home Migration registration Titanic tragedy. The ship "Titanic"

Titanic tragedy. The ship "Titanic"

These are certainly interesting and I would even say “romantic” from a technical point of view, such as or for example. More than a century has passed since these huge liners plied the waters of the Atlantic. But their research does not stop to this day.

British journalist Shanan Meloni studied the history of the Titanic for 30 years and came to "sensational" conclusion: the main cause of the crash was a fire in the fuel storage facility, which lasted about two weeks. This is certainly interesting, but don’t you think that he didn’t tell us anything new?

After all, it’s still the twentieth of September 1987 French television told the world "sensational news": the cause of the death of the Titanic, it turns out, was a fire that broke out in the hold of the ill-fated liner, and not at all a collision with an iceberg.

Since after 30 years they come up again "sensational" versions, then let us remember all of them as they exist. Maybe you will also find something sensational for yourself :-)

Here they are...

On the cold night from the fourteenth to the fifteenth of April 1912, in the middle Atlantic Ocean The most famous maritime disaster in the history of mankind occurred. The ship of the White Star Line, bearing the proud name "Titanic", having died in the middle of its first voyage and taking with it one thousand five hundred and four human lives, was doomed to become the most famous ship in the world.

Why did the most perfect ship of that era, a ship that was considered completely unsinkable, sank? Let's use a blogger prosto_serge Let's collect all the proposed versions:

Twins: Titanic (right) and Olympic

Version one. Conspiracy theory

Few people know that the Titanic had a twin brother - the ship Olympic, an exact copy of it, also owned by the White Star Line. How is this possible, the reader may be surprised, since the Titanic was considered a unique ship, the largest ship of that era, and now it turns out that there was another ship that was not inferior in size to it? No, the Titanic was indeed longer than its twin. Two inches. Just imagine - the length of a matchbox! - but still longer. Another thing is that it was almost impossible to notice these inches with the naked eye (and, perhaps, with the armed eye too), so that an outsider, looking at the twins standing side by side, could not tell which one was which.

The Olympic was a year older than its brother (so it would be more correct to call the Titanic a copy), and not much luckier. Probably should have written something like “from the very beginning there was a hovering over each of the ships evil rock“, but more on that a little later: of course, the greatest maritime disaster could not help but be surrounded by mystical rumors.

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

Final fitting out of the Titanic at the Belfast shipyard

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

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

John Pierpont Morgan

It turned out to be quite difficult to refute the conspiracy theory, especially since White Star went out of its way to save its reputation: it distorted information about the disaster in every possible way, bribed witnesses, and so on. Actually, convincing arguments were found only after the sunken liner itself was discovered (and this happened only seventy-three years later - the remains of the ship were discovered by Robert Ballard's expedition in September '85). So, the participants of one of the expeditions who descended to to the lost ship, photographs were taken of the propeller, on which the Titanic's minted serial number is clearly visible - 401 (its older brother had the number exactly 400). Proponents of the conspiracy theory claim, however, that the Olympic damaged its propeller after a collision with the cruiser Hawk, and White Star replaced it with a propeller from the then unfinished Titanic. But number 401 is also found on other parts of the sunken ship, so the accusation of a planned disaster on the White Star Line can be dropped. The following theory looks much more plausible - we’ll talk about it now.

One of the arguments in favor of the conspiracy theory was the fact that industrialist John Morgan, one of the owners of the Titanic, was supposed to sail on board his ship, but canceled his ticket a day before the ship left the port.

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

A piece of the Titanic's plating lifted from the bottom

Second version. Chasing the Blue Ribbon

It all started a long time ago, when regular maritime communications were established between England and America, and, therefore, competition between ship-owning companies began to flare up. The faster the ship crossed the Atlantic, the more popular it became. In 1840, the Cunard company invented a prize for ships that set a speed record: now the ship that crossed the Atlantic Ocean faster than all its predecessors received the Blue Riband of the Atlantic as an award.

