The ship "Titanic". "Titanic"

Construction

Construction and equipment

Specifications

Bulkheads

The Titanic was built so that it could remain afloat if any 2 of its 16 watertight compartments, any 3 of the first 5 compartments, or all of the first 4 compartments were flooded.

The first 2 bulkheads in the bow and the last one in the stern were solid; all the rest had sealed doors that allowed the crew and passengers to move between compartments. On the flooring of the second bottom, in bulkhead “K,” there were only doors that led to the refrigerator compartment. On decks “F” and “E”, almost all bulkheads had hermetic doors connecting the rooms used by passengers; all of them could be sealed either remotely or manually, using a device located directly on the door and from the deck to which it reached bulkhead. To bolt such doors on passenger decks, a special key was required, which was available only to the chief stewards. But on G deck there were no doors in the bulkheads.

In the bulkheads “D” - “O”, directly above the second bottom in the compartments where the machines and boilers were located, there were 12 vertically closed doors; they were controlled using an electric drive from the navigation bridge. In case of danger or accident, or when the captain or watch officer considered it necessary, electromagnets, upon a signal from the bridge, released the latches, and all 12 doors were lowered under the influence of their own gravity and the space behind them was hermetically sealed. If the doors were closed by an electric signal from the bridge, then they could only be opened after removing the voltage from the electric drive.

Deck "G" covered only the bow and stern, between which the boiler rooms were located. The bow part of the deck, 58 m long, was 2 m above the waterline; towards the center of the liner it gradually lowered and at the opposite end was already at the waterline level. There were 26 cabins for 106 third-class passengers, the rest of the area was occupied by the luggage compartment for first-class passengers, the ship's mailroom and the ballroom. Behind the bow of the deck there were bunkers with coal, which occupied 6 waterproof compartments around the chimneys, followed by 2 compartments with steam lines for piston steam engines and a turbine compartment. Next came the aft deck, 64 m long, with warehouses, storerooms and 60 cabins for 186 third-class passengers, which was already below the waterline.

Masts

One was at the stern, the other on the forecastle, each was steel with top part from teak. On the front, at an altitude of 29 m from the waterline, there was a top platform (“crow’s nest”), which could be reached via an internal metal ladder.

Office premises

In the front part of the boat deck there was a navigation bridge, 58 m away from the bow. On the bridge there was a pilothouse with a steering wheel and a compass, immediately behind it was a room where navigation charts were stored. To the right of the wheelhouse were the charthouse, the captain's cabin and part of the officers' cabins, to the left were the remaining officers' cabins. Behind them, behind the forward funnel, was the radiotelegraph cabin and the radio operator's cabin. At the front of Deck D there were living quarters for 108 stokers; a special spiral ladder connected this deck directly to the boiler rooms, so that stokers could go to work and return without passing by cabins or passenger lounges. At the front of E deck were living quarters for 72 stevedores and 44 sailors. In the first part of deck “F” there were quarters of 53 stokers of the third shift. On deck "G" there were quarters for 45 stokers and oilers. The RMS in the name stands for Royal Mail Ship. The ship had a post office and warehouse on decks "F" and "G", where 5 postal workers worked.

Second bottom

The second bottom was located approximately one and a half meters above the keel and occupied 9/10 of the length of the vessel, excluding only small areas in the bow and stern. On the second day boilers were installed, piston steam engines, steam turbine and electric generators, all of this was firmly fixed on steel plates, the remaining space was used for cargo, coal and tanks with drinking water. 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.

Power point

The Titanic's propellers before the ship's launch

The registered power of steam engines and turbines was 50 thousand liters. With. (actually 55 thousand hp). The turbine was located in the fifth waterproof compartment in the aft part of the liner, in the next compartment, closer to the bow, steam engines were located, the other 6 compartments were occupied by twenty-four double-flow and five single-flow boilers that produced steam for the main engines, turbines, generators and auxiliary mechanisms. The diameter of each boiler was 4.79 m, the length of the double-flow boiler was 6.08 m, the single-flow boiler was 3.57 m. Each double-flow boiler had 6 fireboxes, and the single-flow boiler had 3. In addition, the Titanic was equipped with four auxiliary machines with generators, each with a capacity of 400 kilowatts, producing electricity at 100 volts. Next to them were two more 30-kilowatt generators. High-pressure steam from the boilers went to 2 triple expansion steam engines, which rotated the side screws. From the machines, steam then entered the turbine low pressure, which drove the middle propeller. From the turbine, the exhaust steam entered the condensers, from where fresh water went back to the boilers in a closed cycle. The Titanic developed a decent speed for its time, although it was inferior to the turboprops of its competitor, the Cunard Line.

Pipes

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 for the ship's kitchens was connected to it . A longitudinal section of the ship is shown in its model exhibited at the Deutsches Museum Munich, where it is clearly seen that the last chimney was not connected to the fireboxes. The fourth pipe was purely cosmetic to make the ship appear more powerful.

Electricity supply

10 thousand light bulbs, 562 electric heaters, mainly in first class cabins, 153 electric motors, including electric drives for eight cranes with a total lifting capacity of 18 tons, 4 cargo winches with a lifting capacity of 750 kg, 4 elevators, each for 12 people, were connected to the distribution network. In addition, electricity was consumed by the telephone exchange and radio communications, fans in the boiler and engine rooms, apparatus in the gymnasium, dozens of machines and appliances in the kitchens, including refrigerators.

Connection

The telephone switch served 50 lines. The radio equipment on the liner was the most modern, the power of the main transmitter was 5 kilowatts, power came from an electric generator. The second, an emergency transmitter, was battery-powered. 4 antennas were stretched between the two masts, some up to 75 m long. The guaranteed range of the radio signal was 250 miles. During the day favorable conditions Communication was possible at a distance of up to 400 miles, and at night - up to 2000.

The radio equipment arrived on board on April 2 from the Marconi company, which by this time monopolized the radio industry in Italy and England. Two young radio officers spent the entire day assembling and installing the station, and a test connection was immediately made with the coast station at Malin Head for verification ( English), on the north coast of Ireland, and with Liverpool. On April 3, the radio equipment worked like clockwork; on this day, communication was established with the island of Tenerife at a distance of 2000 miles and with Port Said in Egypt (3000 miles). In January 1912, the Titanic was assigned the radio call sign " MUC", then they were replaced by " MGY", previously owned by the American ship "Yale". As the dominant radio company, Marconi introduced its own radio call signs, most of which began with the letter "M", regardless of its location and the home country of the ship on which it was installed.

Sailing and wrecking

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, fashion designer Lady Lucy Duff Gordon, popular at the beginning of the century, businessman and cricketer John Thayer, British journalist William Thomas Steed, Countess of Rotskaya, military assistant to US President Archibald Butt , film actress Dorothy Gibson and many others.

Northern and Southern transatlantic routes. Ice conditions

A threat to shipping in the North Atlantic is represented by icebergs breaking off from glaciers in western Greenland and drifting under the influence of currents. Ice fields originating in the Arctic Basin, as well as off the coast of Labrador, Newfoundland and in the Strait of St. Lawrence, and drifting under the influence of winds and currents.

The shortest route from northern Europe to the USA lies near the coast of Newfoundland, directly through the zone of fog and icebergs. In order to streamline navigation in the North Atlantic, in 1898, shipping companies entered into an agreement establishing 2 transatlantic routes, passing much further south. For each route, separate routes were determined for steamships moving west and east, spaced up to 50 miles from each other. From mid-January to mid-August, during the season of greatest ice danger, ships moved along the Southern Route. During the rest of the year, the Northern Route was used. This order usually made it possible to minimize the likelihood of encountering drifting ice. But 1912 turned out to be unusual. From the Southern Highway, along the western route of which the Titanic also moved, reports of icebergs came one after another. In this regard, the US Hydrological Service raised the issue of moving the route to the south, but the corresponding decisions were made belatedly, after the disaster.

Chronology

• Wednesday 10 April 1912
  • 12:00 - The Titanic departs from the quay wall of the port of Southampton and narrowly avoids a collision with the American liner New York. There are 922 passengers on board the Titanic.
  • 19:00 - stop in Cherbourg (France) to take on board 274 passengers and mail.
  • 21:00 - The Titanic left Cherbourg and headed for Queenstown (Ireland).

