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Titanic is the largest and most luxurious liner of its time. They did not hesitate to call him unsinkable, and he really seemed like that. He set off on his maiden voyage at noon on the tenth of April from the English port of Southampton. Destination The destination was to be the American city of New York. But, as you know, the Titanic did not reach the shores of the United States...

Titanic's collision with an iceberg

On April 14, 1912, the liner was rushing across the North Atlantic at full speed (at a speed of 22.5 knots, which was almost the maximum speed). There were no signs of tragedy, there was complete calm. An orchestra was playing on the upper deck in a restaurant with a beautiful interior. Rich people from the first class drank champagne, walked under open air and enjoyed the wonderful weather.

Late in the evening of April 14, at 23:39, two lookouts (as sailors are officially called who observe the situation from a convenient position during a voyage) noticed an iceberg directly ahead and reported this by phone to the bridge. Officer William Murdock immediately ordered “Left Handle.” In this way he tried to prevent a collision.

But the multi-ton ship could not turn instantly, although in this case every second was worth its weight in gold - the block of ice was getting closer. And only after about half a minute the Titanic’s bow began to tilt to the left. Ultimately, the visible part of the iceberg missed the ship without hitting the starboard side.

The Titanic managed to turn two points, this was enough to prevent a head-on collision, but the liner still could not completely escape from the ice block - it ran into its hidden part, which was under water. This contact lasted approximately nine seconds. As a result, six holes were formed - all of them were below the waterline.

Contrary to popular belief, the iceberg did not “cut” the bottom of the liner. Everything was a little different: due to strong pressure, the rivets on the casing burst, the steel sheets bent and gaps appeared between them. Water began to penetrate into the compartments through them. And the penetration speed, of course, was enormous - more than seven tons per second.

The iceberg bent the ship's hull, causing the seal to be compromised

Further chronology of the tragedy

Most of the passengers on the upper deck did not initially feel any threat. The stewards serving snacks to the tables in the restaurant noted only the slight clink of spoons and forks on the tables. Some of the passengers felt a slight jolt and rattling noise, which quickly ended. Some believed that the propeller blade had simply fallen off the ship.

On the lower decks, the first consequences were more noticeable: the local passengers heard an unpleasant grinding and rumble.

At exactly midnight, Thomas Andrews, the man who designed the Titanic, came to the bridge. He had to assess the nature and severity of the damage that occurred. After reporting on what had happened and examining the ship, Andrews told everyone present that the Titanic would definitely sink.

Soon the ship began to list noticeably. The 62-year-old captain of the ship, Edward Smith, gave the order to prepare the boats and begin convening passengers for evacuation.

And the radio operators, in turn, were ordered to send SOS signals to all nearby ships. They did this for the next two hours, and only a few minutes before the complete sinking did Smith relieve the telegraph operators from work.

Several ships received distress signals, but almost all of them were too far from the Titanic. At 00:25, the Carpathia ship received a message about the tragedy on the Titanic. It was located 93 kilometers from the crash site. Immediately, the captain of the Carpathia, Arthur Rostron, sent his ship to this area. "Carpathia", rushing to help people, managed to develop that night a record speed of 17.5 knots - for this purpose, all electrical devices and heating were turned off on the ship.

There was another ship that was even closer to the Titanic than the Carpathia - only 10 nautical miles (equivalent to 18.5 kilometers). Theoretically, he could help. We are talking about the Californian liner. The Californian was surrounded by ice, and so its captain decided to stop the ship - it was planned to start moving again only the next morning.

At 23:30, the Titanic's radio operator Phillips and the Californian's radio operator Evans communicated with each other. Moreover, at the very end of this dialogue, Phillips rather rudely asked Evans not to clog the airwaves, since at that moment he was transmitting a signal to Cape Race (this is a cape on the island of Newfoundland). After that, Evans simply turned off the power in the radio room and went to bed. And 10 minutes later the Titanic collided with an iceberg. After some time, the Titanic sent the first distress signal, but the Californian could no longer receive it.

On top of that, there were no red emergency flares on the Titanic. Confidence in the ship's unsinkability was so high that no one bothered to take the red rockets with them. Then it was decided to fire volleys with ordinary whites. The hope was that the crew of the nearby ship would realize that something was wrong with the Titanic. Californian officers did see white flares, but they decided that they were just some kind of fireworks display. A fantastic series of misunderstandings!

At half past one in the morning, passengers began to be seated in boats. It immediately became clear that there were not enough places for everyone. There were twenty boats on board and their total capacity was 1,178 people.

By order of Captain Smith, his assistant Charles Lightoller, who controlled the evacuation process on the left side of the liner, only children and women were taken into the boats. Men, according to the captain, were obliged to remain on the ship until the last minute. But William Murdoch, another of Smith’s assistants, who led the evacuation on the starboard side, gave places in the boats to men when women and children were absent from the line of those gathered.

At approximately 02:15, the bow of the liner suddenly dropped down and the rest of the ship moved forward. A large cold wave swept across the decks, many people were simply carried overboard.

At about 02:20, the Titanic completely disappeared under ocean water. The liner was so huge that it took 160 minutes to sink.

After the stern was completely submerged under water, hundreds of people swam to the surface. They floated in the icy water among all sorts of things from the ship: wooden beams, pieces of furniture, doors, etc. Many tried to use all this as a floating device.

The temperature of the ocean water that night was −2°C (sea water does not freeze at this temperature due to the concentration of salt in it). A person here died from severe hypothermia within half an hour on average. And many of those moving away from the sunken ship on boats heard the heartbreaking screams of those who did not have enough space in the boats...

At approximately 04:00, the Carpathia appeared in the area of ​​the sinking Titanic. This ship carried 712 people on board and then set course for New York. Among those rescued, 394 people were women and children, 129 people were men, and another 189 people were ship crew members.

The number of deaths in this shipwreck was, according to various sources, from 1,400 to 1,517 people (the exact figure is difficult to say, because there were many stowaways on the Titanic). Thus, 60% of passengers from first class cabins managed to escape, 44% from second class cabins, 25% from those who bought third class tickets.

Characteristics of the Titanic

When commissioned, the Titanic was 269 meters long and about 30 meters wide. The height of the liner was also impressive: from the waterline to the very top boat deck there were 18.5 meters (and if you count from the keel to the top of the first pipe , then it would be 53 meters altogether). The draft of this liner was 10.5 meters, and the displacement was 52,310 tons.

