Scientists have recreated the most complete map of the site of the Titanic tragedy. The ship "Titanic"

Many people have heard, many people have read, but many still do not know the real and bitter truth about the death of the world’s largest passenger liner with the mighty name “Titanic”. It belonged to the British company White Star Line. In just two years, shipbuilders managed to construct the impossible, and on May 31, 1911, the Titanic was launched. His first cruise voyage turned into a huge tragedy, news of which spread throughout the world within two days. What happened? How did the Titanic sink? How could the most unsinkable ship in the world end up at 4 km depth? The owners of the company stated that God himself could not sink the Titanic. Maybe he got angry at people?

But let's move on to more real facts. So, on April 10, 1912, the greatest ship of all time, the Titanic, set sail from the port of Southampton, on board which at that moment were the most famous people UK. These were businessmen, actors and actresses, scientists and writers, etc. The Titanic set off on a 7-day voyage across the Atlantic Ocean to New York, stopping along the way at small ports to deliver and receive cargo, as well as disembark and embark passengers. The fifth day of an exciting journey became fatal for all passengers on the liner. Crossing the Atlantic, at about 3-00 am, the starboard side of the ship was cut by a small iceberg, which was not immediately noticed by the watching sailor. As many as five lower compartments were flooded in a matter of minutes.

After 2.5 hours, the Titanic disappeared into sea depths. Of the 2,200 people, only 715 were able to escape. Almost 1,500 people tragically died. And now the most intriguing question arises: who is to blame for this tragedy? God? Shipbuilders? or not the professionalism of the ship's captain? But still, after numerous investigations, objective and subjective reasons for the death of the Titanic were collected, but we will talk about them a little later. First, we need to delve into these facts and analyze the broader reasons that influenced the outcome of events and the death of innocent people.

Those responsible for the sinking of the Titanic

Shipbuilders

Let's start, perhaps, with the shipbuilders, namely with the ship's hull itself. In 1994, a study was conducted with a piece of the plating of the sunken Titanic. The results were very disastrous, because... the lining was so thin that even the smallest piece of ice could cause enormous damage to it, and if we take into account huge iceberg, then the damage was not yet very great, thanks to the actions of the ship’s captain. The blow caused by the iceberg was tragic because the ship's hull hull contained phosphorus, which caused the hull to break at low temperatures. The inability of shipbuilders to create high-quality steel at that time, as well as ship designs, makes them also guilty of this tragedy. It was also known that the design of the Titanic's structure included the use of necessary materials, but most of them were of poor quality or were absent altogether. This is proven by the fact that some people made a lot of money from this and the shipbuilders may not be to blame for this.

Radio operators

Now about the equally important workers of the ship - the radio operators. In 1912, radio communication on the high seas was a novelty, and not every ship could install it. The point is that radio operators, not known reason were not part of the ship’s crew, but worked for the Marconi company, which was engaged in the transmission of paid messages in the form of Morse code. These days they can be matched with SMS messages over the phone.

Based on the surviving records, the radio operators managed to transmit on April 14, more than 250 radio telegrams, and the signals that came from other ships that were also sailing across the Atlantic were simply ignored by the radio operators, because. It was important for them to earn money. According to the records of the radio operators, which were not taken into account by them, it became known that the Titanic was notified of the danger from exact coordinates already from 20-00 pm on April 14. There were even messages sent personally to the captain, in which it was written about nearby icebergs, but the radio operators were too lazy to deliver this information to the captain and continued to send paid messages. But the entire crew of the ship was briefed in advance about possible glaciers, because... the route passed through them.

Iceberg

Video - Titanic. Mysteries of the death of the liner

As you can see, the Titanic was still able to sink, and not only for the above reasons, there are several more. Perhaps the most important of them is the absence of binoculars from the watching sailor, who was on the ship, but was locked in a safe, and the key was in the hands of the second mate. It was David Blair, who was removed from the flight for unknown reasons. He simply forgot to give this key to his replacement, so the lookout sailor could not see the danger. Having binoculars, trouble could be foreseen 6 km away, but without binoculars the sailor could notice it just 400 meters away. It was calm and the night was moonless. Even weather conditions that night they were against the ship, because In any case, the light of the moon was able to reflect on the iceberg and give it away in advance.