Actually, there was no material prize. The winner did not receive a cash prize, nor was the captain given a commemorative cup, which could be placed in a prominent place in the wardroom. But the ship acquired something more - priceless prestige that could not be achieved by other means. In addition to honor in maritime circles (and, therefore, fame and popularity), the winner of the award received a contract for the transportation of mail (including diplomatic mail) between America and Europe, and this is a very profitable item in shipping. And in general - see for yourself: if you are a rich businessman, maybe even a millionaire, which ship would you prefer to travel on? Isn't it the most prestigious and fastest?

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

Due to the threat of a collision with floating ice, the prescribed route of the Titanic (and any other ship following the same course) did not run in a straight line, but made a small detour, skirting the dangerous ocean area where most icebergs drift. Of course, this maneuver lengthens the road. That's why it may seem that Captain Smith was steering his ship straight into a cluster of icebergs - he just needed to take a shortcut and get the Blue Ribbon at all costs. That is why the Titanic was moving at full speed and did not slow down even after receiving several radio warnings about ice danger from other ships. Let other ships worry, but the Titanic has nothing to fear. In the “crow’s nest” - a special observation platform on the front mast - there are two lookouts who, in case of danger, can instantly report it to the captain’s bridge via telephone: the Titanic is equipped with the latest technology. And if a collision does occur, well, that just means that the record will be set another time. Icebergs do not pose a danger to the ship - after all, it is known that the Titanic is completely unsinkable. Its hold is divided into sixteen waterproof compartments, so that if it suddenly gets a hole (which, of course, cannot be), then only one of the compartments will be filled with water, and the ship will calmly continue its journey. That's one thing - the liner will not sink, even if four compartments are filled! And a ship can receive such damage only in war.

Well, it’s not for nothing that pride is one of the deadly sins. She played a cruel joke on the Titanic: the iceberg damaged five compartments - one more than was permissible.

But how could the ice break through the steel of the ship's plating? In the mid-nineties, a piece of the Titanic's skin was raised to the surface and subjected to a fragility test: a sheet of metal, fixed in clamps, had to withstand the blow of a thirty-kilogram pendulum. For comparison, a piece of steel used in shipbuilding today was also tested. Before the experiment, both samples were placed in an alcohol bath with a temperature of just over a degree - this is exactly what the ocean water was like on that fateful night. Modern metal came out of the test with honor: under the blow of a hammer it bent, but remained intact. The one raised from the bottom split into two parts. Maybe it became so fragile after lying on the ocean floor for eighty years? Researchers managed to obtain a sample of steel from those years at the Belfast shipyard where the Titanic was built. He passed the strength test no better than his brother. The experts' conclusion was that the steel used in the Titanic's construction was of very low quality, with a large admixture of sulfur, which made it brittle at low temperatures. Alas, at the beginning of the twentieth century, the level of development of metallurgy was far from what it is today. If the liner's skin had been made of high-quality steel, the hull would have simply bent inward from the impact, and the tragedy could have been avoided.

One of the Titanic's watertight bulkheads

Third version. Fire in the hold

On September 20, 1987, French television told the world sensational news: the cause of the death of the Titanic, it turns out, was a fire that broke out in the hold of the ill-fated liner, and not a collision with an iceberg. Apparently, supporters of the new hypothesis assured, spontaneous combustion of coal occurred in one of the ship’s coal storages (well, this is indeed possible), the fire spread throughout the hold, reached the steam boilers, which exploded, causing the ship to go to the bottom. As for the iceberg, it just happened to be nearby, so it was blamed for the crash of the liner.

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

But Shenan Meloni still believes that the iceberg is only one of the factors that destroyed the ship. In the process of meticulously studying photographs taken ten days before the Titanic left Southampton, the journalist discovered traces of soot on the inside of the hull. Exactly in the place that was subsequently damaged in the collision. A fire in a fuel storage facility is believed to have started during high-speed testing at a dock in Belfast.

The owners of the ship knew that a fire was raging in the bowels of the Titanic, but they turned out to be so greedy that they decided not to cancel the voyage. To prevent passengers from suspecting anything, the ship was turned around in the port of Southampton. The officers were ordered to keep their mouths shut.

