Titanic dimensions. The ship "Titanic"

The Titanic is a British steamship operated by the White Star Line, one of three Olympic-class twin ships. The largest passenger liner in the world at the time of its construction. During the first voyage on April 14, 1912, she collided with an iceberg and sank after 2 hours and 40 minutes. There were 1,316 passengers and 892 crew members on board, for a total of 2,208 people. Of these, 704 people survived, more than 1,500 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:

Port of registry - Liverpool.
Board number - 401.
The call sign is MGY.
Ship dimensions:
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.
Waterproof compartments - 16.
Maximum speed - 23 knots.

Rescue equipment:

Standard boats - 14 (65 places).
Collapsible boats - 4 (47 seats).

Passengers:

I class: 180 men and 145 women (including 6 children).
II class: 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).
Deck crew - 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
Chief Officer – Henry F. Wild
First Mate – William M. Murdoch
Second Officer – Charles G. Lightoller
Third Mate - Herbert J. Pitman
Fourth Mate – Joseph G. Boxhall
Fifth Mate – Harold P. Lowe
6th Mate – James P. Moody

building
Laid down March 31, 1909 at the shipyards of the Harland & Wolf 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 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 flooring of the second bottom was divided by transverse and longitudinal partitions into 46 watertight compartments.

Bulkheads
Watertight bulkheads, marked from bow to stern with the letters "A" to "P", rose from the second bottom and passed through 4 or 5 decks: the first two and the last five reached deck "D", 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 getting a hole.
The Titanic was built to stay afloat if any two of its 16 watertight compartments, any three of the first five compartments, or all of the first four compartments were flooded.
The first two bulkheads in the bow and the last in the stern were solid, all the rest had sealed doors that allowed the crew and passengers to move between compartments. On the flooring of the second bottom, in the bulkhead "K", there were the only doors that led to the cooling chamber. On decks "F" and "E" in almost all bulkheads there were airtight 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 batten down such doors on the passenger decks, a special key was required, which was available only to the senior stewards. But on deck "G" there were no doors in the bulkheads.
In the bulkheads "D" - "O", directly above the second bottom in the compartments where the machines and boilers were located, there were 12 vertically closing doors, they were controlled by an electric drive from the navigation bridge. In case of danger or accident, or when the captain or watch officer deemed it necessary, electromagnets released the latches on a signal from the bridge and all 12 doors fell under their own gravity and the space behind them turned out to be hermetically closed. If the doors were closed by an electric signal from the bridge, then it was possible to open them 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 room before the doors closed could climb its iron ladder.

boats
In formal accordance with the current requirements of the British Merchant Shipping Code, the steamer had 20 lifeboats, which was enough for landing 1178 people, that is, for 50% of the people who were 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 ship.

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 one was a boat deck, under it there were seven others, indicated from top to bottom with letters from “A” to “G”. Only decks "C", "D", "E" and "F" stretched along the entire length of the vessel. The boat deck and the "A" deck did not reach either the bow or the stern, and the "G" deck was located only in the front of the liner - from the boiler rooms to the bow and in the aft - from the engine room to the stern cut. On the open boat deck there were 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 at the bow, forming an open space above deck "C", and then continued in the form of a 37-meter bow superstructure with anchor handling equipment 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. Along the entire length of deck "E" were the cabins of passengers of the first and second classes, as well as the cabins of the stewards and mechanics. In the first part of deck "F" there were 64 cabins for passengers of the second class and the main living quarters for passengers of the third, stretching for 45 m and occupying the entire width of the liner.
There were two large salons, a dining room for third-class passengers, ship's laundries, a swimming pool and Turkish baths. Deck "G" captured only the bow and stern, between which the boiler rooms were located. The forward part of the deck, 58 m long, was 2 m above the waterline, gradually lowered towards the center of the liner and at the opposite end was already at the level of the waterline. There were 26 cabins for 106 third-class passengers, the rest of the area was occupied luggage compartment for first class passengers, ship's mail and a ballroom. Behind the bow of the deck there were coal bunkers, which occupied 6 watertight compartments around the chimneys, followed by 2 compartments with steam pipes for reciprocating steam engines and a turbine compartment. This was followed by the aft part of the deck 64 m long with warehouses, pantries and 60 cabins for 186 third-class passengers, which was already below the waterline.

Masts
One was aft, the other was on the forecastle, each was steel with a teak top. On the front, at a height of 29 m from the waterline, there was a mars platform (“crow's nest”), which could be reached by an internal metal ladder.

Service premises
In front of the boat deck there was a navigation bridge, 58 m away from the bow. On the bridge there was a wheelhouse with a steering wheel and a compass, immediately behind it was a room where navigation charts were stored. To the right of the wheelhouse were the navigational cabin, the captain's cabin and part of the officers' cabins, to the left - the rest of the officers' cabins. Behind them, behind the front funnel, was the cabin of the radiotelegraph and the cabin of the radio operator. In 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 the stokers could leave for work and return without passing by the cabins or saloons for passengers. In front of deck "E" there were living quarters for 72 loaders and 44 sailors. In the first part of the "F" deck there were quarters of 53 stokers of the third shift. Deck G contained quarters for 45 stokers and oilers.

