Where did the Titanic come from? The sinking of the Titanic: a chronicle of the disaster, versions. Further developments

And this fact is not surprising, because at the time of construction and commissioning, the "" was one of the largest airliners in the world. Its first voyage, which is also its last, took place on April 14, 1912, because the ship, after a collision with an ice block, sank 2 hours 40 minutes after the impact (at 02.20 on April 15). Such a large-scale disaster has turned into a legend, and in our time the causes and circumstances of its occurrence are discussed, feature films are made, and researchers continue to study the remains of the liner located at the bottom and compare them with photographs of the ship taken in 1912.

If we compare the model of the bow shown in the photo with the remains that now lie on the bottom, it is difficult to call them identical, because the front part of the ship was heavily immersed in silt during the fall. This sight greatly disappointed the first researchers, since the location of the wreckage did not allow for an inspection of the place where the ship hit the ice block without the use of special equipment. A torn hole in the hull, clearly visible on the model, is the result of a blow to the bottom.

The remains of the Titanic are located at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, they lie at a depth of about 4 km. The ship cracked during the dive and now two of its parts lie at the bottom, at a distance of about 600 meters from one another. Within a radius of several hundred meters near them there are numerous debris and objects, including a huge piece of the ship's hull.

The researchers managed to make a panorama of the bow of the Titanic by processing several hundred images. If you look at it from right to left, you can see the winch from the spare anchor, which sticks out directly above the bow edge, then the mooring device is noticeable, and next to it is an open hatch leading to hold No. 1, breakwater lines go from it to the sides. The lying mast, under which there are two more bilge hatches and winches for lifting cargo, is clearly visible on the inter-superstructure deck. The captain's bridge used to be located on the front of the main superstructure, but now it can only be found on the bottom in parts.

But the superstructure with the captain's and officers' cabins and the radio room is well preserved, although it is crossed by a crack that was created at the site of the expansion joint. The visible hole in the superstructure is where the chimney is located. Another hole behind the superstructure is a well where the main staircase of the Titanic is located. The large ragged hole located to the left is the site of the second pipe.

Photo of the main anchor on the port side of the Titanic. It remains a mystery how he did not fall down when he hit the bottom.

Behind the Titanic's spare anchor is a mooring device.

Even 10-20 years ago, on the mast of the Titanic one could see the remains of the so-called “crow’s nest”, where the lookouts were located, but now they have fallen off. The only reminder of the "crow's nest" is the hole in the mast through which sailors looking out could get onto spiral staircase. The tail located behind the hole was once a bell mount.

Comparative photos of the Titanic deck where the lifeboats were located. On the right you can see that the superstructure on it is torn in places.

The Titanic staircase that adorned the ship in 1912:

Photo of the remains of the ship, taken from a similar angle. Comparing the two previous photos, it is difficult to believe that this is the same part of the ship.

Behind the stairs there were elevators for 1st class passengers. Only individual elements remind us of them. The inscription, which can be seen in the photo on the right, was located opposite the elevators and pointed to the deck. It is this inscription that is the pointer directing to deck A (the letter A, made of bronze, has disappeared, but traces still remain).

Deck D, 1st class lounge. Despite the fact that most of the wooden trim has been eaten by microorganisms, individual elements reminiscent of the grand staircase have been preserved.

The 1st class lounge and restaurant of the Titanic, located on Deck D, had large stained glass windows, which have survived to this day.

This is exactly how "" would look along with the largest modern passenger airliner, which is called "Allure of the Seas».

It was put into operation in 2010. Several comparative values:

  • Allure of the Seas has a displacement 4 times greater than that of the Titanic;
  • the modern record-breaking liner has a length of 360 m, which is 100 m longer than the "";
  • maximum width 60 m compared to 28 m of the shipbuilding legend;
  • the draft is almost the same (almost 10 m);
  • the speed of these ships is 22-23 knots;
  • the number of command staff of “Allure of the Seas” is more than 2 thousand people (the “servants” are 900 people, mostly stokers);
  • the passenger capacity of the modern giant is 6.4 thousand people (in the case of 2.5 thousand).

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 pursued the goal of lifting various objects from the bottom, incl. and for sale at auctions, which caused many scandals about the moral and ethical side of the issue. James Cameron also 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 into 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 located, 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 ship’s wooden trim 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.

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 telephone 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 people thought 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, a message about the tragedy on the Titanic was received by the ship Carpathia. 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 reason, 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 (equal 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 members of the ship’s crew.