The liner set sail, but the crew of 12 people could not cope with the fire. Gradually the casing heated up to a thousand degrees Celsius. Metallurgy experts consulted by Meloni said steel becomes brittle at this temperature, losing up to 75% of its strength. For this reason, when it hit the iceberg, six holes with a total length of about 90 meters were immediately formed in the bow compartments of the vessel. The ship's unsinkability system could not cope with such serious damage.

So Ray Boston, who studied the documents of this disaster for many years, found evidence. According to him, the fireman Dilley, who survived the disaster, testified to the fire, who said: “We could not put out the fire, and there were rumors that as soon as we disembarked the passengers at the port of New York and unloaded the coal bunkers, we would immediately call fire boats to help to put out the fire."

The iceberg tore through the skin of the liner just under bunker number six, where the largest hole was formed, and no one had to put out the fire. But for unknown reasons, the commission investigating the death of the liner did not pay attention to the stoker’s statement.

Fourth version. German torpedo

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 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? We are very detailed.

Based on these facts, some Western publications proposed their own version of the death of the Titanic in the mid-nineties: a torpedo attack by a German submarine secretly accompanying the liner. The purpose of the attack was to discredit the British fleet, famous for its power throughout the world. In accordance with this theory, the Titanic either did not collide with the iceberg at all, or received very minor damage in the collision and would have remained afloat if the Germans had not finished off the ship with a torpedo.

What speaks in favor of this version? Honestly, nothing.

Firstly, there was a collision with an iceberg - this is beyond doubt. The deck of the ship was even covered with snow and ice chips. The cheerful passengers started playing football with ice cubes - it would become clear later that the ship was doomed. The collision itself was surprisingly quiet - almost none of the passengers felt it. The torpedo, you must admit, could hardly have exploded completely silently (especially since some claim that the submarine fired as many as six torpedoes at the ship!). 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, too, is unlikely to have happened silently . And why would the Germans suddenly start drowning two years before the start of the war? passenger airliner? This seems dubious, to put it mildly. And to put it bluntly - absurd.

The very first horror movie about a mummy

Fifth version. Curse of the Egyptian Mummy

In the eighties of the nineteenth century, a perfectly preserved mummy from the time of Amenhotep IV was discovered near Cairo, named either Amen-Otu, or Amen-Ra, or Amennophis (lovers of mysticism, as you know, do not bother with such trifles. Mummy, and mummy ). During her life, the mummy worked as a famous soothsayer, and therefore after death she was awarded a magnificent burial: with jewelry, figurines of gods, and, of course, magic amulets. Among them was an image of Osiris, decorated with the inscription: “Wake up from your swoon, and your gaze will crush everyone who stands in your way.” Others, however, insisted that it was written “Rise from the dust, and one look from your eyes will triumph over any intrigues against you,” but what difference does it really make? When still others timidly suggested that nothing of the kind was written on the mummy, it was certainly clear that this was nonsense.

Ticket to the Titanic

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

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

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

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

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

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

Version six. Steering error and human factor

The recently published book by the granddaughter of the second mate of the Titanic, Charles Lightoller, Lady Patten, “Worth Its Weight in Gold,” about the tragic fate of the Titanic, reveals new sensational aspects of the disaster. It turns out that the Titanic crew discovered the iceberg in advance, which made it possible to avoid a collision. The cause of the collision was the panic of the helmsman, who performed the wrong maneuver.

The revelation, which was hidden for about 100 years by the family of one of the Titanic officers, is published in a new book. Second officer Charles Lightoler, who survived the disaster, hid the mistake from commissions on both sides of the Atlantic for fear of bankrupting the shipowners and putting his colleagues out of work. And even after his death, for fear of damaging his reputation, his relatives hid the truth.

But now his granddaughter, the writer Patten, has opened the curtain of secrecy in a new novel. When first mate William Murdoch spotted an iceberg 2 miles away, his order “To starboard” was misinterpreted in the control room by Robert Hitchins. He first turned the ship to the right, and although he immediately corrected the course, due to the high speed of the Titanic, its starboard side was torn open by an iceberg.

At first glance, it seems amazing that anyone - especially the man who stood at the helm of the maiden voyage of the world's most expensive ocean liner - could make such a schoolboy mistake. However, Patten explains, this seemingly incredible error actually had a very specific technical reason.