• Sunday, April 14, 1912
  • 09:00 - "Caronia" reports ice in the area of ​​42° north latitude, 49-51° west longitude.
  • 13:42 - Baltic reports the presence of ice in the area of ​​41°51′ north latitude, 49°52′ west longitude.
  • 13:45 - "America" ​​reports ice in the area of ​​41°27′ north latitude, 50°8′ west longitude.
  • 19:00 - air temperature 43° Fahrenheit (6 °C).
  • 19:30 - air temperature 39° Fahrenheit (3.9 ° C).
  • 19:30 - Californian reports ice in the area of ​​42°3′ north latitude, 49°9′ west longitude.
  • 21:00 - air temperature 33° Fahrenheit (0.6 ° C).
  • 21:30 - Second Mate Lightoller warns the ship's carpenter and the watch in the engine room to monitor the system fresh water- water in pipelines may freeze; he tells the lookout to watch for the appearance of ice.
  • 21:40 - Mesaba reports ice in the area of ​​42°-41°25′ north latitude, 49°-50°30′ west longitude.
  • 22:00 - air temperature 32° Fahrenheit (0 °C).
  • 22:30 - sea water temperature dropped to 31° Fahrenheit (−0.56 °C).
  • 23:00 - The Californian warns of the presence of ice, but the Titanic's radio operator interrupts the radio exchange before the Californian manages to report the coordinates of the area.
  • 23:39 - At a point with coordinates 41°46′ north latitude, 50°14′ west longitude (later it turned out that these coordinates were calculated incorrectly), an iceberg was spotted at a distance of about 650 meters straight ahead.
  • 23:40 - Despite the maneuver, after 39 seconds the underwater part of the vessel touched down, 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).

Stages of the sinking of the Titanic

• 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. The bow of 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.
  • 02:29 - At a speed of about 13 miles per hour, the bow of the Titanic crashes into the ocean floor at a depth of 3,750 meters, burrowing into the sedimentary rocks of the bottom.
  • 03:30 - signal flares fired from the Carpathia are noticed from the lifeboats.
  • 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, taking on board 710 people who escaped from the Titanic, heads for New York.
• Thursday 18 April 1912
  • Carpathia arrives in New York

Collision

Photo of an iceberg taken by the chief steward of a German ship " Prince Adalbert"On the morning of April 16, 1912. The steward did not know about the disaster at the time, but the iceberg attracted his attention because it had a brown streak at its base, indicating that the iceberg had collided with something less than 12 hours earlier. It is assumed that this is what the Titanic collided with.

Recognizing an iceberg in the light haze, the lookout Fleet warned “there is ice in front of us” and rang the bell three times, which meant an obstacle straight ahead, after which he rushed to the telephone that connected the “crow’s nest” to the bridge. Sixth Officer Moody, who was on the bridge, responded almost instantly and heard the cry of “ice right on the nose!!!” (“ice right ahead!!!”) After politely thanking him, Moody turned to the officer of the watch, Murdoch, and repeated the warning. He rushed to the telegraph, put its handle on “stop” and shouted “starboard”, at the same time transmitting the order “full back” to the engine room, and pressed the lever that turned on the closing of the watertight doors in the bulkheads of the boiler room and the engine room.

Photo of an iceberg taken from a cable-laying ship " Mine", which was one of the first ships to discover the corpses of passengers and the wreckage of the ship. Presumably, the Titanic could have collided with this particular iceberg, since, according to the crew, “ Mines", this was the only iceberg near the disaster site.

According to the terminology of 1912, the command “starboard” meant turning the stern of the ship to the right, and the bow to the left (on Russian ships, since 1909, natural commands were already used, for example: “left rudder”). Helmsman Robert Hitchens ( English) put his weight on the handle of the steering wheel and quickly turned it counterclockwise until it stops, after which Murdoch was told, “The steering wheel is right, sir!” At that moment, the watch helmsman Alfred Oliver and Boxhall, who was in the chart room, came running to the bridge when the bell rang out in the crow’s nest. A. Oliver, in his testimony in the US Senate, however, definitely stated that upon entering the bridge he heard the command “left rudder” (corresponding to a turn to the right), and this command was carried out. According to Boxhall (British Inquiry, question 15355), Murdoch reported to Captain Smith: "I turned left and reversed, and was about to turn right to get around him, but he was too close."

It is known that the Titanic did not use binoculars for lookouts because the key to the safe with binoculars was missing. He was picked up by Second Mate Blair when the captain kicked him off the team, taking on board a crew member from Olympic. It is possible that the lack of binoculars was one of the reasons for the crash of the liner. However, the existence of binoculars became known only 95 years after the shipwreck, when one of them was exhibited at the Henry Eldridge and Sons auction house in Devizes, Wiltshire. David Blair was to become the second mate of the Titanic, for which he arrived on April 3, 1912 from Belfast to Southampton. However, the management of the White Star Line replaced him at the last moment with Henry Wild, the first mate from the similar ship Olympic, since he had experience in handling such large liners, as a result of which Blair, in his haste, forgot to hand over the key to the man who came to his place . However, many historians agree that the presence of binoculars would not have helped prevent the disaster. This is also confirmed by the fact that the lookouts in the “crow’s nest” noticed the iceberg earlier than those on the bridge, who had binoculars with them.

Titanic is sinking

Lifeboats

There were 2,224 people on board the Titanic, but the total lifeboat capacity was only 1,178. The reason was that, according to the rules in force at that time, the total capacity of lifeboats depended on the tonnage of the ship, and not on the number of passengers and crew members. The rules were drawn up in 1894, when the largest ships had a displacement of about 10,000 tons. The displacement of the Titanic was 46,328 tons.

But these boats were only partially filled. Captain Smith gave the order or instruction "women and children first." Officers interpreted this order in different ways. Second Mate Lightoller, who commanded the launch of the boats on the port side, allowed men to occupy places in the boats only if oarsmen were needed and under no other circumstances. First Officer Murdoch, who commanded the launch of the boats on the starboard side, allowed men to go down if there were no women and children. Thus, in boat number 1, only 12 of the 65 seats were occupied. In addition, at first many passengers did not want to take seats in the boats, because the Titanic, which had no external damage, seemed safer to them. The last boats were filled better because it was already obvious to the passengers that the Titanic would sink. In the very last boat, 44 of the 65 seats were occupied. But in the sixteenth boat that departed from the side, there were many empty seats; 1st class passengers were saved in it.

The crew did not even have time to lower all the boats that were on board. The twentieth boat was washed overboard when the front of the steamer went under water, and she floated upside down.

The British commission's report on the results of the investigation into the sinking of the Titanic states that "if the boats had been delayed a little longer before launching, or if the passage doors had been opened for passengers, larger number some of them could get onto the boats.” The reason for the low survival rate of 3rd class passengers can most likely be attributed to the obstacles caused by the crew to allow passengers to get onto the deck and the closing of the passage doors. People in boats, as a rule, did not save those in the water. On the contrary, they tried to sail as far as possible from the site of the wreck, fearing that their boats in the water would capsize or that they would be sucked into the crater of the sinking ship. Only 6 people were picked up alive from the water.

Failure to provide assistance by the Californian

"Californian"

Serious criticism fell on the crew of the SS Californian and personally on the ship's captain, Stanley Lord. The ship was only a few miles from the Titanic, but did not respond to its distress calls and missile signals. The Californian warned the Titanic by radio about ice accumulation, which caused the Californian to stop for the night, but the warnings were condemned by the Titanic's senior wireless operator Jack Phillips.

Evidence from the British investigation showed that at 10:10 pm, the Californian observed the lights of a ship to the south. Captain Stanley Lord and third officer S. W. Groves (who was released by Lord at 11:10 pm) later decided that it was a passenger liner. At 11:50 p.m., the officer saw the ship's lights flash as if they were turned off or turned sharply, and that a port light appeared. On Lord's orders, Morse light signals were sent to the ship between 11:30 pm and 1:00 am, but they were not received.

