhaust fan, a chimney for ship kitchens was connected to it . A longitudinal section of the vessel is presented on its model exhibited at the Deutsches Museum in Munich, where it is clearly seen that the last pipe was not connected to the fireboxes. The fourth chimney was purely cosmetic to make the ship look more powerful.

Electrical supply

10,000 light bulbs, 562 electric heaters were connected to the distribution network, mainly in first-class cabins, 153 electric motors, including electric drives for eight cranes with a total capacity of 18 tons, 4 cargo winches with a capacity of 750 kg, 4 elevators, each for 12 people. In addition, electricity was consumed by the telephone exchange and radio communications, fans in the boiler room and engine rooms, apparatus in the gym, dozens of machines and appliances in the kitchens, including refrigerators.

Connection

The telephone exchange serviced 50 lines. The radio equipment on the liner was the most modern, the power of the main transmitter was 5 kilowatts, the power came from an electric generator. The second, an emergency transmitter, was powered by batteries. 4 antennas were strung between the two masts, some up to 75 m long. The guaranteed range of the radio signal was 250 miles. During the day, under favorable conditions, communication was possible at a distance of up to 400 miles, and at night - up to 2000.

The radio equipment came on board on April 2 from the Marconi company, which by this time had monopolized the radio industry in Italy and England. Two young radio officers assembled and installed the station all day, for verification, a test connection was immediately made with the coast station at Malin Head ( English), on the north coast of Ireland, and with Liverpool. On April 3, the radio equipment worked like clockwork, on this day a connection was established with the island of Tenerife at a distance of 2000 miles and with Port Said in Egypt (3000 miles). In January 1912, the Titanic was given the radio call sign " MUC', then they were replaced by ' MGY", previously owned by the American ship Yale. As the dominant radio company, Marconi introduced its own radio call signs, most of which began with the letter "M", regardless of its location and the country of residence of the vessel on which it was installed.

Swimming and crash

Many celebrities of that time took part in the first trip of the liner, including the millionaire and major industrialist John Jacob Astor IV and his wife Madeleine Astor, businessman Benjamin Guggenheim, the owner of Macy's department store Isidor Strauss and his wife Ida, the eccentric millionaire Margaret Molly Brown, who received the nickname "Unsinkable" after the death of the ship, Sir Cosm Duff Gordon and his wife, fashion designer Lady Lucy Duff Gordon, popular at the beginning of the century, businessman and cricketer John Thayer, British journalist William Thomas Steed, Countess of Rotskaya, military assistant to US President Archibald Butt , film actress Dorothy Gibson and many others.

North and South transatlantic routes. ice conditions

The threat to shipping in the North Atlantic is icebergs breaking off from glaciers in western Greenland and drifting under the influence of currents. Danger is also borne by ice fields originating in the Arctic Basin, as well as off the coast of Labrador, Newfoundland and in the Strait of St. Lawrence, and drifting under the influence of winds and currents.

The shortest route from northern Europe to the United States runs along the coast of Newfoundland, directly through the zone of fog and icebergs. In order to streamline navigation in the North Atlantic, in 1898, shipping companies entered into an agreement establishing 2 transatlantic routes, passing much to the south. For each of the routes, separate routes were determined for steamers moving west and east, separated from each other at a distance of up to 50 miles. From mid-January to mid-August, during the season of the greatest ice danger, steamers moved along the South Route. The rest of the year, the Northern route was used. This order usually made it possible to minimize the likelihood of encountering drifting ice. But 1912 turned out to be unusual. From the South Highway, along the western route of which the Titanic also moved, reports of icebergs came one after another. In this regard, the US Hydrological Service raised the issue of moving the route to the south, but the corresponding decisions were made belatedly, after the disaster.

Chronology

• Wednesday, April 10, 1912
  • 12:00 p.m. — The Titanic leaves the Southampton harbor and narrowly avoids colliding with the American liner New York. There are 922 passengers on board the Titanic.
  • 19:00 - stop in Cherbourg (France) to take on board 274 passengers and mail.
  • 21:00 - Titanic left Cherbourg and headed for Queenstown (Ireland).

• Sunday, April 14, 1912
  • 09:00 - Caronia reports ice in the region of 42 ° north latitude, 49-51 ° west longitude.
  • 13:42 - "Baltik" reports the presence of ice in the area of ​​41°51'N, 49°52'W.
  • 13:45 - America reports ice at 41°27'N, 50°8'W.
  • 19:00 - air temperature 43 ° Fahrenheit (6 ° C).
  • 19:30 - air temperature 39 ° Fahrenheit (3.9 ° C).
  • 19:30 - The Californian reports ice at 42°3'N, 49°9'W.
  • 21:00 - air temperature 33 ° Fahrenheit (0.6 ° C).
  • 21:30 - Second Officer Lightoller warns the ship's carpenter and watchmen in the engine room that it is necessary to monitor the fresh water system - water in the pipelines may freeze; he tells the lookout to watch the appearance of ice.
  • 21:40 - Mesaba reports ice at 42°-41°25'N, 49°-50°30'W.
  • 22:00 - air temperature 32 ° Fahrenheit (0 ° C).
  • 10:30 p.m. - Sea water temperature dropped to 31° Fahrenheit (-0.56°C).
  • 11:00 p.m. — The Californian warns of ice, but the Titanic's radio operator cuts off the radio before the Californian can give the area's coordinates.
  • 23:39 - 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 sighted at a distance of about 650 meters straight ahead.
  • 23:40 - Despite the maneuver, after 39 seconds, the underwater part of the vessel touched, the hull received numerous small holes for a length of about 100 meters. Of the 16 watertight compartments of the vessel, 6 were cut through (in the sixth, the leak was extremely insignificant).

