The route of the Titanic and the place of its wreck. Why did the Titanic sink? Add your price to the database Comment

a" Frederick Fleet noticed an iceberg directly ahead, approximately 650 m from the liner. Having struck the bell three times, he reported to the bridge. The first mate ordered the helmsman: “Left aboard!” - and moved the machine telegraph handles to the “Full back” position. A little later, so that the liner would not hit the iceberg with its stern, he commanded: “Right on board!” However, the Titanic was too large to maneuver quickly, and continued to coast for another 25-30 seconds until its bow began to slowly veer to the left.

At 23:40, the Titanic tangentially collided with an iceberg. On the upper decks, people felt a weak shock and slight trembling of the hull; on the lower decks the blow was more noticeable. As a result of the collision, six holes with a total length of about 90 meters were formed in the starboard side skin. At 0:05, 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.

At about 0:20, children and women were put into the boats. At 1:20 am, water began to flood the forecastle. At this time, the first signs of panic appeared. The evacuation went faster. After 1:30, panic began on board. At about 2:00 the last boat was lowered, and at 2:05 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. The bow part, 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. 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 steamer Carpathia arrived at the disaster site and picked up 712 survivors of the wreck.

Causes of the crash

After the tragedy, commissions were held to investigate the causes of this incident, and, according to official documents, the cause was a collision with an iceberg, and not the presence of defects in the design of the ship. The commission based its conclusion on how the ship sank. As some survivors noted, the ship sank to the bottom as a whole, and not in parts.

As the commission concluded, all the blame for the tragic disaster lay with the captain of the ship. In 1985, oceanographer Robert Ballard, who had been searching for the sunken ship for many years, was lucky. It was this happy event that helped shed light on the causes of the disaster. Scientists have determined that the Titanic split in half on the surface of the ocean before sinking. This fact again attracted media attention to the reasons for the sinking of the Titanic. New hypotheses arose, and one of the assumptions was based on the fact that low-grade steel was used in the construction of the ship, since it is a well-known fact that the Titanic was built in a short time.

As a result of lengthy studies of the wreckage raised from the bottom, experts came to the conclusion that the cause of the disaster was poor quality rivets - the most important metal pins that tied together the steel plates of the ship's hull. Also, the studied wreckage showed that there were mistakes in the design of the ship, and this is evidenced by the nature of the ship's sinking. It was finally established that the stern of the ship did not rise high into the air, as previously thought, and the ship broke into pieces and sank. This indicates obvious flaws in the design of the ship. However, after the disaster, this data was hidden. And only with the help of modern technologies it was established that it was these circumstances that led to one of the most terrible tragedies of mankind.

On the night of April 14-15, 1912, the most modern at that time passenger airliner 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 at the bottom a kind of “comet tail” of thousands of fragments. This was due to the fact that the hulls of the boats were destroyed when sank to the bottom due to enormous pressure.

The scientist knew that during the dive on the Titanic, 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 model. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

House for underwater inhabitants

The news of the discovery of the Titanic became a sensation, although many experts hastened to question it. But in the summer of 1986, Ballard carried out 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 liner's final resting place is located at a depth of 3,750 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 in layers of clam shells, and stalactites of rust hang from many of the metal pieces.

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", who personally has 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 the personal belongings of passengers to a piece of plating weighing 17 tons.

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

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

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

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

© www.globallookpress.com
© www.globallookpress.com
©Commons.wikimedia.org
© frame from youtube
©Commons.wikimedia.org
©Commons.wikimedia.org
©Commons.wikimedia.org
©Commons.wikimedia.org
© Commons.wikimedia.org / Survivors attempting to board HMS Dorsetshire
©

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

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

Later, a whole series of crazy projects for raising the Titanic were developed. For example, it was proposed to fill the ship's hull with ping pong balls or attach helium cylinders to it, which would lift it to the surface. There were many other projects, mostly science fiction. In addition, before trying to raise the Titanic, it was first necessary to find it, and this was not so simple.