Captain Lord retired to his cabin at 11:00 pm to spend the night, however, Second Officer Herbert Stone, while on duty, notified Lord at 1:10 that the ship had fired 5 missiles. Lord wanted to know if these were company signals, that is, colored flashes used for identification. Stone replied that he did not know and that the missiles were white. Captain Lord instructed the crew to continue signaling the ship with a Morse lamp, and went to bed. Three more missiles were spotted at 1:50 a.m. and Stone noted that the ship looked strange in the water, as if it was tilted. At 2:15 am, Lord was notified that the ship was no longer visible. The Lord asked again if the lights were of any color and was informed that they were all white.

The Californian eventually responded. At approximately 5:30 a.m., Chief Officer George Stewart awakened wireless operator Cyril Farmstone Evans and informed him that missiles had been sighted during the night and asked him to contact the ship. He received news of the sinking of the Titanic, Captain Lord was notified and the ship set out to provide assistance. It arrived long after the Carpathia, which had already picked up the survivors.

Upon investigation, it was discovered that the ship seen by the Californian was actually the Titanic, and that the Californian could have come to its aid, so Captain Lord acted inappropriately by not doing so. However, Lord maintained his innocence for the rest of his life, and many researchers argue that the famous positions of the Titanic and Californian make it impossible that the former was the infamous "Mystery Ship", a topic that "has generated...millions of words and ... hours of heated debate,” and continues to do so [ unreputable source?] .

Composition of the dead and survivors

Almost all the women and children from the 1st and 2nd class cabins were saved. More than half of the women and children from the 3rd class cabins died because they had difficulty finding their way up through the labyrinth of narrow corridors. Almost all the men also died. The tragedy of the Paulson family claimed the lives of Alma's mother and all her four young children, for whom father Nils waited in vain in New York.

338 men (20% of all adult men) and 316 women (74% of all adult women) survived, including Violet Jessop, Dorothy Gibson, Molly Brown, Lucy Duff Gordon, Countess of Rothe and others. Of the children, 56 survived (slightly more than half of all children).

The last of the Titanic passengers, Millvina Dean, who was two and a half months old at the time of the sinking of the liner, died on May 31, 2009 at the age of 97 years. Her ashes were scattered to the wind on October 24, 2009 in the port of Southampton, where the Titanic began its only voyage.

A unique record belongs to Jessop's maid, Violet, who survived accidents on all 3 Olympic-class ships. She was working on the Olympic when it collided with the cruiser Hawk; escaped from the Titanic and subsequently survived the sinking of the Britannic by a mine during the First World War.

The death of the Titanic is one of the largest maritime disasters

Vessel	A country	Tonnage	Year	Number of victims	Cause of death
Goya		5230	, April, 4	7000 ~ 7000	Attack of the submarine L-3
Junyo-maru	Japan	5065	, September 18	5620 5620	Attack of the submarine HMS Tradewind
Toyama-maru ( English Toyama Maru)	Japan	7089	, June 29	5600 5600	Attack of the submarine USS Sturgeon
Cap Arcona		27561	, May 3	5594 5594	Air attack
Wilhelm Gustloff		25484	, January 30	9343	Attack of the submarine S-13
Armenia	USSR	5770		5000 ~ 5000	Air attack
Ryusei-maru ( English SS Ryusei Maru)	Japan	4861	, 25 February	4998 4998	Attack of the submarine USS Rasher
Dona Paz	Philippines	2602		4375 ~ 4375	Tanker collision and fire
Lancastria		16243		4000 ~4000	Air attack
General Steuben		14660		3608 3608	Attack of the submarine S-13
Tilbek		2815	, May 3	2800 ~ 2800	Air attack
Salzburg		1759		2000 ~ 2000	Attack of the submarine M-118
Titanic		52310		1514 1514	Iceberg collision
Bismarck		50900	, May 27	1995	battle with British ships
Hood, battlecruiser		41125	, May 24	1415 1415	battle with German ships
Lusitania		31550		1198 1198	Attack of submarine U-20

Among disasters that occurred outside of hostilities, the Titanic ranks third in terms of the number of victims. The sad leadership is behind the Dona Paz ferry, which collided with an oil tanker in 1987. More than 4 thousand people died in the collision and subsequent fire. Wooden holds second place paddle steamer"Sultana", which sank on April 27, 1865 on the Mississippi River near Memphis due to a steam boiler explosion and fire. The total number of deaths on the ship exceeded 1,700 people, this is the worst disaster on river vessels.

Theories about the causes of the accident

Sheathing

On the other hand, this test only proves that modern steel is much more better than that one, which was used at the beginning of the 20th century. It does not prove that the steel used to build the Titanic was of poor quality (or not the best) for its time.

In the first years of the 21st century, a number of media outlets, with reference to the latest research of the ship's hull by deep-sea submersibles, expressed the opinion that when it collided with an iceberg, the ship was not holed, and its hull withstood the impact. The cause of death was that the hull rivets could not prevent the divergence of its sheets, and sea water began to flow into the long gap that formed.

Radio operators

The internal communication system of the liner was extremely unsatisfactory; there was no direct communication with the captain - all messages had to be reported to him orally. The reason was that a radiotelegraph station was considered a luxury, and the main task of telegraph operators was to serve especially wealthy passengers - it is known that in just 36 hours of work, radio operators transmitted more than 250 telegrams. Payment for telegraph services was made on the spot, in the radio room, and at that time it was very expensive, tips were received in large quantities.

The radio log from the Titanic did not survive, but based on the surviving recordings from various ships that had contact with the liner, it was possible to more or less restore a picture of the work of the radio operators. Reports of drifting ice and icebergs began to arrive on the morning of the fateful date - April 14, and the exact coordinates of the high-risk zone were indicated. The Titanic continued to sail further, without turning off course or slowing down. At 19:30, a telegram came from the transport ship Mesaba: “I report ice from 42 degrees to 41 degrees 25 minutes north latitude and from 49 degrees to 50 degrees 30 minutes west longitude. I saw a large number of icebergs and ice fields.” At this time, the Titanic's senior communications officer Jack Phillips was working for the benefit of passengers, transmitting an inexhaustible stream of messages to the Cape Ras station, while the most important message never reached the captain, getting lost in a heap of paper - the Mesaba radio operator forgot to mark the message as "Ice Report" with prefix MSG, which meant “personally to the captain.” This small detail overshadowed Phillips' dedication.

On the other hand, on April 14, in addition to this message, several more warnings about icebergs were received from other ships. The captain took certain measures, in particular, the officers were warned verbally and in writing about the danger, and those looking ahead were ordered to look for the presence of icebergs. Therefore, it cannot be said that Captain Smith did not know about them.

Iceberg

The news about the lack of binoculars from the lookout was received with criticism (according to many eyewitness accounts, binoculars were only on the Belfast-Southampton section; after this stop, Hogg, on the captain’s orders, for some reason put them in his cabin). There is an opinion that if you had binoculars looking ahead, despite the moonless night, you would notice the iceberg not a quarter of a mile (450 m) away, but 2 or 3 miles (4-6 km) away. On the other hand, binoculars narrow the field of view, so they are used only after after the lookout noticed something. Lookouts without binoculars spotted the iceberg before the watch officer with binoculars.

If there had been even a slight disturbance or swell in the ocean, he would have seen white caps at the “waterline” of the iceberg. As it later became known, the Titanic collided with a “black” iceberg, that is, one that had recently capsized in the water. The side facing the liner was dark blue, because of this there was no reflection (an ordinary white iceberg under such conditions could be seen a mile away).

The question of what prevented First Officer W. Murdoch from discovering the iceberg in a timely manner remains open. Captain Rostron of the Carpathia said that 75% of objects in the sea are detected from the bridge earlier than from the crow's nest. When his ship sailed at night to the site of the Titanic accident, all the icebergs on their way were noticed from the bridge before the lookouts discovered them (British investigation, questions 25431-25449).