Stages of the sinking of the Titanic

• Monday, April 15, 1912
  • 00:05 - The trim on the nose became noticeable. An order was given to uncover the lifeboats and convene the crew 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. The bow deck goes under water.
  • 01:15 - Class 3 passengers are allowed on deck.
  • 01:40 - The last flare is fired.
  • 02:05 - the last lifeboat is launched (collapsible boat D). The bow of the boat deck goes under water.
  • 02:08 - The Titanic jerks violently and moves forward. A wave rolls over the deck and floods the bridge, washing passengers and crew members into the water.
  • 02:10 - the last radiotelegraph signals were transmitted.
  • 02:15 - The Titanic lifts the stern high, exposing the rudder and propellers.
  • 02:17 - Electric lighting goes out.
  • 02:18 - The Titanic breaks in two as it sinks rapidly.
  • 02:20 - The Titanic sank.
  • 02:29 - At a speed of about 13 miles per hour, the bow of the Titanic crashes into the ocean floor at a depth of 3750 meters, burrowing into the sedimentary rocks of the bottom.
  • 03:30 - flares fired from the Carpathia are noticed from lifeboats.
  • 04:10 - Carpathia picked up the first lifeboat from the Titanic (boat No. 2).
  • 08:30 - Carpathia picked up the last (No. 12) lifeboat from the Titanic.
  • 08:50 - Carpathia, taking on board 710 people who escaped from the Titanic, heads for New York.
• Thursday, April 18, 1912
  • The Carpathia Arrives in New York

clash

Photo of an iceberg taken by the chief steward of a German ship Prince Adalbert on the morning of April 16, 1912. The steward was unaware of the disaster at the time, but the iceberg caught his attention because it had a brown streak at its base, indicating that the iceberg had hit something less than 12 hours earlier. It is assumed that the Titanic collided with him.

Recognizing an iceberg in a light haze, the forward looking Fleet warned “there is ice in front of us” and hit the bell three times, which meant an obstacle right on the course, after which he rushed to the telephone connecting the “crow’s nest” with the bridge. Moody's sixth mate, who was on the bridge, responded almost instantly and heard a cry of "ice right on the nose!!!" (“ice right ahead!!!”). With a polite thank you, Moody turned to the officer of the watch, Murdoch, and repeated the warning. He rushed to the telegraph, put his handle on "stop" and shouted "right to board", while simultaneously transmitting the order "full back" to the engine room, pressed the lever, which included closing the watertight doors in the bulkheads of the boiler rooms and the engine room.

Photo of an iceberg taken from the cable-laying ship Mine”, which was one of the first ships to discover the corpses of passengers and the wreckage of the ship. Presumably, the Titanic could have collided with this particular iceberg, since, according to the crew, “ Mines", it was the only iceberg near the crash site.

According to the terminology of 1912, the command "right on board" meant turning the stern of the vessel to the right, and the bow to the left (since 1909, Russian ships have already used the natural giving of commands, for example: "left rudder"). Coxswain Robert Hitchens ( English) leaned on the handle of the steering wheel and quickly turned it counterclockwise until it stops, after which Murdoch was told "Right rudder, sir!" At that moment, the helmsman Alfred Oliver and Boxhall, who was in the chart house, ran to the bridge when the bells rang out in the "crow's nest". A. Oliver, in his testimony in the US Senate, however, definitely stated that at the entrance to the bridge he heard the command "rudder left" (corresponding to a turn to the right), and this command was carried out. According to Boxhall (British Inquiry question 15355), Murdoch reported to Captain Smith: "I turned to port and reversed, and was about to turn to starboard to get around him, but he was too close."

It is known that lookout binoculars were not used on the Titanic because the key to the binocular safe was missing. He was taken in by Captain Blair's second mate when the captain kicked him off the team, taking on board a team member from the Olympic. It is possible that the lack of binoculars was one of the reasons for the crash of the liner. However, the existence of binoculars became known only 95 years after the shipwreck, when one of them was exhibited at the Henry Eldridge and Sons auction house in Devizes, Wiltshire. The second mate of the Titanic was to be David Blair, for which he arrived on April 3, 1912 from Belfast to Southampton. However, the management of the White Star Line replaced him at the last moment with Henry Wild, the first officer from a similar ship, the Olympic, because he had experience in operating such large liners, as a result of which Blair in a hurry forgot to hand over the key to the person who came to his place . However, many historians agree that the presence of binoculars would not have helped to prevent a catastrophe. This is also confirmed by the fact that the lookouts in the "crow's nest" noticed the iceberg before those on the bridge who had binoculars with them.

The Titanic is sinking

lifeboats

There were 2,224 people on board the Titanic, but the total capacity of the lifeboats was only 1,178. The reason was that, according to the rules then in force, the total capacity of lifeboats depended on the tonnage of the ship, and not on the number of passengers and crew members. The rules were drawn up in 1894, when the largest ships had a displacement of about 10,000 tons. The displacement of the Titanic was 46,328 tons.

But even these boats were only partially filled. Captain Smith gave the order or instruction "women and children first". The officers interpreted this order in different ways. Second mate Lightoller, who commanded the launching of the boats on the port side, allowed men to take places in the boats only if rowers were needed and under no other circumstances. First Officer Murdoch, who commanded the launching of the boats on the starboard side, allowed the men to go down if there were no women and children. So, in boat number 1, only 12 seats out of 65 were occupied. In addition, at first, many passengers did not want to take seats in boats, because the Titanic, which had no external damage, seemed safer to them. The last boats filled better, because it was already obvious to the passengers that the Titanic would sink. In the very last boat, 44 seats out of 65 were occupied. But in the sixteenth boat that left the side there were many empty seats, passengers of the 1st class were saved in it.

