The Titanic is the largest and most luxurious liner of its time. He was unashamedly called unsinkable, and he really seemed like that. He set out on his maiden voyage at noon on April 10 from the English port of Southampton. The destination was to be the American city of New York. But the Titanic, as you know, did not make it to the shores of the United States ...
The collision of the "Titanic" with an iceberg
On April 14, 1912, the liner at full speed (at a speed of 22.5 knots, it was almost the maximum speed) was rushing across the North Atlantic. Nothing foreshadowed a tragedy, there was a complete calm. An orchestra played on the upper deck in a beautifully decorated restaurant. The rich first grade people drank champagne, walked in the open air and enjoyed the wonderful weather.
Late in the evening of April 14, at 11:39 pm, two lookouts (this is the official name of the sailors observing the situation while sailing from a comfortable position) noticed an iceberg right along the course and reported this by telephone to the bridge. Officer William Murdock immediately commanded "Left rudder." Thus, 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 closer. And only after about half a minute the Titanic's nose began to tilt to the left. Ultimately, the visible part of the iceberg "missed" the ship without touching 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 get away 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 misconception, the iceberg did not "cut" the bottom of the liner. Everything was a little different: from strong pressure the rivets on the casing shattered, the steel sheets were bent and gaps appeared between them. Water began to enter the compartments through them. And the penetration rate, of course, was enormous - more than seven tons per second.
The iceberg bent the hull of the ship, as a result of which the tightness was broken
Further chronology of the tragedy
Most of the passengers on the upper deck felt no threat at first. The stewards who served the snack on the tables in the restaurant noticed only a slight clink of spoons and forks on the tables. Some of the passengers felt a slight jolt and rattling, which quickly ended. Some people thought that the propeller blade had simply fallen off from the ship.
On the lower decks, the first consequences were more tangible: the local passengers heard an unpleasant grinding and rumble.
Exactly at 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 what had happened and inspecting the ship, Andrews told everyone present that the Titanic would definitely sink.
Soon the ship began to lurch noticeably. The 62-year-old captain of the vessel, Edward Smith, gave the order to prepare boats and begin calling 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 drowning, Smith relieved 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 message about the tragedy on the Titanic was received by the Carpathia ship. It was at a distance of 93 kilometers from the crash site. Immediately the captain of the "Carpathia" Arthur Rostron sent his ship to the area. “Karpatia”, hurrying to help people, managed to develop that night a record speed for itself of 17.5 knots - for this, all the devices powered by electricity and heating were turned off on the ship.
There was another ship, which was even closer to the Titanic than the Carpathia - only 10 nautical miles (which is equal to 18.5 kilometers). In theory, he could be of help. This is the Californian liner. The Californian was surrounded by ice, and therefore its captain decided to stop the ship - it was not planned to start again until the next morning.
At 11:30 pm, the Titanic radio operator Phillips and the Californian radio operator Evans talked to each other. Moreover, Phillips at the very end of this dialogue rather rudely asked Evans not to litter the airwaves, since at that moment he was transmitting a signal to Cape Reis (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 after 10 minutes, the Titanic collided with an iceberg. Some time later, the Titanic sent the first distress signal, but the Californian could no longer receive it.
On top of that, the Titanic had no red flares. The confidence that the ship was unsinkable was so high that no one bothered to take the red rockets with them. Then it was decided to fire volleys of ordinary whites. The calculation was that the crew of a nearby ship would guess that trouble had happened to the Titanic. The Californian officers did see the white rockets, but they thought it was just some kind of holiday fireworks. A fantastic series of misunderstandings!
At half past one in the morning, the passengers began to be seated in the boats. It immediately became clear that there were not enough places for everyone. In total, there were twenty boats on board and their total capacity was 1178 people.
By order of Captain Smith and his assistant Charles Lightoller, who supervised 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 be on the ship to the last. But William Murdock, another assistant to Smith, who led the evacuation on the starboard side, gave places in boats and men when there were no women and children in the line.
At about 02:15, the nose of the liner suddenly sank 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 sank for 160 minutes.
After the food was completely submerged under the water, hundreds of people swam to the surface. They swam 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 craft.
The temperature of the ocean water that night was −2 ° С (sea water does not freeze at this temperature due to the concentration of salt in it). A man here was dying of severe hypothermia within half an hour on average. And many of those moving away from the sunken ship on boats heard the heartbreaking cries of those who did not have enough space in the boats ...
At about 04:00, the Carpathia appeared in the area of the sinking Titanic. This ship carried 712 people on board, after which it headed for New York. Among the rescued, 394 people are women and children, 129 people are men, another 189 people are members of the ship's crew.
The death toll in this shipwreck was, according to various sources, from 1400 to 1517 people (it is difficult to give an exact figure, because there were many free riders 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.
Titanic characteristics
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 uppermost boat deck here it was 18.5 meters (and if you count from the keel to the top of the first pipe , it would be 53 meters in general). The draft of this liner was 10.5 meters, and the displacement was 52310 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 noting that none of the thirty ship mechanics survived. They stayed in the engine room and kept the steam units running until the very end.
The role of propulsion on the Titanic was performed by three propellers. The diameter of the central rotor was 5.2 meters, it had four blades. The propellers located at the edges had a larger diameter - 7.2 meters, but they had three blades. Three-blade propellers could rotate up to 80 revolutions per minute, and the central one - up to 180 revolutions per minute.
There were also four chimneys above the upper deck, each 19 meters high. The Titanic had a double bottom and had sixteen pressurized compartments. They were separated by watertight bulkheads. It is estimated that the ship would remain afloat even if any two compartments or four contiguous compartments on the bow or stern were flooded. But on the night of the tragedy, the iceberg damaged five compartments - one more than allowed.
Crew and passenger composition
It is known that on a tragic voyage in the ship's crew there were many people who had not undergone special training: stewards, stokers, shtivshchiki (this was the name of people whose task was to bring coal to the furnaces and throw ash overboard), coca. There were very few qualified sailors - only 39 sailors and seven officers, captain's mates. Moreover, some of the sailors have not even had time to get to know the Titanic well, since they were hired just a few days before sailing.
It is worth telling a little about the passengers. The passenger composition was extremely motley - from mendicant emigrants from Sweden, Italy, Ireland, who sailed for better life v New World, to hereditary millionaires such as John Jacob Astor IV and Benjamin Guggenheim (both died).
Benjamin Guggenheim put on his best tailcoat and began to drink whiskey in the hall - so he spent last hours life
In accordance with the cost of the purchased ticket, there was a division into three classes. For those who swam in the first class, a pool, a gym, a sauna, a squash court, an electric bath (a kind of "ancestor" of the solarium) and a special compartment for pets were provided. There was also a restaurant, elegantly furnished dining rooms, smoking rooms.
By the way, the service in the third class was also decent, better than on some other transatlantic steamers of that time. The cabins were bright and comfortable, not cold and clean enough. The dining room served not very sophisticated, but quite acceptable dishes, there were special decks for walking.
The premises and spaces of the ship were strictly divided according to classes. And passengers of, 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 "Titanic" was written, paradoxically, long before its crash. The little-known American writer Morgan Robertson released the story "Futility, or the Death of a Titan" back in 1898. It described the allegedly unsinkable ship "Titan", which crashed on an April night, colliding with a kind of iceberg. There weren't enough boats on the Titan, and so many of the passengers died.
The story did not sell well at first, but after the incident of 1912, interest in the book increased sharply - there were quite a lot of coincidences between the events described in the story and the real crash of the Titanic. And the key technical characteristics of the fictional Titan were similar to those of the real Titanic - a truly amazing fact!
Morgan Robertson and his story, where the death of the Titanic was predicted to some extent
And the first feature film about the tragedy was released in May of the same 1912 - it was called "She Escaped from the Titanic". Its duration was 10 minutes, it was dumb and black and white. The main role here was played by Dorothy Gibson, an actress who herself on that unfortunate night was on the Titanic and found her salvation in boat number seven.