Titanic in 1912 in the port of Belfast (this is where it was built)

The liner was driven by several four-cylinder steam engines and a steam turbine. At the same time, steam for them, as well as for all kinds of auxiliary mechanisms, was produced in 29 boilers. It is worth specially noting that not one of the ship’s thirty mechanics survived. They remained in the engine room and kept the steam units running until the last minute.

The role of propulsion on the Titanic was performed by three propellers. The diameter of the central propeller was 5.2 meters and had four blades. The propellers located at the edges had a larger diameter - 7.2 meters, but they had three blades. Propellers with three blades could make up to 80 revolutions per minute, and the central one - up to 180 revolutions per minute.

There were also four pipes sticking out above the upper deck, each 19 meters high. The Titanic had a double bottom and had sixteen sealed compartments. They were separated by watertight bulkheads. According to calculations, the ship would remain afloat even if any two compartments or four consecutive compartments at the bow or stern were flooded. But on the night of the tragedy, the iceberg damaged five compartments - one more than permissible.

Crew and passengers

It is known that during the tragic voyage, the ship’s crew included many people who had not undergone special training: stewards, stokers, stitchers (these were the people whose task was to bring coal to the fireboxes and throw ash overboard), cooks. There were very few qualified sailors - only 39 sailors and seven officers and mates. Moreover, some of the sailors had not even had time to become well acquainted with the structure of the Titanic, since they were accepted into service just a few days before sailing.

It’s worth telling a little about the passengers. The passenger composition was extremely varied - from mendicant emigrants from Sweden, Italy, Ireland, sailing for better life V New World, to hereditary millionaires such as John Jacob Astor IV and Benjamin Guggenheim (both deceased).

Benjamin Guggenheim put on his best tailcoat and began drinking whiskey in the hall - this is how he spent the last hours of his life

In accordance with the cost of the purchased ticket, there was a division into three classes. For those who sailed in first class, a swimming pool, a gym for physical education, a sauna, a squash court, an electric bath (a kind of “ancestor” of the solarium) and a special section for pets were provided. There was also a restaurant, elegantly furnished dining rooms, and smoking rooms.

By the way, the service in third class was also decent, better than on some other transatlantic ships of that time. The cabins were bright and comfortable, they were not cold and quite clean. The dining room served not very sophisticated, but quite acceptable dishes, and there were special decks for walking.

The rooms and spaces of the ship were strictly divided according to classes. And passengers, say, third class were forbidden to be on the first class deck.

"Titanic" in books and films

The terrible events that happened on the Titanic in April 1912 served as the basis for many literary works, paintings, songs and films.

The first book about the Titanic was written, paradoxically, long before its sinking. The little-known American writer Morgan Robertson published the story “Futility, or the Death of the Titan” back in 1898. It described the supposedly unsinkable ship Titan, which crashed on an April night when it collided with an iceberg. There were not enough lifeboats on the Titan, and therefore many passengers died.

The story did not sell well at first, but after the 1912 incident, interest in the book increased sharply - there were quite a lot of coincidences between the events described in the story and the real sinking of the Titanic. And key specifications The fictional "Titan" was similar to the characteristics of the real "Titanic" - a truly amazing fact!

Morgan Robertson and his story, where the sinking of the Titanic was to some extent predicted

And the first feature film about the tragedy was released in May of the same 1912 - it was called “Rescue from the Titanic.” It lasted 10 minutes, was silent and in black and white. The main role here was played by Dorothy Gibson, an actress who herself ended up on the Titanic on that ill-fated night and found her salvation in boat number seven.

In 1953, director Jean Negulesco turned to the theme of the tragic voyage of the Titanic. According to the plot, on the Titanic a husband, wife and their two children are sorting things out among themselves. And everything seems to be getting better, but then the liner hits an iceberg and begins to sink to the bottom. The family has to endure separation, the wife and daughter sail away on a boat, the son and father remain on the sinking ship. The film, by the way, received one Oscar in the same 1953.

But the most famous film about the sinking of the liner is James Cameron's Titanic, which appeared in theaters (and then on DVD) in 1997. It won as many as eleven Oscar awards and for a long time was considered the highest-grossing film in history.

Authoritative experts on the sinking of the Titanic (for example, historian Don Lynch and marine artist Ken Marshall) took part in preparing the script and creating the scenery for Cameron’s film. Collaboration with respected experts made it possible to convey some episodes of the crash quite reliably. Cameron's Titanic sparked a new wave of interest in the history of the liner. In particular, after the release of the film, the demand for books and exhibitions related to this topic increased.

Discovery of the Titanic at the bottom of the Atlantic

The legendary ship lay at the bottom for 73 years before it was discovered. More specifically, it was found in 1985 by a group of divers led by oceanographer Robert Ballard. As a result, it turned out that under the enormous pressure of the water, the Titanic (the depth here was about 4000 meters) fell apart into three parts. The wreckage of the airliner was scattered over an area with a radius of 1.6 kilometers. Ballard and his associates first found the bow of the ship, which, apparently due to its large mass, went deep into the ground. Food was found 800 meters away. The remains of the middle part were also spotted nearby.

Between the large elements of the liner at the bottom, one could also see small objects testifying to that era: a set of copper cutlery, unopened wine bottles, coffee cups, door handles, candelabra and ceramic children's dolls...

Later, several expeditions to the remains of the Titanic were conducted by the RMS Titanic company, which legally had the rights to fragments of the liner and other artifacts associated with it. During these expeditions, more than 6,000 objects were recovered from the bottom. They were subsequently valued at $110 million. These items were exhibited in thematic exhibitions or sold at auction.

But why wasn’t the Titanic lifted up completely? Alas, this is impossible. Experts have found that any attempt to raise the hull of the liner will lead to its destruction, and therefore it will most likely remain at the bottom forever.

Documentary film "Titanic": The Death of a Dream"

British transatlantic steamer The Titanic was built in Belfast at the Harland and Wolff shipyard for the White Star Line shipping company. At the time of commissioning it was the largest ship in the world. On April 10, 1912, the Titanic sailed on its first and last voyage. The command of the Titanic on its first voyage was entrusted to Edward John Smith, the most experienced captain of the White Star Line, his captain's experience totaled 25 years. He led a crew of more than 900 people.

Passengers boarded the Titanic at 9:30 a.m. on April 10 at the port of Southampton. At 9:45 a.m. a special White Star Line train departed from London Waterloo Station, carrying first class passengers to Southampton. Around eleven o'clock the train arrived at the ocean dock where the Titanic was moored. 245 second and 497 third class passengers from London were carried by an earlier train, departing at 7:30 and arriving at 9:30.

At 11:50 the ship's whistle announced that the Titanic would set sail in ten minutes. Journalists, mourners and port officials left the ship. A pilot boarded the Titanic. Six tugboats began to pull the Titanic away from the pier and into the fairway of the Test River. When the tugs dropped the cables, the pilot commanded “Slow forward,” and the Titanic moved past the berth walls located behind the ocean dock under its own power. At that time, the steamships Oceanic and New York were moored there, the latter moored alongside the Oceanic. At that moment, when the Titanic caught up with the New York, the six steel cables that moored the ship burst, and the stern of the New York, which fell into a dangerous zone of external hydrodynamic pressure created by the movement of more large airliner, began to approach the Titanic. Captain Smith immediately ordered the vehicles to be stopped. One of the tugboats accompanying the Titanic went around the New York, secured the cable thrown to it from the deck, and with all the power of its machines began to pull the ship back to the shore. The Titanic passed the New York by just a few tens of centimeters. Two tugboats moved the Titanic, which had narrowly avoided a collision, back to allow two other tugboats to move the New York to its new berth.

After the incident, the Titanic continued its journey at low speed an hour late. From Southampton Bay, the Titanic entered the Solent Strait, skirting the Isle of Wight on the eastern side. Having reached the eastern tip of the Isle of Wight, the ship slowed down again to allow the pilot to leave. After which, an order was transmitted from the bridge to the engine room to increase speed, and the Titanic headed south, towards the shores of France.

2 Cherbourg

The weather over the English Channel was windy and cloudy. The Titanic covered a distance of 147 km in six and a half hours and arrived in Cherbourg at about 18:30. The port of Cherbourg did not have a berth suitable for the Titanic, so the liner anchored in the middle of the bay. Passengers and cargo were delivered on board by auxiliary vessels Nomadik and Traffic. Many traveled to the Cherbourg maritime station by a special train, coordinated with the schedule of the ship, which departed from the Paris Saint-Lazare station at 9:40. A significant portion of the new passengers were wealthy Americans who had finished their winter season in Monte Carlo, Nice, Cannes and other Riviera resorts. The stay in Cherbourg lasted an hour and a half; at 20:00 the Titanic weighed anchor and set off for Queenstown.

3 Queenstown

On April 11, the Titanic was already approaching the coast of Ireland. A few kilometers before the port, a pilot boarded the ship. At 11:55 am the Titanic dropped anchor in Cork Harbour, 6.5 km from Queenstown.

The auxiliary ships America and Ireland carried passengers (mostly young Irish emigrants, third class passengers), cargo and mail to the Titanic. In addition to passengers, journalists, photographers and local merchants boarded with the permission of the captain. At 1:30 p.m., after all the guests had left the ship, the anchor was raised and the Titanic set sail for New York with 2,208 people on board.

4 Transatlantic route

When the Titanic reached the Fastned lighthouse, which marked the beginning of the transatlantic route, the captain gave the command “Full speed ahead” and the ship reached a speed of 21 knots (39 km/h). In 1898, shipping companies whose ships provided communications between Europe and North America, have entered into an agreement to service certain lines used at different times of the year. First of all, this was to allow ships to avoid, especially during certain months, areas where there was a threat of ice and fog. In addition, precisely marked courses when moving from east to west and back should have helped to minimize the risk of collisions between ships going towards each other. And finally, in the event of an accident, the established corridors in navigation in the North Atlantic made it possible to count on the quick help of another ship traveling the same route. From January 15 to August 14, ships were ordered to move along the southern route, the turning point to New York was located approximately 750 km southeast of the island of Newfoundland. This was done in order to bypass the area of ​​the Great Newfoundland Bank, where a large number of icebergs accumulated. High tides caused by the record-breaking approach of the Moon and Earth in January 1912 helped icebergs reach the Great Bank of Newfoundland a month earlier. In April 1912, a north-northwest wind dominated over the Atlantic. The coincidence of the directions of constant winds and ocean currents caused icebergs to penetrate further south than usual.

As soon as the Titanic left Ireland the skies cleared and the weather was good for the time of year throughout the voyage. During the second day (from noon on April 11 to noon on April 12), the Titanic covered 715 km, on the third day - 962 km, and on the fourth day - 1012 km.

On Sunday, April 14, the ship was already sailing at a speed of 22.75 knots (42 km/h), but in the morning, on the initiative of the captain, two more boilers were launched in boiler room No. 5. Early in the morning the weather was cloudy, light rain was falling, and a westerly wind was blowing up to 7 m/s. By midday the sky had cleared, but it had become colder. The air temperature was 6 °C

On April 14, the Titanic's radio operators began receiving messages about icebergs and ice fields with their coordinates. The first ice warning came at 9:00 from the steamer Caronia, warning of ice fields and accumulations of icebergs and growlers (ice debris). Captain Smith acknowledged receipt of the message. At 11:40, the captain received a telegram from the steamer Noordam, which reported drifting ice in approximately the same area indicated by the Caronia.

At 13:42 the Baltic ship relayed the following message: “To Captain Smith, Titanic.” Clear weather since departure. The Greek steamer "Athens" reports the passage of icebergs and a large number of ice fields today in the area of ​​​​41°51′ north latitude and 41°52′ west longitude... I wish you and the Titanic success."

Smith, showing this warning to White Star Line managing director Bruce Ismay, calculated new route. The Titanic set course for Sandy Hook Spit an hour after passing the turning point where transatlantic ships usually headed for New York. The liner continued to go southwest and traveled about 40 km in this direction before, at 17:50, First Mate Wild commanded the helmsman: “Rudder 47 degrees to the right,” and the Titanic changed from heading 242° to heading 289°. This was done in order to definitely avoid encountering icebergs.

At 13:45, the German ship America reported encountering two large icebergs 620 km south of Newfoundland. However, this warning was not transmitted to the bridge. The reasons for this have not been clarified; perhaps the radio operators forgot to convey the information to the captain, as they were busy troubleshooting the equipment.

At 19:30 an ice warning was received from the steamer Californian: “...Ice in the area between 42° and 41°25" north latitude and 49°30" west longitude. We saw large cluster broken ice and many large icebergs. There are ice fields too. The weather is good and clear."

This message was also not conveyed to the bridge watch. Apparently, radio operator Jack Phillips did not understand him because he was busy sending to the relay station at Cape Race (Newfoundland) private telegrams that had accumulated while the radio transmitter was faulty. The last ice warning was received at 22:30 from the Californian, which was drifting on the edge of an ice field about 50 km from the Titanic. The Californian's radio operator, Cyril Evans, began to transmit the coordinates of the danger zone, but Phillips rudely interrupted him: “Shut up! I am working. I have a connection with Cape Race.” Thus, the most important ice warning was ignored.

At 21:20, the captain left the bridge and went to a dinner in his honor, hosted by the Widener couple. At 10:30 p.m., the Titanic parted ways with the Rappahannock, which was heading in the opposite direction from Halifax. Shortly before this, the Rappahannock, maneuvering among drifting ice floes, received damage to its stern. As soon as both ships were within sight of each other, Albert Smith, who was acting as captain on the Rappahannock, used a Morse lamp to establish contact with the Titanic: “We have just passed through an ice field and between several icebergs,” in response with “ Titanic" signaled: "Message received. Thank you. Good night" No measures were taken after this: the number of patrolmen was not increased, the ship continued to sail at the same high speed.

At 21:30, another warning about the presence of icebergs was received - this time from the Mesaba steamer, which was addressed to all ships going east: “Ice conditions. Today, icebergs and extensive ice fields have been spotted in the area of ​​41°25′ north latitude, between 49° and 50°3′ west longitude. The weather is good, clear.”

In the evening it became very cold, in two hours the air temperature dropped from 6 °C to 0 °C, there was complete calm, there were not even ripples on the surface of the water. The night from April 14 to 15 was windless, cold, clear and moonless. The Titanic was sailing almost at top speed, more than 22 knots.

5 Crash

At twelve o'clock at night most of the passengers went to bed. First mate William Murdock took over the watch, replacing Charles Lightoller, the second mate. On the top platform, at an altitude of 29 m above the waterline, two lookouts were on duty: Frederick Fleet and Reginald Lee. The air temperature dropped to −1°C, and there was no excitement. The ship was traveling at a speed of 22.5 knots (41.7 km/h).

Visibility was about six kilometers, but the moon did not shine that night. The lookouts were warned about the danger of ice, and they and other crew members were ordered to look out for icebergs and ice debris in the sea especially carefully.

At 23:30, Fleet and Lee noticed a slight haze ahead on the horizon, but did not attach any importance to it. Nine minutes later, Fleet saw the outline of an iceberg straight ahead, about 600 m away. He rang the bell three times, indicating an obstacle ahead, and contacted sixth mate James Moody by telephone. He reported the iceberg to William Murdoch, who commanded helmsman Robert Hichens: “Right board” (in 1912 terminology, the command “Right board” meant turning the helm as far as possible to the left). He himself moved the handles of the machine telegraphs to the “Stop machine” position. A little later, so that the stern did not hit the iceberg, he commanded “Left on board”, thus trying to go around the iceberg. It took about 30 seconds for the steam drive to turn the rudder blade. Stopping the propellers led to a decrease in angular speed (turnability decreased).

The iceberg was approaching the ship, which continued to move forward at high speed by inertia. Only after 25-30 seconds the Titanic’s bow began to slowly deviate to the left. At the last second, the iceberg passed the stem and smoothly passed along the starboard side. The Titanic managed to turn 2 points, which was enough to avoid a head-on collision, but not enough to avoid contact with the iceberg. At 23:40, the starboard side of the liner touched the underwater part of the iceberg. On the upper decks, people felt a weak push and a slight trembling of the hull; on the lower decks the blow was a little more noticeable. As a result of the collision, six holes with a total length of about 90 m were formed in the skin of the starboard side. As a result of contact with the iceberg, five bow compartments were damaged; the unsinkability system of the liner was not designed for this. Designer Thomas Andrews, called by the captain for consultation, stated that the ship could remain afloat for no more than an hour and a half.

At 00:05, Captain Smith ordered the crew to prepare the lifeboats for launch, then went into the radio room and ordered the radio operators to broadcast a distress signal. The boarding of the first passengers into the boats began at about 00:20; on the orders of the captain, children and women were placed in them first. Since the collision was practically not felt by the passengers, they were reluctant to leave the ship, on which everything was outwardly in order: there were no power outages, the trim on the bow increased slightly during the first hour. To prevent panic, crew members reported that the evacuation was being carried out as a precaution. The captain's assistants supervised the boarding of passengers into the boats. During the first hour, only 180 people were evacuated; the boats were lowered half-empty. At 1:20 am, water began to flood the forecastle. At this time, the first signs of panic appeared. The evacuation went faster.

7 ships responded to the distress signal and went to the disaster site. Of these, the closest (about 93 km) was the steamship Carpathia. Heading towards the sinking Titanic, he reached his maximum speed of 14 knots.

After 1:30 the bow trim began to grow rapidly, and panic began on board. The boats aft on the starboard side were lowered overcrowded. The crew tried their best to hold back the onslaught of the crowd and let women and children into the boats first. The members of the engine team did not stop working. Through the efforts of boilermakers, machinists, and mechanics, the system maintained the steam pressure necessary to generate electricity and operate the pumps that pump out water.

After 2:05 the last boat was lowered, and around 2:10 water began to flood the boat deck and captain's bridge. The 1,500 people remaining on board rushed towards the stern. The trim began to grow before our eyes, and at 2:15 the first chimney collapsed. At 2:16 the power went out. At 2:18, with a bow trim of about 23°, the liner broke apart. Bow, having fallen off, immediately sank to the bottom, and the stern filled with water and sank in two minutes. At 2:20 the Titanic completely disappeared under water.

Hundreds of people swam to the surface, but almost all of them died from hypothermia: the water temperature was −2 °C. About 45 people were saved on two folding boats that did not have time to be lowered from the liner. Eight more were rescued by two boats that returned to the wreck site (No. 4 and No. 14). An hour and a half after the Titanic was completely submerged, the steamship Carpathia arrived at the disaster site and picked up 712 survivors of the wreck. As a result of the tragedy, 1,496 people died.

Exactly ninety-seven years ago, on a cold night from the fourteenth to the fifteenth of April, in the middle Atlantic Ocean The most famous maritime disaster in the history of mankind occurred. The ship of the 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, a ship that was considered completely unsinkable, sank? For almost a hundred years, the active human mind has been constructing versions of the catastrophe; fortunately, there is no shortage of riddles here. I have been interested in this story since childhood - now I probably 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 ships in the world"

Few people know that the Titanic had a twin brother - the ship Olympic, an exact copy of it, also owned by the White Star Line. How is this possible, the reader may be surprised, since 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 in size to it? No, the Titanic was indeed longer than its twin. 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, perhaps, with the armed eye too), so that an outsider, looking at the twins standing side by side, could not tell which one was which.