The crew did not even have time to lower all the boats that were on board. The twentieth lifeboat was washed overboard when the front of the steamer went under water and she floated upside down.

The report of the British commission on the results of the investigation into the circumstances of the sinking of the Titanic states that "if the boats had been delayed a little longer before launching, or if the doors of the passage had been opened for passengers, more of them could have got on the boats." The reason for the low survival rate of class 3 passengers with a high degree of probability can be considered obstacles placed by the crew for the passage of passengers to the deck, closing the doors of the passage. People in boats, as a rule, did not save those who were in the water. On the contrary, they tried to sail as far as possible from the wreck, fearing that those in the water would capsize their boats or be sucked into the funnel from a sinking ship. Only 6 people were picked up alive from the water.

Refusal of assistance by the steamer "Californian"

"Californian"

Serious criticism fell upon the SS Californian team and personally on the captain of the ship, Stanley Lord. The ship was only a few miles from the Titanic but did not respond to its distress calls and missile signals. The Californian warned the Titanic by radio of ice buildup, which caused the Californian to stop for the night, but the warnings were condemned by the Titanic's senior wireless operator, Jack Phillips.

British investigation evidence showed that at 10:10 p.m., the Californian observed the ship's lights to the south. Captain Stanley Lord and third officer S. W. Groves (who was released by Lord at 11:10 p.m.) later decided that it was a passenger liner. At 11:50 p.m., the officer saw that the ship's lights were flickering, as if they had been turned off or turned sharply, and that the port lights appeared. By order of the Lord, Morse light signals were sent to the ship between 11:30 p.m. and 1:00 a.m., but they were not received.

Captain Lord retired to his cabin at 11:00 p.m. to spend the night, however, Second Officer Herbert Stone, while on duty, notified Lord at 1:10 a.m. that the ship had fired 5 missiles. Lord wanted to know if these were company signals, that is, colored flashes used for identification. Stone replied that he did not know and that the missiles were white. Captain Lord instructed the crew to continue signaling the ship with a Morse lamp, and went to bed. Three more rockets were seen at 1:50 am and Stone noted that the ship looked strange in the water, as if it was tilted. At 2:15 am, Lord was notified that the ship was no longer in sight. The Lord asked again if the lights had any color and was informed that they were all white.

The Californian eventually answered. At approximately 5:30 am, Chief Officer George Stewart woke up wireless operator Cyril Farmstone Evans and informed him that rockets had been seen during the night and asked him to contact the ship. He received news of the sinking of the Titanic, Captain Lord was notified, and the ship went to assist. It arrived much later than the Carpathia, which had already picked up the survivors.

The investigation revealed that the ship the Californian had seen was actually the Titanic, and that the Californian could have come to its rescue, so Captain Lord acted inappropriately by not doing so. However, Lord maintained his innocence for the rest of his life, and many researchers argue that the famous positions of the Titanic and the Californian make it impossible for the former to be the infamous "Mystery Ship," a topic that "evoked ... millions of words." and … hours of heated debate”, and continues to do so [ non-authoritative source?] .

The composition of the dead and the survivors

Almost all the women and children from cabins 1 and 2 were saved. More than half of the women and children in Class 3 cabins died as they had difficulty finding their way up through the maze of narrow corridors. Nearly all of the men also died. The tragedy of the Paulson family claimed the lives of Alma's mother and all her four young children, whom Father Niels was waiting in vain for in New York.

338 men (20% of all adult men) and 316 women (74% of all adult women) survived, including Violette Jessop, Dorothy Gibson, Molly Brown, Lucy Duff Gordon, Countess of Roth and others. Of the children, 56 survived (slightly more than half of all children).

The last of the Titanic's 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 at the age of 97. Her ashes were scattered to the wind on October 24, 2009 in the port of Southampton, from where the Titanic began its only voyage.

A peculiar record belongs to Jessop's maid, Violette, who survived accidents on all 3 Olympic-class ships. She worked on the Olympic when it collided with the cruiser Hawk; escaped from the Titanic, and subsequently survived when the Britannic sank by hitting a mine during the First World War.

The sinking of the Titanic is one of the largest maritime disasters

Vessel	Country	Tonnage	Year	Number of victims	Cause of death
Goya		5230	, April, 4	7000 ~ 7000	Attack submarine L-3
Junyo-maru	Japan	5065	, September 18	5620 5620	Attack submarine HMS Tradewind
Toyama-maru ( English Toyama Maru)	Japan	7089	, June 29	5600 5600	Attack submarine USS Sturgeon
Cap Arkona		27561	, May 3	5594 5594	Air attack
Wilhelm Gustloff		25484	, January 30	9343	Attack submarine S-13
Armenia	USSR	5770		5000 ~ 5000	Air attack
Ryusei-maru ( English SS Ryusei Maru)	Japan	4861	, 25 February	4998 4998	Attack submarine USS Rasher
Doña Paz	Philippines	2602		4375 ~ 4375	Tanker collision and fire
Lancastria		16243		4000 ~4000	Air attack
General Steuben		14660		3608 3608	Attack submarine S-13
Tilbek		2815	, May 3	2800 ~ 2800	Air attack
Salzburg		1759		2000 ~ 2000	Attack submarine M-118
Titanic		52310		1514 1514	Iceberg collision
Bismarck		50900	, May 27	1995	battle with British ships
Hood, battlecruiser		41125	, May 24	1415 1415	battle with German ships
Lusitania		31550		1198 1198	Attack submarine U-20

Among the disasters that occurred outside of hostilities, the Titanic ranks third in terms of the number of victims. The sad leadership is behind the Doña Paz ferry, which collided with an oil tanker in 1987. More than 4,000 people died in the collision and subsequent fire. The second place is held by the wooden paddle steamer Sultana, which sank on April 27, 1865 on the Mississippi River near Memphis due to the explosion of a steam boiler and fire. The total death toll on the steamer exceeded 1,700, the largest disaster on a riverboat.