“The Titanic was launched at a time when the world was transitioning from sailing ships to steam ships. Her grandfather, like the rest of the senior officers on the Titanic, started out on sailing ships. On sailboats, commands were given “at the tiller.” If you need to turn the ship in one direction, then the tiller is turned in the other (say, if the ship needs to be turned to the left, then the tiller is turned to the right). Now it looks unnatural, but at one time it was customary to give commands this way. The rudder commands used on steam ships are reminiscent of driving a car - the ship is directed in the direction in which it should turn. Further complicating the situation was the fact that, although the Titanic was a steamship, the North Atlantic at that time used "tiller" commands. Accordingly, Murdoch gave the command “to the tiller,” but the panicked Hitchins mechanically carried out the command “to the steering wheel,” as he had been taught. They had only four minutes to change course, and by the time Murdoch noticed Hitchins' mistake and tried to correct it, it was too late."

Grandfather Patten, who later set up his own ship repair business in Richmond-upon-Thames (where his small shipyard was located, now has a memorial plaque), shared another, potentially even more damning secret with his wife, whose name was Sylvia. If helmsman Hitchins was simply mistaken, then Bruce Ismay, also a survivor of the disaster, the head of the White Star Line, which owned the Titanic, gave a disastrous order.

“The iceberg hit the Titanic in its most vulnerable place,” continues Patten, “but, as my grandfather believed, the liner could remain afloat for a long time. However, then Ismay came to the bridge. He did not want the ship, in which huge amounts of money had been invested, to either slowly sink in the middle of the Atlantic or be towed to port. Too bad advertising! Therefore, he ordered the captain to give a small forward. “Titanic” was considered unsinkable!

Captain of the Titanic Edward Smith

To this we can also add that shortly before this sad anniversary, a letter from a passenger from the Titanic who managed to survive was put up for auction in one of the UK auction houses. This letter had not appeared anywhere before. The passenger writes in her letter that on the day the Titanic sank, she saw the ship's captain drunk.

According to the woman, she also saw how the captain of the Titanic, having handed over control to someone from the crew, sat at the bar and drank whiskey. Thus, it may turn out that the Titanic sank not because of a fatal coincidence, but because of simple criminal negligence.

What versions did we miss besides the official one?

And a little more about the legendary ship: here you go

105 years ago, the Titanic's only voyage began. We offer interesting real stories of the passengers of the liner.

On April 10, 1912, the British liner Titanic left the port of Southampton on its first and last voyage. Four days later, after colliding with an iceberg, the now legendary liner crashed. There were 2,208 people on board the ship, and only 712 passengers and crew members managed to escape. 3rd class passengers buried alive at the bottom of the ocean and millionaires choosing best places in half-empty lifeboats, an orchestra playing until the last moment and heroes saving their loved ones at the cost of their own lives... All this is not only footage from a Hollywood film, but also real stories of passengers from the Titanic.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Usually, two members of the Titanic orchestra worked in different parts of the liner and at different times, but on the night of the ship's sinking, all of them united into one orchestra.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

After Molly organized the Titanic Survivors Fund.

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

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

"Titanic" (eng. Titanic) is a British transatlantic steamship, the second liner of the Olympic class. 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 lined with wood panels.

1 On April 0, 1912, the Titanic set sail from Southampton on its first and only voyage. After making stops in Cherbourg, France, and Queenstown, Ireland, the ship entered 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

A fire in the coal compartment that broke out before sailing and provoked first an explosion and then a collision with an iceberg. The ship's owners knew about the fire and tried to hide it from passengers. This version was put forward by British journalist Shanan Moloney, writes The Independent. Moloney has been researching the causes of the Titanic's sinking for more than 30 years.

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 enough water was recovered from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, where the Titanic lies. a large number of objects, but nothing was found that would bear 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?

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, too, is unlikely to have happened silently . And why would the Germans suddenly start sinking a passenger liner two years before the start of the war? This seems dubious, to put it mildly. And to put it bluntly, it’s absurd.