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 bathhouse, 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 after colliding 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 found herself 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. 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 Titanic wreck (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 from it. 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 carried out 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"

Titanic (RMS Titanic) is a British steamship of the White Star Line, the second of three twin ships of the Olympic class, the largest passenger liner in the world at the time of construction. During its maiden voyage, on the night of 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, a total of 2,224 people, of which 711 people were saved, 1,513 died. This disaster was one of major disasters last century, which occurred in Peaceful time. April 15, 2012 marked 100 years since the Titanic sank.


01. The Titanic was laid down on March 31, 1909 at the shipyards of the Harland and Wolff shipbuilding company in Queens Island (Belfast, Northern Ireland)

02. The customer of the vessel was the White Star Line company. The shipyard was not cheap, but it carried out almost the entire volume of work independently and was famous for its excellent quality.

03. Screw shafts.

04. Fragment of steam engines. The Titanic was equipped with two four-cylinder steam engines driving the outer propellers and a steam turbine driving the middle propeller. The rated power of this power plant was 50,000 liters. s., but a power of 55,000 hp could be developed. With. At full speed, the Titanic could travel at a speed of 24-25 knots.

05. The dimensions of the parts are impressive.

07. Steam engines.

09. The main propeller (in the center) is five meters high!

11. The liner had 4 pipes, the diameter of each of which was 7.3 m, height - 18.5 m. The first three removed smoke from the boiler fireboxes, the fourth, located above the turbine compartment, served as an exhaust fan, and a chimney was connected to it for ship kitchens. The fourth pipe was purely cosmetic to make the ship appear more powerful.

12. Boilers of the Titanic. The engine room contained 29 boilers and 159 coal fireboxes.

13. In formal accordance with the current requirements of the British Merchant Shipping Code, the ship had 20 lifeboats, which were sufficient to board 1,178 people, that is, 50% of the people. One boat could accommodate 65 people.

14. Characteristics: length - 268.98 m; width - 28.2 m; distance from the waterline to the boat deck - 18.4 m;
the distance from the keel to the tops of the pipes is 53.3 m.

15. The liner had a second bottom, which was located about one and a half meters above the keel and occupied 9/10 of the length of the ship, excluding only small areas in the bow and stern. On the second bottom, boilers, reciprocating steam engines, a steam turbine and electric generators were installed, all of which were firmly mounted on steel plates, the remaining space was used for cargo, coal and drinking water tanks. In the engine room section, the second bottom rose 2.1 m above the keel, which increased the protection of the liner in case of damage to the outer skin.

17. In Belfast.

18. Workers leave work at the Harland and Wolfe shipyard in Belfast, where the Titanic was built between 1909 and 1911.

The Titanic shocked contemporaries with its technical novelty and luxury and became, as it were, the materialized embodiment of man's dream of dominion over the ocean. Let's see what he looked like.

20. Upper deck.

21. Deck with boats.

22. Captain's cabin.

23. Room for second class passengers.

24. First class cabin B-64.

25. B-38 first class cabin.

26. B-59 first class cabin.

27. Cafe on Deck "B" for first class passengers.

28. Dining room.

29. Smoking room 1st class.

30. Main staircase in the first class lounge.

31. The ceiling above the stairs is a glass dome.

33. Reading room.

35. Cafe.

37. 1st class lounge.

38. Gym.

39. Common room 3rd grade.

41. The tugs Hector and Neptune rest against the bow of the Titanic, 1912.

44. Deck for second class passengers.

45. On the Titanic there were 8 steel decks located above each other at a distance of 2.5-3.2 m. The topmost one was the boat deck, below it there were seven others, designated from top to bottom with the letters “A” to “G”. Only decks "C", "D", "E" and "F" ran the entire length of the ship. The boat deck and the “A” deck did not reach either the bow or the stern, and the “G” deck was located only in the front of the liner - from the boiler rooms to the bow and in the aft - from the engine room to the stern.

46. ​​Perhaps the most interesting design feature of the liner was its watertight bulkheads. The Titanic had a double bottom and was divided into 16 watertight compartments by fifteen watertight bulkheads. The unsinkability of the liner was ensured if any four compartments were flooded, and since the designers could not imagine a misfortune worse than a hole at the junction of two compartments, the Titanic was declared “unsinkable.”