Theories about the causes of the accident

sheathing

On the other hand, this test only proves that modern steel is much better than the one used at the beginning of the 20th century. It does not prove that the steel used to build the Titanic was of poor quality (or not the best) for its time.

In the first years of the 21st century, in a number of mass media, with reference to the latest studies of the ship's hull by deep-sea submersibles, the opinion was expressed that in a collision with an iceberg, the ship did not receive a hole, and its skin withstood the blow. The cause of death was that the hull rivets could not prevent the divergence of its sheets, and outboard water began to flow into the resulting long gap.

radio operators

The internal communication system of the liner was extremely unsatisfactory, there was no direct communication with the captain - he had to report all messages orally. The reason was that the radiotelegraph station was considered a luxury, and the main task of the telegraph operators was to serve especially wealthy passengers - it is known that in just 36 hours of operation, radio operators transmitted more than 250 telegrams. Payment for telegraph services was made on the spot, in the radio room, and at that time was very expensive, tips were received in large quantities.

The radio log from the Titanic did not survive, but according to the surviving records from various ships that had contact with the liner, it was possible to more or less restore the picture of the work of radio operators. Reports of drifting ice and icebergs began to arrive already in the morning of the fatal date - April 14, the exact coordinates of the high-risk zone were indicated. The Titanic continued to sail on, without swerving off course or slowing down. At 19:30, in particular, a telegram came from the Mesaba transport ship: “I report ice from 42 degrees to 41 degrees 25 minutes north latitude and from 49 degrees to 50 degrees 30 minutes west longitude. I saw a large number of icebergs, ice fields. At this time, the senior communications officer of the Titanic, Jack Phillips, worked for the benefit of the passengers, transmitting an inexhaustible stream of messages to the Cape Ras station, while the most important message never reached the captain, lost in a pile of paper - the Mesaba radio operator forgot to mark the message as "Ice Report" with prefix MSG, which meant "personally to the captain." This little detail overshadowed Philips' selfless work.

On the other hand, on April 14, in addition to this message, several more iceberg warnings were received from other ships. The captain took certain measures, in particular, the officers were warned of the danger verbally and in writing, and those looking ahead were ordered to look for the presence of icebergs. Therefore, it cannot be said that Captain Smith did not know about them.

Iceberg

The news about the absence of binoculars from the lookout was received with criticism (according to many testimonies, the binoculars were only on the Belfast-Southampton segment, after this stop Hogg, on the orders of the captain, for some reason folded them in his cockpit). There is an opinion that having binoculars looking ahead, despite a moonless night, would notice an iceberg not a quarter of a mile (450 m), but 2 or 3 miles (4-6 km). On the other hand, binoculars narrow the field of view, so they are only used after when the lookout noticed something. Lookouts without binoculars spotted the iceberg before the watch officer with binoculars.

If there were even a slight wave or swell in the ocean, he would see white lambs at the “waterline” of the iceberg. As it later became known, the Titanic collided with a “black” iceberg, that is, with one that had recently turned over in the water. The side facing the liner had a dark blue color, because of this there was no reflection (an ordinary white iceberg under such a condition could be seen from a mile away).

The question of what prevented the first assistant W. Murdoch from discovering the iceberg in a timely manner remains open. The captain of the Carpathia, Rostron, said that 75% of the objects in the sea are detected from the bridge earlier than from the "crow's nest". When his steamer sailed at night to the site of the accident of the Titanic, all the icebergs on their way were seen from the bridge before they were found by lookouts (British Inquiry, questions 25431-25449).

Maneuvering

There is an opinion that if Murdoch had not given the order to reverse immediately after the command "left rudder", the Titanic would certainly have avoided a collision, since the reverse negatively affects the effectiveness of the rudder. In this case, however, the time required to execute the command is overlooked. This takes at least 30 seconds and the command was probably received with a delay; - commands for the engine room are rarely given along the route of the liner (the last one was given three days before), so no one is standing at the engine telegraph. The team simply did not have time to execute, otherwise the Titanic would have experienced a strong vibration, but no one mentions it. According to the testimonies of the survivors, the cars stopped and reversed after the collision, so this command had no practical significance.

There is also an opinion that the most correct decision would be to start only the left car in reverse. Working the propellers apart would help speed up the turn and slow down the speed. The middle propeller was driven by a steam turbine that ran on the residual steam from the onboard machines; this turbine had no reverse gear. Thus, the stopped screw, behind which there was a single rudder of a very small area, created a turbulent flow in which the already inefficient rudder almost completely lost its effectiveness. Perhaps even in order to avoid a collision, it would be necessary, on the contrary, to increase the speed of the middle propeller to increase the effectiveness of the steering wheel. Moreover, the reverse takes a considerable time, and, therefore, there were practically no chances to quickly reduce the speed.

Attention should be paid to the fact that the accident occurred on the first flight. The navigators had no experience in operating this vessel, which explains the untimely and inefficient maneuvering attempts. At the same time, Captain Smith, First Officer Wild, and First Officer Murdoch, who was on duty at the time of the accident, had experience working on the Olympic built according to a similar project. In 1903, in a critical situation, Murdoch, with his timely and decisive actions, canceling the command of his superiors, saved the steamer Arabic from a collision.