In 1953, director Jean Negulesco turned to the topic of the tragic journey of "Titanic". According to the plot, on "Titanic" the husband, wife and their two children sort out the relationship between themselves. And everything seems to be getting better, but then the liner stumbles upon an iceberg and begins to go to the bottom. The family has to go through separation, the wife and daughter sail away in the boat, the son and father remain on the sinking ship. The film, by the way, received one Oscar in the same 1953.
But the most famous film about the sinking of the liner is James Cameron's Titanic, which appeared in theaters (and then on DVD) in 1997. It won as many as eleven Academy Awards and has long been considered the highest-grossing film in history.
Respected experts on the wreck of the Titanic (for example, historian Don Lynch and marine painter Ken Marshall) took part in preparing the script and creating the scenery for Cameron's film. Cooperation with respected experts made it possible to reliably convey some episodes of the crash. Cameron's Titanic called new wave 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 tremendous pressure of water "Titanic" (the depth here was about 4000 meters) fell apart into three parts. The wreckage of the liner was scattered over an area with a radius of 1.6 kilometers. Ballard and his associates first of all found the bow of the ship, which, apparently, due to its large mass, went deep into the ground. Poop was found 800 meters away. Remains of the middle part were also seen 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, doorknobs, candelabra and ceramic baby dolls ...
Later, several expeditions to the remains of the "Titanic" were carried out by the RMS Titanic company, which legally had the rights to the fragments of the liner and other related artifacts. During these expeditions, more than 6,000 items were raised from the bottom. They were subsequently valued at $ 110 million. These items were exhibited in thematic expositions or sold at auctions.
But why wasn't the Titanic fully lifted up? Alas, this is not possible. Experts have established that any attempt to lift the ship's hull will lead to its destruction, and therefore it will most likely remain at the bottom forever.
The documentary "Titanic": The Death of a Dream "
105 years ago, on the night of April 14-15, 1912, the legendary Titanic crashed. This disaster is described in hundreds of articles, books, films ... And why exactly the sinking of the Titanic attracts such attention?
I agree that the sinking of the Titanic is one of the largest maritime disasters. But not at all the largest. If by the number of victims - much more people died c.
If we talk about disasters that occurred outside of hostilities, the Titanic ranks third in terms of the number of victims. A sad lead - behind the ferry "Donja Paz", which collided in 1987 with an oil tanker. In the collision and the subsequent fire, more than 4 thousand people died. The second place is held by the wooden 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 death toll on the ship has exceeded 1,700 people.
So why exactly is the Titanic getting so much attention?
« Titanic» ( RMS Titanic)- British steamer of the White Star Line company, the second of three twin steamers of the Olympic class. The largest passenger liner the world at the time of its construction.
Laid down on March 31, 1909 at the shipyards of the Harland & Wolff shipbuilding company in Queens Island (Belfast, Northern Ireland), launched on May 31, 1911, passed sea trials on April 2, 1912.
To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the ship, the Titanic Museum was opened at the Harland & Wolf shipyard.
In the photo, the workers are just a small number among the 15 thousand people who created the Titanic.
Specifications:
The gross tonnage is 46328 registered tons, the displacement is 66 thousand tons.
Length 268.98 m, width 28.2 m, distance from the waterline to the boat deck 18.4 m.
Height from the keel to the tops of the pipes - 52.4 m;
Engine room - 29 boilers, 159 coal furnaces;
The unsinkability of the ship was ensured by 15 watertight bulkheads in the hold, creating 16 conditionally watertight compartments; the space between the bottom and the deck of the second bottom was divided by transverse and longitudinal partitions into 46 watertight compartments.
Maximum speed 24-25 knots.
During the first voyage on April 14, 1912, it collided with an iceberg and sank after 2 hours and 40 minutes. Onboard there were 1316 passengers and 908 crew members, a total of 2224 people. Of these, 711 people were saved, 1513 died.
The catastrophe of "Titanic" has become legendary; several feature films have been shot based on its plot. But why did the sinking of the Titanic become legendary?
The Titanic was one of the largest ships of that time, the embodiment of the success of technological progress. To some extent, he symbolized the very idea of man's victory over nature. "Man - it sounds proudly!" - as the classic said.
And on the night of April 14-15, proud humanity received a deafening slap in the face from nature. A huge piece of melting ice easily and quickly sent to the bottom the result of the work of thousands of people who designed and built the "floating palace".
Until now, historians argue about the reasons for the death of the Titanic. Proponents of "conspiracy theories" put forward versions that the Titanic was deliberately drowned in order to get insurance, that it was torpedoed ...
All this, of course, is nonsense. But the human factor was still involved. More precisely, a combination of mistakes, miscalculations, negligence.
So, already at the construction stage, design miscalculations surfaced. It was believed that the "Titanic" in theory could remain afloat when flooding any two of its 16 watertight compartments, any three of the first five compartments, or all of the first four compartments. Watertight bulkheads, designated from bow to stern with letters "A" to "P", rose from the second bottom and passed through 4 or 5 decks: the first two and the last five reached the "D" deck, eight bulkheads in the center of the liner reached only the deck "E". All bulkheads were so strong that they had to withstand significant pressure when punctured.
The first two bulkheads in the bow and the last in the aft were solid, all the rest had hermetic doors that allowed the crew and passengers to move between the compartments. On the deck of the second bottom, in bulkhead "K", there were the only doors that led to the refrigerator compartment. On decks "F" and "E" in almost all bulkheads there were sealed doors connecting the rooms used by passengers, all of them could be battened down both remotely and manually, using a device located directly on the door and from the deck to which it reached bulkhead. To close such doors on the passenger decks required a special key, which only the senior stewards had. But on Deck G, there were no bulkhead doors.
In bulkheads "D" - "O", directly above the second bottom in the compartments where machines and boilers were located, there were 12 vertically closed doors, which were controlled by an electric drive from the navigation bridge. In case of danger or accident, or when the captain or officer of the watch considered it necessary, the 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 be opened only after removing the voltage from the electric drive.
In the ceiling of each compartment was an escape hatch, usually leading to the boat deck. Those who did not have time to leave the premises before the doors closed could climb its iron ladder. Here is such a seemingly remarkable design, designed to ensure the complete safety of the ship.
But in July - October 1909, while on a business trip in England, the Russian engineer V.P. Kostenko, a student of the famous shipbuilder A.N. Krylov, drew the attention of the Titanic designer Thomas Andrews to the potential danger that the watertight bulkheads of the ship's compartments did not reach main deck: "Understand, one small hole and the Titanic will be gone."
However, the proud Briton left the advice of V.P. Kostenko without attention, which later became one of the reasons for the death of the ship.
In addition, the steel used for the hull plating of the Titanic was of low quality, with a large admixture of phosphorus, which made it very brittle at low temperatures. If the cladding were made of high quality, ductile steel with a low phosphorus content, it would significantly soften the force of the impact. The metal sheets would simply bend inward and the damage to the case would not be as serious. Perhaps then the Titanic would be saved, or at least stay afloat for a long time, sufficient to evacuate most of the passengers.
Also, according to the research data, the susceptibility of the shell steel in cold waters to brittle rupture was revealed, which also accelerated the sinking of the ship.
It is now also known that the rivets on the Titanic were of poor quality. Studies and tests, analysis of procurement documents showed that forged iron rivets were used, and not steel, as originally planned. Moreover, these rivets were of poor quality, they had a lot of foreign impurities, in particular coke, during forging this coke was collected in the heads, further increasing the fragility. During the impact of the iceberg, the heads of cheap rivets simply broke, and the sheets of 2.5-centimeter steel parted under the pressure of ice.