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

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

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

Regarding the issue of raising the Titanic, after Ballard’s expeditions it became obvious that this operation would not only be extremely complex and expensive; The ship's hull has been in such a state for a long time that it will simply fall apart, if not during lifting, then on the surface.

1. Let's see what the Titanic looks like now and what it looked like before. The Titanic sank in the Atlantic at a depth of almost 4 km. While diving, the ship broke into two parts, which now lie on the bottom about six hundred meters from each other. There are a lot of debris and objects scattered around them, incl. and quite a large piece of the Titanic's hull.

2. Model of the bow. When the ship fell to the bottom, the bow was very well buried in the silt, which greatly disappointed the first researchers, because it turned out to be impossible to inspect the place where it hit the iceberg without special equipment. The torn hole in the hull, which is visible on the model, was formed by hitting the bottom.

3. Panorama of the bow, collected from several hundred images. From right to left: the spare anchor winch protrudes directly above the edge of the bow, behind it there is a mooring device, immediately behind it is an open hatch to hold No. 1, from which the breakwater lines diverge to the sides. On the inter-superstructure deck there is a fallen mast, under it there are two more hatches into the holds and winches for working with cargo. In the front part of the main superstructure there used to be a captain's bridge, which collapsed when it fell to the bottom and can now be discerned only by individual details. Behind the bridge there is a superstructure with cabins for officers, captain, radio room, etc., which is crossed by a crack that formed at the site of the expansion joint. A gaping hole in the superstructure is the place for the first chimney. Immediately behind the superstructure, another hole is visible - this is the well in which the main staircase was located. To the left there is something very ragged - there was a second pipe.

4. Titanic's nose. The most fascinating object of underwater photographs of a ship. At the end you can see the loop on which the cable that held the mast was placed.

5. In the photo on the left you can see the spare anchor winch rising above the bow.

6. Main anchor on the port side. It's amazing how he didn't fly down when he hit the bottom.

7. Spare anchor:

8. Behind the spare anchor there is a mooring device:

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

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

11. Ship's side:

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

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

14. The preserved part of the superstructure in the forward part of the deck. Bottom right is the entrance to the 1st class grand staircase.

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

16. In place of the main staircase there is now a huge well. No traces of the stairs remain.

17. Staircase in 1912:

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

19. Behind the stairs there were several elevators for 1st class passengers. Some elements from them have been preserved. The sign shown below on the right was located opposite the elevators and indicated the deck. This inscription belonged to deck A; The bronze letter A has already fallen off, but traces of it remain.

20. 1st Class Lounge on Deck. This is the bottom of the main staircase.

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

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

23. Remnants of former beauty:

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

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

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

29. A few more details. The door to the restaurant on Deck D and the sign indicating the service doors:

30. The stokers had their own “front staircase”. To avoid encountering passengers, a separate staircase led from the boiler rooms to the stokers' cabins.

31. Hundreds of objects are scattered along the ocean floor, ranging from ship parts to personal belongings of passengers.

At the time of its construction, the Titanic was considered the largest passenger liner in the world. 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

"Titanic" (eng. Titanic) - British transatlantic steamer, the second Olympic class airliner. Built in Belfast at the Harland and Wolfe shipyard from 1909 to 1912 for the White Star Line shipping company.

At the time of commissioning it was the largest ship in the world.

On the night of April 14-15, 1912, during her maiden voyage, she crashed in the North Atlantic, colliding with an iceberg.

Vessel information

The Titanic was equipped with two four-cylinder steam engines and a steam turbine.

All power point had a power of 55,000 hp. With.
The ship could reach speeds of up to 23 knots (42 km/h).
Its displacement, which exceeded the twin ship Olympic by 243 tons, was 52,310 tons.
The ship's hull was made of steel.
The hold and lower decks were divided into 16 compartments by bulkheads with sealed doors.
If the bottom was damaged, the double bottom prevented water from entering the compartments.