47. The Titanic sets off on its first and last voyage from Southampton.

48. Leaves Queenstown, Ireland, for New York, April 12, 1912. The Titanic's maiden voyage was conceived as an event comparable in scale to the main supershow of the century. A first class ticket cost about $50,000 in today's money. Hundreds of rich people paid money not because they needed to go to New York. They bought tickets to the show.

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

49. Ship's officers, including Captain Smith (second from right in front row)

50. Captain Edward John Smith (right) (1850-1912) and Treasurer Hugh Walter McElroy. Due to his extensive experience, the captain was highly popular among crew members and passengers. After this voyage, Smith planned to retire. According to one version, the captain, 10 minutes before the ship’s final immersion under water, returned to the captain’s bridge, where he met his death. No body found.

51. William McMaster Murdoch (1873-1912), first mate. Survivors testified that Murdoch made great efforts to save the passengers, but he himself died. IN hometown Dumfries and Galloway (Scotland) erected a memorial to the heroism of William Murdoch and founded a charitable award in his name.

52. Thomas Andrews (1873-1912), chief designer of the Titanic superliner. The Titanic was the first ship for which Andrews was responsible as a designer from start to finish. Thomas Andrews took part in the Titanic's sea trials, when the serviceability of all equipment on the ship was checked, and made a 600-mile voyage from Belfast to Southampton. A week later he went to New York. During the evacuation, Thomas helped passengers board the boats, but he himself died and his body was not found. All newspaper articles about the disaster mentioned Thomas Andrews only as a hero. In Thomas' home town of Comber, the Thomas Andrews Jr Memorial Hall was opened in January 1914. This memorial was one of the very first and most significant memorials in the world that was dedicated to just one Titanic victim. Today the memorial is used as Primary School Andrews Memorial Primary School.

53. Margaret Molly Brown (1867-1932) American socialite, philanthropist and activist. After the disaster, sitting in a lifeboat with 24 women and two men, she desperately argued with the boat's foreman, Robert Hitchens, demanding to return to the crash site and pick up the drowning people. When one of the passengers felt cold, Margaret gave her her fur coat. And when the cold “finished off” even her, she ordered the women to sit down at the oars and row to keep warm. They managed to swim to another ship, the Carpathia, and there Margaret did what she knew how to do best: organization. She knew several languages ​​and could speak with passengers from different countries. She looked for blankets and food for them, compiled lists of survivors, and collected money for those who lost everything with the Titanic: both family and savings. By the time the Carpathia arrived in port, she had raised $10,000 for the survivors. After her death, they began to call her “the unsinkable Molly Brown.”

54. Photo of the musicians who played on board the Titanic until the last moment, until it disappeared under water. The last tune they played was “Nearer, My God, to Thee”

55. Wallace Hartley with his violin. When the 33-year-old musician's body was pulled from the water, the violin was tied to his chest.

56. John Jacob IV (1864-1912) and Madeleine Astor. American millionaire, businessman, writer, member of the famous Astor family and lieutenant colonel, participant in the Spanish-American War. Died in a disaster.

57. Dorothy Gibson (1889-1946) - American silent film actress, fashion model and singer. She starred in the film "Survivors of the Titanic" in 1912.

58. Jacques Fotrell - American writer, author of the popular detective stories "Thinking Machine", he took on board many unpublished stories that were lost forever. Having celebrated his 37th birthday the day before sailing, he died in a disaster.

59. Bruce Ismay (1862-1937) executive director of the White Company Star Line". Survived, but was branded with shame.

60. Radio operators - left - Jack Phillips (1887-1912). He did not stop broadcasting for a minute until, at about 2 a.m., the de-energized Titanic transmitter went silent forever. The image of Jack Philipps - a radio operator who intensely and selflessly knocks the SOS signal, calling for help to those in distress when the radio room is already flooded with water - is depicted in all films dedicated to the Titanic tragedy without exception.

61. William Thomas Stead (1849 - 1912) was perhaps one of the most famous people on the Titanic. A British journalist (who can be considered the founder of the genre of “investigative journalism”), a defender of women's rights and civil liberties, a pacifist, Stead entered into a “crusade” against child prostitution in 1885, publishing a series of articles entitled “The Tribute of the Maiden of Modern Babylon.” "Titanic" William Thomas Stead was heading to America to participate in the pacifist congress, which was convened in New York's Carnegie Hall on the initiative of US President Taft, Stead repeatedly argued that in the end he would either be lynched or drown in 1886. published an article entitled “How a steamship liner went down in the middle of the Atlantic. The story of a survivor." During the Titanic disaster, a 63-year-old journalist behaved heroically, helping women and children take their places in the lifeboats. He died, his body was not found.