In addition, the number of lifeboats was insufficient due to the outdated instructions of the Admiralty. But even those boats that were - were not completely filled. And this is due to miscalculations in the training of the Titanic crew.
But they did not save on luxury. The splendor and splendor of the Titanic's interiors was legendary. The liner had 762 cabins, which were divided into 3 classes. Seats were provided for 2,566 passengers, and passengers of all classes were provided with unprecedented amenities.
The difference between luxury first-class cabins and the cheapest third-class accommodation was great: differences were in everything - in size, decoration and number of rooms. Some of the third-class cabins did not have washbasins and cupboards, things had to be stored in bags and used as pillows, and all the furniture consisted of an iron bed with a straw mattress.
In terms of comfort, luxury and service, the Titanic was comparable to the best hotels of that time and was rightfully considered a "floating hotel" of luxury class.
1st class cabin:
1st Class Restaurant on D Deck:
1st class smoking salon:
Library:
Gym
What strange sports equipment were then ...
There was even a pool.
2nd class smoking salon.
Premises of the 3rd class
A bunch of miscalculations led to errors in maneuvering, to a collision with an iceberg, to the fact that the ship quickly sank, and many passengers were unable to use the boats ... All this is well known and described many times.
By the way, an interesting detail. Almost all the women and children from the cabins of the 1st and 2nd classes were saved. More than half of the women and children in the 3rd grade cabins were killed as it was difficult for them to find their way up through the maze of narrow corridors. Almost all the men were also killed. Survived 323 men (20% of all adult men) and 331 women (75% of all adult women).
On the one hand, this speaks of the class privileges and prejudices of the then society. On the other hand, the fact that there are many men and fewer women among the dead tells us that the advanced ideas of feminism had not yet captured the masses. And women were still allowed to pass ahead. As historians say, aristocrats and millionaires. those traveling in class 1 could have saved themselves, but let the ladies and children go ahead. Passengers in class 3 were not always so gallant, and some rushed to the boats, pushing those who were weaker.
Yes, the representatives of the elite of that time did not mature enough to understand that "whoever does not have a billion can go to hell." (c) And they believed that in life there is something more important than life itself. They could have saved their skins, but their upbringing and breed did not allow them to put their own lives above all else. And I involuntarily remember the words of Fr. Vsevolod Chaplin says that human life on earth is not at all the highest value for a Christian. These words caused an eerie bathhurt among the chewy hamsters. Unlike the reactionary priest, the handshaking representatives of the progressive society consider their precious lives to be the highest value. Like those passengers on the Titanic who were furiously rushing to the boats, pushing women and children aside ...
The fate of passengers and crew members of the Titanic has become the topic of numerous articles. Some of them are not really amazing. For instance,
In May 2006, at the age of 99, the last American eyewitness to the Titanic crash died. Lillian Gertrude Asplund (Swede. Lillian gertrud asplund), who was 5 years old during the disaster, lost her father and three brothers in her. Survived by her mother and brother, who was then three years old. They were third class passengers and escaped in boat No. 15. Asplund was the last person to remember how the tragedy happened, but she avoided publicity and rarely spoke about the event.
which at the time of the sinking of the liner was two and a half months, 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, from where the Titanic began its first and last voyage ...
The crash of the liner has become one of the most famous disasters in the history of mankind. In essence, the tragedy of the Titanic became a symbol of the death of what seemed powerful and unsinkable, a symbol of the weakness of the human technogenic civilization in front of the forces of nature. And ahead of humanity were waiting for revolutions, bloody world and local wars ...
Therefore, the catastrophe was widely reflected in art, for example, in the film "Titanic".
The futility of human pride, strength and glory - all this was absorbed by the catastrophe of the "Titanic". A century, like a "floating palace", rests at the bottom, becoming a grave for many people.
R.I.P.
About the terrible death of a luxury liner Titanic in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean everyone knows. Hundreds of people mad with fear, heart-rending female screams and children's crying. Class 3 passengers buried alive at the bottom of the ocean are on the lower deck and millionaires choosing best places in half-empty lifeboats- on the upper, prestigious deck of the steamer. But only a select few knew that the sinking of the Titanic was planned, and the deaths of hundreds of women and children became another fact in a cynical political game.
April 10, 1912 Port of Southampton, England. Thousands of people gathered in the port of Southampton to navigate the liner Titanic, on board of which 2000 lucky ones, set off for a romantic trip across the Atlantic. The cream of society gathered on the passenger deck - mountain tycoon Benjamin Guggenheim, millionaire John Astor, actress Dorothy Gibson. Not everyone could afford to buy a Class I ticket at $ 3300 at the prices of that time or $ 60,000 at the prices of today. Passengers of the 3rd class paid only 35 dollars (650 dollars in terms of our money), therefore they lived on the third deck, not having the right to go upstairs, where the millionaires were accommodated.
Tragedy Titanic still remains the largest peacetime maritime disaster. The circumstances surrounding the deaths of 1,500 people are still shrouded in mystery.
The archives of the British Navy confirm that, for some reason, there were half the boats on the Titanic, and the captain knew even before the collision that there would not be enough seats for all the passengers.
The ship's crew ordered to first rescue 1st class passengers. One of the first to board a lifeboat, Bruce Ismay - general manager companies " White star line", Which belonged to Titanic... The boat in which Ismay was seated was designed for 40 people, but she left the side with only twelve.
The lower deck, where there were 1,500 people, was ordered to be locked so that third-class passengers would not rush up to the boats. Panic started downstairs. People saw how water began to flow into the cabins, but the captain had an order to rescue rich passengers. The order - only women and children, sounded much later, and according to experts, the sailors were primarily interested in this, since in this case they became rowers on boats and they had a chance to escape.
Many passengers of the second and third classes, without waiting for the boats, rushed into life jackets overboard. In panic, few understood that it was almost impossible to survive in icy water.
sinking of the Titanic
The list of third-class passengers, which only recently became public, includes the name Winni Goutts, a modest Englishwoman with two sons. In New York, a woman was waiting for her husband, who a few months earlier got a job in America. It may seem incredible, but 88 years later, on February 3, 1990, Icelandic fishermen picked up a woman with that name on the shore. Wet, frozen in tattered clothes, she cried and screamed that she was a passenger Titanic and her name is Vinnie Coates. The woman was taken to a psychiatric hospital and was mistaken for a long time, until one of the journalists found her name in the handwritten lists of the Titanic passengers. She described the chronology of events in detail and never got confused. The mystics immediately put forward their version - they fell into the so-called space-time trap.
After declassifying the archives “ Investigation into the death of 1,500 passengers of the Titanic liner»On July 20, 2008, the Senate Investigative Committee learned that on the night of the disaster, almost 200 passengers managed to get into the boats and sail away from the sinking ship. Some of them describe a strange phenomenon. At about one in the morning, passengers saw a large luminous object near the liner. The men thought they were the lights of another ship " RMS Carpathia”That can save them. About 10 boats sailed for this light, but after half an hour the lights went out. It turned out that there was no ship nearby, and the liner " RMS Carpathia"Came up only after 1 hour. Many eyewitnesses described strange lights near the site. the wreck of the Titanic... These testimonies were classified.
Abnormal events around the sinking of the Titanic for a long time they carefully hid. It is known that no one was able to officially confirm the identity of Vinnie Coates.
In the ranking of the largest marine disasters of the 20th century published by the popular Internet publication Titanic occupies by no means the last place. However, the column "Cause of death - collision with an iceberg" appears on this list only once. The first and last time in the history of navigation when a ship went down due to a collision with an iceberg. Moreover, the consequences of the collision are comparable to the results of a major military operation. What is this?
The official version of the disaster says that Titanic collided with a black iceberg, which recently capsized in the water and therefore was invisible against the background of the night sky. No one ever wondered why the iceberg was black. Duty lookout Frederick Fleet, a few seconds before the collision, saw some kind of huge dark mass and heard a strange very loud grinding that came from under the water, not like the sound of contact with an iceberg.
Eighty years later, Russian researchers descended to the Titanic for the first time and confirmed that the hull of the steamer was indeed cut open. Why the lookouts didn't notice beforehand. It is surprising, but they did not have binoculars, that is, formally they were in the safe, but the key to it mysteriously disappeared. And one more strange detail - Titanic the most perfect of the early 20th century was not equipped with searchlights. Such carelessness looks at least strange, because on Titanic telegrams arrived all day, warning of icebergs plying in the area.
Having weighed all the events and facts, it seems that the Titanic catastrophe was specially prepared, but who benefited from the death Titanic and why hundreds of innocent people were drowned. The people behind the biggest catastrophe of the century understood that not everyone would believe in a collision with an iceberg. Until now, we are offered many versions to choose from, who will like what.
For example, in order to receive insurance payments, they did not flood Titanic, and the same type of passenger ship Olympic, which had been in operation for a long time and by 1912 was pretty dilapidated. But in 1995, Russian scientists refuted this assumption with the help of remote-controlled modules inserted into the sunken ship. It has been proven that Olympic is not at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.
Then the version was thrown into the press that Titanic sank in pursuit of the prestigious Atlantic Blue Ribbon award. Allegedly, the captain wanted to arrive at the port of New York one day ahead of schedule in order to receive a prize. Because of this, the steamer was sailing in a dangerous area at maximum speed. The authors of this version completely lost sight of the fact that Titanic just technically could not reach the speed of 26 knots, at which the last record was set.
They also talked about the helmsman's mistake, who misunderstood the captain's order, and being in a stressful situation put the steering wheel in the wrong direction.
Maybe Titanic was hit by a torpedo from a German submarine and this disaster was in fact the first episode of the First World War. Numerous underwater studies subsequently did not find even indirect signs of a possible torpedo hit, so a fire became the most plausible version of the death of the Titanic.
On the eve of sailing, a fire broke out in the hold of the liner, where the coal was stored. They tried to extinguish it, but not successfully. Already gathered at the pier richest people of that time, the stars of cinema, the press, the orchestra played. The flight could not be canceled. The owner of the ship, Bruce Ismay, decided to go to New York and try to put out the fire along the way. That is why the captain drove at full steam, with all his might that the steamer was about to explode and ignored the message about icebergs.
Another oddity is the owner of the company “ White star line", Which belonged to Titanic multimillionaire John Pierpont Morgan, Jr., canceled his ticket 24 hours before sailing and took off the flight of the famous collection of paintings that he was going to take to New York. In addition to Morgan, another 55 first-class passengers, mostly partners and acquaintances of the millionaire, refused to travel on the Titanic in just one day - John Rockefeller, Henry Frick, US Ambassador to France Alfred Wandelfield. Previously, practically no significance was attached to this fact, but only very recently scientists have compared certain facts and came to the conclusion that the Titanic was the first major catastrophe aimed at establishing world domination.
Billionaires rule the world, whose goal is unlimited power. The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, collapse Soviet Union, the attack on the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center - links in the same chain. The sinking of the Titanic not the first and not the last planned disaster. But why did the world government decide to flood Titanic... The answer is to be found in the events of the early 20th century. It was during these years that the sharp growth of industry began - the gasoline engine, the incredible development of aviation, industrialization, the use of electricity in all industries, the experiments of Nikola Tesla, and so on. World financial leaders understood scientific and technological progress that could soon blow up the world order on planet Earth. John Rockefeller, John Pierpont Morgan, Karl Mayer Rothschild, Henry Ford, who are the world government, understood that following the rapid growth of industry, countries would begin to develop, which in their world concept was assigned the role of only raw materials appendages, and then the redistribution of property on the planet would begin, and control over the processes taking place in the world will be lost.
Every year more and more socialists declared themselves, trade unions gained strength, crowds of protesters demanded freedom and independence. And then it was decided to remind humanity who is the boss in the world.
In the mid-90s, Russian scientists dived to the Titanic and took metal samples, which were then analyzed by specialists from an American institute. The results were truly stunning - the sulfur content was determined to be a common metal. And later studies showed that the metal was not just the same as on other ships, it was of a much poorer quality, and in icy water it generally turned into a very fragile material. In the fall of 1993, an event took place that put an end to the study of the causes of death Titanic... At the New York Conference of American shipbuilding experts, the result of an independent analysis of the causes of the disaster was announced. The experts said they did not understand why steel of such poor quality was used for the hull of the world's most expensive vessel. In cold water, the Titanic's body cracked at the first impact on a minor obstacle, while high-quality steel only deforms.
Experts considered that in this way the owners of the shipbuilding company were trying to save money, but it did not occur to anyone to ask why the billionaire owners of the ship were cutting costs, endangering their own safety. And everything is quite logical, it was a real sabotage. A fragile metal, cold Atlantic waters and a dangerous route. All that was left was to wait for the SOS signal from the wrecked Titanic... During the investigation of the circumstances of the catastrophe by the US judicial commission, it was proved that the northern route along which the Titanic was going was chosen by order of Bruce Ismay. He was on board the steamer, but was one of the first to be evacuated and waited safely for the arrival " RMS Carpathia", Which also belonged to the company" White star line"And was deliberately nearby to rescue rich passengers. But " RMS Carpathia"The order was given, is not too close, because the disaster was supposed to be a frightening action for the whole world.
Now we can say with confidence sinking of the Titanic it was an elaborate propaganda campaign. Millions of people around the world were shocked by the fate of the buried passengers of the third class, they remained walled up in their cabins.
In the eyes of the world government, third-class passengers are you and me - Russia, China, Ukraine and the Middle East, and in December 2012 they are preparing a new act of intimidation for us, but which one. It only remains to wait, and not for long.
watch a reconstruction of the sinking of the Titanic from National Geographic
The RMS Titanic is a British steamer of the White Star Line, the second of three Olympic-class twin steamers, and the largest passenger liner in the world at the time of construction. During its maiden voyage, on the night of April 14, 1912, the Titanic collided with an iceberg and sank after 2 hours and 40 minutes. Onboard there were 1316 passengers and 908 crew members, a total of 2224 people, of which 711 people were saved, 1513 died. This disaster became one of the major disasters last century, which occurred in peacetime. April 15, 2012 marks 100 years since the sinking of the Titanic.
01. The Titanic was laid down on March 31, 1909 at the shipyards of the Harland & Wolf shipbuilding company in Queens Island (Belfast, Northern Ireland)
02. The ship was ordered by the White Star Line. The shipyard was not cheap, but it did almost all the work on its own and was famous for its excellent quality.
03. Shafts of screws.
04. Fragment of steam engines. The Titanic was equipped with two four-cylinder steam engines powered by outboard propellers and a steam turbine driving the middle propeller. The rated power of this power plant was 50,000 liters. with., but the capacity of 55,000 liters could be developed. With. At full speed, the Titanic could go at a speed of 24-25 knots.
05. The dimensions of the parts are impressive.
07. Steam engines.
09. The main propeller (in the center) is five meters high!
11. The liner had 4 pipes, the diameter of each of which was 7.3 m, the height - 18.5 m. The first three removed smoke from the boiler furnaces, the fourth, located above the turbine compartment, served as an exhaust fan, a chimney was connected to it for ship kitchens. The fourth tube was purely cosmetic to make the ship look more powerful.
12. Boilers of the Titanic. The engine room had 29 boilers and 159 coal furnaces.
13. In formal compliance with the current requirements of the British Merchant Shipping Code, the steamer had 20 lifeboats, which were enough to accommodate 1,178 people, that is, for 50% of people. One boat could accommodate 65 people.