There are also suggestions that the Titanic would have remained afloat if the rudder had not been shifted and the ship would have "rammed" the iceberg, taking a hit on the stem. The device of partitions was just aimed at the "survival" of the ship in a head-on collision, while the sides of the ship were not protected. “Wilding, a shipbuilder from Belfast, calculated that the bow of the ship would be indented by 25-30 meters, but the ship would not die. It would be instant death for those who were at the bow of the vessel at that time, but the inertia of the course would be rather slow, comparable to a car traveling at this speed, which had its brakes instantly pressed to the stop,” says Barnaby. However, Murdoch is justified by the fact that he did not have the ability to measure the distance to the iceberg and could not know that the maneuver he had taken would not succeed. Therefore, he can hardly be reproached for the fact that he did not give a command that would obviously kill people.

Buoyancy

The liner was not designed to flood all the first five compartments. Such a design, although possible, is extremely expensive - the only ship built this way, Great Eastern, was unprofitable. The unprofitability of this giant ship is confirmed by the fact that it was not found possible to use it for its intended purpose, and it went down in history as a cable ship used in laying the transatlantic telegraph cable. It is also impossible not to take into account the likelihood of risk. After all, apart from the Titanic, in peacetime, not a single ship suffered such damage.

Slowing down or avoiding the iceberg field

Despite warnings about icebergs, the captain of the Titanic did not slow down or change route. But that was standard practice at the time. So, during the investigation into the death of the Titanic, Captain Gerhard C. Affeld, who commanded 5 transatlantic ships, showed that, having received warnings about icebergs, he never changed the route and reduced speed only in case of fog or bad weather. He studied the logbooks of the ships entrusted to him. According to these logs, other captains, having received warnings about icebergs, also did not change the route and, as a rule, did not slow down. On the other hand, not everyone followed this practice: the Californian ship closest to the Titanic, having reached the iceberg field, stopped at its border (and gave the Titanic a warning that was ignored).

Delayed reaction on the bridge

Lookout Reginald Lee testified that he spotted the iceberg from a distance of "half a mile (926 m) maybe more, maybe less." The Titanic would cover half a mile in 80 seconds. Helmsman Hichens testified that by the time of the collision the ship had managed to turn 2 points. Since the windows of the wheelhouse were darkened so that the light did not interfere with the observation from the bridge, Hichens could not see the iceberg. An experiment on the twin steamer Olympic showed that a turn of 2 points would take 37 seconds, counting from the moment the command was given. The authors of the book Report into the Loss of the SS Titanic: A Centennial Reappraisal, published on the occasion of the centenary of the shipwreck, restore the timing of the accident, and put forward a version of “missed 30 seconds” after the signal of the lookouts, who left Murdoch for something to visually detect an iceberg, assess the situation and make a decision.

Causes of the tragedy

Subjective reasons

The main subjective cause of death was the outdated rules of the British Merchant Shipping Code, which made the number of lifeboats dependent on the tonnage of the ship, and not on the number of passengers. The rules were established in 1894 when the tonnage of passenger ships did not exceed 12,952 tons, and all ships of 10,000 tons and above fell into one category. For such vessels, regulations required that the lifeboats had enough space for 962 people. The tonnage of the Titanic was 46,328 tons.

The owners of the Titanic, formally fulfilling the instructions (and even slightly overfulfilling them, since the Titanic's boats had 1,178 seats, not 962), provided the ship with an insufficient number of boats. Despite the fact that there were enough lifeboats to board 1178 people, only 704 were saved. There were certain subjective reasons for this. For example, second mate Charles Lightoller, who commanded the launch of the boats on the port side, followed Captain Smith's order "women and children first" literally: he allowed men to take places in the boats only if rowers were needed and under no other circumstances.

Based on the stories of Charles Lightoller, his granddaughter Lady Patten put forward a new version of the sinking of the transatlantic liner. According to the writer, the Titanic did not sink because it was sailing too fast, because of which it simply did not have time to avoid a collision with an iceberg. There was plenty of time to dodge the ice block, but the helmsman, Robert Hitchens, panicked and turned the helm in the wrong direction. The ship received a hole, due to which it eventually sank. However, passengers and crew could have been saved if the Titanic had stopped immediately after the collision. In addition, the nearest ship was only a few miles from the liner. The manager of the company that owned the huge ship, Joseph Bruce Ismay, convinced the captain to continue sailing, fearing that the incident could cause him considerable material damage. He wanted to save the Titanic, but he thought only about the financial side of the matter. The rate of water entering the holds of the liner has increased exponentially. Water entered the hull at a rate of approximately 400 tons per minute. As a result, the ship sank in a matter of hours. About why the liner went down, Lightoller told only his relatives. According to Patten, her relatives feared for their reputation and therefore did not want to disclose the true causes of the 1912 disaster. “My relatives died a long time ago, and I realized that I was the only one in the world who knew about the true cause of the sinking of the Titanic,” the writer said.

Objective reasons

The cause of the collision and loss of the vessel was a combination of adverse factors:

• The iceberg belonged to a rare type of so-called. "black icebergs" (turned over so that their dark underwater part hits the surface), because of which it was noticed too late.
• The night was windless and moonless, otherwise the lookout would have noticed the "lambs" around the iceberg.
• The speed of the steamer was too high, due to which the impact of the iceberg on the hull was of maximum force. If the captain had ordered in advance, when entering the iceberg belt, to reduce the speed of the ship, then perhaps the impact force on the iceberg would not have been enough to break through the Titanic's hull.
• The non-transmission of several telegrams from neighboring ships by members of the radio room, busy sending private telegrams from wealthy passengers for money, about the dangerous proximity of icebergs to Captain Smith, which lowered his vigilance.
• The best steel of the time, from which the Titanic was made, became brittle at low temperatures. The water temperature that night was +2…+4 °C, which made the ship's hull very vulnerable.
• The poor quality of the rivets that connected the plating sheets of the side of the ship, when an iceberg hit, the heads of forged iron rivets, which replaced the originally provided steel rivets, crumbled due to their “porosity” due to the inclusion of foreign impurities in them.
• The arrangement of partitions between the compartments was made based on a frontal impact, and the doors between the partitions simply could not withstand the pressure of water and broke under its pressure.