Size comparison of the Titanic with modern cruise ship Queen Mary 2, A-380 aircraft, bus, car and person

Second bottom
The second bottom was located about one and a half meters above the keel and occupied 9/10 of the ship's length, not capturing only small areas in the bow and stern. On the second day, boilers, reciprocating steam engines, a steam turbine and electric generators were installed, all firmly fixed on steel plates, the remaining space was used for cargo, coal and drinking water tanks. In the engine room section, the second bottom rose 2.1 m above the keel, which increased the protection of the liner in case of damage to the outer skin.

Power point
The registered power of steam engines and turbines was 50 thousand liters. With. (actually 55 thousand hp). The turbine was located in the fifth watertight compartment in the stern 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, the single-flow boiler was 3.57 m. Each double-flow boiler had 6 fireboxes, and the single-flow boiler had 3. In addition, the Titanic was equipped with four auxiliary machines with generators, each with a capacity of 400 kilowatts, producing a current of 100 volts. Next to them were two more 30-kilowatt generators.

Pipes
The liner had 4 tubes. The diameter of each was 7.3 m, 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 for ship kitchens was connected to it. A longitudinal section of the vessel is presented on its model exhibited at the Deutsches Museum in Munich, where it is clearly seen that the last pipe was not connected to the fireboxes. There is an opinion that when designing the vessel, the widespread opinion of the public was taken into account that the solidity and reliability of the vessel directly depends on the number of its pipes. It also follows from the literature that in the last moments of the ship leaving the water almost vertically, its fake pipe fell off its place and, falling into the water, killed a large number of passengers and crew members in the water.

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

Connection
The telephone exchange serviced 50 lines. The radio equipment on the liner was the most modern, the power of the main transmitter was 5 kilowatts, the power came from an electric generator. The second, an emergency transmitter, was powered by batteries. 4 antennas were strung 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 that time had monopolized the radio industry in Italy and England. Two young radio officer officers assembled and installed the station all day, 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 clockwork, on this day a connection was established with the island of Tenerife at a distance of 2000 miles and with Port Said in Egypt (3000 miles). In January 1912, the Titanic was assigned the radio call sign "MUC", then they were replaced by "MGY", previously owned by the American ship Yale. As the dominant radio company, Marconi introduced its own radio call signs, most of which began with the letter "M", regardless of its location and the country of home of the vessel on which it was installed.

clash

The iceberg believed to have hit the Titanic

Recognizing an iceberg in a light haze, the forward looking Fleet warned “there is ice in front of us” and struck the bell three times, which meant an obstacle straight ahead, after which he rushed to the telephone connecting the “crow’s nest” with the bridge. Moody's sixth mate, who was on the bridge, responded almost instantly and heard a cry of "ice right ahead". With a polite thank you, Moody turned to the officer of the watch, Murdoch, and repeated the warning. He rushed to the telegraph, put his handle on "stop" and shouted "rudder right", at the same time transmitting the order "full back" to the engine room. According to the terminology of 1912, "rudder right" meant turning the ship's stern to the right, and the bow to the left. The helmsman, Robert Hitchens, leaned on the handle of the steering wheel and quickly turned it counterclockwise to the stop, after which Murdoch was told "rudder to the right, sir." At that moment, Alfred Oliver, the helmsman of the watch, and Boxhall, who was in the chart house, came running to the bridge when the bells rang out in the "crow's nest". Murdoch pulled the lever, which included the closing of watertight doors in the bulkheads of the boiler rooms 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 then in force, the total capacity of lifeboats depended on the tonnage of the ship, and not on the number of passengers and crew members. The rules were drawn up in 1894, when the largest ships had a displacement of about 10,000 tons. The displacement of the Titanic was 46,328 tons.
But even these boats were only partially filled. Captain Smith gave the order or instruction "women and children first". The officers interpreted this order in different ways. Second mate Lightoller, who commanded the launching of the boats on the port side, allowed the men to take places in the boats only if rowers were needed and under no other circumstances. First mate Murdoch, who commanded the launching of the boats on the starboard side, allowed the men to go down 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 take seats in boats, because the Titanic, which had no external damage, seemed safer to them. The last boats filled 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 occupied. But in the sixteenth boat that left the side there were many empty seats, passengers of the 1st class were saved in it.
As a result of the analysis of the operation to rescue people from the Titanic, it is concluded that with adequate actions by the team of victims, there would have been at least 553 fewer people. The reason for the low survival rate of passengers on the ship is the installation given by the captain to save, first of all, women and children, and not all passengers; the interest of the crew in this order of boarding the boats. By preventing male passengers from accessing the boats, the men from the crew got the opportunity to take places in the half-empty boats themselves, covering their interests with the “noble motives” of caring for women and children. In the event that all passengers, men and women, took their places in the boats, the men from the crew would not get into them and their chances of salvation would be equal to zero, and the crew could not help but understand this. The men from the crew occupied part of the seats in almost all boats during the evacuation from the ship, on average 10 people from the crew per 1 boat. 24% of the crew were saved, about the same as 3rd class passengers were saved (25%). The team 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 states that "if the boats had been delayed a little longer before launching, or if the doors of the passage had been opened for passengers, more of them could have got on the boats." The reason for the low survival rate of class 3 passengers with a high degree of probability can be considered obstacles placed by the crew for the passage of passengers to the deck, closing the doors of the passage. Comparison of the results of the evacuation from the Titanic with the results of the evacuation from the Lusitania (1915) shows that the evacuation operation on ships like the Titanic and Lusitania can be organized without a disproportion in the percentage of survivors depending on the sex or class of passengers.
People in boats, as a rule, did not save those who were in the water. On the contrary, they tried to sail as far as possible from the wreck, fearing that those in the water would capsize their boats or be sucked into the funnel from a sinking ship. Only 6 people were picked up alive from the water.