14. Characteristics: length - 268.98 m; width - 28.2 m; distance from the waterline to the boat deck - 18.4 m;
the distance from the keel to the tops of the pipes is 53.3 m.
15. The liner had a second bottom, which was located about one and a half meters above the keel and occupied 9/10 of the ship's length, without capturing only small areas in the bow and stern. On the second floor, boilers, reciprocating steam engines, a steam turbine and power generators were installed, all of which were firmly fixed on steel plates, the remaining space was used for cargo, coal and drinking water tanks. In the section of the engine room, the second bottom rose 2.1 m above the keel, which increased the protection of the liner in case of damage to the outer skin.
17. In Belfast.
18. Workers go to work at the Harland & Wolfe shipyard in Belfast, where the Titanic was built between 1909 and 1911.
The Titanic shocked its contemporaries with its technical novelty and luxury and became, as it were, the materialized embodiment of man's dream of dominance over the ocean. Let's see how he looked.
20. Upper deck.
21. Deck with boats.
22. Captain's cabin.
23. Room for second class passengers.
24. Cabin B-64 first class.
25. Cabin B-38 first class.
26. Cabin B-59 first class.
27. Cafe on B Deck for First Class passengers.
28. Dining room.
29. Class 1 smoking room.
30. Main staircase in the first class lobby.
31. The ceiling above the stairs is a glass dome.
33. Reading room.
35. Cafe.
37. Class 1 recreation room.
38. Gym.
39. Class 3 common room.
41. Tugs Hector and Neptune hit the nose of the Titanic 1912.
44. Deck for second class passengers.
45. On the Titanic there were 8 steel decks, located one above the other at a distance of 2.5-3.2 m. The uppermost was a boat, below it were seven others, designated from top to bottom letters from "A" to "G". Only decks "C", "D", "E" and "F" ran the full length of the vessel. The boat deck and "A" deck did not reach either the bow or the stern, and the "G" deck was located only in the front of the liner - from the boiler rooms to the bow and in the stern - from the engine room to the stern cut.
46. Perhaps the most interesting design feature of the liner was its watertight bulkheads. The Titanic had a double bottom and was divided into 16 watertight compartments by fifteen watertight bulkheads. The ship's unsinkability was ensured when any four compartments were flooded, and since the designers could not imagine a misfortune worse than a hole in the area where two compartments meet, the Titanic was declared "unsinkable."
47. "Titanic" goes to its first and last trip from Southampton.
48. Departures from Queenstown (Ireland), to New York, April 12, 1912. The first flight of the Titanic was conceived as an event comparable in scale to the main super show of the century. A first-class ticket cost about $ 50,000 in today's money. Hundreds of wealthy people did not pay money because they needed to go to New York. They bought tickets to the show.
A few words about the people on the Titanic. Many celebrities of the time took part in the liner's first voyage, including millionaire and major industrialist John Jacob Astor IV and his wife Madeleine Astor, businessman Benjamin Guggenheim, owner of Macy's department store Isidore Strauss and his wife Ida, eccentric millionaire Margaret Molly Brown, Sir Cosma Duff Gordon and his wife, popular at the beginning of the century, fashion designer Lady Lucy Duff Gordon, businessman and cricketer John Thayer, British journalist William Thomas Steed, Countess of Roth, military assistant to US President Archibald Butt, who received the nickname "Unsinkable" after the sinking of the ship , film actress Dorothy Gibson and many others.
49. Officers of the ship, including Captain Smith (second from the right in the first row)
50. Captain Edward John Smith (right) (1850-1912) and Treasurer Hugh Walter McElroy. Due to his extensive experience, the captain was highly popular among the crew and passengers. After this voyage, Smith planned to retire. According to one version, the captain, 10 minutes before the final submersion of the ship under water, returned to the captain's bridge, where he met death. No body found.
51. William McMaster Murdoch (1873-1912), first mate. Survivors testified that Murdoch made a lot of efforts to save the passengers, but he himself died. In the hometown of Dumfries and Galloway (Scotland), a memorial to the heroism of William Murdoch was erected and a charity award was founded in his name.
52. Thomas Andrews (1873-1912), chief designer of the superliner Titanic. The Titanic was the first ship that Andrews was responsible for from start to finish. Thomas Andrews took part in a sea test of the Titanic, when all the equipment on the ship was checked, and flew 600 miles from Belfast to Southampton. A week later he went to New York. During the evacuation, Thomas helped the passengers get into the boats, he died, the body was not found. All newspaper articles about the disaster referred to Thomas Andrews only as a hero. In Thomas's hometown of Comber, the Thomas Andrews Jr. Memorial Hall was opened in January 1914. This memorial became one of the earliest and most significant memorials in the world, dedicated to only one victim of the Titanic. Today the memorial is used as the Andrews Memorial Primary School.
53. Margaret Molly Brown (1867-1932) was an American socialite, philanthropist, and activist. After the disaster, sitting in a lifeboat in the company of 24 women and two men, she fiercely argued with the head of the boat, Robert Hitchens, demanding to return to the crash site and pick up the drowning ones. When one of the passengers got cold, Margaret gave that fur coat to her. And when the cold "finished" even her, she ordered the women to sit at the oars and row to keep warm. They managed to swim to another ship, the Carpathia, and there Margaret did what she did best: organization. She knew several languages and could speak with passengers from different countries... She looked for blankets and food for them, made lists of survivors, collected money for those who lost everything along with the Titanic: family and savings. By the time the Carpathia arrived at the port, she had collected $ 10,000 for the survivors. After her death, she was called "the unsinkable Molly Brown".
54. Photo of the musicians who played aboard the Titanic until the last moment, when he disappeared under water. The last melody they played was "Nearer, My God, to Thee"
55. Wallace Hartley with his violin. When the body of the 33-year-old musician was taken out of the water, the violin was tied to his chest.
56. John Jacob IV (1864-1912) and Madeleine Astor. American millionaire, businessman, writer, member of the famous Astor family and lieutenant colonel, participant in the Spanish-American War. Died in a catastrophe.
57. Dorothy Gibson (1889-1946) - American silent film actress, fashion model and singer. She starred in the movie Survivors from the Titanic in 1912.
58. Jacques Fotrell - American writer, author of the popular detective stories "Thinking Machine" (Thinking Machine), he took on board many unpublished stories that were lost forever. Marking his 37th anniversary the day before sailing, he died in the crash.
59. Bruce Ismay (1862-1937) executive director of the White Star Line Company. Survived, but was stigmatized.
60. Radio Operators - Left - Jack Phillips (1887-1912). He did not stop broadcasting for a minute, until about 2 o'clock in the morning the de-energized transmitter of the Titanic was silent forever. The image of Jack Phillips - a radio operator who tensely and selflessly knocks the "SOS" signal, calling for help in distress when the radio room is already flooded with water - is displayed in all, without exception, films dedicated to the tragedy of "Titanic"
61. William Thomas Stead (1849 - 1912) was perhaps one of the most famous people on the Titanic. British journalist (he can be considered the ancestor of the genre of "investigative journalism"), defender of women's rights and civil liberties, pacifist. In 1885, Stead embarked on a "crusade" against child prostitution, publishing a series of articles entitled "A Tribute to the Virgin of Modern Babylon." "Titanic" William Thomas Stead was on his way to America to attend a pacifist congress that was convened at New York's Carnegie Hall at the initiative of US President Taft. published an article entitled "How a Steamship Liner Sank in the Middle of the Atlantic. The story of a survivor. "During the Titanic disaster, the 63-year-old journalist behaved heroically, helping women and children to take their places in the boats. Killed, body was not found.
62. Isidore Strauss (1865-1912) with his wife Ida. Isidore Strauss is a German-American entrepreneur, co-owner of the largest American department store chain Macy s. On the Titanic, one of the officers invited the Strauss couple to get into the boat, but Isidore refused, deciding to share the fate of the other men of the sinking ship. Idu into the boat, but she said: “I will not leave my husband. We have always been together, together and will die.” Instead of themselves, the Strauss put their maid in the boat. Isidor Strauss died on the night of April 15, 1912 with his wife.
64. Photo of a coal bunker with workers.
66. Seven-year-old Eva Hart with her father Benjamin and mother Esther, 1912. Eve and her mother escaped, her father drowned.
67. Priest and photographer Francis Brown, stepped off the Titanic before heading to New York. After Brown's death, Pastor Eddie O'Donnell released a book called Priest Francis Brown's Titanic Album, which included hundreds of Francis Brown's photographs.
68. On April 14, 1912, at 11:40 pm, an iceberg was seen at a distance of about 450 meters straight ahead. Despite the maneuver, 39 seconds later, the underwater part of the vessel touched the iceberg, the hull received numerous small holes for a length of about 100 meters. Of the 16 watertight compartments of the vessel, 6 were cut (in the sixth, the leak was extremely insignificant).
A little chronology:
Monday 15 April 1912
00:05 - Trim on the nose has become perceptible. An order was given to uncover the lifeboats and call the crew members and passengers to the gathering points.
00:15 - the first radiotelegraph signal for help is transmitted from the Titanic.
00:45 - the first signal flare is launched and the first lifeboat (no. 7) is launched. The bow deck goes under the water.
01:15 - Class 3 passengers allowed on deck.
01:40 - The last flare is fired.
02:05 - last lifeboat launched (foldable boat D). The bow of the boat deck goes under water.
02:08 - The Titanic jerks violently and slides forward. A wave sweeps across the deck and floods the bridge, washing passengers and crew into the water.
02:10 - last radiotelegraph signals transmitted.
02:15 - The Titanic lifts high up the stern, exposing the rudder and propellers.
02:17 - the electric light goes out.
02:18 - The Titanic, sinking quickly, breaks in two.
02:20 - Titanic sank.
69. Drawing depicting a catastrophe.
70. Still from the film.
The small, underpowered vessel Carpathia was 58 miles southeast of the crash site when the ship's radio operator Francis Cottam heard the hysterical "S.O.S." from the sinking Titanic. He recalled later that he caught the signal at the very last moment, already taking off the headphones from his head and going to sleep. Kottam had no replacement. If he had fallen asleep five minutes earlier, the captain of the Carpathia would never have known that the Titanic was already dying. The captain's name was Arthur Rostron. He never drank, smoked or cursed. Even in the age of steam and electricity, in the age of the most ambitious dreams of mankind, he has not forgotten how to pray.
"Carpathia" with its only pipe developed a speed of only 14 knots - therefore Rostron ordered to transfer all additional steam resources to the boilers, hot water and electricity. The owners of the Titanic were going to bring the liner to New York one day ahead of schedule to set a new record. The record was set by "Karpatia" - she came to the crash site almost an hour earlier than she could and than everyone expected.
Salt water does not freeze at minus one degree Celsius. In boat "A" people sat waist-deep in icy water, and after half an hour the bodies of two women had to be thrown overboard - they froze to death right in the boat. Rescue boat number 12 was twice covered with a wave - it did not sink only by a miracle. As the doctors later calculated, any of the 711 surviving passengers had no chance to live more than 12 hours ...
71. "Carpathia" approaches the first boats.
72. 04:10 - "Karpatia" picked up the first boat from the "Titanic" (boat number 2).
08:30 - "Karpatia" picked up the last (No. 12) boat from the "Titanic".
08:50 - Carpathia, taking on board 704 people who escaped from the Titanic, heads for New York.
73. The ship "Carpathia".
74. The headlines of all the newspapers spoke of the sinking of the Titanic.
75. People read news reports outside the office of The Sun in New York after the crash.
76. A huge crowd of people gathered outside the office of the White Star Line Steamship Company on Broadway in New York to inquire last news about the crash.
77. Reporters interview passengers of the sunken Titanic.
78. Margaret Molly Brown presents the Captain of the Carpathia, Arthur Rostron, with the Cup of Love on behalf of the surviving passengers of the Titanic. In honor of Arthur Rostron, a special medal of the US Congress was issued. He was knighted by British royal decree. After a while, Sir Arthur became the head of the entire passenger fleet of the Cunard Company. Monuments have been erected to him in many cities of England, USA, France and Ireland. One of them - in the vicinity of Southampton - bears the inscription: “To Sir Arthur Rostron. Who transformed the "age of steam" into the "age of the spirit."
79. Now the wreckage of the "Titanic" rests at a depth of 3750 meters. Over the past 25 years, many deep-sea expeditions have descended to the Titanic. In the photo, the Mir-1 bathyscaphe illuminates the railing on the Titanic.
81. The bow of the ship.
82. Two huge engines.
83. At the bottom of the ocean.
84. One of the three screws.
85. In some places the windows have been preserved intact.
86. First full shot of the legendary wreckage. The photo mosaic consists of 1500 pictures high resolution made using sonar studies.
87. With two stern propellers sticking out of the mud and sand, the Titanic rests on the ocean floor 600 meters south of the ship's bow.
88. About 5000 items were lifted from the Titanic. Some of them are sold at auctions.
89. "Waltham American" gold pocket watch - personal item of Karl Asplund - against the background of the painting of the Titanic, painted by CJ Ashford. The watch was found on Karl's body.
90. A 17-ton fragment of the passenger liner Titanic, which was lifted from the bottom of the ocean during an expedition to the site of the shipwreck, July 22, 2009.
91. The largest museum dedicated to the Titanic has been built at the shipyards in Belfast, Ireland.
93. The path of the "Titanic".
94. Elizabeth Gladys Milvina Dean is an Englishwoman who was the last surviving passenger on the Titanic (1912-2009). On the day of the shipwreck she was only 2 months and 13 days old. Milvina Dean died on May 31, 2009 at the age of 97 in a nursing home in Ashurst, Hampshire on the 98th anniversary of the launch of the Titanic. On October 27, 2009, her ashes were scattered in the port of Southampton, from where the Titanic began its only voyage.
Archival footage of newsreels about construction
The Titanic is a British steamer of the White Star Line, one of three twin ships of the Olympic class. The largest passenger liner in the world at the time of its construction. During the first voyage on April 14, 1912, it collided with an iceberg and sank after 2 hours and 40 minutes. Onboard there were 1316 passengers and 892 crew members, a total of 2208 people. Of these, 704 people survived, more than 1500 died. The Titanic disaster became legendary and was one of the largest shipwrecks in history. Several feature films have been shot on its plot.
Statistics
Common data:
- Home port - Liverpool.
- Board number - 401.
- Call sign - MGY.
- Dimensions of the ship:
- Length - 259.83 meters.
- Width - 28.19 meters.
- Weight - 46328 tons.
- Displacement - 52310 tons.
- The height from the waterline to the boat deck is 19 meters.
- From the keel to the top of the pipe - 55 meters.
- Draft - 10.54 meters.
Technical details:
- Steam boilers - 29.
- Watertight Compartments - 16.
- The top speed is 23 knots.
Rescue equipment:
- Standard boats - 14 (65 seats).
- Collapsible boats - 4 (47 seats).
Passengers:
- Grade I: 180 men and 145 women (including 6 children).
- Grade II: 179 men and 106 women (including 24 children).
- III class: 510 men and 196 women (including 79 children).
Team members:
- Officers - 8 people (including the captain).
- The deck crew is 66 people.
- Engine room - 325 people.
- Service staff - 494 people (including 23 women).
- In total there were 2201 people on board.