Flood depth

On September 1, 1985, an expedition led by the director of the Institute of Oceanology in Woods Hall, Massachusetts, Dr. Robert D. Ballard, discovered the Titanic's bedrock at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean at a depth of 3750 meters.

The distance between the remains of the bow and stern of the Titanic is about 600 meters.

The remains of the ship were discovered 13 miles west of the coordinates that the Titanic transmitted in its SOS signal.

In April 2012, one hundred years after the shipwreck, the wreck acquired the protection of the 2001 UNESCO Convention for the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage. From now on, the states parties to the Convention have the right to prevent the destruction, looting, sale and unauthorized distribution of objects found at the shipwreck. They can take all necessary measures to protect the wreckage of a sunken ship, as well as to ensure that the human remains resting in them are properly treated.

Conspiracy theory

Reflection of the Titanic in art

The crash of the liner has become one of the most famous disasters in the history of mankind. To some extent, the image of the Titanic has become a symbol of the death of something that seemed powerful and unsinkable, a symbol of the weakness of human technogenic civilization before the forces of nature. The catastrophe was widely reflected in art, especially mass art. The first film dedicated to the disaster - " Escaped from the Titanic" - appeared already in May 1912, a month after the crash. In the same year, 1912, but before the catastrophe occurred, Morgan Robertson's book "Futility, or the death of the Titan" ("Futility, or the death of the Titan") was published, the action of which took place on board a passenger ship " Titan, similar in description and displacement to the Titanic. In this book, the Titan dies after colliding with an iceberg in the fog while sailing from New York to the UK. As a result, a legend appeared about the “prediction” of the Titanic disaster by Morgan Robertson. This fact is reinforced by the fact that despite the publication of the book in 1912, it was written in 1898.

The film " Titanic", Released in 1997, was the leader in box office receipts in the world box office for 13 years ($ 1,845,034,188, of which $ 600,788,188 - in the USA), but in 2010 the record "Titanic" was broken by the film "Avatar", released by the same director; In April 2012, on the centenary of the disaster, Cameron releases his old film in 3D.

The death of the ship was dedicated to many songs of performers and groups playing in different genres. In particular, in the song of the same name by the Austrian artist Falco (1992), the Titanic is seen as a symbol of decadence, the end of an era, in the song of the Russian group Nautilus Pompilius from the album of the same name Titanic (1994), the floating ship appears as a symbol of death and doom.

see also

• Titanic Belfast (museum)

Notes

1. About the fate of the superliners of the company "White Star Line" (Retrieved April 8, 2012)

Incredible Facts

The sinking of the Titanic is one of the major tragedies of the 20th century.

This is a terrible event ruzheno many myths, conjectures and rumors.

But few people know what happened to the passengers of the fateful flight, who managed to survive the worst maritime disaster of the century.

The following selection of documentary photos will give a complete picture of what happened next with those who managed to escape from the sinking ship.

Passengers of the Titanic photo

Frederick Fleet

In this photo, 24-year-old British sailor Frederick Fleet a few days after the sinking of the Titanic. The guy was the first to spot the iceberg.

He took part in two world wars. In 1965, after a protracted depression, Fleet took his own life.

As for the events on the Titanic, the events developed approximately as follows:

On April 10, 1912, the ship set out on its first and last voyage. The huge liner raced at full speed from Southampton to New York.

On April 14, 1912, at 11:39 p.m., Friedrich Fleet spotted an iceberg right on the course, which eventually destroyed the Titanic.

After two hours and 40 minutes, faced with a huge boulder, he went to the bottom.

Of the 2224 people on board the "unsinkable" ship, only about 700 people fit into lifeboats, thanks to which they survived.

The remaining 1,500 died by being left on the sinking ship or died within minutes of falling into the frigid waters of the North Atlantic Ocean.

Shortly before dawn on April 15, the flotilla of survivors was spotted by the steamer Carpathia, which arrived at the site of the sinking of the Titanic. By 9 am, all the surviving passengers were on board the Carpathia.

Photo of the iceberg Titanic

Iceberg that sank the Titanic.

The surviving passengers of the Titanic in boats swim up to the ship Carpathia, April 15, 1912.

All the same surviving passengers after a shipwreck in boats.

Sketch of the sinking Titanic.

A sketch of a sinking ship, drawn by passenger survivor John B. Thayer. Some time later, the drawings were supplemented by Mr. P.L. Skidmore (P.L. Skidmore) is already on board the ship "Carpathia", April 1912.

The surviving passengers of the Titanic are trying to keep warm on board the ship "Carpathia".

When Carpathia made her way to New York, it was decided to send out radio messages. So the news of the ongoing tragedy spread quite quickly.

People were in shock, the relatives of the passengers were in a panic. In search of information about their loved ones, they attacked the offices of the White Star Line shipping company in New York, as well as in Southampton.

Some of the wealthy and famous surviving passengers and victims were identified prior to the Carpathia's arrival at the port.

But relatives and friends of passengers of a lower class, as well as the families of crew members, continued to remain in the dark about the fate of their relatives.

The lack of connections did not allow them to get the news immediately and they had to wait in painful uncertainty.

The Carpathia arrived in New York Harbor on a rainy evening on 18 April. The ship was surrounded by more than 50 tugboats carrying journalists. They shouted, called out to the survivors, offering money for first-hand interviews.