It was also known that the iceberg was black, which means that it had turned upside down shortly before. It is possible that even under the moon the shine of the iceberg might not be noticeable, because... its white side was under water.

It is unclear that the senior officer did not notice the iceberg first, because... You can always see better on the bridge than from the sailor’s “eagle’s nest.”

About the maneuver

It should be clarified that the captain of the ship was not on the bridge at the time of the crash; he was replaced by first mate Murdoch. The results of the research indicate that the first officer gave the order “Left Handle” and immediately after that gave the order “Reverse”. But the second command was carried out late and the reverse was made after a collision with an iceberg. There is an opinion that if Murdoch had ordered the opposite, to increase the speed, then the turn of the ship would not have been smooth, but sharp. Perhaps the team’s experience let us down in this situation, because... they did not participate in testing the ship after launching, and it is very difficult to maneuver such a huge ship without preparation. Some believe that if the Titanic had not changed course, but had rammed the iceberg, it would have remained unharmed, because... the bow of the ship was protected and could, at most, only receive a small dent.

Having considered the expanded picture of the circumstances of that night, we should return to the objective and subjective reasons for the sinking of the Titanic.

Subjective reasons for the sinking of the Titanic

1. The rules of the British Merchant Shipping Code were outdated. They stated that lifeboats were placed on a ship depending on its tonnage, and not on the number of passengers. This means that there were not enough lifeboats on the Titanic, so about 500 more people were not saved.

2. There is information that the helmsman, at the command “Take to the left,” turned the steering wheel to the right.

3. The director of the company, J. Ismay, was sailing on board the ship, but he ordered the captain to sail further and not take any action so as not to incur losses. The captain complied with his order, but water entered the compartments at a speed of 350 tons per minute.

4. To date, there is no one left alive after the crash. Those who escaped died a natural death. Last passenger Titanica died in 2009. This was a woman who was on the Titanic as a 5 year old child. Only she knew the true truth of the ship's death, which her relatives told her, but the secret died with her.

Objective reasons for the sinking of the Titanic

1. Due to the fact that the iceberg turned over, because. At that time it was melting, it was not visible from the ship.

2. The speed of the ship was very high. As a result, the blow was as strong as possible. The fault here lies solely with the captain of the ship.

3. The radio operators, busy sending paid messages, did not convey to the captain important information about danger. Considering that they were not part of the team, this does not relieve them of responsibility.

4. The steel of the Titanic was not at that time best quality. The pressure on it from low temperatures led it to fragility and brittleness. The shipbuilders are not to blame here, because... they carried out work with the raw materials that were purchased by the management of the shipbuilding company.

5. All compartments of the ship were fenced with iron doors, but the water pressure was so strong that they simply shattered into small pieces. Thus, compartment after compartment was filled with water.

6. The lookout did not have binoculars, which reduced the radius of his vision from the “eagle’s nest.”

7. The ship did not have red flares, the launch of which meant a signal of danger. As a result of this, white missiles were launched, which had no meaning for neighboring ships.

This article did not discuss the ships that came to the aid of the Titanic on that fateful night, but it is worth noting the fact that the closest ship that was near the Titanic was a ship with poachers who were hunting seals that night, but after seeing the launch white rockets, they thought that this was a signal that they needed to stop and the captain of this ship ordered his crew to sail as quickly as possible in the opposite direction. Perhaps, thanks to these poachers, if they had not sailed away, many more people would have been saved, but there was no radio communication on their ship.

Thus, having analyzed the most true facts about how the Titanic sank, one can only guess which reason is still the most truthful.

The sinking of the Titanic scientific facts video

On April 10, 1912, the Titanic liner set off from the port of Southampton on its first and last voyage, but 4 days later it collided with an iceberg. We know about the tragedy that claimed the lives of almost 1,496 people largely thanks to the film, but let's get acquainted with real stories passengers of the Titanic.

The real cream of society gathered on the passenger deck of the Titanic: millionaires, actors and writers. Not everyone could afford to buy a first class ticket - the price was $60,000 at current prices.