Official data on the number of dead and rescued

Category	Percentage rescued	Percentage of dead	Number of rescued	Number of dead	How much was
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 crash.

Chronology
The path of the Titanic and the place of its crash.

April 10, 1912
- 12:00 - "Titanic" departs from the quay wall of the 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 member of the crew deserts from the Titanic.
-14:00 - The Titanic departs Queenstown with 1,316 passengers and 891 crew members on board.

April 14, 1912
-09:00 - "Caronia" reports ice in the region of 42 ° north latitude, 49-51 ° west longitude.
-13:42 - "Baltik" reports the presence of ice in the area of 41°51' north latitude, 49°52' west longitude.
-13:45 - "America" reports ice in the region of 41°27'N, 50°8'W.
-19:00 - air temperature 43 ° Fahrenheit (6 ° C).
-19:30 - air temperature 39 ° Fahrenheit (3.9 ° C).
-19:30 - Californian reports ice at 42°3'N, 49°9'W.
-21:00 - air temperature 33 ° Fahrenheit (0.6 ° C).
-21:30 - the second officer of the captain Lightoller warns the ship's carpenter and watchmen in the engine room that it is necessary to monitor the fresh water system - the water in the pipelines may freeze; he tells the lookout to watch the appearance of ice.
-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 sea water temperature dropped to 31 ° Fahrenheit (-0.56 ° C).
-23:00 - The Californian warns of the presence of ice, but the Titanic's radio operator cuts off the radio traffic before the Californian manages to report the coordinates of the area.
-23:40 - At a point with coordinates 41 ° 46' north latitude, 50 ° 14' west longitude (later it turned out that these coordinates were calculated incorrectly), an iceberg was noticed at a distance of about 450 meters straight ahead. Despite the maneuver, after 39 seconds, the underwater part of the ship touched, and the ship's hull received numerous small holes for a length of about 100 meters. Of the 16 watertight compartments of the vessel, 6 were cut through (in the sixth, the leak was extremely insignificant).
April 15, 1912
-00:05 - an order was given to uncover the lifeboats and convene crew members and passengers to the muster points.
-00:15 - the first radiotelegraph signal for help was transmitted from the Titanic.
-00:45 - the first flare was fired, and the first lifeboat (No. 7) was launched.
-01:15 - Class 3 passengers are allowed on deck.
-01:40 - the last flare was fired.
-02:05 - the last lifeboat is launched.
-02:10 - the last radiotelegraph signals were transmitted.
-02:17 - Electric lighting goes out.
-02:18 - "Titanic" breaks into three parts
-02:20 - Titanic sank.
-03:30 - flares fired from the Carpathia are noticed in lifeboats.
-04:10 - "Carpathia" picked up the first lifeboat from the "Titanic" (boat number 2).

Lifeboat "Titanic", filmed by one of the passengers of the "Carpathia"

-08:30 - Carpathia picked up the last (No. 12) lifeboat from the Titanic.
-08:50 - Carpathia, taking on board 704 people who escaped from the Titanic, heads for New York.

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

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

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

We will tell you everything about the Titanic, as it was in reality. About how long the Titanic is in meters, how much the Titanic sank, and who was really behind the massive disaster.

Where did the Titanic sail from and to?

We know from Cameron's film that the liner was bound for New York. The American up-and-coming city was to be the final stop. But far from everyone knows for sure where the Titanic sailed from, considering that London was the starting point. The capital of Great Britain was not in the ranks of seaports, and therefore the steamer could not leave from there.

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

See how the route of the Titanic ran on the map:

Dimensions of the Titanic in meters

To understand more about the Titanic, the causes of the disaster must be disclosed, starting with the dimensions of the ship.

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

exact length - 299.1 m;

width - 28.19 m;

height from the keel - 53.3 m.

There is also such a question - how many decks did the Titanic have? Only 8. Boats were located on the top, therefore the upper deck was called the boat deck. The rest were distributed according to the letter designation.