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

Well, rock, not rock, but the fate of the Olympic was indeed full of troubles. His career began when the ship crashed into a dam during launching. After that, small and large accidents rained down on him one after another, and the ship did not even seem to be insured. There are rumors that after a number of accidents, the owners would be happy to insure their ship, but insurance companies refused to deal with the failed liner. The most serious accident was a collision with the English war cruiser Hawk, which led the White Star Line to significant financial problems: expensive repairs were needed, and the company's financial situation was very sad. So the Olympic was placed in Belfast docks to await a decision on its future fate. And now - attention! Look at the photo on the left - this is almost the only photo in existence that shows the Titanic and Olympic standing side by side. It was made in Belfast. Final rigging of the Titanic
at the Belfast shipyard

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

This version is supported by the strange behavior of the ship's captain, Edward Smith. Why was such a seasoned, experienced sea wolf so careless about the safety of his ship? Why did he stubbornly ignore messages coming from other ships about drifting icebergs, and even himself, it seems, directed the liner along the course on which it would be easiest to encounter an ice mountain? Why did he do this, if not to carry out the White Star plan? Personally, it seems to me that this was precisely for this purpose, but... the plan was completely different. But more on that later. Titanic's propeller. In this photo, however, you can’t see the numbers.

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 Robert Ballard's expedition in September '85). So, the participants of one of the expeditions who descended to to the lost ship, photographs were taken of the propeller, on which the minted serial number of the Titanic is clearly visible - 401 (its older brother had the number exactly 400). Proponents of the conspiracy theory claim, however, that the Olympic damaged its propeller after a collision with the cruiser Hawk, and White Star replaced it with a propeller from the then unfinished Titanic. But 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’ll 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 industrialist John Morgan, one of the owners of the Titanic, was supposed to sail on board his ship, but canceled his ticket a day before the ship left the port.

They also say (this is where the mysticism began) that the tycoon was dissuaded from going by Nikola Tesla, endowed with the gift of foresight, whose development was financed by Morgan.

Second version. Chasing the Blue Ribbon

It all started a long time ago, when regular maritime communications were 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 became. In 1840, the Cunard company invented a prize for ships that set a speed record: now the ship that crossed the Atlantic Ocean faster than all its predecessors received a reward “ Blue ribbon Atlantic".

Actually, there was no material prize. The winner did not receive a cash prize, nor was the captain given a commemorative cup, which could be placed in a prominent place in the wardroom. But the ship acquired something more - priceless prestige that could not be achieved 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 item in shipping. And in general - see for yourself: if you are a rich businessman, maybe even a millionaire, which ship would you prefer to travel on? Isn't it the most prestigious and fastest?

At the time of the Titanic's departure from Southampton, the Blue Riband was owned by the Mauritania, a ship owned by White Star's main competitor. Naturally, this could not be tolerated, and White Star decided to bet on its favorite. The Titanic's winning of the Blue Riband would be a triumph for the corporation, helping to improve its shaky position: the All Atlantic Ribbon typically carried four times as many passengers as other similar ships.

Due to the threat of a collision with floating ice, the prescribed route of the Titanic (and any other ship following the same course) did not run in a straight line, but made a small detour, skirting the dangerous ocean area where most icebergs drift. Of course, this maneuver lengthens the road. That's why it might seem that Captain Smith was steering his ship straight into a cluster of icebergs - he just needed to take a shortcut and get the Blue Ribbon at all costs. That is why the Titanic was moving at full speed and did not slow down even after receiving several radio warnings about ice danger from other ships. Let other ships worry, but 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, can instantly report it to the captain’s bridge via telephone: the Titanic is equipped with the latest technology. And if a collision does occur, well, that just 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 waterproof compartments, so that if it suddenly 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's one thing - the liner will not sink, even if four compartments are filled! And a ship can receive such damage only in war.

Well, it’s not for nothing that pride is one of the deadly sins. She played a cruel joke on the Titanic: the iceberg damaged five compartments - one more than was permissible. A piece of the Titanic's plating 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 raised to the surface and subjected to a fragility test: a sheet of metal, fixed in clamps, had to withstand the blow 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 like on that fateful night. Modern metal came out of the test with honor: under the blow of a hammer it bent, but remained intact. The one raised from the bottom split into two parts. Maybe it became so fragile after lying on the ocean floor for eighty years? Researchers managed to obtain a sample of steel from those years at the Belfast shipyard where the Titanic was built. He passed the strength test no better than his brother. The experts' conclusion was that the steel used in the Titanic's structure was of very low 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 what it is today. If the liner's skin had been made of high-quality steel, the hull would have simply bent 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 that 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 sinking of the Titanic.

LONDON. The proceedings of the commission to investigate the circumstances of the sinking of the Titanic were opened by a representative of the trade department, Isaacs, who pointed out that from the moment it went to sea, the Titanic was moving at a speed of 21 knots per hour, and this speed was not reduced until the very moment of the collision with the ice mountain despite receiving warnings about moving ice. During the investigation, special attention will be paid to the insufficient number of rescue boats on the ship and to the installation of watertight bulkheads.
* * * * *

But the Iskra publication, as befits an “artistic and literary magazine,” describes the situation in the best traditions of the yellow press:

The sinking of the Titanic.

Russian press about the sinking of the Titanic April 1, at 10:25 am, a real floating city, the greatest in the world, the luxurious nine-story steamship Titanic (length ¼ verst (126 fathoms), displacement 66,000 tons, cost at 20,000,000 rubles, with machines of 55,000 horsepower, developing a speed of up to 38 versts per hour) on the way to New York, having 2,700 people on board, ran into floating ice at full speed. At midnight, the Titanic reported via wireless telegraph: “We’re going down.”

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

1,410 people died.