3rd class passengers bought tickets for only $35 ($650 today), so they were not allowed to go above the third deck. On the fateful night, the division into classes turned out to be more noticeable than ever...

Bruce Ismay was one of the first to jump into the lifeboat - general manager the White Star Line company, which owned the Titanic. The boat, designed for 40 people, set sail with only twelve.

After the disaster, Ismay was accused of boarding a rescue boat, bypassing women and children, and also of instructing the captain of the Titanic to increase speed, which led to the tragedy. The court acquitted him.

William Ernest Carter boarded the Titanic at Southampton with his wife Lucy and two children Lucy and William, as well as two dogs.

On the night of the disaster, he was at a party in the restaurant of a first-class ship, and after the collision, he and his comrades went out onto the deck, where the boats were already being prepared. William first put his daughter on boat No. 4, but when it was his son's turn, problems awaited them.

13-year-old John Rison boarded the boat directly in front of them, after which the officer in charge of boarding ordered that no teenage boys be taken on board. Lucy Carter resourcefully threw her hat on her 11-year-old son and sat down with him.

When the landing process was completed and the boat began to descend into the water, Carter himself quickly boarded it along with another passenger. It was he who turned out to be the already mentioned Bruce Ismay.

21-year-old Roberta Maoney worked as a maid to the Countess and sailed on the Titanic with her mistress in first class.

On board she met a brave young steward from the ship's crew, and soon the young people fell in love with each other. When the Titanic began to sink, the steward rushed to Roberta's cabin, took her to the boat deck and put her on the boat, giving her his life jacket.

He himself died, like many other crew members, and Roberta was picked up by the ship Carpathia, on which she sailed to New York. Only there, in her coat pocket, did she find a badge with a star, which at the moment of parting the steward put in her pocket as a souvenir of himself.

Emily Richards was sailing with her two young sons, mother, brother and sister to her husband. At the time of the disaster, the woman was sleeping in the cabin with her children. They were awakened by the screams of their mother, who ran into the cabin after the collision.

The Richards were miraculously able to climb into the descending lifeboat No. 4 through the window. When the Titanic completely sank, the passengers of her boat managed to pull seven more people out of the icy water, two of whom, unfortunately, soon died of frostbite.

The famous American businessman Isidor Strauss and his wife Ida traveled in first class. The Strauss had been married for 40 years and had never been separated.

When the ship's officer invited the family to board the boat, Isidore refused, deciding to give way to women and children, but Ida also followed him

Instead of themselves, the Strauss put their maid in the boat. Isidore's body was identified by a wedding ring; Ida's body was not found.

The Titanic featured two orchestras: a quintet led by 33-year-old British violinist Wallace Hartley and an additional trio of musicians hired to give Café Parisien a continental flair.

Typically, two members of the Titanic orchestra worked in different parts of the liner and in different times, but on the night of the ship’s death, all of them united into one orchestra.

One of the rescued Titanic passengers would write later: “Many heroic deeds were performed that night, but none of them could compare with the feat of these few musicians, who played hour after hour, although the ship sank deeper and deeper and the sea got closer to the place where they stood. The music they performed entitled them to be included in the list of heroes of eternal glory."

Hartley's body was found two weeks after the sinking of the Titanic and sent to England. A violin was tied to his chest - a gift from the bride. There were no survivors among the other orchestra members...

Four-year-old Michel and two-year-old Edmond traveled with their father, who died in the sinking, and were considered "orphans of the Titanic" until their mother was found in France.

Michel died in 2001, the last male survivor of the Titanic.

Winnie Coates was heading to New York with her two children. On the night of the disaster, she woke up from a strange noise, but decided to wait for orders from the crew members. Her patience ran out, she rushed for a long time along the endless corridors of the ship, getting lost.

She was suddenly directed by a crew member towards the lifeboats. She ran into a broken closed gate, but it was at that moment that another officer appeared, who saved Winnie and her children by giving them his life jacket.

As a result, Vinny ended up on the deck, where she was boarding boat No. 2, which, literally by miracle, she managed to board..

Seven-year-old Eve Hart escaped the sinking Titanic with her mother, but her father died during the crash.

Helen Walker believes that she was conceived on the Titanic before it hit an iceberg. “This means a lot to me,” she admitted in an interview.