Officers
- Captain - Edward J. Smith
- Senior Assistant - Henry F. Wilde
- First Mate - William M. Murdock
- Second Mate - Charles G. Lightoller
- Third Mate - Herbert J. Pitman
- Fourth Assistant - Joseph G. Boxhall
- Fifth Mate - Harold P. Lowe
- Sixth Mate - James P. Moody
Laid down on March 31, 1909 at the shipyards of the Harland & Wolff shipbuilding company in Queens Island (Belfast, Northern Ireland), launched on May 31, 1911, passed sea trials on April 2, 1912.
Specifications
height from the keel to the tops of the pipes - 53.3 m;
engine room - 29 boilers, 159 coal furnaces;
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 deck of the second bottom was divided by transverse and longitudinal partitions into 46 watertight compartments.
Bulkheads
Watertight bulkheads, designated from bow to stern with letters "A" to "P", rose from the second bottom and passed through 4 or 5 decks: the first two and the last five reached the "D" deck, eight bulkheads in the center of the liner reached only the deck "E". All bulkheads were so strong that they had to withstand significant pressure when punctured.
The Titanic was built to stay afloat if any two of its 16 watertight compartments, any three of its first five compartments, or all of its first four compartments were flooded.
The first two bulkheads in the bow and the last in the aft were solid, all the rest had hermetic doors that allowed the crew and passengers to move between the compartments. On the deck of the second bottom, in bulkhead "K", there were the only doors that led to the refrigerator compartment. On decks "F" and "E" in almost all bulkheads there were sealed doors connecting the rooms used by passengers, all of them could be battened down both remotely and manually, using a device located directly on the door and from the deck to which it reached bulkhead. To close such doors on the passenger decks required a special key, which only the senior stewards had. But on Deck G, there were no bulkhead doors.
In bulkheads "D" - "O", directly above the second bottom in the compartments where machines and boilers were located, there were 12 vertically closed doors, which were controlled by an electric drive from the navigation bridge. In case of danger or accident, or when the captain or officer of the watch considered it necessary, the 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 be opened only after removing the voltage from the electric drive.
In the ceiling of each compartment was a spare hatch, usually leading to the boat deck. Those who did not have time to leave the premises before the doors closed could climb its iron ladder.
Dinghy
In formal compliance with the current requirements of the British Merchant Shipping Code, the steamer had 20 lifeboats, which were enough to land 1,178 people, that is, for 50% of the people on board at that moment and 30% of the planned load. This was taken into account with the expectation of increasing the walking space on the deck of the passengers of the steamer.
Decks
On the "Titanic" there were 8 steel decks, located one above the other at a distance of 2.5-3.2 m. The uppermost was a boat, below it were seven others, designated from top to bottom letters from "A" to "G". Only decks "C", "D", "E" and "F" were extended along the entire length of the vessel. The boat deck and "A" deck did not reach either the bow or the stern, and the "G" deck was located only in the front of the liner - from the boiler rooms to the bow and in the stern - from the engine room to the stern cut. The open boat deck housed 20 lifeboats, along the sides there were promenade decks.
Deck "A" with a length of 150 m was almost entirely intended for first class passengers. Deck "B" was interrupted in the bow, forming an open space above deck "C", and then continued in the form of a 37-meter bow superstructure with equipment for servicing anchors and a mooring device. In front of Deck "C" there were anchor winches for the two main side anchors, there was also a galley and a dining room for sailors and stokers. Behind the bow superstructure there was a promenade (the so-called inter-superstructure) deck for third-class passengers, 15 m long. On deck "D" there was another, isolated, third-class promenade deck. The entire length of the "E" deck was occupied by the cabins of passengers of the first and second classes, as well as the cabins of the stewards and mechanics. The first part of the “F” deck housed 64 cabins for second-class passengers and the main living quarters for third-class passengers, stretching 45 meters and occupying the entire width of the liner.
There were two large saloons, a third-class dining room, the ship's laundries, a swimming pool, and Turkish baths. Deck "G" covered only the bow and stern, between which the boiler rooms were located. The bow of the 58 m long deck was 2 m higher than the waterline, it gradually lowered towards the center of the liner 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 mail and a ballroom. Behind the bow of the deck were bunkers with coal, which occupied 6 watertight compartments around the chimneys, followed by 2 compartments with steam lines for piston steam engines and a turbine compartment. This was followed by a 64 m long aft deck 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 in the forecastle, each steel with a teak top. On the front, at a height of 29 m from the waterline, was located mars site("Crow's nest"), which could be reached by an internal metal ladder.
Service premises
In front of the boat deck there was a navigating bridge, 58 m distant from the bow. On the bridge there was a wheelhouse with a steering wheel and a compass, immediately behind it was a room where navigational charts were stored. To the right of the wheelhouse were the navigator's cabin, the captain's cabin and some of the officers 'cabins, to the left - the rest of the officers' cabins. Behind them, behind the front chimney, was the radio telegraph 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 cabins or passenger saloons. At the front of the "E" Deck were living quarters for 72 loaders and 44 sailors. The first part of the “F” deck housed the cabins of 53 third-shift stokers. Deck "G" housed rooms for 45 stokers and oilers.
Comparison of the size of the "Titanic" with modern cruise ship Queen Mary 2, aircraft A-380, bus, car and man
Second bottom
The second bottom was located about one and a half meters above the keel and occupied 9/10 of the length of the vessel, not capturing only small areas in the bow and stern. On the second floor, boilers, reciprocating steam engines, a steam turbine and power generators were installed, all of which were firmly fixed on steel plates, the remaining space was used for cargo, coal and drinking water tanks. In the section of the engine room, 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 registered capacity 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 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 machines, 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, of the single-flow boiler - 3.57 m. Each double-flow boiler had 6 furnaces, 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, generating a current of 100 volts. Next to them were two more 30-kilowatt generators.
Pipes
The liner had 4 pipes. The diameter of each was 7.3 m, the height was 18.5 m. The first three removed smoke from the boiler furnaces, the fourth, located above the turbine compartment, served as an exhaust fan, and a chimney for ship kitchens was connected to it. The longitudinal section of the vessel is shown on its model, exhibited in the German Museum in Munich, where it is clearly seen that the last pipe was not connected to the furnaces. There is an opinion that when designing the ship, the widespread opinion of the public was taken into account that the solidity and reliability of the ship directly depends on the number of its pipes. It also follows from the literature that in the last moments of a ship leaving the water almost vertically, its false pipe fell from its place and, falling into the water, killed a large number of passengers and crew members in the water.
Power 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. and a huge number of phones. In addition, electricity was consumed by fans in the boiler room and machine rooms, apparatus in the gymnasium, dozens of machines and appliances in kitchens, including refrigerators.
Connection
The telephone switchboard 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, the emergency transmitter, was battery powered. Four antennas were stretched between the two masts, some up to 75 m high. The guaranteed range of the radio signal was 250 miles. During the day, under favorable conditions, communication was possible at a distance of up to 400 miles, and at night - up to 2000.
The radio equipment came 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 assembled and installed the station all day, and for verification, a test connection was immediately made with the coast station at Malin Head, on the north coast of Ireland, and with Liverpool. On April 3, the radio equipment worked like a clock, on that day, communication was established with the island of Tenerife at a distance of 2,000 miles and with Port Said in Egypt (3,000 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 country of origin of the vessel on which it was installed.
Collision
Iceberg believed to have collided with the Titanic
Recognizing an iceberg in the light haze, the lookout Fleet warned “there is ice in front of us” and struck the bell three times, which meant an obstacle right in front of us, after which he rushed to the telephone connecting the “crow's nest” with the bridge. Moody's sixth mate, who was on the bridge, answered almost instantly and heard the cry “ice right ahead”. Thanks politely, Moody turned to Officer of the Watch, Murdoch, and repeated the warning. He rushed to the telegraph, put its handle on "stop" and shouted "right rudder", at the same time transmitting the order "full back" to the engine room. In 1912 terminology, "right rudder" meant turning the stern of the ship to the right and the bow to the left. Helmsman Robert Hitchens leaned on the handle of the steering wheel and quickly turned it counterclockwise until it stops, after which Murdoch was told "wheel to the right, sir." At that moment, the helmsman Alfred Oliver and Boxhall, who was in the navigator's room, came running to the bridge when the bells rang out in the "crow's nest". Murdoch pressed the lever that closed the watertight doors in the boiler bulkheads and the engine room, and immediately gave the order "left rudder!"