A curse

Mystical version: curse of the pharaohs. It is known for certain that one of the historians, Lord Canterville, transported on the Titanic in a wooden box a perfectly preserved Egyptian mummy of a priestess - a soothsayer. 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 the latest versions of 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. The Atlantic Blue Ribbon is a prestigious shipping prize 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, when studying the history of the most famous maritime disaster, we have to admit that the Titanic owes its death to long chain 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 the tenth of April, during the departure of the Titanic from the quay wall of the port of Southampton, the superliner passed too close to American ship"New York", and a phenomenon known in navigation as the suction of ships arose: the "New York" began to be attracted to the Titanic moving nearby. 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 there were empty seats. 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 ice 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 sad that another passenger steamer, the Californian, stood very close to the sinking Titanic, waiting out the ice danger. 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. So at that moment, when colleagues from other ships reported about floating ice, the radio operator transmitted 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.

You have already read and heard about the Titanic many times. The history of the creation and crash of the liner is overgrown with rumors and myths. For more than 100 years, the British steamship has been exciting the minds of people trying to find the answer - why did the Titanic sink?

The history of the legendary liner is interesting for three reasons:

it was the largest ship in 1912;
the number of victims turned the disaster into a global failure;
finally, James Cameron, with his film, singled out the story of the liner from the general list of maritime disasters, and there were quite a few of them.

We will tell you everything about the Titanic, as it happened in reality. About the length of the Titanic in meters, how long the Titanic sank, and who really was behind the large-scale disaster.

Where and where did the Titanic sail from?

From Cameron's film, we know that the liner was heading to New York. The American development city was to be the final stop. But not everyone knows exactly where the Titanic sailed from, believing that London was the starting point. The capital of Great Britain was not among the seaports, and therefore the ship could not depart from there.

The fatal flight began from Southampton, a major English port from where transatlantic flights operated. The Titanic's path on the map clearly shows the movement. Southampton is both a port and a city located in the southern part of England (Hampshire).

See the route of the Titanic on the map:

Dimensions of the Titanic in meters

To understand more about the Titanic, the causes of the disaster need to be revealed, starting with the dimensions of the ship.

How many meters is the Titanic in length and other dimensions:

exact length – 299.1 m;

width – 28.19 m;

height from the keel - 53.3 m.

There is also the following question: how many decks did the Titanic have? There were 8 in total. Boats were located on top, which is why the upper deck was called the boat deck. The rest were distributed according to letter designation.

A – 1st class deck. Its peculiarity is its limited size - it does not fit the entire length of the vessel;

B - anchors were located in the front part of the deck and its dimensions were also shorter - 37 meters on deck C;

C – deck with galley, crew mess and promenade for III class.

D – walking area;

E – cabins of I, II classes;

F – cabins of II and III classes;

G – deck with boiler rooms in the middle.

Finally, how much does the Titanic weigh? The displacement of the largest ship of the early 20th century is 52,310 tons.

Titanic: the story of the wreck

In what year did the Titanic sink? The famous disaster occurred on the night of April 14, 1912. This was the fifth day of the trip. Chronicles indicate that at 23:40 the liner survived a collision with an iceberg and after 2 hours 40 minutes (2:20 a.m.) it went under water.

Things from the Titanic: photos

Further investigations showed that the crew received 7 weather warnings, but this did not prevent the ship from reducing its maximum speed. The iceberg directly ahead was spotted too late to take precautions. The result is holes in the starboard side. Ice damaged 90 m of skin and 5 bow compartments. This was enough to sink the liner.

Tickets for the new liner were more expensive than for other ships. If a person was used to traveling in first class, then on the Titanic he would have to change to second class.

Edward Smith, the ship's captain, began the evacuation after midnight: a distress signal was sent, the attention of other ships was attracted by flares, and lifeboats were launched into the water. But the rescue was slow and uncoordinated - there was empty space in the lifeboats while the Titanic was sinking, the water temperature did not rise above two degrees below zero, and the first steamer arrived only half an hour after the disaster.

Titanic: how many people died and survived

How many people survived on the Titanic? No one will tell you the exact data, just as they could not say this on the fateful night. The list of Titanic passengers initially changed in practice, but not on paper: some canceled the trip at the moment of sailing and were not crossed off, others traveled anonymously under assumed names, and still others were listed as dead on the Titanic several times.