A - deck I class. Its peculiarity is limited in size - it did not lie down the entire length of the vessel;

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

C - deck with a galley, a mess for the crew and a promenade for class III.

D - walking area;

E - cabins I, II classes;

F - cabins II and III classes;

G - deck with boiler rooms in the middle.

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

Titanic: the story of the crash

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

Things from the Titanic: photo

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

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

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

Titanic: how many people died and survived

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

Photos of the sinking of the Titanic

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

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

The bodies were found within a radius of 80 km from the crash site, and due to the current of the Gulf Stream, many were dispersed even further.

Photos of dead people

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

crew of 900 people;

195 first class;

255 second class;

493 people of the third class.

Some passengers left at intermediate ports, some called. It is believed that the liner went to the fatal route with a staff of 1317 people, of which 124 are children.

Titanic: scuttling depth - 3750 m

The English steamer could accommodate 2,566 people, of which 1,034 seats were for first-class passengers. The half-load of the liner is due to the fact that transatlantic flights were not popular in April. At that time, a coal strike broke out, this disrupted coal supplies, schedules and changes in plans.

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

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

How deep is the Titanic

When answering the question about the depth at which the Titanic sank, one must remember about the pieces carried by the currents (by the way, they learned about this only in the 80s, before that it was believed that the liner sank to the bottom entirely). The wreckage of the liner on the night of the crash went at a depth of 3750 m. The bow was thrown 600 m from the stern.

The place where the Titanic sank, on the map:

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

Titanic lifted from the bottom of the ocean

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

What does the Titanic look like now?

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

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

Titanic, Britannic and Olympic

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

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

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

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

"Titanic" (eng. Titanic) - British transatlantic steamer, the second liner of the Olympic class. 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.

All power point 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 interiors of the first class, 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 crashed, killing more than 4,000 people, the sinking of the Titanic remained the largest in terms of number those who died in the disaster 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 from the bottom Atlantic Ocean, where the Titanic lies, a sufficiently large number of objects were raised, but nothing was found that would bear 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 up 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.

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 of a priestess - soothsayer. 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. In favor of this version they say famous cases 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 the latest versions of the death 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. “ blue ribbon 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, urged the captain of the Titanic, Smith, to arrive in New York a day ahead of schedule and receive an honorary prize. This allegedly explains the high speed of the vessel in dangerous area Atlantic. But this theory can easily be refuted, because the Titanic simply physically could not 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, we have to admit that the Titanic owes its death long chain 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, during the departure of the Titanic from the quay wall of Southampton port, the superliner passed too close to the 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 moving nearby "Titanic". 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 been delayed 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 Mesaba ship 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? Chasing the Blue Ribbon is, of course, a matter of honor (and, more importantly, of big business), but why did he risk the lives of passengers? Not that much of a risk, really. At that time the captains ocean liners we often passed areas dangerous with ice without slowing down: it was like crossing the road at a red light: it’s like, 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: a 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 a distance 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. Maybe 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, let's say that only seven hundred and four managed to escape: the next link in the chain of failures was that some sailors took 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 required 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 Titanic radio operators 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.

building

Construction and equipment

Specifications

Bulkheads

The Titanic was built to stay afloat if any 2 of its 16 watertight compartments, any 3 of the first 5 compartments, or all of the first 4 compartments were flooded.

The first 2 bulkheads in the bow and the last in the stern were solid, all the rest had sealed doors that allowed the crew and passengers to move between compartments. On the flooring of the second bottom, in the bulkhead "K", there were the only doors that led to the cooling chamber. On decks "F" and "E" in almost all bulkheads there were airtight 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 batten down such doors on the passenger decks, a special key was required, which was available only to the senior stewards. But on deck "G" there were no doors in the bulkheads.

In the bulkheads "D" - "O", directly above the second bottom in the compartments where the machines and boilers were located, there were 12 vertically closed doors, they were controlled from the navigation bridge with the help of an electric drive. In case of danger or accident, or when the captain or the watch officer deemed it necessary, the electromagnets, on a signal from the bridge, released the latches, and all 12 doors fell under the influence of their own gravity and the space behind them turned out to be hermetically closed. If the doors were closed by an electric signal from the bridge, then it was possible to open them only after removing the voltage from the electric drive.

Deck "G" captured only the bow and stern, between which the boiler rooms were located. The forward part of the deck, 58 m long, was 2 m above the waterline, gradually lowered towards the center of the liner and at the opposite end was already at the level of the waterline. 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 the ball room. Behind the bow of the deck there were coal bunkers, which occupied 6 watertight compartments around the chimneys, followed by 2 compartments with steam pipes for reciprocating steam engines and a turbine compartment. This was followed by the aft part of the deck 64 m long with warehouses, pantries and 60 cabins for 186 third-class passengers, which was already below the waterline.