Her parents were 39-year-old Samuel Morley, the owner of a jewelry store in England, and 19-year-old Kate Phillips, one of his workers, who fled to America from the man's first wife, trying to start new life.

Kate got into the lifeboat, Samuel jumped into the water after her, but did not know how to swim and drowned. “Mom spent 8 hours in the lifeboat,” said Helen. “She was in only a nightgown, but one of the sailors gave her his jumper.”

Violet Constance Jessop. Until the last moment, the stewardess did not want to be hired on the Titanic, but her friends convinced her because they believed that it would be a “wonderful experience.”

Before this, on October 20, 1910, Violette became a stewardess of the transatlantic liner Olympic, which a year later collided with a cruiser due to unsuccessful maneuvering, but the girl managed to escape.

And Violet escaped from the Titanic on a lifeboat. During the First World War, the girl went to work as a nurse, and in 1916 she got on board the Britannic, which... also sank! Two boats with a crew were pulled under the propeller of a sinking ship. 21 people died.

Among them could have been Violet, who was sailing in one of the broken boats, but again luck was on her side: she managed to jump out of the boat and survived.

Fireman Arthur John Priest also survived a shipwreck not only on the Titanic, but also on the Olympic and Britannic (by the way, all three ships were the brainchild of the same company). Priest has 5 shipwrecks to his name.

On April 21, 1912, the New York Times published the story of Edward and Ethel Bean, who sailed in second class on the Titanic. After the crash, Edward helped his wife into the boat. But when the boat had already sailed, he saw that it was half empty and rushed into the water. Ethel pulled her husband into the boat.

Among the Titanic's passengers were the famous tennis player Carl Behr and his lover Helen Newsom. After the disaster, the athlete ran into the cabin and took the women to the boat deck.

The lovers were ready to say goodbye forever when the head of the White Star Line company, Bruce Ismay, personally offered Behr a place on the boat. A year later, Carl and Helen got married and later became the parents of three children.

Edward John Smith - captain of the Titanic, who was very popular among both crew members and passengers. At 2.13 a.m., just 10 minutes before the ship's final dive, Smith returned to the captain's bridge, where he decided to meet his death.

Second Mate Charles Herbert Lightoller was one of the last to jump from the ship, miraculously avoiding being sucked into the ventilation shaft. He swam to collapsible boat B, which was floating upside down: the Titanic's pipe, which came off and fell into the sea next to him, drove the boat further from the sinking ship and allowed it to remain afloat.

American businessman Benjamin Guggenheim helped women and children into lifeboats during the crash. When asked to save himself, he replied: “We are dressed in our best clothes and are ready to die like gentlemen.”

Benjamin died at the age of 46, his body was never found.

Thomas Andrews - first class passenger, Irish businessman and shipbuilder, was the designer of the Titanic...

During the evacuation, Thomas helped passengers board lifeboats. He was last seen in the first class smoking room near the fireplace, where he was looking at a painting of Port Plymouth. His body was never found after the crash.

John Jacob and Madeleine Astor, a millionaire science fiction writer, and his young wife traveled first class. Madeleine escaped on lifeboat No. 4. John Jacob's body was recovered from the depths of the ocean 22 days after his death.

Colonel Archibald Gracie IV is an American writer and amateur historian who survived the sinking of the Titanic. Returning to New York, Gracie immediately began writing a book about his voyage.

It became a real encyclopedia for historians and researchers of the disaster, thanks to the large number of names of stowaways and 1st class passengers who remained on the Titanic. Gracie's health was severely compromised by hypothermia and injuries, and he died at the end of 1912.

Margaret (Molly) Brown is an American socialite, philanthropist and activist. Survived. When panic arose on the Titanic, Molly put people into lifeboats, but she herself refused to get in.

“If the worst happens, I’ll swim out,” she said, until eventually someone forced her into lifeboat number 6, which made her famous.

After Molly organized the Titanic Survivors Fund.

Millvina Dean was the last surviving passenger of the Titanic: she died on May 31, 2009, aged 97, in a nursing home in Ashurst, Hampshire, on the 98th anniversary of the liner's launch. .

Her ashes were scattered on October 24, 2009 at the port of Southampton, where the Titanic began its first and last voyage. At the time of the death of the liner she was two and a half months old

On the night of April 14-15, 1912, the most modern passenger liner at that time, the Titanic, making its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York, collided with an iceberg and soon sank. At least 1,496 people died, 712 passengers and crew were rescued.

The Titanic disaster very quickly became overgrown with a mass of legends and speculation. At the same time, for several decades, the place where it rests lost ship, remained unknown.

The main difficulty was that the location of the death was known with very low accuracy - we were talking about an area 100 kilometers in diameter. Considering that the Titanic sank in an area where the depth of the Atlantic is several kilometers, finding the ship was very problematic.

Titanic. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

The bodies of the dead were going to be raised with dynamite

Immediately after the shipwreck, relatives of wealthy passengers who died in the disaster came up with a proposal to organize an expedition to raise the ship. The initiators of the search wanted to bury their loved ones and, to be honest, return the valuables that had sunk to the bottom along with their owners.

The decisive attitude of the relatives came across a categorical verdict from experts: the technology for searching and lifting the Titanic from great depths simply did not exist at that time.

Then a new proposal was received - to drop dynamite charges to the bottom at the supposed site of the disaster, which, according to the authors of the project, were supposed to provoke the ascent of the corpses of the dead from the bottom. This dubious idea also did not find support.

Started in 1914 First world war postponed the search for the Titanic for many years.

Interior of the veranda for first class passengers of the Titanic. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Nitrogen and ping pong balls

They started talking about searching for the liner again only in the 1950s. At the same time, proposals began to appear for possible ways lifting it from freezing the shell with nitrogen to filling it with millions of ping-pong balls.

In the 1960-1970s, several expeditions were sent to the area where the Titanic sank, but all of them were unsuccessful due to insufficient technical preparation.

In 1980 Texas oil tycoon John Grimm financed the preparation and conduct of the first large expedition to search for the Titanic. But, despite the availability of the most modern equipment for underwater searches, his expedition ended in failure.

Played a major role in the discovery of the Titanic ocean explorer and part-time US Navy officer Robert Ballard. Ballard, who was involved in improving small unmanned underwater vehicles, became interested in underwater archeology and, in particular, the mystery of the Titanic sinkhole back in the 1970s. In 1977, he organized the first expedition to search for the Titanic, but it ended in failure.

Ballard was convinced that finding the ship was only possible with the help of the latest deep-sea bathyscaphes. But getting these at your disposal was very difficult.

Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Doctor Ballard's Secret Mission

In 1985, having failed to achieve results during an expedition in French research vessel Le Suroît, Ballard moved onto the American ship R/V Knorr, with which he continued the search for the Titanic.

As Ballard himself said many years later, the expedition, which became historic, began with a secret deal concluded between him and the command of the Navy. The researcher really wanted to get the Argo deep-sea research vehicle for his work, but the American admirals did not want to pay for the work of the equipment to search for some historical rarity. The ship R/V Knorr and the Argo apparatus were supposed to carry out a mission to survey the sites of the sinking of two American nuclear submarines, Scorpion and Thresher, which sank back in the 1960s. This mission was classified, and the US Navy needed someone who could not only carry out necessary work, but will also be able to keep them secret.

Ballard's candidacy was ideal - he was quite famous, and everyone knew about his passion for finding the Titanic.

The researcher was offered: he could get the Argo and use it to search for the Titanic if he first found and examined the submarines. Ballard agreed.

Only the leadership of the US Navy knew about the Scorpion and Thrasher; for the rest, Robert Ballard simply explored the Atlantic and looked for the Titanic.

Robert Ballard. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

"Comet tail" at the bottom

He coped with the secret mission brilliantly, and on August 22, 1985, he was able to again begin the search for the liner that died in 1912.

None of the most advanced technology would have ensured his success if not for the previously accumulated experience. Ballard, while examining the sinkhole sites of the submarines, noticed that they left a kind of “comet tail” of thousands of fragments at the bottom. This was due to the fact that the hulls of the boats were destroyed when sank to the bottom due to enormous pressure.