A reporter from one of the major American publications, who at that time was on board the Carpathia, had already managed to interview the survivors. He placed his notes in a floating cigar box and tossed them into the water so the publisher's editor could fish for the message and get the scoop first.

After all lifeboats were launched at Pier 59, owned by the White Star Line. The ship itself docked at Pier 54. In the pouring rain, the ship was greeted by an alarmed crowd of 40,000 people.

People wait for news outside the White Star Line shipping company's office in New York.

Lifeboats, thanks to which several hundred people survived.

Lifeboats at the pier of the White Star Line shipping company in New York, April 1912.

People waiting for Carpathia to arrive in New York.

Huge crowds of relatives and friends stand in the rain, waiting for the arrival of the steamer "Carpathia" in New York, April 18, 1912.

About 40 thousand people are waiting for Carpathia.

Those who managed to survive the fateful voyage on the Titanic in New York were met at the port by family and friends, as well as numerous media representatives.

Someone mourned the dead, someone wanted an autograph, and someone tried to interview the survivors.

The next day, the US Senate called a special hearing on the disaster at the old Waldorf-Astoria hotel.

The entire crew of the Titanic consisted of 885 people, of which 724 people were from Southampton. At least 549 people did not return home from the fatal flight.

Surviving crew members.

Surviving crew from left to right first row: Ernest Archer, Friedrich Fleet, Walter Perkis, George Simons and Frederic Klachen.

Second row: Arthur Bright, George Hogg, John Moore, Frank Osman and Henry Etsch.

People surrounded the Titanic survivor.

A crowd of people in the port of Devonport surrounded a man who survived from the Titanic to hear firsthand how it really happened.

Payment of compensation to victims.

April 1912

J. Hanson, seated right, District Secretary of the National Union of Sailors and Firefighters. The people around him are the survivors of the Titanic, who are receiving compensation as victims of the disaster.

Relatives waiting for the survivors of the Titanic.

People wait on the Southampton railway platform for their loved ones who survived the sinking of the Titanic.

Relatives in Southampton meet their loved ones.

Relatives waiting for the surviving crew members.

Relatives are waiting for the surviving members of the Titanic crew to disembark in Southampton.

People are returning to their homes in England. The disaster claimed the lives of 549 crew members. In total, there were 724 of those from Southampton who worked on the ship, ranging from a sailor to a cook or postman.

Relatives a few minutes before meeting with surviving relatives.

Survivors on the Titanic

Relatives greet shipwrecked relatives who have arrived in Southampton.

A surviving crew member kisses his wife, who was waiting for him on land in Plymouth, April 29, 1912.

Stewards giving evidence after a shipwreck.

The surviving stewards stand outside the courthouse. They are invited to testify to the commission investigating the Titanic disaster.

The surviving passenger of "Titanic" Signs autographs to passers-by.

People who survived on the Titanic

25. The Pasco brothers, members of the crew of the ill-fated ship, were lucky enough to survive all four.

Orphans of the Titanic

April 1912

The miraculously saved two babies could not be identified at first.

The children were later identified as Michel (age 4) and Edmond (age 2) Navratil. To get on the ship, their father took the name Louis Hoffman and used the fictitious names Lolo and Mamon for the children.

The father, with whom the children sailed to New York, died, as a result of which difficulties arose with the real names of the brothers.

However, later they, nevertheless, were able to identify and the kids were safely reunited with their mother.

In this photo, Edmond and Michel Navratil, who have already grown up, are with their mother.

Cameraman Harold Thomas Coffin being interrogated by a Senate committee at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York, May 29, 1912.

29. Child of the Titanic

A nurse holds the newborn Lucien P. Smith. His mother Eloise was pregnant with him when she returned with her husband from their honeymoon aboard the Titanic.

The baby's father died in the crash.

Eloise subsequently married another survivor of the dreaded flight, Robert P. Daniel.

And finally, a photograph of the Titanic itself on the day it left on its first and last fateful voyage...

On the night of September 1, 1985, an American-French expedition led by oceanologist Robert Ballard discovered the Titanic steam boiler at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Soon the remains of the ship itself were discovered. Thus ended the long epic search for the sunken ship, which was carried out by several independent researchers, but for a long time was unsuccessful due to incorrect coordinates of the death of the ship, broadcast on the fateful night of 1912. The discovery of the remains of the Titanic opened a new page in its history: the answers to many controversial issues; a number of facts that were considered proven and irrefutable turned out to be erroneous.

The first intentions to find and raise the Titanic appeared immediately after the disaster. The families of several millionaires wanted to find the bodies of their dead relatives in order to properly bury them, and discussed the issue of raising the Titanic with one of the companies that specialized in underwater rescue work. But at that time there was no technical possibility to carry out such an operation. A plan was also discussed to drop charges of dynamite on the ocean floor so that some bodies would rise from the explosions to the surface, but these intentions were eventually abandoned.

Later, a number of crazy projects were developed to raise the Titanic. For example, it was proposed to fill the ship's hull with ping-pong balls or attach helium tanks to it, which would lift it to the surface. There were many other projects, mostly fantastic. In addition, before trying to raise the Titanic, it had to be found first, and this was not so simple.

One of the controversial issues in the history of the Titanic for a long time remained the coordinates broadcast along with the distress signal. They were determined by the fourth assistant captain, Joseph Boxhall, based on the coordinates that were calculated a few hours before the collision, the speed and course of the vessel. There was no time to check them in detail in that situation, and Carpathia, who came to the rescue a few hours later, successfully reached the boats, however, the first doubts about the correctness of the coordinates arose already during the investigation of 1912. At that time, the question remained open and When the first serious attempts to search for the Titanic began in the 80s, the researchers faced a problem: the Titanic was neither at the indicated coordinates, nor near them. The situation was also complicated by the local conditions of the disaster - after all, the Titanic was at a depth of almost 4 km and the search required appropriate equipment.