62. Isidor Strauss (1865-1912) with his wife Ida. Isidor Strauss is a German-American entrepreneur, co-owner of the largest American chain of department stores, Macy's. On the Titanic, one of the officers invited the Strauss couple to sit on the boat together, but Isidor refused, deciding to share the fate of the other men of the sinking ship. He tried to seat I’m going into the boat, but she said: “I will not leave my husband. We have always been together, we will die together.” Instead of themselves, the Strauss put their maid in the boat, Isidor Strauss died on the night of April 15, 1912, along with his wife.

64. Photo of a coal bunker with workers.

66. Seven-year-old Eva Hart with her father Benjamin and mother Esther, 1912. Eva and her mother escaped, but her father drowned.

67. Priest and photographer Francis Brown, disembarked from the Titanic before heading to New York. After Brown's death, Pastor Eddie O'Donnell released a book called "Priest Francis Brown's Titanic Album," which included hundreds of photographs of Francis Brown.

68. On April 14, 1912, at 23:40, an iceberg was spotted at a distance of about 450 meters straight ahead. Despite the maneuver, after 39 seconds the underwater part of the vessel touched an iceberg; the hull received numerous small holes over a length of about 100 meters. Of the ship's 16 watertight compartments, 6 were cut through (the leak in the sixth was extremely insignificant).

A little chronology:
Monday, April 15, 1912
00:05 - The trim on the bow became noticeable. The order was given to uncover the lifeboats and call crew members and passengers to their assembly points.
00:15 - the first radiotelegraph signal for help was transmitted from the Titanic.
00:45 - the first flare is fired and the first lifeboat (No. 7) is launched. The bow deck goes under water.
01:15 - 3rd class passengers are allowed on deck.
01:40 - the last flare is fired.
02:05 - the last lifeboat (collapsible lifeboat D) is lowered. Bow the boat deck goes under water.
02:08 - The Titanic shudders sharply and moves forward. A wave rolls across the deck and floods the bridge, washing passengers and crew members into the water.
02:10 - the last radiotelegraph signals were transmitted.
02:15 - The Titanic lifts its stern high, exposing the rudder and propellers.
02:17 - the electric lights go out.
02:18 - The Titanic, rapidly sinking, breaks into two parts.
02:20 - Titanic sank.

69. Drawing depicting a disaster.

70. Still from the film.

The small, low-powered ship Carpathia was 58 miles southeast of the disaster site when the ship's radio operator, Francis Cottam, heard a hysterical "S.O.S." from the sinking Titanic. He later recalled that he caught the signal at the very last moment, already taking off his headphones and getting ready to sleep. Cottam did not have a replacement. If he had fallen asleep five minutes earlier, the captain of the Carpathia would never have known that the Titanic was already sinking. The captain's name was Arthur Rostron. He never drank, smoked or cursed. Even in the age of steam and electricity, in the era of the most ambitious dreams of mankind, he did not forget how to pray.

"Carpathia" with its only pipe developed a speed of only 14 knots - so Rostron ordered all additional resources of steam, hot water and electricity to be transferred to the boilers. The Titanic's owners were planning to bring the ship to New York a day ahead of schedule to set a new record. The record was set by “Carpathia” - it arrived at the scene of the disaster almost an hour earlier than it could and than everyone expected.

Salt water does not freeze at minus one degree Celsius. In boat “A” people were sitting waist-deep in icy water, and after half an hour they had to throw the corpses of two women overboard - they froze right in the boat. Rescue boat number 12 was covered by waves twice - it was only a miracle that it did not sink. As doctors later calculated, any of the 711 surviving passengers had no chance of surviving more than 12 hours...

71. "Carpathia" approaches the first boats.

72. 04:10 - “Carpathia” picked up the first boat from the “Titanic” (boat No. 2).
08:30 - Carpathia picked up the last (No. 12) boat from the Titanic.
08:50 - Carpathia, having taken on board 704 people who escaped from the Titanic, heads for New York.

73. The ship "Carpathia".

74. The headlines of all the newspapers spoke about the sinking of the Titanic.

75. People read reports outside the offices of The Sun newspaper in New York after the crash.

76. A huge crowd of people gathered outside the offices of the White Star Line shipping company on Broadway in New York to find out last news about the crash.