The scientist knew that during the dive on the Titanic, steam boilers exploded, which meant that the liner should have left a similar “comet tail.”

It was this trace, and not the Titanic itself, that was easier to detect.

On the night of September 1, 1985, the Argo apparatus found small debris at the bottom, and at 0:48 the camera recorded the Titanic’s boiler. Then we managed to discover bow vessel.

It was found that the bow and stern of the broken liner were located at a distance of approximately 600 meters from each other. At the same time, both the stern and the bow were seriously deformed when immersed in the bottom, but the bow was still better preserved.

Ship layout. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

House for underwater inhabitants

The news of the discovery of the Titanic became a sensation, although many experts hastened to question it. But in the summer of 1986, Ballard carried out a new expedition, during which he not only described in detail the ship at the bottom, but also made the first dive to the Titanic on a manned deep-sea vehicle. After this, the last doubts were dispelled - the Titanic was discovered.

The last resting place of the liner is located at a depth of 3750 meters. In addition to the two main parts of the liner, tens of thousands of smaller debris are scattered along the bottom over an area of 4.8×8 km: parts of the ship’s hull, remains of furniture and interior decoration, dishes, and personal belongings of people.

The wreckage of the ship is covered with multi-layered rust, the thickness of which is constantly growing. In addition to multi-layered rust, 24 species of invertebrate animals and 4 species of fish live on and near the hull. Of these, 12 species of invertebrates clearly gravitate towards shipwrecks, eating metal and wooden structures. The interior of the Titanic was almost completely destroyed. The wooden elements were consumed by deep sea worms. The decks are covered with a layer of shellfish, and stalactites of rust hang from many of the metal elements.

A wallet recovered from the Titanic. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Are all the people left with shoes left?

During the 30 years that have passed since the discovery of the ship, the Titanic has been rapidly deteriorating. His current state such that there can be no talk of any lifting of the ship. The ship will forever remain at the bottom Atlantic Ocean.

There is still no consensus on whether human remains were preserved on the Titanic and around it. According to the prevailing version, all human bodies completely decomposed. However, information periodically appears that some researchers have nevertheless stumbled upon the remains of the dead.

But James Cameron, director of the famous movie "Titanic", whose personal account includes over 30 dives to the liner on the Russian Mir deep-sea submersibles, is sure of the opposite: “We saw shoes, boots and other footwear at the site of the sunken ship, but our team has never encountered human remains.”

Things from the Titanic are a profitable product

Since the discovery of the Titanic by Robert Ballard, about two dozen expeditions have been carried out to the ship, during which several thousand objects were raised to the surface, ranging from personal belongings of passengers to a piece of plating weighing 17 tons.

It is impossible to establish the exact number of objects recovered from the Titanic today, since with the improvement of underwater technology, the ship has become a favorite target of “black archaeologists” who are trying to obtain rarities from the Titanic by any means.

Robert Ballard, lamenting this, remarked: “The ship is still a noble old lady, but not the same lady I saw in 1985.”

Items from the Titanic have been sold at auction for many years and are in great demand. So, in the year of the 100th anniversary of the disaster, in 2012, hundreds of items went under the hammer, including a cigar box that belonged to the captain of the Titanic ($40 thousand), a life jacket from the ship ($55 thousand), a master key first class steward ($138 thousand). As for the jewelry from the Titanic, their value is measured in millions of dollars.

At one time, having discovered the Titanic, Robert Ballard intended to keep this place secret, so as not to disturb the resting place of one and a half thousand people. Perhaps he shouldn't have done this.

©

105 years ago, April 15, 1912, “unsinkable ship”, “the largest and most luxurious ocean liner"On his first flight, he crashed into an iceberg and took with him more than one and a half thousand passengers to the bottom of the ocean. It would seem that for many decades there are no more secrets and mysteries about this terrible disaster. And yet, let's remember how it was.

Captain Edward Smith on board the Titanic. Photo: New York Times

First official version

Two government investigations that followed the disaster determined that it was the iceberg, and not the ship's defects, that caused the death of the liner. Both commissions of inquiry concluded that the Titanic sank not in parts, but as a whole - there were no major faults.