Masts

One was aft, the other was on the forecastle, each was steel with a teak top. On the front, at a height of 29 m from the waterline, there was a mars platform (“crow's nest”), which could be reached by an internal metal ladder.

Service premises

In front of the boat deck there was a navigation bridge, 58 m away from the bow. On the bridge there was a wheelhouse with a steering wheel and a compass, immediately behind it was a room where navigation charts were stored. To the right of the wheelhouse were the navigational cabin, the captain's cabin and part of the officers' cabins, to the left - the rest of the officers' cabins. Behind them, behind the front funnel, was the cabin of the radiotelegraph and the cabin of the radio operator. In 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 the stokers could leave for work and return without passing by the cabins or saloons for passengers. In front of deck "E" there were living quarters for 72 loaders and 44 sailors. In the first part of the "F" deck there were quarters of 53 stokers of the third shift. Deck G contained quarters for 45 stokers and oilers. RMS in the name stands for Royal Mail Vessel. The ship had a post office and a warehouse on decks "F" and "G", where 5 postal workers worked.

Second bottom

The second bottom was located about one and a half meters above the keel and occupied 9/10 of the ship's length, not capturing only small areas in the bow and stern. On the second day, boilers, reciprocating steam engines, a steam turbine and electric generators were installed, all firmly fixed on steel plates, the remaining space was used for cargo, coal and drinking water tanks. In the engine room section, the second bottom rose 2.1 m above the keel, which increased the protection of the liner in case of damage to the outer skin.

Power point

Propellers of the Titanic before launching the ship

The registered power of steam engines and turbines was 50 thousand liters. With. (actually 55 thousand hp). The turbine was located in the fifth watertight compartment in the stern 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, the single-flow boiler was 3.57 m. Each double-flow boiler had 6 fireboxes, and the single-flow boiler had 3. In addition, the Titanic was equipped with four auxiliary machines with generators, each with a capacity of 400 kilowatts, generating electricity at a voltage of 100 volts. Next to them were two more 30-kilowatt generators. High-pressure steam from the boilers went to 2 triple expansion steam engines, which rotated the side propellers. From the machines, the steam then entered the low-pressure turbine, which drove the middle propeller. From the turbine, the exhaust steam entered the condensers, from where fresh water went back to the boilers in a closed cycle. The Titanic developed a decent speed for its time, although it was inferior to the competitor's turbo ships - Cunard Line.

Pipes

The liner had 4 pipes, each of which had a diameter of 7.3 m, a height of 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 for ship kitchens was connected to it . A longitudinal section of the ship is shown on its mock-up, exhibited at the Deutsches Museum in Munich, where it is clearly seen that the last pipe was not connected to the fireboxes. The fourth chimney was purely cosmetic to make the ship look more powerful.

Electrical supply

10,000 light bulbs, 562 electric heaters, mainly in first-class cabins, 153 electric motors, including electric drives for eight cranes with a total capacity of 18 tons, 4 cargo winches with a capacity of 750 kg, 4 elevators, each for 12 people, were connected to the distribution network. In addition, electricity was consumed by a telephone exchange and radio communications, fans in the boiler room and engine rooms, apparatus in the gym, dozens of machines and appliances in the kitchens, including refrigerators.

Connection

The telephone exchange serviced 50 lines. The radio equipment on the liner was the most modern, the power of the main transmitter was 5 kilowatts, the power came from an electric generator. The second, an emergency transmitter, was powered by batteries. 4 antennas were strung between the two masts, some up to 75 m long. 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 had monopolized the radio industry in Italy and England. Two young radio officers assembled and installed the station all day, for verification, a test connection was immediately made with the coast station at Malin Head ( English), on the north coast of Ireland, and with Liverpool. On April 3, the radio equipment worked like clockwork, on this day a connection was established with the island of Tenerife at a distance of 2000 miles and with Port Said in Egypt (3000 miles). In January 1912, the Titanic was given 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 home of the vessel on which it was installed.

Swimming and crash

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

North and South transatlantic routes. ice conditions

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

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

Chronology

Wednesday, April 10, 1912
- 12:00 p.m. — The Titanic leaves the Southampton harbor and narrowly avoids colliding with the American liner New York. There are 922 passengers on board the Titanic.
- 19:00 - stop in Cherbourg (France) to take on board 274 passengers and mail.
- 21:00 - Titanic left Cherbourg and headed for Queenstown (Ireland).