Maneuvering

There is an opinion that if Murdoch had not given the order to reverse immediately after the command to "left rudder", the Titanic would probably have avoided the collision, since reverse negatively affects the efficiency of the steering wheel. In this case, however, the time required to execute the command is ignored. This takes at least 30 seconds and the command was probably received with a delay; - commands for the engine room along the route of the liner are rarely given (the last one was given three days before), so no one is standing at the engine telegraph. The command simply did not have time to be carried out, otherwise the Titanic would have experienced strong vibration, but no one mentions it. According to the testimony of survivors, the cars stopped and reversed after the collision, so this command had no practical significance.

There is also an opinion that the most the right decision it would be to put only the left car into reverse. Working the propellers against each other would help speed up the turn and reduce the speed. The middle propeller was driven by a steam turbine that ran on residual steam from the onboard engines; this turbine had no reverse gear. Thus, a stopped propeller, behind which there was a single rudder of a very small area, created a turbulent flow, in which the already ineffective rudder almost completely lost its effectiveness. Perhaps even in order to avoid a collision, it would be necessary, on the contrary, to increase the speed of the middle propeller to increase the efficiency of the steering. Moreover, performing the reverse takes considerable time, and, therefore, there was practically no chance to quickly reduce the speed.

Attention should be paid to the fact that the disaster occurred on the first voyage. The navigators had no experience in operating this vessel, which explains the untimely and ineffective attempts to maneuver. At the same time, Captain Smith, First Officer Wilde, and First Officer Murdoch, who was on watch during the accident, had experience working on the Olympic, built according to a similar project. In 1903, in a critical situation, Murdoch, with his timely and decisive actions, overruled the command of his superiors, saved the Arabik steamship from a collision.

There are also suggestions that the Titanic would have remained afloat if the rudder had not been shifted and the ship would have “rammed” the iceberg, taking the blow on the stem. The design of the partitions was precisely aimed at the “survival” of the ship in a head-on collision, but the sides of the ship were not protected. “Wilding, a shipbuilder from Belfast, calculated that the bow of the ship would have been dented by 25-30 meters, but the ship would not have died. It would be instant death for those who were in the bow of the ship at that time, but the loss of inertia would be quite slow, comparable to a car traveling at that speed, whose brakes were instantly pulled all the way,” Barnaby reports. However, Murdoch is justified by the fact that he did not have the opportunity to measure the distance to the iceberg and could not know that the maneuver he had undertaken would not succeed. Therefore, one can hardly blame him for not giving a command that would obviously kill people.

Buoyancy

The liner was not designed to flood all of the first five compartments. Although such a design is possible, it is extremely expensive - the only ship built this way, the Great Eastern, was unprofitable. The unprofitability of this gigantic ship is confirmed by the fact that it was not found possible to use it for its intended purpose, and it went down in history as a cable ship used in laying the transatlantic telegraph cable. The likelihood of risk cannot be ignored either. After all, except for the Titanic, no ship suffered such damage in peacetime.

Reducing speed or avoiding an iceberg field

Despite warnings about icebergs, the captain of the Titanic did not slow down or change the route. But this was standard practice in those days. Thus, during the investigation into the circumstances of the death of the Titanic, Captain Gerard C. Affeld, who commanded 5 transatlantic ships, testified that, having received warnings about icebergs, he never changed the route and reduced speed only in case of fog or bad weather. He studied the logs of the ships entrusted to him. According to these logs, other captains, having received warnings about icebergs, also did not change their route and, as a rule, did not reduce speed. On the other hand, not everyone followed this practice: the ship closest to the Titanic, the Californian, having reached the iceberg field, stopped at its border (and gave the Titanic a warning, which was ignored).

Late reaction on the bridge

Lookout Reginald Lee testified that he spotted the iceberg from a distance of "half a mile, maybe more, maybe less." The Titanic would have covered half a mile in 80 seconds. Helmsman Hichens testified that by the time of the collision the ship had turned 2 points. Since the wheelhouse windows were completely darkened so that light would not interfere with observation from the bridge, Hichens did not see the iceberg. An experiment on the twin steamer Olympic showed that a turn of 2 points would take 37 seconds, counting from the moment the command was given. The authors of the book Report into the Loss of the SS Titanic: A Centennial Reappraisal, published on the centenary of the shipwreck, restore the timing of the accident, and put forward a version of the “lost 30 seconds” after the signal from the lookouts, who left Murdoch for then to visually detect an iceberg, assess the situation and make a decision.

Causes of the tragedy

Subjective reasons

The main subjective reason for the loss of life was the outdated rules of the British Merchant Shipping Code, which made the number of lifeboats dependent on the tonnage of the ship, and not on the number of passengers. The rules were established in 1894, when the tonnage of passenger ships did not exceed 12,952 tons, and all ships of 10,000 tons and above fell into the same category. For such ships, the rules required that the lifeboats have enough space for 962 people. The Titanic's tonnage was 46,328 tons.

The owners of the Titanic, having formally followed the instructions (and even slightly exceeded them, since the Titanic's boats had 1,178 seats, not 962), supplied the ship with an insufficient number of boats. Despite the fact that there were enough lifeboats to land 1,178 people, only 704 were saved. There were certain subjective reasons for this. For example, Second Mate Charles Lightoller, who commanded the launch of the boats on the port side, carried out Captain Smith's order “women and children first” literally: he allowed men to occupy places in the boats only if oarsmen were needed and under no other circumstances.

Based on the stories of Charles Lightoller, his granddaughter Lady Patten put forward a new version of the death of the transatlantic liner. According to the writer, the Titanic sank not because it sailed too fast, which is why it simply did not have time to avoid a collision with an iceberg. There was plenty of time to avoid the ice block, but helmsman Robert Hitchens panicked and turned the wheel in the wrong direction. The ship received a hole, due to which it eventually sank. However, passengers and crew could have been saved if the Titanic had stopped immediately after the collision. Moreover, the nearest ship was only a few miles from the liner. The manager of the company that owned the huge ship, Joseph Bruce Ismay, convinced the captain to continue sailing, fearing that the incident could cause him considerable material damage. He wanted to save the Titanic, but thought exclusively about the financial side of the matter. The rate of water entering the liner's holds increased exponentially. Water entered the housing at a rate of approximately 400 tons per minute. As a result, the ship sank in a matter of hours. Lightoller told only his family about why the liner sank. According to Patten, her relatives feared for their reputation and therefore did not want to divulge the true causes of the 1912 disaster. “My relatives died a long time ago, and I realized that I was the only one in the world who knew about the true cause of the death of the Titanic,” said the writer.

Objective reasons

The cause of the collision and death of the vessel was a combination of unfavorable factors:

• The iceberg belonged to a rare type of so-called. “black icebergs” (overturned so that their dark underwater part reaches the surface), which is why it was noticed too late.
• The night was windless and moonless, otherwise the lookouts would have noticed “lambs” around the iceberg.
• The speed of the ship was too high, due to which the iceberg hit the hull with maximum force. If the captain had ordered the ship’s speed to be reduced in advance when entering the iceberg belt, then perhaps the force of the impact on the iceberg would not have been enough to break through the Titanic’s hull.
• The failure to transmit several telegrams from neighboring ships by members of the radio room, busy sending private telegrams to wealthy passengers for money, about the dangerous proximity of icebergs to Captain Smith, which reduced his vigilance.
• The best steel of the time, from which the Titanic was made, became brittle at low temperatures. The water temperature that night was +2…+4 °C, which made the ship’s hull very vulnerable.
• The quality of the rivets that were used to connect the sheets of the ship’s side plating was poor; when an iceberg hit, the heads of the forged iron rivets, which replaced the originally provided steel ones, crumbled due to their “porosity” due to the inclusion of foreign impurities in them.
• The construction of partitions between the compartments was made with the expectation of a frontal impact, and the doors between the partitions simply could not withstand the pressure of water and broke under its pressure.

Flood depth

On September 1, 1985, an expedition led by the director of the Institute of Oceanology in Woods Hall, Massachusetts, Dr. Robert D. Ballard, discovered the site of the Titanic at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean at a depth of 3,750 meters.

The distance between the remains of the bow and stern of the Titanic is about 600 meters.

The remains of the ship were discovered 13 miles west of the coordinates that the Titanic transmitted in its SOS signal.