William Stead died on board the Titanic. A committed journalist, with immense faith in the power of the printed word, Stead exposed the horrors of the debauchery of aristocratic London, its brothels, child trafficking, and energetically advocated for an end to the Anglo-Boer War and for rapprochement with Russia. In 1905, Stead came to Russia with the goal 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. Apparently, supporters of the new hypothesis assured, spontaneous combustion of coal occurred in one of the ship’s coal storages (well, this is indeed possible), the fire spread throughout the hold, reached the steam boilers, which exploded, causing the ship to go to the bottom. As for the iceberg, it just happened to be nearby, so it was blamed for the crash of the liner. One of the Titanic's watertight bulkheads

Yes, indeed, there was a fire on the Titanic - and this is no longer speculation, but an established fact. However, could it have caused the disaster? Oh, that's unlikely. How do you imagine a fire in a coal bunker? A roaring flame casting ominous crimson reflections on the metal cladding of the walls, bare-chested sailors rushing about, someone pumping a pump, and a stream of water disappearing into a raging wall of fire? I must disappoint you - in fact, everything is much more prosaic. In general, a fire in a coal bunker on ships of that time was a fairly common thing. In such a fire, coal does not glow, does not burn, but quietly and peacefully smolders, sometimes for several days. They fought such fires in the simplest way - they burned smoldering coal out of turn in steamship fireboxes. So a fire in a coal hold is, of course, an unpleasant phenomenon, but, as a rule, it does not promise any serious troubles for the ship. And certainly not, under any circumstances, capable of causing such monstrous destruction as is attributed to it by supporters of the version of the Titanic’s death from flames. Moreover, the fire on the ship was extinguished even before its last voyage. The bunker was emptied and inspected by specialists from the shipyard where the Titanic was located. It seems that the most serious consequence of the fire was a slight deformation of one of the watertight bulkheads, which could not in any way 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.

In the early twentieth century, the letters "CQD" - short for "Come Quick, Danger" - were adopted as a distress signal. But this signal was inconvenient in that it was also used to warn on land about train accidents. In 1906, at the International Radiotelegraph Conference, it was proposed to introduce a special signal for maritime disasters. It was then that the letters known today throughout the world – SOS – were chosen. Contrary to popular belief, it is not an acronym for a phrase like “Save Our Souls.” These 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 accidents. The Titanic’s radio operator, twenty-five-year-old John Phillips, also sent it: “CQD, here are our coordinates: 41.46 north 50.14 west. We require immediate assistance. We're drowning. 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 on the air, cynically joking: “Dude, try knocking out the SOS signal - we won’t have such an opportunity again in our lives.” Phillips 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 from World War I

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

Based on these facts, some Western publications proposed their own version of the death of the Titanic in the mid-nineties: a torpedo attack by a German submarine secretly accompanying 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.

Firstly, there was a collision with an iceberg - this is beyond doubt. The deck of the ship was even covered with snow and ice chips. The cheerful passengers started playing football with ice cubes - it would become clear later that the ship was doomed. The collision itself was surprisingly quiet - almost none of the passengers felt it. The torpedo, you must admit, could hardly have exploded completely silently (especially since some claim that the submarine fired as many as six torpedoes at the ship!). Proponents of the theory of the German attack claim, however, that people in the boats heard a terrible roar just before the Titanic sank - well, this was two and a half hours later, when only the stern raised into the sky remained above the water and the death of the ship did not raise any doubts. It’s unlikely that the Germans would have fired a torpedo at an almost sunken ship, would it? And the roar that the survivors heard was explained by 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 (however, they will learn about this only after the liner is discovered at the bottom: the break occurred below the water level), and this, too, is unlikely to have happened silently . And why would the Germans suddenly start sinking a passenger liner two years before the start of the war? This seems dubious, to put it mildly. 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 film camera to the remains of the ship on the Mir-1 and Mir-2 bathyscaphes - they can be seen in the documentaries fragments of the film. During each dive, Cameron could only film for fifteen minutes due to the fact that only so much film could fit in the camera.

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

Fifth version. Curse of the Egyptian Mummy

The very first horror movie about a mummy

Yes, yes, imagine, there is such a version! I specifically 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 Amennophis (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, magic amulets. Among them was an image of Osiris, decorated with the inscription: “Wake up from your swoon, and your gaze will crush everyone who stands in your way.” Others, however, insisted that it was written “Rise from the dust, and one look from your eyes will triumph over any intrigues against you,” but what difference does it really make? When still others timidly suggested that nothing like that was written on the mummy, it was certainly clear that this was nonsense.

The mummy was acquired by one collector, then another, a third, and all the previous owners, of course, died under the most mysterious and mysterious circumstances. That is, perhaps, 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? Owners of mummies, as everyone knows, are supposed to die, preferably a capital death.

Ticket to the Titanic

Finally, our mummy was purchased from a British museum by a certain American millionaire and sent to his American residence on board a ship. Well, guess which airliner was chosen for this purpose?

The sarcophagus along the way was an ordinary box, either glass or wood (not tin, at least for sure), and it was kept right next to the captain's bridge. Mystics of all stripes enthusiastically claim that Captain Edward Smith, of course, could not resist the temptation and looked into this box with the mummy: their eyes met and... no, they did not fall in love with each other; quite the opposite: a monstrous curse came true. Otherwise, judge for yourself, how can you explain that the captain’s head went dark, and with his own intrepid hand he directed the Titanic straight to certain death?

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

It's a shame that the mummy died a thousand years before Aristotle was born, so she had trouble with logic. Otherwise, she would have realized that the immediate consequence of the ship ramming the iceberg would be the death of her mummified, precious body - it was unlikely to survive in ocean water for more than a few days. And the destruction of the body is the worst thing that can happen to a mummy: its soul will have nowhere to return. So if the mummy really had magical power, it would be in her interests to protect the Titanic as the apple of her magical eye. Or maybe she also bought into the advertising rhetoric about an unsinkable ship and did not pay attention to the dangerous icebergs?

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

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

Did you know that...

Immediately after the sinking 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's all in the picture, and there's nothing more to say about her:

Ex-Gigantik. What will 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 depths of the Atlantic, the younger one was still just building on the ropes. To prevent a similar tragedy from happening to it again, modifications began to be made to its design while it was moving - for example, the number of lifeboats was increased (you can see them in the photo - on the upper deck, one above the other). And the most unexpected of the security measures taken was - what did you think? Changing the name of the vessel. Remembering 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 the hell is not joking about, really?

The new ship was named patriotically: Britannic. Typically, this did not help: in the First World War, the youngest of the ships was sunk by a German submarine.

But what was it really like?

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

Perhaps the first link was the successful start of the journey - yes, that’s right. On the morning of April 10, during the departure of the Titanic from the quay wall of the port of Southampton, the superliner passed too close to the American ship New York, and a phenomenon known in navigation as ship suction arose: the New York began to be attracted to the one moving nearby. "Titanic". However, thanks to the skill of Captain Edward Smith, a collision was avoided. Ironically, if the accident had happened, it would have saved one and a half thousand lives: if the Titanic had been delayed in 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 transmit it to Edward Smith: the telegram was not marked with a special prefix “personally to the captain”, and was lost in a heap of papers. That's 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, big business), but why did he risk the lives of passengers? It wasn't that much of a risk, really. In those years the captains ocean liners passed often dangerous with ice areas without slowing down: it was like crossing the road at a red light: it seems like you shouldn’t do that, but it always works out. Almost always. To the credit of Captain Smith, it must be said that he remained faithful to maritime traditions and remained on the dying ship until the very end.