77. Reporters interview passengers of the sunken Titanic.

78. Margaret Molly Brown presents the captain of the Carpathia, Arthur Rostron, with a cup of love on behalf of the surviving passengers of the Titanic. A special Congressional Medal was issued in honor of Arthur Rostron. He was knighted by British royal decree. After some time, Sir Arthur headed the entire passenger fleet of the Cunard company. There are monuments to him in many cities in England, the USA, France and Ireland. On one of them - in the vicinity of Southampton - the inscription is stamped: “To Sir Arthur Rostron. Who transformed the “age of steam” into the “age of spirit.”

79. Now the wreckage of the Titanic rests at a depth of 3750 meters. Over the past 25 years, many deep-sea expeditions have descended on the Titanic. In the photo, the Mir-1 bathyscaphe illuminates the railings on the Titanic.

81. Bow of the ship.

82. Two huge engines.

83. At the bottom of the ocean.

84. One of three screws.

85. In some places, windows have been preserved intact.

86. The first complete photo of the legendary wreckage. The photo mosaic consists of 1500 images high resolution made using sonar studies.

87. With two propellers sticking out of the mud and sand, the Titanic's stern rests on the ocean floor 600 meters south of the ship's bow.

88. About 5,000 objects were recovered from the Titanic. Some of them are sold at auctions.

89. Gold Waltham American pocket watch - a personal item of Karl Asplund - in front of a painting of the Titanic painted by C. J. Ashford. The watch was found on Karl's body.

90. 17-ton fragment passenger airliner The Titanic, which was raised from the ocean floor during an expedition to the shipwreck, July 22, 2009.

91. The largest museum dedicated to the Titanic was built at the shipyards of Belfast, Ireland.

93. The path of the Titanic.

94. Elizabeth Gladys Milvina Dean - an Englishwoman who was the last surviving passenger of the Titanic (1912-2009). On the day of the shipwreck she was only 2 months and 13 days old. Milvina Dean died on May 31, 2009, aged 97, at a nursing home in Ashurst, Hampshire, on the 98th anniversary of the Titanic's launch. On October 27, 2009, her ashes were scattered in the port of Southampton, where the Titanic began its only voyage.

Archival newsreels about construction

Hi all! Today I am with you again, Vladimir Raichev, and today I would like to discuss with you some interesting and mystical facts related to the transatlantic liner Titanic, which sank in 1912.

The Titanic was positioned as the most reliable liner of its time, it had the following characteristics:

Owner: British shipping company White Star Line

Date of construction: 1911

Construction cost: £3 million

Number of decks - 8

Length - 269 m

Width - 30 m

Displacement - 52310 t

Maximum speed - 42 km/h

Capacity - 3547 passengers + crew

Design features- double bottom, hull material - steel, hold and lower decks were divided into 16 compartments by bulkheads with sealed doors.

These are just some of the characteristics of the ship; among other things, there were 20 boats on board with a total capacity of 1,178 people. The Titanic was the standard of reliability, wealth, and nothing foreshadowed its collapse. On April 12, 1912, the Titanic set sail on its maiden voyage from Southampton.

History of the disaster

On April 14, the captain and his crew received 7 messages from other ships that they encountered floating ice. For some reason, the team completely ignored these warnings and flew their liner at full speed towards New York.

Closer to midnight, the one looking ahead reported approaching an iceberg, this message was transmitted to the first mate, who was on duty on the bridge that night. William Murdoch, contrary to all instructions, tried to go around the iceberg.

Any inexperienced captain knows that under no circumstances should the ship be turned or put into reverse. As a result of the collision with the iceberg, the Titanic received a large hole on the starboard side below the waterline.

Captain Edward Smith climbed onto the bridge a little later; he felt the collision while in his cabin. Having assessed the damage to the liner, he consulted with the chief designer of the ship and decided to prepare for the evacuation of people.

The radio operators were given the command to transmit distress signals. The sailors knew very little about the procedure for their actions in an emergency, although the plan for these actions was posted in several places, but the sailors did not bother to study this plan.

The fact is that each boat had its own sailor. And it took a lot of work for the officers to organize the preparation of life-saving equipment. No one could even imagine the sinking of the Titanic, so there is nothing strange in the fact that such self-confidence reigned around.

The passengers, who were directed to the lifeboats, were in no hurry at all, as they did not imagine that a disaster had occurred: the people on the upper deck did not even feel the collision.