In April 2012, one hundred years after the shipwreck, the ship's remains gained protection under the 2001 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of Underwater cultural heritage. From now on, states parties to the Convention have the right to prevent the destruction, looting, sale and unauthorized distribution of objects found at the shipwreck site. They can take it all necessary measures to protect the wreck of a sunken ship, as well as ensure proper treatment of the human remains that rest in it.

Conspiracy theory

Reflection of the Titanic in art

The crash of the airliner became one of the most famous disasters in human history. To some extent, the image of the Titanic became a symbol of the death of something that seemed powerful and unsinkable, a symbol of the weakness of human technogenic civilization in front of the forces of nature. The disaster was widely reflected in art, especially mass art. The first film dedicated to the disaster - “Rescue from the Titanic” - appeared in May 1912, a month after the crash. Also in 1912, but before the disaster occurred, Morgan Robertson's book "Futility, Or the Wreck of the Titan" was published, the action of which took place on board a passenger ship " Titan", similar in description and displacement to the Titanic. In this book, the Titan succumbs to an iceberg in the fog while sailing from New York to Great Britain. As a result, a legend appeared about Morgan Robertson’s “prediction” of the Titanic disaster. This fact is reinforced by the fact that despite the book being published in 1912, it was written in 1898.

The film “Titanic”, released in 1997, was the leader in box office receipts at the global box office for 13 years ($1,845,034,188, of which $600,788,188 in the USA), but in 2010, the record for “Titanic” was broken by the film “Avatar”, released by the same director; In April 2012, on the centenary of the disaster, Cameron released his old film, but in 3D format.

Many songs by performers and groups playing in different genres were dedicated to the death of the ship. In particular, in the song of the same name by the Austrian performer Falco (1992), the Titanic is seen as a symbol of decadence, the end of an era; in the song of the Russian group “Nautilus Pompilius” from the album of the same name “Titanic” (1994), the sailing ship appears as a symbol of death and doom.

see also

• Titanic Belfast (museum)

Notes

1. About the fate of the White Star Line superliners (Retrieved April 8, 2012)
2. Did you know | RU
3. Titanic Belfast Museum

Incredible facts

The sinking of the Titanic is one of the main tragedies of the 20th century.

This is a terrible event armed many myths, speculations and rumors.

But few people know what happened to the passengers of the fateful flight, who managed to survive the worst maritime disaster of the century.

The following selection of documentary photos will give a complete picture of what happened next to those who managed to escape from the sinking ship.

Titanic passengers photo

Frederick Fleet

This photo shows 24-year-old British sailor Frederick Fleet a few days after the sinking of the Titanic. The guy was the first to notice the iceberg.

He took part in two world wars. In 1965, after a prolonged depression, Fleet took his own life.

As for the events on the Titanic, events developed approximately as follows:

On April 10, 1912, the ship set out on its first and last voyage. The huge liner was racing at full speed from Southampton to New York.

On April 14, 1912, at 23.39 pm, Friedrich Fleet noticed an iceberg right ahead, which ultimately destroyed the Titanic.

Two hours and 40 minutes later, colliding with a huge boulder, he sank.

Of the 2,224 people on board the “unsinkable” ship, only about 700 people fit into the lifeboats, thanks to which they remained alive.

The remaining 1,500 people died stranded on the sinking ship or died within minutes of hitting the frigid waters of the North Atlantic Ocean.

Shortly before dawn on April 15, the flotilla of survivors was spotted by the steamship Carpathia, which arrived at the site of the sinking of the Titanic. By 9 am, all surviving passengers were aboard the Carpathia.

Titanic iceberg photo

Iceberg that sank the Titanic.

The surviving passengers of the Titanic in boats swim up to the ship Carpathia, April 15, 1912.

All the same surviving passengers in boats after a shipwreck.

Sketch of the sinking Titanic.

Sketch of a sinking ship by surviving passenger John B. Thayer. After some time, the drawings were supplemented by Mr. P.L. Skidmore (P.L. Skidmore) is already on board the ship "Carpathia" April 1912.

The surviving passengers of the Titanic try to stay warm on board the Carpathia.

When Carpathia headed to New York, it was decided to send radio messages. So the news about the tragedy spread quite quickly.

People were shocked, relatives of the passengers were in panic. In search of information about their loved ones, they attacked the offices of the White Star Line shipping company in New York, as well as in Southampton.

Some of the rich and famous surviving passengers and victims were identified before the Carpathia arrived at port.

But relatives and friends of lower-class passengers, as well as the families of crew members, continued to remain in the dark about the fate of their relatives.

The lack of connections prevented them from knowing the news immediately and they had to wait in painful uncertainty.

Carpathia arrived in New York Harbor on the rainy evening of April 18th. The ship was surrounded by more than 50 tugboats carrying journalists. They shouted and called out to survivors, offering money for first-hand interviews.

A reporter from one of the major American publications, who was on board the Carpathia at that time, had already managed to interview the survivors. He placed his notes in a floating cigar box and threw them into the water so that the publication's editor could catch the message and get the scoop first.

After all the lifeboats were launched at Pier 59, owned by the White Star Line. The ship itself docked at Pier 54. In pouring rain, the ship was greeted by an anxious crowd of 40,000 people.

People wait outside the offices of the White Star Line shipping company in New York for news.

Lifeboats, thanks to which several hundred people survived.

Lifeboats berthed at the White Star Line in New York City, April 1912.

People await the arrival of Carpathia in New York.

Huge crowds of family and friends stand in the rain, awaiting the arrival of the steamship Carpathia in New York, April 18, 1912.

About 40 thousand people are waiting for Carpathia.

Those who managed to survive the fateful voyage on the Titanic were met at the port in New York by family and friends, as well as numerous media representatives.

Some mourned the dead, some wanted autographs, and some tried to interview survivors.

The next day, the US Senate convened a special hearing on the disaster at the old Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.

The Titanic's entire crew numbered 885 people, of whom 724 were from Southampton. At least 549 people did not return home from the fatal flight.

Surviving crew members.

Surviving crew from left to right, first row: Ernest Archer, Friedrich Fleet, Walter Perkis, George Symons and Frederick Clachen.

Second row: Arthur Bright, George Hogg, John Moore, Frank Osman and Henry Etsch.

People surrounded the Titanic survivor.

A crowd of people in the port of Devonport surrounded a man who survived the Titanic to hear first-hand what it really was like.

Payment of compensation to victims.

April 1912

J. Hanson, seated on the right, is District Secretary of the National Seamen's and Firemen's Union. The people around him are the surviving passengers of the Titanic, who receive compensation as victims of the disaster.

Relatives await the surviving passengers of the Titanic.

People wait on the Southampton railway platform for their loved ones who survived the sinking of the Titanic.

Relatives in Southampton greet their loved ones.

Relatives are waiting for the surviving crew members.

Relatives are waiting for the surviving Titanic crew to disembark in Southampton.

People are returning to their homes in England. The disaster claimed the lives of 549 crew members. There were 724 people from Southampton who worked on the ship, ranging from seaman to cook or postman.

Relatives a few minutes before meeting with surviving relatives.

Survivors of the Titanic

Relatives welcome shipwreck survivors to Southampton.

A surviving crew member kisses his wife, who was waiting for him on land at Plymouth, April 29, 1912.

Stewards testifying after the shipwreck.

The surviving stewards stand outside the courthouse. They are invited to testify to the commission investigating the Titanic disaster.

A surviving passenger of the Titanic signs autographs for passers-by.

Titanic survivors

25. The Pascoe brothers, members of the crew of the ill-fated ship, were lucky, all four of them survived.

Orphans of the Titanic

April 1912

At first, the two children who miraculously escaped could not be identified.

The children were later identified as Michelle (4 years old) and Edmond (2 years old) Navratil. To get on the ship, their father took the name Louis Hoffman and used the fictitious names Lolo and Mamon for the children.

The father, with whom the children sailed to New York, died, as a result of which difficulties arose with the real names of the brothers.

However, later they were still able to be identified and the babies were safely reunited with their mother.

In this photo, Edmond and Michelle Navratil, now grown up, and their mother.