But why was the bulk of the iceberg not noticed? Here everything came together: a moonless, dark night, windless weather. If there were even small waves on the water surface, those looking ahead could see whitecaps 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 over with its underwater, water-saturated, dark part upward, which is why it was practically invisible at night from afar (an ordinary, white iceberg would have been visible a mile away ). The watchman saw him only 450 meters away, and there was almost no time left for maneuver. Perhaps the iceberg would have been noticed earlier, but here another link in the fatal chain played a role - there were no binoculars in the “crow’s nest”. The box where they were kept was locked, and the key to it was hastily taken with him by the second mate, who had been removed from the ship just before departure. It is believed that this photo shows the same iceberg

After the lookout nevertheless saw the danger and reported the iceberg to the captain's bridge, there was a little more than half a minute left before the collision. Officer of the watch Murdoch, who was on watch, gave the order to the helmsman to turn left, while simultaneously transmitting the command “full astern” to the engine room. Thus, he made a grave mistake, adding another link in the chain that led the liner to death: even if the Titanic had crashed into an 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 have been flooded. With such damage, the liner would have remained afloat and could have waited for help from other ships.

And if Murdoch, having turned the ship to the left, had ordered an increase rather than a decrease in speed, the collision might not have happened at all. However, frankly speaking, the order to change the speed hardly plays a significant role here: in thirty seconds it was hardly executed in the engine room. Thomas Andrews

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

It should be said that Thomas Andrews himself, a talented designer who built this liner, traveled on the Titanic. Of course, after the tragedy there were people who blamed him for the unsuccessful design of the ship. These reproaches are without any basis - Andrews actually built the most advanced ship of his time. It is to him that the survivors of the crash owe it to him 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 begin 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 it was designed for), but the boats had room 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 too literally the captain's order to put women and children in the boats, and did not allow men there, even if they remained free places. However, at first no one was particularly eager to get into the boats. The passengers did not understand what was happening and did not want to leave the huge, comfortably lit, such a reliable liner, and it was unclear 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 for your health.

But why was there such a monstrous discrepancy between 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 interfered with first-class passengers walking along the deck, and this was quickly corrected: the Titanic’s motto was “comfort above all.” But how could such a poorly equipped rescue equipment ship? It's all about the outdated rules of the British Navigation Code, adopted back in 1894. In accordance with it, a ship of a certain size was assigned a certain number of boats. And since the displacement of the largest passenger ships of that time rarely exceeded 10,000 tons, all such giant ships were combined into a single category with instructions for them to have on board a 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 exceeded the instructions of the code: instead of the required 962 life-saving seats on the ship, there were 1178. Unfortunately, they did not attach any importance to the discrepancy between this number and the number of passengers on board. Photo of the Titanic's radio operator, taken by a crooked photographer

It is especially bitter that not far from the sinking Titanic there stood another passenger ship, "The Californian". A few hours ago, he notified neighboring ships that he was locked in ice and was forced to stop so as not to accidentally run into an ice block. The radio operator from the Titanic, who was almost deafened by the Morse code from the Californian (the ships were very close, and the signal of one echoed too loudly in the headphones of the other), impolitely interrupted the warning: “Go to hell, you are interfering with my work!” 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 necessity, and this miracle of technology aroused great interest among the wealthy public. From the very beginning of the voyage, the radio operators were literally inundated with private messages - and no one saw anything reprehensible in the fact that the Titanic’s radio operators paid such attention to wealthy passengers who wished to send a telegram to the ground directly from the liner. And at that moment, when colleagues from other ships reported floating ice, the radio operator was transmitting another message to the continent. Radio communication was more like an expensive toy than a serious tool: ships of that time did not even have a 24-hour watch at the radio station. So the radio operator from the Californian, having completed his assigned shift, went to bed in the evening and could not receive a desperate distress signal - SOS. If it had been possible to inform the Californian about the collision, it could have come to the rescue in less than an hour, but 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 it. Well, rockets, and rockets. The moneybags from the Titanic are probably celebrating something. Look, they set off fireworks for themselves...

But, fortunately for the passengers, several ships still responded to the distress signal. Among them was the Olympic, the twin of the Titanic, but it was too far away - a full 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 top speed. At 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 to the boilers.” There were no more radio signals from the superliner... Surviving passengers of the Titanic on board the Carpathia

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

At four in the morning, four and a half hours after the Titanic collided with the ice mass, and two hours after its stern disappeared into the depths of the sea, the Carpathia approached the scene of the tragedy and began 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 others was futile. At this water temperature, a life jacket does not save: a person dies from the cold in a few minutes.

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

P.S.

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

Before:

"Titanic" at the Harland and Wolfe shipyard before launching (colorized photograph) Titanic leaving 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" Café Parisien with ocean view (colorized photo) Gym on the Titanic The famous grand staircase with the clock (here DiCaprio waited for Kate Winslet on a date) Glass dome over the main staircase. Only first class passengers were allowed to admire this beauty.


You will find many more colored photographs of the Titanic on titanic-in-color.com

After:

3D model of the Titanic on the ocean floor The remains of the Titanic at the bottom Bow of the ship Fragment of ship hull Opened left side window Captain's helm Anchor Davit for launching rescue boats Once upon a time a man lay here Ceramic cup at the bottom The wooden china box is long gone, but the porcelain remains there There is still glass in the windows of Captain Smith's cabin. Captain Smith's bath with hot water, salt or fresh as desired


100 years ago, on the night of April 15, 1912, after colliding with an iceberg in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, the Titanic liner sank, carrying more than 2,200 people.

Titanic is the largest passenger ship of the early 20th century, the second of three twin steamships produced by the British company White Star Line.

The length of the Titanic was 260 meters, width - 28 meters, displacement - 52 thousand tons, height from the waterline to the boat deck - 19 meters, distance from the keel to the top of the pipe - 55 meters, maximum speed - 23 knots. Journalists compared it in length to three city blocks, and in height to an 11-story building.

The Titanic had eight steel decks, located one above the other at a distance of 2.5-3.2 meters. To ensure safety, the ship had a double bottom, and its hull was separated by 16 waterproof compartments. Watertight bulkheads rose from the second bottom to the deck. The ship's chief designer, Thomas Andrews, stated that even if four of the 16 compartments were filled with water, the liner would be able to continue its journey.