Untrained sailors lowered the first boats not completely filled. And if you remember, at the very beginning of the article I mentioned the capacity of the ship and the number of seats in life-saving equipment. There were 3 times fewer seats in the boats than there were passengers.

The ensuing panic also complicated the evacuation of passengers. The Titanic had it all: manifestations of cowardice and cowardice, and courage and perseverance, the inept actions of the crew bordered on the help of women in the boats, who told some men how to handle the oars.

Contrary to engineering calculations, the liner stayed on the water for more than 3 hours. Desperate people, who did not have enough space on the boats, jumped into the icy water. The water temperature reached -2 ​​degrees - borderline freezing temperature.

Ultimately, only 705 passengers managed to escape, and over 1,500 died in this disaster. This disaster was one of the largest in the last century.

Causes of the disaster

A collision with an iceberg was the main reason for the death of the liner. But why did this happen? Why did the captain and his crew so neglect reports of drifting ice? Why did the first officer act so unprofessionally? Why did the person looking ahead report the approach to the iceberg so late? Why was the evacuation so disorganized?

There are many more questions related to this incident than answers. After a long time, many alternative versions of the crash began to appear. For example, one of them says that the White Star Line company sent another ship, the Olympic, instead of the Titanic, as if the plan was simple: to initiate a disaster, sink the ships and receive insurance compensation for a cheaper ship.

Captain Edward Smith, before he was appointed captain of the Titanic, managed to take part in some disasters with his other ships, for example, the Republic and Adriatic ran aground, the Majestic and Baltic caught fire, and the liner " Olympic collided with the British war cruiser Hawk in 1911.

However, some crew members were also flawed, such as First Officer Murdoch, who was unable to avoid a collision with a block of ice, or Chief Radio Operator Jack Phillips, who responded very harshly to warnings about drifting ice.

It is noteworthy that just before leaving for the flight, Smith's team was replaced by the one looking forward. And the sailor removed from the ship forgot to give his colleague only one key, which opened the doors of the box where the binoculars were located.

Mystical consequences of the tragedy

But it is interesting that now other explanations for the disaster have begun to appear - mystical ones. Over the course of a century, this story has acquired details and guesses. More than once artistic and documentaries shed light on this story from different angles.

In 1994, right at the site of the sinking of the liner, fishermen caught a 10-month-old baby alive, tied to a life preserver with the words “Titanic” written on it. Also, information has repeatedly surfaced about a girl who appeared in our time and claimed that she was a passenger on this ship.

Surprisingly, both the baby and the girl were documented to exist at the beginning of the century, and the girl was declared sane by psychiatrists. There is nothing left but to connect the mysterious events taking place with the emergence of a certain “time portal” at the site of the sinking of the Titanic.

The stories of eyewitnesses about luminous circles under water, shortly before the disaster, are also suggestive.

The appearance of the captain

There was another interesting case. On August 9, 1991, near Iceland, a Norwegian research vessel picked up a man adrift on a boat. Imagine the surprise of the crew when it turned out that this was the captain of the Titanic, Edward John Smith.

This man was somewhat dazed, but overall he was healthy, and what was most striking was that he looked as if the year on the calendar was still 1912. For 80 years he was considered dead, but he looked great, smoked a pipe and was dressed in a clean White Star Shipping Company uniform.

Of course, they didn’t take this man’s word for it. He was taken to Sweden, and there, in the city of Oslo, he was sent to a psychiatric clinic. They also took his fingerprints there. The results of the fingerprint examination shocked the researchers. It was confirmed that the man from the boat was indeed Captain Edward John Smith.

Of course, both the girl who “rescued” from the Titanic and the captain of the ship remained within the walls of specialized institutions, isolated from the world.

It is amazing that all these people at the time of discovery looked the age they were at the time of the disaster, as if these 80 years did not exist for them. Scientists explain the phenomena occurring in the Atlantic by formation in this anomalous zone space-time holes.

There is documented evidence from a Norwegian ship that on the day of the disaster, a giant funnel, in other words, a whirlpool, was seen in the Atlantic. A few hours later, the Titanic shipwrecked in this area. Perhaps the crater and the crash are somehow connected.

Scientists are working to study the mechanisms of the appearance of “space-time portals,” and in the meantime we can only guess what other mysteries it holds Atlantic Ocean, and how many secrets the famous superliner Titanic took with it.

This is where I want to end my article today. Share this with your friends interesting story, subscribe to updates, we still have a lot of interesting things ahead. See you soon, take care of yourself.

 

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