Sunday, April 14, 1912
- 09:00 - Caronia reports ice in the region of 42 ° north latitude, 49-51 ° west longitude.
- 13:42 - "Baltik" reports the presence of ice in the area of 41°51'N, 49°52'W.
- 13:45 - America reports ice at 41°27'N, 50°8'W.
- 19:00 - air temperature 43 ° Fahrenheit (6 ° C).
- 19:30 - air temperature 39 ° Fahrenheit (3.9 ° C).
- 19:30 - The Californian reports ice at 42°3'N, 49°9'W.
- 21:00 - air temperature 33 ° Fahrenheit (0.6 ° C).
- 21:30 - Second Officer Lightoller warns the ship's carpenter and watchmen in the engine room that it is necessary to monitor the fresh water system - water in the pipelines may freeze; he tells the lookout to watch the appearance of ice.
- 21:40 - Mesaba reports ice at 42°-41°25'N, 49°-50°30'W.
- 22:00 - air temperature 32 ° Fahrenheit (0 ° C).
- 10:30 p.m. - Sea water temperature dropped to 31° Fahrenheit (-0.56°C).
- 11:00 p.m. — The Californian gives a warning of ice, but the Titanic's radio operator cuts off the radio before the Californian can give the area's coordinates.
- 23:39 - At a point with coordinates 41 ° 46' north latitude, 50 ° 14' west longitude (later it turned out that these coordinates were calculated incorrectly), an iceberg was sighted at a distance of about 650 meters straight ahead.
- 23:40 - Despite the maneuver, after 39 seconds, the underwater part of the vessel touched, the hull received numerous small holes for a length of about 100 meters. Of the 16 watertight compartments of the vessel, 6 were cut through (in the sixth, the leak was extremely insignificant).

Stages of the sinking of the Titanic

Monday, April 15, 1912
- 00:05 - The trim on the nose became noticeable. An order was given to uncover the lifeboats and convene the crew and passengers to the assembly points.
- 00:15 - the first radiotelegraph signal for help was transmitted from the Titanic.
- 00:45 - The first flare is fired and the first lifeboat (No. 7) is launched. The bow deck goes under water.
- 01:15 - Class 3 passengers are allowed on deck.
- 01:40 - The last flare is fired.
- 02:05 - the last lifeboat is launched (collapsible boat D). The bow of the boat deck goes under water.
- 02:08 - The Titanic jerks violently and moves forward. A wave rolls over the deck and floods the bridge, washing passengers and crew members into the water.
- 02:10 - the last radiotelegraph signals were transmitted.
- 02:15 - The Titanic lifts the stern high, exposing the rudder and propellers.
- 02:17 - Electric lighting goes out.
- 02:18 - The Titanic breaks in two as it sinks rapidly.
- 02:20 - The Titanic sank.
- 02:29 - At a speed of about 13 miles per hour, the bow of the Titanic crashes into the ocean floor at a depth of 3750 meters, burrowing into the sedimentary rocks of the bottom.
- 03:30 - flares fired from the Carpathia are noticed from lifeboats.
- 04:10 - Carpathia picked up the first lifeboat from the Titanic (boat No. 2).
- 08:30 - Carpathia picked up the last (No. 12) lifeboat from the Titanic.
- 08:50 - Carpathia, taking on board 710 people who escaped from the Titanic, heads for New York.
Thursday, April 18, 1912
- The Carpathia Arrives in New York

clash

Photo of an iceberg taken by the chief steward of a German ship Prince Adalbert on the morning of April 16, 1912. The steward was unaware of the disaster at the time, but the iceberg caught his attention because it had a brown streak at its base, indicating that the iceberg had hit something less than 12 hours earlier. It is assumed that the Titanic collided with him.

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

According to the terminology of 1912, the command "right on board" meant turning the stern of the vessel to the right, and the bow to the left (since 1909, Russian ships have already used the natural giving of commands, for example: "left rudder"). Coxswain Robert Hitchens ( English) leaned on the handle of the steering wheel and quickly turned it counterclockwise until it stops, after which Murdoch was told "Right rudder, sir!" At that moment, the helmsman Alfred Oliver and Boxhall, who was in the chart house, ran to the bridge when the bells rang out in the "crow's nest". A. Oliver, in his testimony in the US Senate, however, definitely stated that at the entrance to the bridge he heard the command "rudder left" (corresponding to a turn to the right), and this command was carried out. According to Boxhall (British Inquiry question 15355), Murdoch reported to Captain Smith: "I turned to port and reversed, and was about to turn to starboard to get around him, but he was too close."

It is known that lookout binoculars were not used on the Titanic because the key to the binocular safe was missing. He was taken in by Captain Blair's second mate when the captain kicked him off the team, taking on board a team member from the Olympic. It is possible that the lack of binoculars was one of the reasons for the crash of the liner. However, the existence of binoculars became known only 95 years after the shipwreck, when one of them was exhibited at the Henry Eldridge and Sons auction house in Devizes, Wiltshire. The second mate of the Titanic was to be David Blair, for which he arrived on April 3, 1912 from Belfast to Southampton. However, the management of the White Star Line replaced him at the last moment with Henry Wilde, the first officer from the similar vessel Olympic, as he had experience in operating such large liners, as a result of which Blair in a hurry forgot to hand over the key to the person who came to his place . However, many historians agree that the presence of binoculars would not have helped to prevent a catastrophe. This is also confirmed by the fact that the lookouts in the "crow's nest" noticed the iceberg before those on the bridge who had binoculars with them.