The interiors of the cabins on decks B and C were designed in 11 styles. Third class passengers on decks E and F were separated from first and second class by gates located in different parts of the ship.

Before the Titanic set out on its first and last voyage, it was especially emphasized that there would be 10 millionaires on board the ship on its first voyage, and in its safes there would be gold and jewelry worth hundreds of millions of dollars. American industrialist, heir to a mining magnate Benjamin Guggenheim, millionaire with his young wife, assistant to US Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft Major Archibald Willingham Butt, US Congressman Isidore Strauss, actress Dorothy Gibson, wealthy public figure Margaret Brown, British fashion designer Lucy Christiane Duff Gordon and many other famous and wealthy people of that time.

On April 10, 1912, at noon, the Titanic superliner set off on its only journey along the route Southampton (Great Britain) - New York (USA), with stops in Cherbourg (France) and Queenstown (Ireland).

During the four days' journey the weather was clear and the sea was calm.

On April 14, 1912, on the fifth day of the voyage, several ships sent reports of icebergs in the area of ​​the ship's route. The radio was broken for most of the day, and many messages were not noticed by the radio operators, and the captain did not pay due attention to others.

In the evening, the temperature began to drop, reaching zero Celsius by 22:00.

At 23:00, a message was received from the Californian about the presence of ice, but the Titanic's radio operator interrupted the radio exchange before the Californian had time to report the coordinates of the area: the telegraph operator was busy sending personal messages to passengers.

At 23:39, two lookouts noticed an iceberg in front of the liner and reported it by telephone to the bridge. The most senior of the officers, William Murdoch, gave the command to the helmsman: “Rudder to port.”

At 23:40 "Titanic" in the underwater part of the ship. Of the ship's 16 watertight compartments, six were cut through.

At 00:00 on April 15, Titanic designer Thomas Andrews was called to the bridge to assess the severity of the damage. After reporting the incident and inspecting the ship, Andrews informed everyone present that the liner would inevitably sink.

There was a noticeable tilt on the ship's bow. Captain Smith ordered the lifeboats to be uncovered and the crew and passengers to be summoned for evacuation.

On the captain's orders, the radio operators began sending distress signals, which they transmitted for two hours until the captain relieved the telegraph operators of their duties a few minutes before the ship sank.

Distress signals, but they were too far from the Titanic.

At 00:25, the coordinates of the Titanic were accepted by the ship Carpathia, which was located 58 nautical miles from the site of the wreck of the liner, which was 93 kilometers. ordered to immediately head to the site of the Titanic disaster. Rushing to help, the ship was able to reach a record speed of 17.5 knots - with the maximum possible speed for the ship being 14 knots. To do this, Rostron ordered to turn off all appliances that consume electricity and heating.

At 01:30 the operator of the Titanic telegraphed: “We are in small boats.” By order of Captain Smith, his assistant, Charles Lightoller, who led the rescue of people on the left side of the liner, put only women and children in the boats. The men, according to the captain, were supposed to remain on deck until all the women were in the boats. First mate William Murdoch on the starboard side to the men if there were no women or children in the line of passengers gathering on deck.

At about 02:15, the Titanic's bow dropped sharply, the ship moved forward significantly, and a huge wave rolled across the decks, washing many passengers overboard.

At about 02:20 minutes the Titanic sank.

At about 04:00 in the morning, approximately three and a half hours after receiving the distress signal, the Carpathia arrived at the site of the Titanic's wreck. The ship took on board 712 passengers and crew members of the Titanic, after which it arrived safely in New York. Among those rescued were 189 crew members, 129 male passengers and 394 women and children.

The death toll, according to various sources, ranged from 1,400 to 1,517 people. According to official data, after the disaster, 60% of passengers were in first class cabins, 44% in second class cabins, 25% in third class.

The last surviving passenger of the Titanic, who traveled on board the liner at the age of nine weeks, died on May 31, 2009 at the age of 97. The woman's ashes were scattered over the sea from the pier in the port of Southampton, from where the Titanic set off on its last voyage in 1912.

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources

At the time of its construction, the Titanic was considered the largest passenger airliner peace. On the maiden voyage from Southampton to New York on April 14, 1912. The Titanic collided with an iceberg and sank 2 hours and 40 minutes later. There were 1,316 passengers and 908 crew members on board, for a total of 2,224 people. Of these, 711 people were saved, 1513 died.

Scientists have managed to recreate the most full map site of the Titanic tragedy. 130 thousand photographs taken by robots in the depths of the Atlantic Ocean were used. The map shows wreckage and belongings scattered over 15 square miles.

The remains of the Titanic were found on September 1, 1985, 13 miles from the place where, according to preliminary information, it sank at a depth of 3,800 m.


Because the stern and bow parts of the ship did not sink at the same time and now lie 1,970 feet apart, the area around 3-5 miles is littered with debris from the ship.

A detailed image could shed light on what happened after the 'unsinkable' liner hit an iceberg and sank.

“If we want to explore the site of the Titanic through the testimony of those who survived, we must understand the nature and physical condition of what still lies at the bottom,” said David Gallo, leader of the expedition to investigate the sinking of the ship.

This is not the first time a disaster site has been mapped. The first attempts began shortly after the sunken liner was discovered. The researchers used photographs taken by remotely operated cameras that did not venture far from the bow and stern.

Thus, all previous maps are incomplete and cover only fragments of the disaster area.

Creation of a detailed map of the wreck began in the summer of 2010 as part of a project aimed at "virtually recreating" the Titanic "and preserving its legacy for all time."

During the expedition, autonomous underwater vehicles surveyed the available surface using side-scan sonars. The wreckage was then secured vehicles remote control equipped with cameras.

Resulting in 130,000 photos high resolution were collected on a computer to represent detailed map"Titanic" and the surrounding seabed.

“The images are amazing. There you are on the ocean floor and move around the seabed. Even Titanic survivors look at it with their jaws dropped, Gallo said.

The new data will be described in detail in a two-hour documentary film on the History channel on April 15, exactly 100 years after the sinking of the Titanic.

During the show, thanks to computer simulation, an immersive experience will be reproduced. reverse direction. In the virtual hangar, the remains of the Titanic will be raised to the surface and assembled into a ship.

Particular attention was paid to the piles of debris. Oceanographers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in the US state of Massachusetts and the American meteorological service NOAA provided support to the researchers. Now the History Channel television company will present the results to the public.

Now computer simulations, based on photographs, are expected to show the exact course of events during this historic disaster. Perhaps new data will be obtained about defects in the design of this huge ship, which was considered a miracle of technology





 

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