In the end, luck smiled at Robert Ballard, who, step by step, was preparing for the expedition for almost 13 years. After almost two months of searching, when only 5 days remained until the end of the expedition and Ballard had already begun to doubt the success of the event, some strange shadows appeared on the monitor connected to the video camera on the descent vehicle. This happened at almost one in the morning on September 1, 1985. It soon became clear that this was nothing more than the wreckage of a ship. After some time, one of the steam boilers was discovered and there was no doubt that the wreckage belonged to the Titanic. The next day, the front of the ship's hull was discovered. The lack of a stern turned out to be a big surprise: after an investigation in 1912, it was officially considered that the ship sank entirely.

Ballard's first expedition gave answers to many questions and gave the world a number of modern photographs of the Titanic, but much remained unexplained. A year later, Ballard again went to the Titanic, and this expedition already used a deep-sea descent vehicle that could deliver three people to the ocean floor. There was also a small robot that allowed research inside the ship. This expedition clarified many questions that had remained open since 1912, and after it Ballard no longer planned to return to the Titanic. But what Ballard did not do, others did, and new expeditions soon reached the Titanic. Some of them were purely research in nature, some pursued the goal of lifting various objects from the bottom, incl. and for sale at auctions, which caused many scandals about the moral and ethical side of the issue. James Cameron also descended to the Titanic several times; not only for the filming of his 1997 film, but also for research using robotics inside the ship (see the documentary "Ghosts of the Abyss: Titanic"), which revealed many new facts about the condition of the ship and its once magnificent finish.

As for the issue of raising the Titanic, it became clear after Ballard's expeditions that this operation would not only be daunting and expensive; the ship's hull has long been in such a state that it will simply crumble into pieces, if not during lifting, then on the surface.

1. Let's see how the Titanic looks now and how it looked before. The Titanic sank in the Atlantic at a depth of almost 4 km. During the dive, the ship broke into two parts, which now lie on the bottom about six hundred meters apart. A lot of debris and objects are scattered around them, incl. and a pretty big piece of the Titanic's hull.

2. Model of the bow. When the ship fell to the bottom, the nose was very well buried in the silt, which greatly disappointed the first researchers, because it turned out to be impossible to inspect the place of impact on the iceberg without special equipment. The ragged hole in the body, which is visible on the layout, was formed from hitting the bottom.

3. Panorama of the bow, assembled from several hundred photographs. From right to left: the winch of the spare anchor sticks out directly above the edge of the bow, behind it there is a mooring device, immediately behind it is an open hatch into hold No. 1, from which the breakwater lines diverge to the sides. A fallen mast lies on the deck between the superstructure, under it there are two more hatches into the holds and winches for handling cargo. In front of the main superstructure, there used to be a captain's bridge, which collapsed during the fall to the bottom and is now guessed now only in separate details. Behind the bridge, a superstructure with cabins for officers, a captain, a radio room, etc., has been preserved, which is crossed by a crack formed at the site of the expansion joint. A gaping hole in the superstructure - a place for the first chimney. Immediately behind the superstructure, another hole is visible - this is a well in which the main staircase was located. To the left is something very torn - there was a second pipe.

4. The nose of the Titanic. The most button accordion object of underwater photographs of the ship. At the end, you can see a loop on which a cable was put on that held the mast.

5. The photo on the left shows the winch of the spare anchor towering over the bow.

6. The main anchor of the port side. It's amazing how he didn't fly down when he hit the bottom.

7. Spare anchor:

8. Behind the spare anchor is a mooring device:

9. Open hatch to hold No. 1. The lid flew off to the side, apparently when it hit the bottom.

10. On the mast there used to be the remains of a "crow's nest", where the lookouts were, but ten or twenty years ago they fell off down and now only the hole in the mast, through which the lookouts got to the spiral staircase, reminds of the "crow's nest". The protruding tail behind the hole is the fastening of the ship's bell.

11. Board of the vessel:

12. Only one of the steering wheels remained from the captain's bridge.

13. Boat deck. The superstructure on it in some places is either uprooted or torn.

14. The preserved part of the superstructure in front of the deck. Below on the right is the entrance to the front staircase of the 1st class.

15. Surviving davits, a bath in Captain Smith's cabin and the remains of a steamship whistle that was installed on one of the pipes.

16. A huge well now gapes in place of the front staircase. There are no traces of the stairs.

17. Staircase in 1912:

18. And the same perspective in our time. Looking at the previous photo, it's hard to believe that this is the same place.

19. Behind the stairs there were several elevators for 1st class passengers. Separate elements have been preserved from them. The inscription, depicted at the bottom right, was placed opposite the elevators and denoted the deck. This inscription belonged to deck A; the bronze letter A has already fallen off, but traces of it remain.

20. 1st class lounge on deck D. This is the bottom of the main staircase.

21. Although almost all the wooden trim of the ship has long been eaten away by microorganisms, some elements are still preserved here.

22. The restaurant and the 1st class lounge on deck D were separated from the outside world by large stained glass windows that have survived to this day.

23. Remains of former beauty:

24. From the outside, the windows are guessed by the characteristic double portholes.

25. Chic chandeliers have been hanging in their places for over 100 years.

26. The once-splendid interiors of 1st class cabins are now littered with debris and debris. In some places you can find preserved elements of furniture and objects.

29. Some more details. The door to the restaurant on deck D and a sign indicating service doors:

30. The stokers had their own "front staircase". In order not to meet passengers, a separate staircase led from the boiler rooms to the cabins of the stokers.