Photos of the sinking of the Titanic

It is only possible to say approximately how many people drowned on the Titanic - about 1500 (minimum 1490 - maximum 1635). Among them was Edward Smith with some assistants, 8 musicians from the famous orchestra, large investors and businessmen.

Class was felt even after death - the bodies of the dead from the first class were embalmed and placed in coffins, the second and third classes received bags and boxes. When the embalming agents ran out, the bodies of unknown third-class passengers were simply thrown into the water (according to the rules, unembalmed corpses could not be brought to the port).

Bodies were found within a radius of 80 km from the crash site, and due to the Gulf Stream, many were scattered even further.

Photos of dead people

Initially, it was known how many passengers were on the Titanic, although not thoroughly:

crew 900 people;

195 first class;

255 second class;

493 third class people.

Some passengers disembarked at intermediate ports, while others entered. It is believed that the liner set out on the fatal route with a crew of 1,317 people, of which 124 were children.

Titanic: sinking depth - 3750 m

The English ship could accommodate 2,566 people, of which 1,034 seats were for first class passengers. The airliner's half occupancy is explained by the fact that transatlantic flights were not popular in April. At that time, a coal miners' strike broke out, which disrupted coal supplies, schedules and changes in plans.

The question of how many people were saved from the Titanic was difficult to answer because the rescue operations took place from different ships, and slow communications did not provide fast data.

After the crash, only 2/3 of the delivered bodies were identified. Some were buried locally, the rest were sent home. For a long time, bodies in white vests were found in the area of the disaster. Out of 1500 dead people Only 333 bodies were found.

At what depth does the Titanic lie?

When answering the question about the depth at which the Titanic sank, you need to remember about the pieces that were carried away by currents (by the way, they learned about this only in the 80s; before that it was believed that the liner sank to the bottom entirely). The wreckage of the liner on the night of the crash went to a depth of 3,750 m. The bow was thrown 600 m from the stern.

The place where the Titanic sank on the map:

In which ocean did the Titanic sink? - in the Atlantic.

The Titanic was raised from the bottom of the ocean

They wanted to raise the ship from the moment of the crash. Initiative plans were put forward by the relatives of the victims from the first class. But 1912 did not yet know the necessary technologies. The war, lack of knowledge and funds delayed the search for the sunken ship for a hundred years. Since 1985, 17 expeditions have been carried out, during which 5,000 objects and large hulls were brought to the surface, but the ship itself remained on the ocean floor.

What does the Titanic look like now?

In the time since the crash, the ship has become covered in marine life. Rust, the painstaking work of invertebrates and natural processes of decomposition have changed the structures beyond recognition. By this time, the bodies had already decomposed completely, and by the 22nd century, only the anchors and boilers - the most massive metal structures - would remain from the Titanic.

Already, the interiors of the decks have been destroyed, the cabins and halls have collapsed.

Titanic, Britannic and Olympic

All three ships were produced by the shipbuilding company Harland and Wolf. Before the Titanic, the world saw the Olympic. It is easy to see a fatal predisposition in the fate of the three ships. The first airliner crashed as a result of a collision with a cruiser. Not such a large-scale disaster, but still an impressive failure.

Then the story of the Titanic, which received wide resonance in the world, and, finally, Gigantic. They tried to make this ship especially durable, taking into account the mistakes of previous liners. It was even launched, but the First World War disrupted the plans. Gigantic became a hospital ship called Britannic.

He just managed to carry out 5 calm flights, and on the sixth there was a disaster. Having been blown up by a German mine, the Britannic quickly sank. The mistakes of the past and the preparedness of the captain made it possible to save the maximum number of people - 1036 out of 1066.

Is it possible to talk about evil fate when remembering the Titanic? The history of the creation and crash of the liner was studied in detail, the facts were revealed, even through time. And yet the truth is only now being revealed. The reason why the Titanic attracts attention is to hide the true motive - the creation of a currency system and the destruction of opponents.

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 a 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 ship's captain. 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.