Shipbuilder magazine called the Titanic virtually unsinkable, a statement that was widely circulated in the press and among the public.

In accordance with outdated rules, the Titanic was equipped with 20 lifeboats, with a total capacity of 1,178 people, which was only a third of the ship's maximum load.

The cabins and public areas of the Titanic were divided into three classes.

First class passengers were provided with a swimming pool, a squash court, an A la carte restaurant, two cafes, and a gym. All classes had dining and smoking lounges, open and closed promenades. The most luxurious and sophisticated were the first class interiors, made in various artistic styles using expensive materials such as mahogany, gilding, stained glass, silk and others. The third class cabins and salons were decorated as simply as possible: steel walls were painted white or covered with wooden panels.

1 On April 0, 1912, the Titanic set sail from Southampton on its first and only voyage. After stopping in Cherbourg, France, and Queenstown, Ireland, the ship sailed into the Atlantic Ocean with 1,317 passengers and 908 crew members on board. The ship was commanded by Captain Edward Smith. On April 14, the Titanic's radio station received seven ice warnings, but the liner continued to move almost at top speed.

To avoid encountering floating ice, the captain ordered to go slightly south of the usual route.
At 23:39 on April 14, the lookout reported to the captain's bridge about an iceberg directly ahead. Less than a minute later there was a collision. Having received several holes, the ship began to sink. Women and children were put on the boats first.

At 2:20 on April 15, the Titanic sank, breaking into two parts, killing 1,496 people. 712 survivors were picked up by the steamship Carpathia.

The wreckage of the Titanic rests at a depth of 3,750 m. They were first discovered by Robert Ballard's expedition in 1985. Subsequent expeditions recovered thousands of artifacts from the bottom. The bow and stern parts are deeply buried in the bottom silt and are in a deplorable condition; raising them to the surface intact is not possible.

The wreck of the Titanic The disaster claimed the lives, according to various sources, from 1,495 to 1,635 people. Until December 20, 1987, when the Philippine ferry Dona Paz sank, killing more than 4,000 people, the sinking of the Titanic remained the deadliest maritime disaster in history. Peaceful time

. Informally, it is the most famous disaster of the 20th century.

Alternative versions of the ship's death

And now - alternative versions, each of which has its adherents in the worldwide club of mystery lovers.

Fire

In particular, he studied photographs taken before the ship left the Belfast shipyard. The journalist saw black marks along the right side of the ship's hull - exactly where the iceberg hit it. Experts subsequently confirmed that the marks were likely caused by a fire that started in a fuel storage facility. “We looked at the exact location where the iceberg was stuck and it appears that part of the hull was very vulnerable at that location, and that was before it even left the Belfast shipyard,” Moloney says. A team of 12 tried to put out the flames, but they were too big to bring under control quickly. It could reach temperatures of up to 1000 degrees Celsius, making the Titanic's hull very vulnerable in this area. And when it hit the ice, experts say, it immediately broke. The publication also added that the liner's management prohibited passengers from talking about the fire. “This is a perfect confluence of unusual factors: fire, ice and criminal negligence. No one had investigated these marks before. It changes the story completely,” says Moloney.

CONSPIRACY

Conspiracy theory: this is not the Titanic at all! This version was put forward by experts who studied the causes of the death of the ship, Robin Gardiner and Dan Van Der Watt, published in the book “The Mystery of the Titanic.” According to this theory, the sunken ship is not the Titanic at all, but its twin brother, the Olympic. These ships looked practically no different from each other. On September 20, 1911, the Olympic collided with the British Navy cruiser Hawk, causing both ships to be seriously damaged. The owners of "Olympic" suffered heavy losses, since the damage that was caused to "Olympic" was not enough for an insurance payment.