Cameraman Harold Thomas Coffin is questioned by a Senate committee at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York, May 29, 1912.

29. Baby Titanic

A nurse holds newborn Lucien P. Smith. His mother Eloise was pregnant with him when she and her husband returned from their honeymoon aboard the Titanic.

The baby's father died in the accident.

Eloise subsequently married another survivor of the terrible flight, Robert P. Daniel.

And finally, a photograph of the Titanic itself on the day when it set out on its first and last fateful voyage...

Titanic is a ship that challenged higher powers. A miracle of shipbuilding and the largest ship of its time. The builders and owners of this giant passenger fleet arrogantly declared: “The Lord God himself cannot sink this ship.” However, the ship launched on its maiden voyage and did not return. It was one of the largest disasters, forever etched in the history of navigation. In this topic I will talk about the most key points related to the Titanic. The topic consists of two parts, the first part is the history of the Titanic before the tragedy, where I will tell you about how the ship was built and went on its fateful voyage. In the second part we will visit the bottom of the ocean, where the remains of a drowned giant lie.

First, I will briefly talk about the history of the Titanic's structure. There are a lot interesting photos ship, which depicts the construction process, mechanisms and assemblies of the Titanic, etc. And then the story will tell about the tragic circumstances that were destined to happen on this fateful day for the Titanic. As always happens with major disasters, the Titanic tragedy occurred due to a series of mistakes that coincided on one day. Each of these mistakes individually would not have entailed anything serious, but all together they resulted in death for the ship.

Titanic was laid down on March 31, 1909 at the shipyards of the Harland and Wolf shipbuilding company in Belfast, Northern Ireland, launched on May 31, 1911, and underwent sea trials on April 2, 1912. The ship's unsinkability was ensured by 15 watertight bulkheads in the hold, creating 16 conditionally watertight compartments; the space between the bottom and the second bottom flooring was divided by transverse and longitudinal partitions into 46 waterproof compartments. The first photo shows the Titanic slipway, construction is just beginning.


The photo shows the laying of the Titanic's keel

In this photo, the Titanic is on the slipway next to the Olympic, its twin brother

And these are the huge steam engines of the Titanic

Giant crankshaft

This photo shows the turbine rotor of the Titanic. The huge size of the rotor stands out especially against the background of the working

Titanic propeller shaft

Ceremonial photo - the Titanic hull is completely assembled

The launching process begins. The Titanic slowly sinks its hull into the water

The giant ship almost left the slipway

Titanic's launch is successful

And now the Titanic is ready, the morning before the first official launching in Belfast

The Titanic was officially launched and transported to England. The photo shows the ship in the port of Southampton before its fateful voyage. Few people know, but during the construction of the Titanic, 8 workers died. This information is available in a selection of interesting facts about the Titanic.

This is the last photograph of the Titanic taken from the shore in Ireland.

The first days of the voyage were successful for the ship, there were no signs of trouble, the ocean was completely calm. On the night of April 14, the sea remained calm, but icebergs were visible in some places in the sailing area. They did not embarrass Captain Smith... At 11:40 in the evening, a cry was suddenly heard from the observation post on the mast: “An iceberg is right on course!”... Everyone knows about further events that took place on the ship. The “unsinkable” Titanic was unable to withstand the elements of water and sank to the bottom. As already mentioned, many factors turned against the Titanic that day. It was fatal bad luck that killed the giant ship and more than 1,500 people

The official conclusion of the commission investigating the causes of the sinking of the Titanic stated: the steel used to sheath the hull of the Titanic was of low quality, with a large admixture of sulfur, which made it very brittle at low temperatures. If the casing were made of high-quality, tough steel with a low sulfur content, it would significantly soften the force of the impact. The metal sheets would simply bend inward and the damage to the body would not be so serious. Perhaps then the Titanic would have been saved, or at least would have remained afloat for a long time. However, for those times this steel was considered the best, there was simply no other. This was only the final conclusion; in fact, a number of other factors occurred that did not allow us to avoid a collision with the iceberg

Let us list in order all the factors that influenced the sinking of the Titanic. The absence of any of these factors could save the ship...

First of all, it is worth noting the work of the Titanic's radio operators: the main task of the telegraph operators was to serve especially wealthy passengers - it is known that in just 36 hours of work, the radio operators transmitted more than 250 telegrams. Payment for telegraph services was made on the spot, in the radio room, and at that time it was quite large, and tips flowed like a river. Radio operators were constantly busy sending telegrams, and although they received several messages about drifting ice, they did not pay attention to them

Some criticize the lookout's lack of binoculars. The reason for this lies in the tiny key to the binoculars box. A tiny key that opened the cabinet where the binoculars were kept could have saved the Titanic and the lives of 1,522 dead passengers. This should have happened if not for the fatal mistake of a certain David Blair. Keyman Blair was transferred from service on the “unsinkable” liner just a few days before the ill-fated voyage, but he forgot to give the key to the binocular locker to the employee who replaced him. That is why the sailors on duty at the observation tower of the liner had to rely solely on their eyes. They saw the iceberg too late. One of the crew members on watch that fateful night later said that if they had binoculars, they would have seen the ice block earlier (even if it was pitch black) and the Titanic would have had time to change course."

Despite warnings about icebergs, the captain of the Titanic did not slow down or change the route, so confident was he that the ship was unsinkable. The speed of the ship was too high, due to which the iceberg hit the hull with maximum force. If the captain had ordered the ship's speed to be reduced in advance, upon entering the iceberg belt, then the force of the impact on the iceberg would not have been enough to break through the Titanic's hull. The captain also did not make sure that all the boats were filled with people. As a result, far fewer people were saved

The iceberg belonged to a rare type of so-called. “black icebergs” (overturned so that their dark underwater part reaches the surface), which is why it was noticed too late. The night was windless and moonless, otherwise the lookouts would have noticed the whitecaps around the iceberg. The photo shows the same iceberg that caused the sinking of the Titanic.

There were no red rescue flares on the ship to signal distress. Confidence in the ship's power was so high that no one even thought of equipping the Titanic with these missiles. But everything could have turned out differently. Less than half an hour after meeting the iceberg, the captain’s mate shouted:
Lights on port side, sir! The ship is five or six miles away! Boxhall clearly saw through his binoculars that it was a single-tube steamer. He tried to contact him using a signal lamp, but the unknown vessel did not respond. “Apparently, there is no radiotelegraph on the ship, they could not help but see us,” Captain Smith decided and ordered helmsman Rowe to signal with emergency flares. When the signalman opened the box with the missiles, both Boxhall and Rowe were dumbfounded: the box contained ordinary white missiles, not emergency red ones. “Sir,” Boxhall exclaimed in disbelief, “there are only white rockets here!” - Can't be! - Captain Smith was amazed. But, convinced that Boxhall was right, he ordered: “Shoot the whites.” Maybe they'll realize we're in trouble. But no one guessed, everyone thought it was a fireworks display on the Titanic

The cargo-passenger steamer California, on a London-Boston flight, missed the Titanic on the evening of April 14, and a little over an hour later it was covered in ice and lost speed. Its radio operator Evans contacted the Titanic at about 11 p.m. and wanted to warn about the difficult ice conditions and that they were covered in ice, but the Titanic’s radio operator Philippe, who had just had difficulty establishing contact with Cape Race, rudely interrupted him: “Leave me alone!” I'm busy working with Cape Race! And Evans “fell behind”: there was no second radio operator on the California, it was a difficult day, and Evans officially closed the radio watch at 23:30, having previously reported this to the captain. As a result, all the blame for the biased investigation into the sinking of the Titanic fell on the captain of the California, Stanley Lord, who proved his innocence until his death. He was acquitted only posthumously after Hendrik Ness, captain of the ship Samson, testified...