Lifeboats
There were 2,208 people on board the Titanic, but the total capacity of the lifeboats was only 1,178 people. The reason was that according to the rules in force at the time, the total capacity of lifeboats depended on the tonnage of the vessel, and not on the number of passengers and crew. The rules were drawn up in 1894, when the largest ships had a displacement of about 10,000 tons. The Titanic's displacement was 46,328 tons.
But even these boats were only partially filled. Captain Smith gave an order or direction "women and children first." The officers interpreted this order in different ways. Second Mate Lightoller, who commanded the launching of the boats at the port side, allowed the men to occupy places in the boats only if rowers were needed and under no other circumstances. First mate Murdoch, who commanded the launching of the boats at the starboard side, allowed men to descend if there were no women and children. So, in boat number 1, only 12 seats out of 40 were occupied. In addition, at first, many passengers did not want to occupy space in the boats, because the Titanic, on which there was no external damage, seemed to them safer. The last boats were filling better, because it was already obvious to the passengers that the Titanic would sink. In the very last boat, 44 seats out of 47 were taken. But in the sixteenth boat that left the side, there were many empty seats, in which passengers of the 1st class were saved.
As a result of the analysis of the operation to rescue people from the Titanic, it is concluded that with adequate actions of the team, there would be at least 553 fewer victims. The reason for the low survival rate of passengers on the ship is the attitude given by the captain to rescue women and children, first of all, and not all passengers; interest of the crew in this order of boarding the boats. By preventing male passengers from gaining access to the boats, the men from the crew were able to take seats in half-empty boats themselves, covering their interests with “noble motives” of caring for women and children. If all the passengers, men and women, took their places in the boats, the men from the crew would not have got into them and their chances of salvation would be zero, and the crew could not fail to understand this. Men from the crew occupied part of the seats in almost all boats during the evacuation from the vessel, on average 10 people from the crew per boat. 24% of the crew were saved, about the same as the number of passengers of the 3rd class (25%). The crew had no reason to consider their duty fulfilled - most of the passengers remained on the ship with no hope of salvation, even the order to save women and children in the first place was not fulfilled (several dozen children, and more than a hundred women never got into the boats).
The report of the British Commission on the results of the investigation into the circumstances of the sinking of the "Titanic" indicates that "if the boats were delayed a little longer before launching, or if the passage doors were open for passengers, more of them could get on the boats." The reason for the low survival rate of class 3 passengers with a high degree of probability can be considered the obstacles put up by the crew for the passage of passengers to the deck, the closing of the aisle doors. Comparing the results of the evacuation from the Titanic with the results of the evacuation from the ship Lusitania (1915) shows that the evacuation operation on ships like the Titanic and Lusitania can be organized without disproportion in the percentage of survivors depending on gender or class of passengers.
People in boats, as a rule, did not save those in the water. On the contrary, they tried to sail as far away from the crash site as possible, fearing that those in the water would overturn their boats or that they would be sucked into the sinkhole. Only 6 people were picked up from the water.
| Category | Rescued Percentage | Percentage of fatalities | Number of rescued | The death toll | How many were |
| Children, first grade | 100.0 | 00.0 | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| Children, second grade | 100.0 | 00.0 | 24 | 0 | 24 |
| Women, first class | 97.22 | 02.78 | 140 | 4 | 144 |
| Women, crew | 86.96 | 13.04 | 20 | 3 | 23 |
| Women, second class | 86.02 | 13.98 | 80 | 13 | 93 |
| Women, third grade | 46.06 | 53.94 | 76 | 89 | 165 |
| Children, third grade | 34.18 | 65.82 | 27 | 52 | 79 |
| Men, first class | 32.57 | 67.43 | 57 | 118 | 175 |
| Men, crew | 21.69 | 78.31 | 192 | 693 | 885 |
| Men, third grade | 16.23 | 83.77 | 75 | 387 | 462 |
| Men, second class | 8.33 | 91.67 | 14 | 154 | 168 |
| Total | 31.97 | 68.03 | 711 | 1513 | 2224 |
The path of the "Titanic" and the place of its wreck.
Chronology
The path of the "Titanic" and the place of its wreck.
April 10, 1912
- 12:00 - The Titanic departs from the quay wall of Southampton Port and narrowly avoids a collision with the American liner New York.
-19: 00 - stop in Cherbourg (France) to pick up passengers and mail.
-21: 00 - The Titanic left Cherbourg and headed for Queenstown (Ireland).
April 11, 1912
-12: 30 - stop in Queenstown to pick up passengers and mail; one crew member deserts from the Titanic.
-14: 00 - The Titanic departs Queenstown with 1,316 passengers and 891 crew on board.
April 14, 1912
-09: 00 - "Karonia" reports ice in the region of 42 ° north latitude, 49-51 ° west longitude.
-13: 42 - "Baltic" reports the presence of ice in the region of 41 ° 51 ′ north latitude, 49 ° 52 ′ west longitude.
-13: 45 - "America" reports ice in the region 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 region of 42 ° 3 ′ N, 49 ° 9 ′ W.
-21: 00 - air temperature 33 ° Fahrenheit (0.6 ° C).
-21: 30 - Second Mate Lightoller warns the ship's carpenter and watchkeepers in the engine room to monitor the fresh water system - the water in the pipelines may freeze; he tells the lookouts to watch the ice appear.
-21: 40 - Mesaba reports ice in the region of 42 ° -41 ° 25 ′ north latitude, 49 ° -50 ° 30 ′ west longitude.
-22: 00 - air temperature 32 ° Fahrenheit (0 ° C).
-22: 30 - The seawater temperature dropped to 31 ° Fahrenheit (-0.56 ° C).
-23: 00 - Californian warns of the presence of ice, but the Titanic's radio operator cuts off radio traffic before Californian has time to report the coordinates of the area.
-23: 40 - At the point with coordinates 41 ° 46 ′ north latitude, 50 ° 14 ′ west longitude (later it turned out that these coordinates were calculated incorrectly) at a distance of about 450 meters, an iceberg was seen directly along the course. Despite the maneuver, after 39 seconds, the underwater part of the vessel was touched, and the hull of the vessel received numerous small holes for a length of about 100 meters. Of the 16 watertight compartments of the vessel, 6 were cut (in the sixth, the leak was extremely insignificant).
April 15, 1912
-00:05 - an order was given to uncover the lifeboats and call the crew and passengers to the muster stations.
-00: 15 - the first radiotelegraph signal for help was transmitted from the Titanic.
-00: 45 - the first signal flare is fired, and the first lifeboat (No. 7) is launched.
-01: 15 - Passengers of the 3rd class are allowed on the deck.
-01: 40 - the last flare is fired.
-02: 05 - the last lifeboat is launched.
-02: 10 - the last radiotelegraph signals were transmitted.
-02: 17 - the electric light goes out.
-02: 18 - "Titanic" breaks into three parts
-02: 20 - The Titanic sank.
-03: 30 - signal flares fired from the Carpathia are noticed in the lifeboats.
-04: 10 - Carpathia picked up the first boat from the Titanic (boat no. 2).
Lifeboat "Titanic", taken by one of the passengers of "Carpathia"
-08: 30 - "Karpatia" picked up the last boat (No. 12) from "Titanic".
-08: 50 - "Carpathia", taking on board 704 people who escaped from the "Titanic", heads for New York.