The theory is based on the assumption of possible fraud in order for the owners of the Titanic to receive insurance payments. According to this version, the owners of the Titanic intentionally sent the Olympic to an area of possible ice formation and at the same time convinced the captain not to slow down so that the ship would suffer serious damage when colliding with a block of ice. This version was initially supported by the fact that a fairly large number of objects were raised from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, where the Titanic lies, but nothing was found that bore the name “Titanic.” This theory was refuted after parts were brought to the surface, on which the Titanic’s side (construction) number was stamped - 401. The Olympic had a side number of 400. In addition, the minted side number of the Titanic was discovered and on the propeller of a sunken ship. And even despite this, the conspiracy theory still has a number of followers.

German attack

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 will be the fact that the U-20 submarine will sink the Lusitania in 1915, a twin of the same Mauritania that set the speed record and won the Atlantic Blue Ribbon - 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.

There was a collision with an iceberg - this is beyond doubt. The deck of the ship was even covered with snow and ice chips. Cheerful passengers started playing football with ice cubes - 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!).

Supporters of the theory of the German attack claim, however, that people in the boats heard a terrible roar just before the Titanic sank - well, 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 is also 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.

A curse

Mystical version: curse of the pharaohs. It is known for certain that one of the historians, Lord Canterville, transported a perfectly preserved Egyptian mummy priestesses - soothsayers. Since the mummy had a fairly high historical and cultural value, it was not placed in the hold, but placed directly next to the captain's bridge. The essence of the theory is that the mummy influenced the mind of Captain Smith, who, despite numerous warnings about ice in the area where the Titanic was sailing, did not slow down and thereby doomed the ship to certain death. Well-known cases support this version mysterious death people who disturbed the peace of ancient burials, especially the mummified Egyptian rulers. Moreover, the deaths were associated precisely with clouding of mind, as a result of which people committed inappropriate actions, and cases of suicide often occurred. Did the pharaohs have a hand in the sinking of the Titanic?

Steering error

One of latest versions The sinking of the Titanic deserves special attention. She appeared after the novel by the granddaughter of the second mate of the Titanic, Charles Lightoller, Lady Patten, “Worth Its Weight in Gold,” was published. According to Patten's book, the ship had enough time to avoid the obstacle, but helmsman Robert Hitchens panicked and turned the wheel the wrong way.

A catastrophic mistake led to the iceberg causing fatal damage to the ship. The truth about what really happened that fateful night was kept secret by the family of Lightoller, the oldest surviving officer of the Titanic and the only survivor who knew exactly what caused the ship's sinking. Lightoller hid this information out of fear that the White Star Line, which owned the ship, would go bankrupt and his colleagues would lose their jobs. The only person to whom Lightoller told the truth was his wife Sylvia, who conveyed her husband’s words to her granddaughter. In addition, according to Patten, such a large and reliable liner as the Titanic sank so quickly because after colliding with an ice block it was not immediately stopped, and the rate of water entering the holds increased hundreds of times. The liner was not immediately stopped because White Star Line manager Bruce Ismay convinced the captain to continue sailing. He feared that the incident could cause considerable material damage to the company he headed.

Chasing the Atlantic Blue Riband

There were and still are many supporters of this theory, especially among writers, since it appeared precisely in literary circles. “ Blue ribbon Atlantic” is a prestigious prize in shipping awarded to ocean liners for achieving record speeds across the North Atlantic.

At the time of the Titanic, this prize was awarded to the ship Mauritania of the Cunard company, which, by the way, was the founder of this award, as well as the main competitor of the White Star Line. In defense of this theory, it is argued that the president of the company that owned the Titanic, Ismay, encouraged the captain of the Titanic, Smith, to arrive in New York a day ahead of schedule and receive an honorary prize. This allegedly explains the high speed of the vessel in dangerous area Atlantic. But this theory can easily be refuted, because the Titanic simply physically could not have reached the speed of 26 knots at which the Cunard Mauritania set a record that, by the way, lasted for more than 10 years after the disaster in the Atlantic.

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. 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.

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.

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

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.

But why was there such a monstrous discrepancy between the places on the lifeboats? 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.

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 rich 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.

It might be useful to read: