The sinking of the Titanic was not a disaster, it was an execution! Titanic. True Facts

The legendary maiden voyage of the Titanic was supposed to be the main gala event of 1912, but instead it became the most tragic in history. An absurd collision with an iceberg, an unorganized evacuation of people, almost one and a half thousand dead - this was the only voyage of the liner.

The history of the creation of the ship

Banal rivalry served as an incentive to start building the Titanic. The idea of ​​​​creating a liner better than that of a competitor company came up with the owner of the British shipping company White Star Line, Bruce Ismay. This happened after their main rival, the Cunard Line, set sail in 1906, their largest ship at that time, called the Lusitania.

The construction of the liner began in 1909. About three thousand specialists worked on its creation, more than seven million dollars were spent. Last works completed in 1911, and at the same time the long-awaited descent of the liner into the water took place.

Many people, both rich and poor, sought to get the coveted ticket for this flight, but no one suspected that in a few days after the departure, the world community would discuss only one thing - how many people died on the Titanic.

Despite the fact that the White Star Line company managed to outperform a competitor in shipbuilding, the subsequent damage to the company's reputation. In 1934, it was completely absorbed by the Cunard Line company.

The first voyage of the "unsinkable"

The solemn departure of the luxurious ship was the most anticipated event of 1912. It was very difficult to get tickets, and they were sold out long before the scheduled flight. But as it turned out later, those who exchanged or resold their tickets were very lucky, and they did not regret that they were not on the ship when they found out how many people died on the Titanic.

The first and last flight of the largest liner of the White Star Line was scheduled for April 10, 1912. The ship's departure took place at 12 o'clock local time, and already 4 days later, on April 14, 1912, a tragedy occurred - an ill-fated collision with an iceberg.

Tragic foresight of the sinking of the Titanic

A fictional story about which later turned out to be prophetic was written by British journalist William Thomas Stead in 1886. With his publication, the author wanted to draw public attention to the need to revise the rules of navigation, namely, he demanded that the number of seats in ship's boats correspond to the number of passengers.

A few years later, Stead returned to a similar theme in new history about the crash of a ship in the Atlantic Ocean, which occurred as a result of a collision with an iceberg. The death of people on the liner occurred due to the lack of the required number of boats.

How many people died on the Titanic: the composition of the drowned and the survivors

More than 100 years have passed since the most discussed shipwreck of the 20th century, but each time new circumstances of the tragedy are clarified and updated lists of those who died and survived as a result of the shipwreck appear.

This table gives us comprehensive information. The ratio of how many women and children died on the Titanic speaks most of all about the disorganization of the evacuation. The percentage of surviving representatives of the weaker sex exceeds even the number of surviving children. As a result of the shipwreck, 80% of the men died, most of them simply did not have enough space in the lifeboats. A high percentage of deaths among children. These were mostly members of the lower class who failed to get on deck in time for evacuation.

How were people saved from high society? Class discrimination on the Titanic

As soon as it became clear that the ship did not have long to stay on the water, the captain of the Titanic, Edward John Smith, gave the order to put women and children in lifeboats. At the same time, access to the deck for third-class passengers was limited. Thus, the advantage in salvation was given to representatives of high society.

Big number dead people was the reason that for 100 years investigations and litigation have not stopped. All experts note that class affiliation also took place on board during the evacuation. At the same time, the number of surviving crew members was greater than the representatives of the III class. Instead of helping the passengers into the boats, they were the first to escape.

How was the evacuation of people from the Titanic?

Properly unorganized evacuation of people is still considered main reason mass death of people. The fact of how many people died during the crash of the Titanic indicates the complete absence of any control over this process. The 20 lifeboats could accommodate at least 1,178 people. But at the beginning of the evacuation, they were launched half-filled, and not only by women and children, but also by whole families, and even with tame dogs. As a result, the occupancy of the boats was only 60%.

The total number of passengers on the ship, excluding crew members, was 1316 people, that is, the captain had the opportunity to save 90% of the passengers. Class III men were able to get on deck only towards the end of the evacuation, and therefore even more crew members were saved in the end. Numerous clarifications of the causes and facts of the shipwreck confirm that the responsibility for how many people died on the Titanic rests entirely with the captain of the liner.

Memoirs of eyewitnesses of the tragedy

All those who pulled out of the sinking ship into a lifeboat received unforgettable impressions from the first and last voyage of the Titanic. The facts, the number of dead, the causes of the disaster were obtained thanks to their testimony. The memoirs of some of the surviving passengers were published and will forever remain in history.

In 2009, Millvina Dean, the last woman survivor of the Titanic, passed away. At the time of the shipwreck, she was only two and a half months old. Her father died on a sinking liner, and her mother and brother escaped with her. And although the memory of that terrible night was not preserved in the woman’s memory, the catastrophe made such a deep impression on her that she forever refused to visit the shipwreck site and never watched feature films and documentaries about the Titanic.

In 2006, at an English auction, where about 300 exhibits from the Titanic were presented, the memoirs of Ellen Churchill Candy, who was one of the passengers on the ill-fated flight, were sold for 47 thousand pounds.

The published memoirs of another Englishwoman, Elizabeth Shuts, helped in compiling a real picture of the catastrophe. She was the governess of one of the first class passengers. In her memoirs, Elizabeth indicated that the lifeboat she was evacuated to had only 36 people, that is, only half of total available places.

Indirect causes of the shipwreck

In all sources of information about the Titanic, the main cause of its death is a collision with an iceberg. But as it turned out later, this event was accompanied by several indirect circumstances.

In the course of studying the causes of the disaster, part of the ship's skin was raised to the surface from the bottom of the ocean. A piece of steel was tested, and scientists proved that the metal from which the hull of the liner was made was of poor quality. This was another reason for the crash and the reason for how many people died on the Titanic.

The ideally smooth surface of the water prevented the discovery of the iceberg in time. Even a slight wind would have been enough for the waves breaking on the ice to make it possible to detect it before the collision occurred.

The unsatisfactory work of the radio operators, who did not inform the captain in time about the ice drifting in the ocean, is too high speed movement, which did not allow the ship to quickly change course - all these reasons together led to tragic events on the Titanic.

The sinking of the Titanic is the worst shipwreck of the 20th century.

A fairy tale that turned into pain and horror - this is how you can characterize the first and last voyage of the Titanic liner. True story catastrophe even after a hundred years is the subject of controversy and investigation. The death of nearly 1,500 people with empty lifeboats is still unexplained. Every year more and more new causes of the shipwreck are named, but none of them is able to return the lost human lives.

More than 100 years have passed since the tragic sinking of the Titanic. Largely thanks to the efforts of James Cameron and his film - one of the highest grossing and rated in history, everyone learned about this ship. But despite the fact that every first person on our planet heard about the Titanic, many of the fundamental details associated with the catastrophe on April 14, 1912 are still little known. Let's correct this omission.

The weather was perfect

On the day of the sinking of the Titanic, absolute calm reigned in the sea

It is easy enough to imagine how the Titanic liner struggles with high waves, how fog and downpour hide an iceberg, which subsequently sent the ship to the bottom. But it wasn't like that at all. When the Titanic was heading to the place of her death, the weather was beautiful, one might even say frighteningly calm. There was no wind or waves, and the surface of the sea was perfectly smooth, like a mirror. Perhaps the fine weather contributed to the tragedy.

Even a slight swell on the water surface could push the phosphorescent plankton right up to the edges of the iceberg, and they could be noticed in advance. The second captain of the Titanic, Charles Lightoller, singled out the absence of luminous plankton as one of the causes of the disaster. Perhaps the absolute calm also prevented the abrupt change in temperature that always warns the crew of a dangerous approach to an iceberg.

Unfortunately, when the forward looking Frederick Fleet noticed right on the course ice block, it was already too late to avoid a collision. In the course of an investigation conducted in 1912, experts found that from the moment the iceberg was discovered, the steamer had only 37 seconds left to change course. Other experts said that the time was a little more - about 65 seconds. In any case, the Titanic was doomed, because even if the “complete stop” command had been given, the liner would have been moving by inertia for about 3.5 minutes.

As luck would have it, immediately after the accident, a strong cold wind, which literally froze people who fought for life in ice water.

This is interesting: total, in the crash of the Titanic, 1514 people on board (including the crew) were killed, 710 were saved. 76% of women, 51% of children and only 18% of men were able to survive. Of the 908 crew members, 696 were killed.

The whole trip was accompanied by a fire

It turns out that the Titanic was on fire all the time.

Shortly before the first and, unfortunately, the last voyage, a fire broke out in one of the steamer's coal bunkers. Investigators investigating the causes of the disaster were able to prove that the fire was still raging when the Titanic headed for New York, creating a potential danger to everyone on board.

The surviving stoker John Dilly said: "We were unable to put out the fire, and the stokers said that when we disembarked passengers, it would be necessary to empty all the large coal bunkers, and then call fireboats to help us put out the fire." John claims that the flames were extinguished only when an ice block tore the hull. Water instantly flooded the bunkers.

Some other crew members claim that the fire was successfully extinguished on the morning of April 14 - on that fateful day. Be that as it may, the Titanic burned throughout its maiden voyage. It is not certain that the fire would have been catastrophic, as the designers designed the steel bunkers to withstand coal fires. Nevertheless, the risks increased manifold.

This is interesting: White Star Line Managing Director Bruce Ismay later claimed that John Pierpont Morgan - the owner of the IMM company, which owned the Titanic, forced the crew to sail on top speed to "sail to New York and disembark people before the inevitable explosions happen."

By the way, Morgan himself was supposed to be among the passengers, but for some reason changed his mind a few minutes before departure and got off the ship.

The tragic prediction of disaster by William Steed

William Steed - the man who foresaw the catastrophe ... And died in it

Even 26 years before the sinking of the Titanic, British journalist William Steed wrote a fictional story about the sinking of a large Atlantic mail steamer. In the work, most of the passengers drowned due to a shortage of lifeboats. With this story, Steed wanted to draw public attention to the fact that the crews of the ships are not required to have enough lifeboats to save all the passengers on board.

William Steed returned to this theme again in 1892. In the climactic chapter, the ship crosses the Atlantic Ocean with hundreds of tourists on board. Here is an excerpt: “There was a roar, as if a steamer had run into ice. The propellers spun, cutting through the ice blocks. All the passengers carefully climbed onto the deck. The weather was damp and very cold. Every half minute a whistle blew from somewhere in the mist. The roar of the steamer grinding against the side and the ice being crushed by the propellers did not allow talking and being heard. But suddenly a desperate cry was heard from the darkness: “Iceberg on the starboard side!”.

Steed died 20 years later on board the Titanic...

Captain Edward Smith

Captain Edward Smith was shocked when he realized that all passengers could not be saved

The captain of the infamous ship, Edward John Smith, has been the subject of dozens of legends since the day he sank with the Titanic. Many claim that he managed to personally save the life of a child before dying. But it is worth noting that his heroic image is slightly embellished.

In addition to ignoring iceberg warnings and not keeping the Titanic at a reasonable speed, Smith also allowed several lifeboats to leave the Titanic half empty. It is known that in the first boat that departed (out of sixteen), designed for 65 people, there were only 28 passengers, in the second - 36, in the third - 32, in the fourth and fifth - 28 each.

It is said that when Smith learned that the Titanic could not be kept afloat, he realized that even with the maximum load on the boats, at least 1,000 people would remain on the sinking ship. The realization of this fact horrified him. The captain temporarily lost his resolve: he did not demand an early evacuation, did not organize the work of the team, gave only vague and contradictory orders, did not answer the officers and sailors who asked him about something. Edward Smith did not give the order to load the boats to the maximum due to their shortage, did not follow the evacuation and the accuracy of the execution of his orders.

Later, when the last boat was launched, Smith last time walked along the boat deck. He ordered all crew members to stop working and try to save themselves. The captain repeated "From now on, it's every man for himself."

This is interesting: When the Titanic sank, only a few survived out of hundreds of people who were in the water. Crew members Charles Lightoller, Jack Thayer, Archibald Gracie and about 30 others managed to climb onto the upside down collapsible boat. Realizing the danger of the complete flooding of the boat, they were forced to repel people floating nearby with oars, ignoring pleas for help. Later in his book, Gracie admired the behavior of those left in the icy water: “I did not hear a single reproach after the refusal to help. Rejections were met with courageous words: “Okay, good luck guys, and God bless you!”.

Only in 2012 it became known that Smith at one time could not pass the navigation test on the first attempt. He managed to do this only in 1888. However, the initial failure was perhaps a bad omen.

The only Japanese on board

Masabumi Hosono in Japan was hated and greeted as a coward

The only Japanese passenger on the Titanic is civil servant Masabumi Hosono. Before boarding a steamer and starting his journey home, he studied rail systems in Europe for several months. As the Titanic began to sink, Hosono made his way to the upper deck to face death with dignity. He understood that there was practically no chance of survival, because the crew members put only women and children into the boats, and the men were driven away, threatening with a gun. Unexpectedly, Hosono found that he could save himself.

The opportunity arose when a crew member called out that there were 2 empty seats left in the lowered lifeboat. Seeing someone jump into the water, Hosono did the same. If he could have known what consequences this would lead to in the future, he might have preferred to die.

Then it was considered that worthy man it is better to die with honor than to live in a shameful manner. After returning to Japan, Hosono was branded as a coward and hated by almost the entire country. He was fired from his government job, albeit a few years later, and hired back. Negative reviews about the Asian who escaped in boat number 13 lead to the conclusion that it was Hosono.

This is interesting: The temperature of the water overboard was -2°C (freezing threshold). Some people, once in it, died of a heart attack immediately. Others died in about half an hour. At first, due to severe hypothermia, severe trembling appeared, then the pulse and body temperature slowed down. Soon the man lost consciousness and died.

In 1997, Masabumi's reputation was partially restored when a handwritten description of the tragedy was found among his belongings. In a letter to his wife, Hosono mentioned that he was in boat number 10. If this is true, then he could not be that Asian.

Real Titanic necklace

The "Heart of the Ocean" necklace actually existed

In the movie Titanic, a magnificent necklace was mentioned called the "Heart of the Ocean". You might think that this is an invention of the director. But it turns out that a similar story happened on a real ship: passenger Kate Philips was presented with a valuable sapphire necklace by her lover Henry Morley.

A wealthy 40-year-old pastry shop owner fell in love with 19-year-old Kate, who worked as an assistant for his competitor. Soon Morley decided to leave his wife and little daughter for Kate. The couple boarded the Titanic to escape and start a new life in California. On the night of the disaster, Kate managed to board the last lifeboat. And Henry Morley died.

After 9 months, Kate gave birth to a baby, whom she named Ellen. It wasn't until the age of 76 that Ellen learned that her father was one of the dead passengers on the Titanic. When she talked to her mother about it, she learned that Kate still had that same sapphire necklace.

Mistakes and theories

Perhaps the Supermoon is to blame for the disaster

Researchers have repeatedly tried to find out why the Titanic collided with an ice block. Immediately after the disaster, British and American experts decided that the ship was moving too fast. At low speed, the damage would be much less, and the chances of avoiding a collision would increase. And so the iceberg, like a can opener, ripped open 5 bow compartments of the Titanic. During the collision, 6 holes appeared in the starboard skin, the total length of which reached 90 meters.

This is interesting: The hull of the liner was divided into 16 watertight compartments using 15 bulkheads built across the ship. The designers calculated that the Titanic would be able to stay afloat in case of flooding of any 2 compartments or 4 adjacent ones (bow or stern) at the same time.

In 2010, journalist Louise Patton, the granddaughter of one of the Titanic's officers, suggested that the ship would have avoided the collision if the helmsman, Robert Hitchins, had not panicked and first turned the rudder in the opposite direction after reporting the iceberg. Louise is certain that her grandfather colluded with the other crew members in an attempt to keep this mistake a secret. The truth could destroy the reputation of the White Star Line and all its colleagues.

At the same time, two astronomers from University of Texas it is speculated that the rare "Supermoon" may have caused the iceberg to move. Note that the "Supermoon" occurs when, at the time of the full moon, our satellite approaches the Earth at its closest distance. It is known that on January 4, 1912, the Moon approached the Earth at the smallest distance in the last 1.5 thousand years. This happened the day after the so-called perihelion of the Earth (the maximum approach of the planet to the Sun). As a result of the joint gravitational influence of the Sun and the Moon, unusually strong tidal forces could appear. Astronomers believe that powerful flows of water set in motion many icebergs along the path of the Titanic, this created all the prerequisites for a catastrophe.

Elizabeth Shutes

Elisabeth Shutes claims to have smelled ice before the crash

Titanic passenger Elizabeth Shutes claimed that shortly before the disaster, she was shocked by the smell of ice, which prevented her from sleeping normally. It reminded her of a huge ice cave that Shutes had once visited. Elizabeth survived and later wrote her own account of the tragedy.

Shutes was the governess of 19-year-old first class passenger Margaret Gramm. When the liner vibrated for the first time and shuddered slightly, the girl was not very worried about this, being sure that nothing threatened the huge ship. Elizabeth was lying in her cabin when her friend knocked on the door, saying that she saw through the window of her cabin a huge iceberg that the liner collided with. Then Elizabeth asked the stewards if this was true, but received a negative answer.

Only after the first class passengers were herded to the upper deck did Shutes realize the gravity of the situation. As she wrote in her memoirs, there were only 36 people in the lifeboat in which she was (despite the fact that it was designed for 65 seats). Elizabeth was almost forced into the boat against her will. The girl wanted to stay on the ship, because she did not believe that such a huge liner could sink. But when the boat sailed a sufficient distance, the Titanic broke into 2 parts and disappeared under water in a matter of seconds.

Parallels with the crash of the Costa Concordia

Is there a link between the sinking of the Costa Concordia and the Titanic?

This is interesting: Many people draw parallels between the sinking of the Italian ship Costa Concordia and the sinking of the Titanic. First, some surviving passengers of the Concordia claimed that at the moment the ship hit the rock, famous song Celine Dion "My Heart Will Go On" Second, both liners met their end 100 years apart.

There are others strange coincidences. The baptism of both ships was unsuccessful - a bottle of champagne did not break on board the Costa Concordia. They say that the same thing happened at one time with the Titanic. Both disasters were caused by human error. Finally, both ships were sailing at maximum speed at the time of the disaster.

Perhaps the most significant difference is the reputation of the two captains. When people remember the captain of the Titanic, Edward Smith, as a hero who died along with the ship and before that saved the life of a child, only curses are heard against Francesco Shchetino. Shchetino, together with the second officer, fled from the ship when there were still 300 passengers on board who could have been saved.

optical illusions

Distress signals from the Titanic were interpreted by the crew of a nearby vessel as mirages.

Distress signals were sent from the sinking Titanic several times. In addition, 8 flares were launched. Closest to the crash site, the California ship ignored the missiles, even though they brightly lit up the night sky. Later, the captain of the California lost his job due to the scandal, because many people believed that he deliberately ignored the signals. But further investigations into the causes of the Titanic disaster allow us to give a more plausible explanation for its behavior - the refraction of light.

It is important to note that on the night of April 14-15, the Titanic sailed through areas of the so-called thermal inversion. It causes incorrect refraction of light, which causes mirages to appear. According to historian Tim Maltin, dozens of mirages were observed from several ships that were close to the accident site on the fateful night. Maltin is confident that the temperature conditions caused the light to be anomalously refraction. This may explain, for example, why the Titanic's lookouts reported that the ship was moving towards the iceberg too late.

These mirages kept the California crew from correctly interpreting the distress signals. Maltin made this conclusion in 2012, 20 years after the British government officially closed its own investigation into the influence of light refraction on the death of the Titanic.

The sinking of the Titanic, more than a hundred years later, remains one of the most famous disasters in history. The dramatic events that took place on board the ship on the night of April 15, 1912, were reflected in art. Interest in the death of a ship considered unsinkable does not weaken even today. Hundreds of books, thousands of articles have been written about the Titanic, documentaries and art films. And in memory of the victims of the disaster in different countries erected monuments and memorials.

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

"Titanic" (Titanic) - the largest passenger ship of the early XX century, the second of three twin steamers produced by the British company "White Star Line" (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 pipe - 55 meters, top speed - 23 knots. Journalists compared it in length with three city blocks, and in height with 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 watertight compartments. Watertight bulkheads rose from the second bottom to the deck. Chief designer ship Thomas Andrews stated that even if four of the 16 compartments are filled with water, the liner will be able to continue its journey.

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

Prior to the release of the Titanic on its first and last voyage, it was emphasized that 10 millionaires would be on board the ship on the first voyage, and gold and jewelry worth hundreds of millions of dollars would be in its safes. American industrialist, heir to mining magnate Benjamin Guggenheim, millionaire with a young wife, assistant to US Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft, Major Archibald Willingham Butt, US Congressman Isidore Strauss, actress Dorothy Gibson, wealthy social activist 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 Titanic set off on its only journey from Southampton (UK) to New York (USA) with stops in Cherbourg (France) and Queenstown (Ireland).

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

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

By 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 radio operator of the Titanic cut off the radio traffic 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 this by telephone to the bridge. The most senior of the officers, William Murdoch, gave the command to the helmsman: "Left rudder."

At 23:40 "Titanic" in the underwater part of the ship. Of the 16 watertight compartments of the ship, six were cut through.

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

The ship began to feel a roll on the bow. Captain Smith ordered the lifeboats to be uncovered and the crew and passengers called for evacuation.

By order of the captain, the radio operators began to send out distress signals, which they transmitted for two hours, until the captain released the telegraph operators from duty a few minutes before the sinking of the ship.

Distress signals, but they were too far from the Titanic.

At 00:25, the coordinates of the Titanic were received by the ship Carpathia, which was at a distance of 58 nautical miles, which was 93 kilometers. ordered to immediately go to the disaster site of the Titanic. Rushing to the rescue, the ship was able to reach a record speed of 17.5 knots - with the maximum possible speed for a vessel of 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 in small boats." By order of Captain Smith, his assistant, Charles Lightoller, who led the rescue of people on the port side of the liner, put only women and children into the boats. The men, according to the captain, were to remain on deck until all the women had boarded the boats. First mate William Murdoch on the starboard side to the men, if there were no women and children in the line of passengers gathering on deck.

Around 02:15, the Titanic's bow dropped sharply, the ship moved forward significantly, and a huge wave swept across the decks, which washed many passengers overboard.

Around 02:20, the Titanic sank.

Around 04:00 am, about three and a half hours after receiving the distress signal, the Carpathia arrived at the wreck of the Titanic. 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 1400 to 1517 people. According to official figures, after the disaster, 60% of passengers are in first class cabins, 44% in second class cabins, and 25% in third class.

The last surviving passenger of the Titanic, who traveled on board the liner at the age of nine weeks, died on May 31, 2009 at the age of 97. The ashes of the woman 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 on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources

The Titanic is a British transatlantic steamship, the second Olympic-class liner. Built in Belfast at the shipyard "Harland and Wolf" from 1909 to 1912 by order of the shipping company "White Star Line".

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

On the night of April 14-15, 1912, during the first flight, it crashed in the North Atlantic, colliding with an iceberg.

Vessel Information

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

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

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

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

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

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

1 On April 0, 1912, the Titanic left Southampton on her first and only voyage. Having made stops in French Cherbourg and Irish Queenstown, the ship entered the Atlantic Ocean with 1,317 passengers and 908 crew members on board. Captain Edward Smith commanded the ship. On April 14, the Titanic radio station received seven ice warnings, but the liner continued to move almost at top speed. To avoid meeting with floating ice, the captain ordered to go a little south of the usual route.

• At 23:39 on April 14, the lookout reported to the captain's bridge about the iceberg directly ahead. Less than a minute later there was a collision. Having received several holes, the ship began to sink. First of all, women and children were put on the boats.
• At 2:20 am on April 15, the Titanic sank, breaking in two, killing 1,496 people. 712 survivors were picked up by the steamer "Carpathia".

The wreckage of the Titanic rests at a depth of 3750 m. They were first discovered by the expedition of Robert Ballard in 1985. Subsequent expeditions recovered thousands of artifacts from the bottom. The bow and stern parts have sunk deep into the bottom silt and are in a deplorable state; it is not possible to bring them to the surface intact.

The wreck of the Titanic

The disaster claimed the lives of, according to various sources, from 1495 to 1635 people. Until December 20, 1987, when the Philippine ferry Dona Paz sank, killing more than 4,000 people, the death of the Titanic remained the largest in terms of the number of deaths at sea in peacetime. Informally, it is the most famous disaster of the 20th century.

Alternative versions of the death of the ship

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

Fire

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

In particular, he studied photographs taken before the ship left the shipyard in Belfast. The journalist saw black marks along the right side of the ship's hull - just where the iceberg had pierced it. Subsequently, experts confirmed that the traces were probably caused by the fire that had started in the fuel storage. “We looked at exactly where the iceberg got stuck, and it seems that this part of the hull was very vulnerable in this place, and this happened even before it left the shipyard in Belfast,” says Moloney. A team of 12 tried to put out the flames, but they were too big to quickly bring under control. It could reach temperatures up to 1000 degrees Celsius, which made the Titanic's hull very vulnerable in this place. And when he hit the ice, experts say, he immediately broke. The publication also added that the management of the liner forbade passengers to talk about the fire. “This is a perfect match of unusual factors: fire, ice and malpractice. No one has investigated these marks before. It completely changes history,” says Moloney.