On the map the place where the Titanic sank

So, the night of April 14-15, 1912. Atlantic. On board the fishing vessel "Samson". "Samson" returns from a successful fishing trip, avoiding encounters with US ships. On board are several hundred slaughtered seals. The tired crew rested. The watch was kept by the captain himself and his first mate. Captain Ness was in good standing with his owners. The voyages of his ship were always successful and brought good profits. Hendrik Ness was known as an experienced and risk-taking captain, not too scrupulous about violating territorial waters or exceeding the number of animals killed. “Samson” often found himself in foreign or forbidden waters, and he was well known to US Coast Guard ships, with whom he successfully avoided close acquaintance. In a word, Hendrik Ness was an excellent navigator and a gambling, successful businessman. Here are the words of Ness, from which the whole picture of what is happening becomes clear:

“The night was amazing, starry, clear, the ocean was calm and gentle,” Ness said. “The assistant and I chatted, smoked, sometimes I went out of the control room onto the bridge, but I didn’t stay there for long - the air was absolutely freezing.” Suddenly, accidentally turning around, I saw in the southern part of the horizon two unusual bright stars. They surprised me with their brilliance and size. Shouting to the watchman to hand over the telescope, I pointed it at these stars and immediately realized that these were the masthead lights of a large ship. “Captain, I think this is a coast guard ship,” the mate said. But I thought about it myself. There was no time to figure it out on the map, but we both decided that we had entered the territorial waters of the United States. The meeting with their ships did not bode well for us. A few minutes later a white rocket flew over the horizon, and we realized that we had been discovered and were being asked to stop. I still hoped that everything would work out and we would be able to escape. But soon another rocket took off, and after some time a third... Things turned out badly: if we had been searched, I would have lost not only all the loot, but also, possibly, the ship, and we would all have gone to prison. I decided to leave.

He ordered to turn off all the lights and give full speed. For some reason we were not followed. After some time, the border ship disappeared altogether. (This is why witnesses from the Titanic claimed that they clearly saw a large steamer in the distance, leaving them. The ill-fated California at that time was sandwiched in ice and was not visible from the Titanic at all.) I ordered a change of course to the north, we were going at full speed and only slowed down in the morning. On the twenty-fifth of April we dropped anchor off Reykjavik in Iceland and only then did we learn about the Titanic tragedy from newspapers delivered by the Norwegian consul.

During the conversation with the consul, it was as if I had been hit on the head: I thought: weren’t we at the scene of the disaster then? As soon as the consul left our board, I immediately rushed to the cabin and, looking through the newspapers and my notes, realized that the dying people saw us not as the Californian, but as us. This means that it was us who were called to help with rockets. But they were white, not red, emergency ones. Who would have thought that people were dying very close to us, and we were leaving them at full speed on our reliable and large “Samson”, which had both boats and boats on board! And the sea was like a pond, quiet, calm... We could save them all! Everyone! Hundreds of people died there, and we saved stinking seal skins! But who could know about this? But we didn’t have a radiotelegraph. On the way to Norway, I explained to the crew what happened to us and warned that all of us had only one thing left to do - remain silent! If they find out the truth, we will become worse than lepers: everyone will shy away from us, we will be kicked out of the fleet, no one will want to serve with us on the same ship, no one will give us a hand or a crust of bread. And none of the team took any oath.

Hendrik Ness spoke about what happened only 50 years later, before his death. However, no one can be directly blamed for the sinking of the Titanic. If the rockets had been red, he would certainly have rushed to help. In the end, no one had time to help. Only the steamer "Carpathia", developing an unprecedented speed of 17 knots, rushed to the aid of the dying people. Captain Arthur H. Roston ordered the preparation of beds, spare clothing, food, and quarters for the rescued. At 2 hours 45 minutes, “Carpathia” began to encounter icebergs and their fragments, large ice fields. Despite the danger of a collision, the Carpathia did not slow down. At 3 hours 50 minutes on the Carpathia they saw the first boat from the Titanic, at 4 hours 10 minutes they began to save people, and by 8 hours 30 minutes the last living person was picked up. In total, Carpathia saved 705 people. And “Carpathia” delivered all those rescued to New York. The photo shows a boat from the Titanic

Now let's move on to the second part of the story. Here you will see the Titanic at the bottom of the ocean in the form in which it remained after the tragedy. For seventy-three years the ship lay in its deep underwater grave as one of the countless evidence of human carelessness. The word "Titanic" has become synonymous with adventures doomed to failure, heroism, cowardice, shock and adventure. Societies and associations of surviving passengers were created. Entrepreneurs involved in the recovery of sunken ships dreamed of raising a superliner with all its countless riches. In 1985, a team of divers led by American oceanographer Dr. Robert Ballard found it, and the world learned that under the enormous pressure of the water column, the giant ship broke into three parts. The wreckage of the Titanic was scattered over an area with a radius of 1600 meters. Ballard found the bow of the ship, deeply buried in the ground under the weight of own weight. Eight hundred meters away from her lay the stern. Nearby were the ruins of the middle part of the hull. Among the wreckage of the ship, various objects of material culture of that distant time were scattered all over the bottom: a set of kitchen utensils made of copper, wine bottles with corks, coffee cups with the logo of the White Star shipping line, toiletries, door handles, candelabra, kitchen stoves and ceramic doll heads that small children played with... One of the most stunning underwater images that Dr. Ballard's movie camera captured was a broken sloop beam hanging limply from board the ship - a silent witness to the tragic night, which will forever remain on the list of world disasters. The photo shows the wreck of the Titanic, taken by the Mir submersible

Over the past 19 years, the hull of the Titanic has undergone serious destruction, the reason for which was not at all sea ​​water, and souvenir hunters who are gradually plundering the remains of the liner. For example, the ship’s bell or mast lighthouse disappeared from the ship. In addition to direct plunder, damage to the ship is caused by time and the action of bacteria, leaving behind only rusty ruins

In this photo we see the Titanic's propeller

Huge ship anchor

One of the Titanic's piston engines

Preserved underwater cup from the Titanic

This is the same hole that formed after the encounter with the iceberg. Perhaps, in addition to weak steel, the rivets between the sheets of metal failed, and water poured into 4 compartments of the Titanic, leaving no chance of salvation. There was no point in pumping water out; it was equivalent to pumping water from ocean to ocean. The Titanic sank to the bottom, where it rests to this day. There is talk of raising the Titanic to the surface in order to set up a museum, meanwhile various souvenir lovers continue to take the ship apart piece by piece. How many more secrets does the Titanic keep? It is unlikely that anyone will answer this question in the near future.

Many people are still interested in how many people died on the Titanic. Endless disputes and debates have not stopped for many years. We will also try to shed light on some of the nuances of what happened. So, we are getting ready to discuss how many people died/were saved on the Titanic. But first, a short excursion into the past.

Who came up with the idea of ​​building a giant liner?

The mystery of the century is the Titanic. How many people died and survived? To determine the exact quantity, it is necessary to meticulously calculate how many crew members and passengers it could theoretically accommodate. powerful ship. The ocean liner was built due to an ongoing dispute between two shipbuilding giants, which at that time were the White Star Line and the Cunard Line. To become an absolute record holder and become famous throughout the world, the first organization needed to create a project of incredible scale, which would be larger than anyone else in terms of capacity and dimensions.

Construction process of a sunken ship

The Titanic steamship took three years to build. The process was regulated at the Harland and Wolf shipyard located in Belfast. The liner was launched on May 31, 1911. The event was solemn, long-awaited and pompous. This is no wonder, because at the time of commissioning it was considered the largest ship in the world. But the fact of launching did not mean the completion of the huge project. Adjustment work continued, equipment and the serviceability of mechanisms were checked.

Technical characteristics and project budget

The parameters of the ship are impressive: it was 269 meters long, 30 meters wide, and had a displacement of 52,310 tons. Power was 55,000 Horse power. The steamer had the ability to reach speeds of up to 24 knots. This effect was achieved thanks to the installation of three propellers and two four-cylinder engines. Special meaning had a steam turbine that was modern by those standards. This was the second version of the Olympic class, but more advanced. The shipbuilders tried to correct all the shortcomings inherent in the prototype. The overall dimensions and 15 partitions gave complete confidence that statistics would never count how many people died on the Titanic. Taking into account all the characteristics of the ship, sinking seemed impossible.

Shipbuilding Guide

Irishman Thomas Andrews was the chief shipbuilder responsible for the quality of the Titanic. More than one and a half thousand ordinary workers, not counting senior management, took part in the extensive process. How many people died on the Titanic, despite the well-coordinated work of the crew?

Vessel capacity

Let's try to find out how many people died on the Titanic; for this we can use the data from the ship's technical map. It says that theoretically the ship could comfortably accommodate 2,439 passengers and 908 crew members. By simple calculations we determine that a total of 3347 people could be on board at the same time.

Classification of passenger compartments

People with tickets were divided into three classes depending on their cost. First class was considered the most comfortable and belonged to the elite. Guests had at their disposal numerous services: swimming pool, Gym for sports, a Turkish steam room, a games court, an electric bath (at that time there was a semblance of a modern solarium). Also, passengers with pets could leave them in a special compartment for the duration of the trip. Incredible luxury was a feature of the dining room and smoking lounge.

members of high society could enjoy a pleasant meal in cozy atmosphere wealth. The level of service even in third class was significantly superior to simple tours on other transatlantic ships. Cabins of all classes were equipped with all necessary amenities. They were always warm, light and spacious. Passengers were offered a simple but balanced menu with a variety of dishes. After a quality meal, they could go on a boat trip on the deck. Passengers had no right to be outside their own territory. The plots were strictly distributed depending on the class.

Equipment

Survivors of the Titanic disaster witnessed a lack of watercraft for all passengers. There were only 20 lifeboats on board the ship. They could only accommodate 1,178 ship passengers. As mentioned above, a total of 3,347 people could travel on the ship. From this we can draw a logical conclusion that the designers were initially aware that in the event of a global crash, less than half of the total number of those present would be able to escape. Such an oversight was justified by the visual unsinkability of the handsome liner. No one could even imagine that soon after the departure of the giant they would have to count how many people died on the Titanic in 1912. The British Merchant Shipping Code calculated the availability of life-saving appliances based on the tonnage of the vessel. Initially, it was planned to equip the Titanic with 48 lifeboats, but in the end the management insisted on only 20. How many people died on the Titanic because of the imaginary confidence in the unsinkability of the ship?

Unlike the situation with lifeboats, life jackets were fully available on the liner. Their number was determined by the figure 3560 pieces. A high-quality product had a cork filler. There were also 49 lifebuoys on board.

Crew training

How many people died on the Titanic and who is responsible for this tragedy? One of the main assumptions is the lack of proper training on the part of the crew members. None of the team was properly prepared for emergency. There was practically no training as such, and catastrophically little attention was paid to the rules for operating life jackets and lifeboats. The pilot exercise was conducted only once. Before departure, passengers were also not carried out necessary work(instruction) on how to act in case of danger to life. It is known that on the day before the tragedy, one exercise on boarding lifeboats was planned, but due to windy weather the event was canceled.

On the eve of sailing, the British Department of Trade inspected the ship and made a decision on the serviceability of the equipment and compliance with all regulations.

First and last flight

The cruise ship Titanic set sail from Southampton at 12 noon on April 10th. Near the port, he almost collided with another steamer. Perhaps it was a sign, but at that moment no one paid enough attention to it. At the time of departure there were 1,316 passengers and 908 crew members on board. The figures are approximate, the exact number of passengers is unknown. Some canceled their trip and were not removed from the list, others traveled under a false name. Now it is very difficult to restore the full picture. In the spring, transatlantic flights were usually not popular, as happened this time. The ship was half full. Edward Smith, one of the company's most experienced captains, took command of the liner. He had been at sea for 40 of his 62 years. This was his last voyage, and the crew members were the last to be rescued. How many people died in the sinking of the Titanic? We will try to answer this question below.

Iceberg collision

The Atlantic Ocean can be called calm, but even here there can be bad weather conditions and other unfavorable factors - after all, the elements of the sea... Judging by the developed plan, the Titanic was not supposed to get into the zone of ice blocks, since a safe course was chosen for movement .

On the evening of April 14, the unexpected happened. The public was presented with information that due to the darkness, the crew members did not see the iceberg. It was examined too late, when at a distance of 650 meters it was no longer possible to avoid a collision, despite all the commands given. At 23:40, the luxury liner crashes into the underwater part of a huge block of ice with a glancing blow. How many people died on the Titanic as a result of a failed maneuver?

The damage turned out to be significant: more than 5 holes in the compartments, the hull was damaged approximately 90 meters in length. In a matter of seconds, the crew members realized that the fate of the Titanic was tragic. The designer assumed that in 1 hour 30 minutes the ship would completely go under water.

Evacuation of passengers and death of the legendary liner

First of all, the order was given to save children and women. At first the real reason they didn’t name what was happening. People didn't understand what was happening. The water kept rising, and people panicked. The Titanic was tilting more and more. It soon became clear that there were not enough boats for everyone. At 2 a.m. the last lifeboat was loaded. The rest had no chance of salvation. At 2:20 a.m. the waves closed over the ship.

"Titanic": how many people died and survived

The exact number is unknown. According to various sources, the number of deaths varies from 1490 to 1635. Less than a third of those on board survived, approximately 712 people.

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

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

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

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

On May 31, 1911, the Titanic was launched. Ten months later, on April 2, 1912, the Titanic successfully completed sea trials.

The liner's crew, led by Captain Edward John Smith, numbered 885 people. Of these, 66 are members of the deck crew, over 300 are members of the engine crew and about 500 are service personnel. The team had two radio operators on staff.

The Titanic also had a nine-person Harland & Wolf warranty team, headed by Thomas Andrews, who were tasked with observing, documenting, and repairing any problems that occurred in the ship's systems.

The liner's orchestra consisted of eight people, all of them were second class passengers.

The Titanic had 762 cabins, which were divided into three classes. Space was provided for 2,566 passengers. Tickets for the ship were available only to very wealthy people (in terms of modern prices, thousands of dollars were paid for a first-class cabin).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By order of the captain, the radio operators began sending distress signals, which they transmitted for two hours, until the captain relieved the telegraph operators of their duties a few minutes before the sinking of the ship.

The distress signals were received by several ships, but they were too far from the Titanic.

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

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

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

At about 02:20 minutes the Titanic sank.

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

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

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

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

How many people died on the Titanic?

The huge passenger ship, recently built at the Belfast shipyards for long-distance voyages across the Atlantic Ocean, amazed with its gigantic characteristics:

• The length is 269 m with a width of 28 m. The height from the keel to the boat deck was 28 m, which corresponds to a nine-story block section.
• The displacement was more than 52 thousand tons.
• To compare the dimensions with modern vehicles, suffice it to say that two Airbus A 380 could easily fit in its hold.
• To ensure vitality, the ship was divided into 16 sealed compartments, separated by transverse bulkheads, which in case of danger could be closed in 30 seconds with cast-iron doors with stiffeners provided with an electric drive. They were controlled centrally - from the ship's wheelhouse.
• In addition, the entire bottom of the hull had a horizontal double bottom, also divided into sealed compartments, which sharply increased the ship’s chances in the event of a hole in the bottom.
• There were 8 decks in total, of which the upper one was the boat deck. It was equipped with 20 lifeboats, capable of carrying 1,178 people.
• According to the staffing schedule, the ship had a crew of 908 people and could accommodate 2,556 passengers.

The tragic result of the disaster was the death of 1,500 people, including the captain and his assistants. It must be said that this is an inaccurate figure, and the total number of passengers and crew members of the Titanic who did not survive the first and last voyages ranges from 1,496 to 1,635 people. This confusion is due to the fact that there is no exact data on the total number of passengers on board. The investigation was unable to establish this. Only 333 bodies were found, from those that ended up in the icy waters of the Atlantic (-2℃) after the disaster.

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. The final destination was to be American city NY. 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 believed that the propeller blade had simply fallen off the ship.

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

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

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

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

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

There was another ship that was even closer to the Titanic than the Carpathia - only 10 nautical miles(this is 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 the 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 stayed in the engine room and kept things running steam units until the last.

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 yet even had time to become thoroughly familiar 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 to the 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 a solarium) and special department for pets. There was also a restaurant, elegantly furnished dining rooms, and smoking rooms.

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

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

"Titanic" in books and films

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Discovery of the Titanic at the bottom of the Atlantic

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

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

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

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

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