The Titanic is sinking

lifeboats

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

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

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

The report of the British commission on the results of the investigation into the circumstances of the sinking of the Titanic states that "if the boats had been delayed a little longer before launching, or if the doors of the passage had been opened for passengers, more of them could have got on the boats." The reason for the low survival rate of class 3 passengers with a high degree of probability can be considered obstacles placed by the crew for the passage of passengers to the deck, closing the doors of the passage. People in boats, as a rule, did not save those who were in the water. On the contrary, they tried to sail as far as possible from the wreck, fearing that those in the water would capsize their boats or be sucked into the funnel from a sinking ship. Only 6 people were picked up alive from the water.

Refusal of assistance by the steamer "Californian"

"Californian"

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

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

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

The Californian eventually answered. At approximately 5:30 am, Chief Officer George Stewart woke up wireless operator Cyril Farmstone Evans and informed him that rockets had been seen during the night and asked him to contact the ship. He received news of the sinking of the Titanic, Captain Lord was notified, and the ship went to assist. It arrived much later than the Carpathia, which had already picked up the survivors.

The investigation revealed that the ship the Californian had seen was actually the Titanic, and that the Californian could have come to its rescue, so Captain Lord acted inappropriately by not doing so. However, Lord maintained his innocence for the rest of his life, and many researchers argue that the famous positions of the Titanic and the Californian make it impossible for the former to be the infamous "Mystery Ship," a topic that "evoked ... millions of words." and … hours of heated debate”, and continues to do so [ non-authoritative source?] .

The composition of the dead and the survivors

Almost all the women and children from cabins 1 and 2 were saved. More than half of the women and children in Class 3 cabins died as they had difficulty finding their way up through the maze of narrow corridors. Nearly all of the men also died. The tragedy of the Paulson family claimed the lives of Alma's mother and all her four young children, whom Father Nils was waiting in vain for in New York.

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

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

A peculiar record belongs to Jessop's maid, Violette, who survived accidents on all 3 Olympic-class ships. She worked on the Olympic when it collided with the cruiser Hawk; escaped from the Titanic, and subsequently survived when the Britannic sank by hitting a mine during the First World War.

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

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

Among the disasters that occurred outside of hostilities, the Titanic ranks third in terms of the number of victims. The sad leadership is behind the Doña Paz ferry, which collided with an oil tanker in 1987. More than 4,000 people died in the collision and subsequent fire. 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 the explosion of a steam boiler and fire. The total death toll on the steamer exceeded 1,700, the largest disaster on a riverboat.

Theories about the causes of the accident

sheathing

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

In the first years of the 21st century, in a number of mass media, with reference to latest research ship hull deep-sea submersibles, the opinion was expressed that in a collision with an iceberg, the ship did not receive a hole, and its skin withstood the blow. The cause of death was that the hull rivets could not prevent the divergence of its sheets, and outboard water began to flow into the resulting long gap.

radio operators

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

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

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

Iceberg

The news about the absence of binoculars from the lookout was accepted with criticism (according to many testimonies, the binoculars were only on the Belfast-Southampton segment, after this stop Hogg, by order of the captain, for some reason folded them in his cockpit). There is an opinion that having binoculars looking ahead, despite a moonless night, would notice an iceberg not a quarter of a mile (450 m), but 2 or 3 miles (4-6 km). On the other hand, binoculars narrow the field of view, so they are only used after when the lookout noticed something. Lookouts without binoculars spotted the iceberg before the watch officer with binoculars.

If there were even a slight wave or swell in the ocean, he would see white lambs at the “waterline” of the iceberg. As it later became known, the Titanic collided with a “black” iceberg, that is, with one that had recently turned over in the water. The side facing the liner had a dark blue color, because of this there was no reflection (an ordinary white iceberg under such a condition could be seen from a mile away).

The question of what prevented the first assistant W. Murdoch from discovering the iceberg in a timely manner remains open. The captain of the Carpathia, Rostron, said that 75% of the objects in the sea are detected from the bridge earlier than from the "crow's nest". When his steamer sailed at night to the site of the accident of the Titanic, all the icebergs on their way were seen from the bridge before they were discovered by lookouts (British Inquiry, questions 25431-25449).

Maneuvering

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

There is also an opinion that the most correct decision would be to start only the left car in reverse. Working the propellers apart would help speed up the turn and slow down the speed. The middle propeller was driven by a steam turbine that ran on the residual steam from the onboard machines; this turbine had no reverse gear. Thus, the stopped screw, behind which there was a single rudder of a very small area, created a turbulent flow in which the already inefficient rudder almost completely lost its effectiveness. Perhaps even in order to avoid a collision, it would be necessary, on the contrary, to increase the speed of the middle propeller to increase the effectiveness of the steering wheel. Moreover, the reverse takes a considerable time, and, therefore, there were practically no chances to quickly reduce the speed.

Attention should be paid to the fact that the accident occurred on the first flight. The navigators had no experience in operating this vessel, which explains the untimely and inefficient maneuvering attempts. At the same time, Captain Smith, First Officer Wild, and First Officer Murdoch, who was on duty at the time of the accident, had experience working on the Olympic built according to a similar project. In 1903, in a critical situation, Murdoch, with his timely and decisive actions, canceling the command of his superiors, saved the steamer Arabic from a collision.

There are also suggestions that the Titanic would have remained afloat if the rudder had not been shifted and the ship would have "rammed" the iceberg, taking a hit on the stem. The device of partitions was just aimed at the "survival" of the ship in a head-on collision, while the sides of the ship were not protected. “Wilding, a shipbuilder from Belfast, calculated that the bow of the ship would be indented by 25-30 meters, but the ship would not die. It would be instant death for those who were at the bow of the vessel at that time, but the reversal of inertia would be rather slow, comparable to a car traveling at this speed, which had its brakes instantly pressed to the stop,” says Barnaby. However, Murdoch is justified by the fact that he did not have the ability to measure the distance to the iceberg and could not know that the maneuver he had taken would not succeed. Therefore, he can hardly be reproached for the fact that he did not give a command that would obviously kill people.

Buoyancy

The liner was not designed to flood all the first five compartments. Such a design, although possible, is extremely expensive - the only ship built this way, Great Eastern, was unprofitable. The unprofitability of this giant ship is confirmed by the fact that it was not found possible to use it for its intended purpose, and it went down in history as a cable ship used in laying the transatlantic telegraph cable. It is also impossible not to take into account the likelihood of risk. After all, apart from the Titanic, in peacetime, not a single ship suffered such damage.

Slowing down or avoiding the iceberg field

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

Delayed reaction on the bridge

Lookout Reginald Lee testified that he spotted the iceberg from a distance of "half a mile (926 m) maybe more, maybe less." The Titanic would cover half a mile in 80 seconds. Helmsman Hichens testified that by the time of the collision the ship had managed to turn 2 points. Since the windows of the wheelhouse were darkened so that the light did not interfere with the observation from the bridge, Hichens could not see the iceberg. An experiment on the twin steamer Olympic showed that a turn of 2 points would take 37 seconds, counting from the moment the command was given. The authors of the book Report into the Loss of the SS Titanic: A Centennial Reappraisal, published on the occasion of the centenary of the shipwreck, restore the timing of the accident, and put forward a version of “missed 30 seconds” after the signal of the lookouts, who left Murdoch for something to visually detect an iceberg, assess the situation and make a decision.

Causes of the tragedy

Subjective reasons

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

The owners of the Titanic, formally fulfilling the instructions (and even slightly overfulfilling them, since the Titanic's boats had 1,178 seats, not 962), provided the ship with an insufficient number of boats. Despite the fact that there were enough lifeboats to board 1178 people, only 704 were saved. There were certain subjective reasons for this. For example, second mate Charles Lightoller, who commanded the launching of the boats on the port side, followed Captain Smith's order "women and children first" literally: he allowed men to take places in the boats only if rowers were needed and under no other circumstances.

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

Objective reasons

The cause of the collision and loss of the vessel was a combination of adverse factors:

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

Flood depth

On September 1, 1985, an expedition led by the director of the Institute of Oceanology in Woods Hall, Massachusetts, Dr. Robert D. Ballard, discovered the Titanic's place of occurrence at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean at a depth of 3750 meters.

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

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

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

Conspiracy theory

Reflection of the Titanic in art

The crash of the liner has become one of the most famous disasters in the history of mankind. To some extent, the image of the Titanic has become a symbol of the death of something that seemed powerful and unsinkable, a symbol of the weakness of human technogenic civilization before the forces of nature. The catastrophe was widely reflected in art, especially mass art. The first film dedicated to the disaster - " Escaped from the Titanic" - appeared already in May 1912, a month after the crash. In the same year, 1912, but before the catastrophe occurred, Morgan Robertson's book "Futility, or the death of the Titan" ("Futility, or the death of the Titan") was published, the action of which took place on board a passenger ship " Titan, similar in description and displacement to the Titanic. In this book, the Titan dies after colliding with an iceberg in the fog while sailing from New York to the UK. As a result, a legend appeared about the “prediction” of the Titanic disaster by Morgan Robertson. This fact is reinforced by the fact that despite the publication of the book in 1912, it was written in 1898.

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

The death of the ship was dedicated to many songs of performers and groups playing in different genres. In particular, in the song of the same name by the Austrian artist Falco (1992), the Titanic is seen as a symbol of decadence, the end of an era, in the song of the Russian group Nautilus Pompilius from the album of the same name Titanic (1994), the floating ship appears as a symbol of death and doom.

Notes

About the fate of the superliners of the company "White Star Line" (Retrieved April 8, 2012)
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Museum "Titanic Belfast"

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. The chief designer of the ship, Thomas Andrews, stated that even if four of the 16 compartments were filled with water, the liner would 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 Carpathia ship, which was 58 nautical miles from the wreck, 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 bow of the Titanic dropped sharply, the ship moved forward significantly, and a huge wave 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