CONSPIRACY

Conspiracy theory: this is not the Titanic at all! This version was put forward by Robin Gardiner and Dan Van Der Watt, experts in the study of the reasons for the death of the ship, published in the book “The Titanic Mystery”. According to this theory, the wreck is not the Titanic at all, but its twin brother, the Olympic. These boats were virtually indistinguishable from each other. On September 20, 1911, the Olympic collided with the British Navy cruiser Hawke, resulting in severe damage to both ships. The owners of Olimpik suffered heavy losses, since the damage that was inflicted on Olimpik was not enough to cover the insurance payment.

The theory is based on the assumption of a possible fraud in order to obtain insurance payments by the owners of the Titanic. According to this version, the owners of the Titanic intended to send the Olympic to the area of ​​​​possible ice formation and at the same time convinced the captain not to slow down so that the ship would be seriously damaged when it collided with an ice block. This version was initially supported by the fact that a sufficiently large number of objects were raised from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, where the Titanic lies, but nothing was found that would carry the name Titanic. This theory was refuted after parts were raised to the surface, on which the Titanic's tail (building) number was stamped - 401. The Olympic had a tail number of 400. In addition, the Titanic's minted tail number was discovered and on the propeller of a sunken ship. And even despite this, the conspiracy theory still has a number of followers.

German attack

1912 The First World War is two years away, and the prospect of an armed conflict between Germany and Great Britain is becoming more and more likely. Germany is the owner of several dozen submarines, which during the war will unleash a ruthless hunt for enemy ships trying to cross the ocean. For example, the reason for America's entry into the war will be that the U-20 submarine will sink the Lusitania in 1915 - the twin of the same Mauritania that set the speed record and won the Blue Ribbon of the Atlantic - remember?

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

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

There was a collision with an iceberg - this is beyond doubt. The deck of the ship was even covered with snow and ice chips. Cheerful passengers started playing football with ice cubes - that the ship is doomed, it will become clear later. The collision itself was surprisingly quiet - almost none of the passengers felt it. A torpedo, you see, could hardly have exploded completely silently (especially since some claim that the submarine fired as many as six torpedoes at the ship!).

Supporters of the theory of the German attack claim, however, that people in the boats heard a terrible roar just before the Titanic sank - well, that was two and a half hours later, when only the stern lifted into the sky remained above the water and the death of the ship did not raise any doubts. It is unlikely that the Germans would have fired a torpedo at an almost sunken ship, would they? And the roar that the survivors heard was due to the fact that the stern of the Titanic rose almost vertically and huge steam boilers fell from their places. Also, do not forget that at about the same minutes the Titanic broke in half - the keel could not withstand the weight of the rising stern (although they only find out about this after finding the liner at the bottom: the break occurred below the water level), and this is also unlikely to have happened silently . And why would the Germans suddenly begin to sink a passenger liner two years before the start of the war? This seems, to put it mildly, doubtful. And to put it bluntly, it's absurd.

A curse

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

Steering error

One of latest versions The sinking of the Titanic deserves special attention. It appeared after the novel by the granddaughter of the second mate of the captain of the Titanic, Ch. Lightoller, Lady Patten, “Worth its weight in gold”, was published. According to the version put forward by Patten in his book, the ship had enough time to dodge the obstacle, but the helmsman, Robert Hitchens, panicked and turned the helm in the wrong direction.

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

Chasing the Blue Ribbon of the Atlantic

There were and still are many supporters of this theory, especially among writers, since it appeared precisely in writers' circles. The Blue Ribbon of the Atlantic is a prestigious shipping award given to ocean liners for the fastest crossing of the North Atlantic.

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

But how was it really?

Regrettably, but, studying the history of the most famous maritime disaster, one has to admit that the Titanic owes its death to a long chain of fatal accidents. If at least one link of the sinister chain had been destroyed, the tragedy could have been avoided.

Perhaps the first link was the successful start of the journey - yes, yes, that's right. On the morning of April 10, as the Titanic sailed from the docking wall in Southampton Port, the superliner passed too close to American ship"New York", and a phenomenon known in navigation as the suction of ships arose: the "New York" began to be attracted to the "Titanic" moving nearby. However, thanks to the skill of Captain Edward Smith, a collision was avoided.

Ironically, if an accident had happened, it would have saved one and a half thousand lives: if the Titanic had lingered in the port, the ill-fated encounter with the iceberg would not have happened.

This time. It should also be mentioned that the radio operators who received the message from the ship "Mesaba" about the ice fields of icebergs did not pass it on to Edward Smith: the telegram was not marked with a special prefix "personally to the captain", and was lost in a pile of papers. This is two.

However, this message was not the only one, and the captain knew about the ice danger. Why didn't he slow down the ship? The pursuit of the Blue Ribbon is, of course, a matter of honor (and, more importantly, big business), but why did he risk the lives of passengers? Not that much of a risk, really. In those years, the captains of ocean liners often passed dangerous ice districts without slowing down: it was like crossing the road at a red light: sort of, and you can’t do that, but it always works out. Almost always.

To the credit of Captain Smith, it must be said that he remained true to maritime traditions and remained on the dying ship to the very end.

But why was the bulk of the iceberg not seen? Here everything turned out one to one: moonless, dark night, windless weather. If there were at least small waves on the water surface, the lookouts could see white lambs at the foot of the iceberg. Calm and moonless night are two more links in the fatal chain.

As it turned out later, the chain was continued by the fact that the iceberg, shortly before the collision with the Titanic, turned its underwater dark part upside down, saturated with water, due to which it was practically invisible from afar at night (an ordinary, white iceberg would be distinguishable for a mile ). The sentinel saw him only 450 meters away, and there was almost no time for maneuver. Perhaps the iceberg would have been seen earlier, but another link in the fatal chain played a role here - there were no binoculars in the "crow's nest". The box where they were stored turned out to be locked, and the second assistant to the captain, taken from the ship just before departure, hastily took the key to it with him.

After the lookout nevertheless saw the danger and reported the iceberg to the captain's bridge, a little more than half a minute remained before the collision. The officer of the watch, Murdoch, who was on watch, gave the helmsman the order to turn left, at the same time transmitting the command "full astern" to the engine room. Thus, he made a gross mistake by adding another link in the chain that led the liner to death: even if the Titanic had crashed into the iceberg head-on, the tragedy would have been less. The bow of the ship would have been crushed, part of the crew and those passengers whose cabins were located in front would have died. But only two watertight compartments would be flooded. With such damage, the liner would have remained afloat and could wait for the help of other ships.

And if Murdoch, turning the ship to the left, ordered to increase, and not decrease the speed, the collision might not have happened at all. However, frankly speaking, the order to change the speed is unlikely to play a significant role here: in thirty seconds it was hardly possible to execute it in the engine room.

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

Looking ahead, we can say that only seven hundred and four managed to escape: the next link in the chain of failures was that some sailors took the captain's order to put women and children into the boats too literally, and did not let men go there, even if there were empty seats. However, at first no one was particularly eager to get into the boats. The passengers did not understand what was the matter, and did not want to leave the huge, comfortably lit, such a reliable liner and it was not clear why they would go down in a small unstable boat down to the icy water. However, pretty soon, anyone could notice that the deck was tilting forward more and more, and panic began.

But why was there such a monstrous discrepancy in the places on the lifeboats? The owners of the Titanic, praising the merits of the new ship, stated that they even overfulfilled the instructions of the code: instead of the prescribed 962 rescue places, there were 1178 on the ship. Unfortunately, they did not attach any importance to the discrepancy between this number and the number of passengers on board.

It is especially bitter that not far from the sinking Titanic, another passenger steamer, the Californian, stood, waiting out the danger of ice. A few hours ago, he notified neighboring ships that he was locked in ice and forced to stop so as not to accidentally run into an ice block. The radio operator from the Titanic, who was almost stunned by the Morse code from the Californian (the ships were very close, and the signal of one was too loud in the headphones of the other), impolitely interrupted the warning: “Go to hell, you are preventing me from working!”. What was the radio operator of the Titanic so busy with?

The fact is that in those years, radio communication on a ship was more of a luxury than an urgent need, and this miracle of technology aroused great interest among the wealthy public. From the very beginning of the voyage, radio operators were literally inundated with messages of a private nature - and no one saw anything reprehensible in the fact that the radio operators of the Titanic paid such attention to wealthy passengers who wished to send a telegram to the ground directly from the ship. And at that moment, when colleagues from other courts reported about floating ice, the radio operator was transmitting another message to the continent. Radio communication was more like an expensive toy than a serious tool: the ships of that time did not even have a round-the-clock watch at the radio station.

The idea of ​​building the largest ship in the world belongs to Bruce Ismay and James Pirrie, who combined the efforts of two companies - the shipbuilding "Harland and Wolf" and the transatlantic trade and passenger "White Star Line". On March 31, 1909, the construction of the Titanic began and by 1912 its cost was $7.5 million, which is 10 times more today.

3,000 people worked on the creation of a giant ship. The weight of the Titanic was 66,000 tons, and the length was equal to the length of four city blocks. The liner was equipped with 10 meter lifeboats, with a capacity of 76 people and in the amount of 20 pieces. Since the number of passengers on the Titanic exceeded 2 thousand people, this number of boats was clearly not enough, since they could only save 30% of the planned load of people. The Titanic was equipped with the most modern high-power radio equipment at that time. The cabins were luxurious. Also on board the famous ship were a gym, a library, restaurants and swimming pools.

First voyage and the sinking of the Titanic

May 31, 1911 year the largest passenger liner was launched in Belfast (Northern Ireland), which took a record amount of locomotive oil, grease and liquid soap for lubricating the guide rails. This process lasted only 62 seconds. April 10, 1912 the ship sails on its first and, unfortunately, last voyage. There were 2,207 people on board the Titanic, including 898 crew members and 1,309 passengers, including famous people, millionaires and industrialists, writers and actors. April 14, 1912 an iceberg was seen from the ship at a distance of about 450 meters. The Titanic made a maneuver, but still collided with an obstacle and received numerous holes 100 meters long. Thus, 16 watertight compartments were damaged, and under the weight of the ship he listed very strongly. Water continued to flood all compartments. 2 hours 40 minutes after the impact, the liner sank completely.

Passenger rescue

The captain of the ship I. Smith was afraid of panic among the passengers. Therefore, the inhabitants of the suites and the two first classes were gently informed by the stewards about the minor damage to the liner and asked to go on deck. Third class passengers didn't even know about threatening danger. In addition, the exit was blocked for the inhabitants of the lower deck, and many of them, wandering along the corridors of the ship, could not get out of the trap. That is, priority in salvation was given to VIPs and representatives of the upper class. Most of the passengers were confident that the Titanic was unsinkable and refused to board the boats. The captain did his best to persuade them to leave the ship.

By order of I. Smith, women and children were the first to be saved, but among them there were many men. The first boats, which were already in short supply, left half full. So the boat number 1 was called "millionaire" and was filled with only 12 people out of the required 40. Realizing the dramatic nature of the situation and in order to divert the attention of passengers, the captain of the Titanic asked the leader of the orchestra to start playing. Eight professional musicians, realizing that they were playing for the last time in their lives, gave out clear rhythmic sounds of jazz that drowned out the sounds of screams coming from the third deck and the shots of revolvers. So, when the last boats were lowered, panic began, and the ship's officers had to use weapons. In the engine room, work did not stop until the last. So mechanics and stokers made every effort to ensure that the liner was provided electric lighting for radio operation. The Titanic did not stop sending requests for rescue to ships that were near the liner.

The ship "Carpathia" was the first to respond to the SOS signal, which rushed to the rescue at maximum speed. Within two hours, 712 people were picked up, and the remaining 1,495 people died. People who did not get on the boats jumped into the water wearing life jackets, but the water was icy, so even a healthy man could only survive in such conditions for about an hour. Also near the scene of the tragedy were two more ships. Fishermen on the schooner Samson were engaged in shadow sealing, so when they saw the white signal lights of the Titanic, they thought it was the Coast Guard and hurried away from this place. If the liner had red signal lights, then more lives could be saved. At the same time, the captain of the Californian, seeing the lights, thought of fireworks being set off on the Titanic. The ship's radio station was not working, as the radio operator was resting after the watch. For failure to provide assistance in the sinking of the Titanic, the captain of the Californian was stripped of his rank.

Survivors and dead

Almost all the women and children who lived in the cabins of the first and second classes were saved, unlike the passengers and their babies from the lower decks, who were blocked from exiting. As a percentage, 20% of men and 74% of all women were saved. 56 children survived, which was slightly more than half of the total. Lillian Gertrud Asplund, an American who witnessed the sinking of the Titanic, died in 2006. At that time she was five years old, and in this terrible disaster she lost her father and brothers. It is worth noting that they were third-class passengers. In boat number 15, her mother and three-year-old brother escaped with her. Lillian rarely spoke about the tragedy and always avoided questions and public attention. In May 2009, at the age of 97, the last passenger of the Titanic, who at the time of the shipwreck was only two and a half years old, died.

Crash hypotheses

Versions about the causes of the crash were completely different. But experts clearly name a few of them. The Titanic was built in the shortest possible time and had many shortcomings. So, when building a ship, in some places they used pins made of base material, which was brittle. Therefore, after colliding with an iceberg, the ship cracked the hull exactly where the low-grade steel rods were used. Due to the huge dimensions and weight of the Titanic, it was clumsy, so he could not dodge the obstacle.

Exploration of the shipwreck

On September 1, 1985, the sunken remains of the liner were discovered by an expedition led by Dr. Robert Ballard, director of the Woods Hole Institute of Oceanology in Massachusetts. The depth of occurrence at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean was 3750 meters. The wreck was located 13 miles west of the coordinates where the Titanic had transmitted an SOS signal. The remains of the liner received protection from the 2001 UNESCO Convention for the Protection of the Underwater cultural heritage in April 2012, one hundred years after the flood. Thus, the ship has protection from plunder, destruction and sale. Such measures are necessary to ensure proper treatment of the remains of the dead. In August 2001, the shipwreck was investigated by diving to the Titanic on the Russian deep-sea submersibles Mir-1 and Mir-2. The initiators of this was director James Cameron. Thanks to the use of small remote-controlled submersibles "Jack" and "Elwood", unique material was filmed, which formed the basis documentary film"Ghosts of the Abyss: Titanic" (2003), where you can see the remains of the ship from the inside. In 1997, the public saw the film Titanic, which won an Oscar. In the creation of the film, footage from the underwater shooting of the liner was used, capturing its interior and exterior.

Despite the fact that many years have passed since the crash of the liner, this topic is still relevant. So the millionaire from Australia, Clive Palmer, announced to the whole world about his desire to build a copy of the sunken ship and create a cruise ship"Titanic-2". Hypothetically, the object will be ready by 2016. It will have four steam pipes, like its counterpart, but at the same time it will be equipped with modern running and navigation equipment.

Film "Ghosts of the Abyss" (2003)