The blame for this tragedy was placed entirely on the shoulders of the ship's captain, Edward Smith, who died along with his crew and passengers of the Atlantic liner. Experts reproached Smith for the fact that the ship was traveling at a speed of 22 knots (41 km) through a dangerous ice field - in dark waters, off the coast of Newfoundland.

Robert Ballard's discovery

In 1985, oceanographer Robert Ballard, after a long unsuccessful search, finally managed to find the remains of a ship at a depth of about four kilometers on the ocean floor. It was then that he discovered that the Titanic had actually split in half before sinking.

A couple of years later, the wreckage of the ship was brought to the surface for the first time, and a new hypothesis immediately appeared - low-grade steel was used to build an “unsinkable ship.” However, according to experts, it was not the steel that turned out to be of low quality, but the rivets - the most important metal pins that tie together the steel plates of the airliner's hull. And the found wreckage of the Titanic does indicate that the stern of the ship did not rise high into the air, as many believed. It is believed that the Titanic split into parts while relatively level on the surface of the ocean - this is a clear sign of miscalculations in the design of the ship, which were hidden after the disaster.

Design miscalculations

The Titanic was built in a short time - in response to the production of a new generation of high-speed liners by competitors.

The Titanic could stay afloat even if 4 of its 16 watertight compartments were flooded - this is amazing for a ship of such gigantic size.

However, on the night of April 14-15, 1912, just a few days into the liner’s debut voyage, its Achilles’ heel was revealed. The ship, due to its size, was not agile enough to avoid a collision with the iceberg, which the watchmen had been shouting about for the last minute. The Titanic did not collide with the fatal iceberg head-on, but drove along it on its right side - the ice punched holes in the steel plates, flooding six “watertight” compartments. And after a couple of hours the ship was completely filled with water and sank.

According to experts studying the potential weak point of the Titanic - the rivets, they found that due to the fact that time was running out, builders began to use low-grade material. When the liner hit an iceberg, the weak steel rods in the bow of the ship cracked. It is believed that it was no coincidence that the water, having flooded six compartments held together by low-grade steel rods, stopped exactly where the high-quality steel rivets began.

In 2005, another expedition studying the crash site was able to establish from the wreckage of the bottom that during the crash the ship tilted only about 11 degrees, and not 45, as had long been believed.

Memories of Passengers

Because the ship tilted only slightly, passengers and crew were lulled into a false sense of security—many of them did not understand the gravity of the situation. When the water sufficiently flooded the bow of the hull, the ship, while remaining afloat, split in two and sank in minutes.

Charlie Jugin, the Titanic's chef, was standing near the stern when the ship sank and did not notice any signs of hull fracture. Nor did he notice the suction funnel or the colossal splash. According to his information, he calmly sailed away from the ship, without even getting his hair wet.

However, some passengers sitting in lifeboats claimed to have seen the stern of the Titanic raised high in the air. However, this could only be an optical illusion. With a tilt of 11 degrees, propellers sticking out in the air, the Titanic, the height of a 20-story building, seemed even taller, and its roll into the water even greater.

How the Titanic sank: a real-time model

The menu for the last dinner on the Titanic, which sank in 1912, has been sold in New York. The price for it was 88 thousand dollars (about 1.9 million hryvnia).

Company " Blue Star Line announced the construction of Titanic 2. According to the designers, the ship will be an exact copy of the famous liner that sank in 1912. However, the liner will be equipped with modern safety equipment. Australian mining magnate Clive Palmer undertook to finance the project.

Now this 105-year-old cracker is considered the most expensive in the world.

It turns out that a cracker made by Spillers and Bakers called "Pilot" was included in the survival kit that was placed on each lifeboat. Later, one of these products went to a man who kept it as a souvenir. It was James Fenwick, a passenger on the ship Carpathia, which was picking up shipwreck survivors.

REFERENCE

On the night of April 15, 1912, the Titanic collided with an iceberg and sank. He sailed in the Atlantic Ocean on his way from Southampton (England) to New York. About 1.5 thousand people died then, mostly third class passengers. In total there were more than 2.2 thousand people there.

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 wreckage from the ship.

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

"If we are 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 moving around on the seabed. Even the 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 a 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

It might be useful to read: