Where did the Titanic sail from and to? Starting point, destination and route of the legendary ship. The sinking of the Titanic is a catastrophe riddled with mysticism

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

On April 10, 1912, the British liner Titanic left Southampton for her first and last voyage. Four days later, after a collision with an iceberg, the now legendary liner crashed. There were 2208 people on board the ship and only 712 passengers and crew members managed to escape. 3rd class passengers buried alive at the bottom of the ocean, and millionaires choosing the best seats in half-empty lifeboats, an orchestra playing until the last moment and heroes saving their loved ones at the cost of their own lives... All this is not only footage from a Hollywood movie, but also real stories of passengers from the Titanic.

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

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

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

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

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

On the night of the disaster, he was at a party in the restaurant of the first class ship, and after the collision, together with his comrades, he went on deck, where the boats were already being prepared. First, William put his daughter in boat number 4, but when it was his son's turn, they were in trouble.

Right in front of them, 13-year-old John Rison boarded the boat, after which the boarding officer ordered that teenage boys not be taken on board. Lucy Carter resourcefully threw her hat on her 11-year-old son and sat down with him.

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

Roberta Mahoney, 21, worked as a servant to the countess and sailed on the Titanic with her mistress in first class.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Two orchestras played on the Titanic: a quintet led by 33-year-old British violinist Wallace Hartley and an additional trio of musicians who were hired to give Café Parisien a continental touch.

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

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

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

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

Michel died in 2001, he was the last male survivor on the Titanic.

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

Suddenly met by a member of the crew directed her to the boats. She stumbled on a broken closed gate, but just at that moment another officer appeared, who saved Winnie and her children by giving them his life jacket.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Among the passengers of the Titanic was the famous tennis player Carl Behr and his lover Helen Newsom. After the disaster, the athlete ran to the cabin and brought the women to the boat deck.

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

Edward John Smith is the captain of the Titanic, who was very popular with both crew and passengers. At 2:13 am, just 10 minutes before the ship was completely submerged, Smith returned to the captain's bridge, where he decided to meet his death.

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

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

Benjamin died at the age of 46, his body was not found.

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

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

John Jacob and Madeleine Astor, the millionaire science fiction writer, were traveling first class with their young wife. Madeleine escaped on lifeboat number 4. The body of John Jacob was raised from the depths of the ocean 22 days after his death.

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

It was she who became a real encyclopedia for historians and researchers of the disaster, thanks to the large number of names of stowaways and 1st class passengers who remained on the Titanic contained in it. Gracie's health was badly damaged by hypothermia and injuries, and he died in late 1912.

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

"If the worst happens, I'll swim out," she said, until eventually someone pushed her into the number 6 lifeboat that made her famous.

After Molly organized the Titanic Survivors Relief Fund.

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

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

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

First, I will briefly talk about the history of the construction of the Titanic. There are a lot of interesting photos of the ship, which captures the construction process, the mechanisms and units of the Titanic, and so on. And then the story will go about the tragic circumstances that were destined to happen on this fateful day for the Titanic. As always happens with major disasters, the tragedy of the Titanic was due to a series of errors that coincided on the same day. Each of these errors individually would not have entailed anything serious, but all together turned into death for the ship.

Titanic It was laid down on March 31, 1909 at the shipyards of the Harland and Wolf shipbuilding company in Belfast, Northern Ireland, launched on May 31, 1911, and passed sea trials on April 2, 1912. 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. In the first photo - the slipway of the Titanic, construction is just beginning.

The photo shows the laying of the keel of the Titanic

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

And these are the huge steam engines of the Titanic

giant crankshaft

This photo shows the turbine rotor of the Titanic. The huge dimensions of the rotor stand out against the background of working

Titanic propeller shaft

Solemn photo - the body of the Titanic is completely assembled

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

The giant ship almost left the stocks

Titanic launch successful

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

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

And this is the last photo of the Titanic taken from the shore in Ireland

The first days of the journey were successful for the ship, nothing foreshadowed trouble, the ocean was completely calm. On the night of April 14, the sea remained calm, but icebergs were visible in some places in the navigation area. They did not embarrass Captain Smith ... At 11:40 pm, a cry was suddenly heard from the observation post on the mast: "Directly on the course of the iceberg!" ... Everyone knows about the further events that took place on the ship. The “unsinkable” Titanic failed to resist the water element and went to the bottom. As already mentioned, many factors turned against the Titanic that day. It was a fatal bad luck that destroyed the giant ship and more than 1500 people.

The official conclusion of the commission investigating the causes of the sinking of the Titanic read: the steel used to sheath the Titanic's hull was of poor quality, with a large admixture of sulfur, which made it very brittle at low temperatures. If the skin had been made of high quality, low sulfur, tough steel, it would have softened the force of impact to a great extent. The metal sheets would have simply bent inward and the damage to the hull would not have been so serious. Perhaps then the Titanic would have been saved, or at least kept afloat for a long time. However, for those times this steel was considered the best, there was simply no other. This was only the final conclusion, in fact, there were a number of other factors that did not allow avoiding a collision with an iceberg

In order, we list all the factors that influenced the death of the Titanic. The absence of any of these factors could have saved the ship...

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

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

Despite warnings about icebergs, the captain of the Titanic did not slow down or change the route, so confident was he in the unsinkability of the ship. 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 the force of impact on the iceberg would not have been enough to break through the hull of the Titanic. The captain also did not make sure that all the boats were filled with people. As a result, a much smaller number of people were saved.

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 lookouts would have noticed the lambs around the iceberg. Pictured is the same iceberg that caused the sinking of the Titanic.

The ship did not have red rescue rockets signaling distress. Confidence in the power of the ship was so high that it never occurred to anyone to supply the Titanic with these missiles. And everything could have worked out differently. Less than half an hour after meeting with the iceberg, the assistant captain shouted:
Lights to port, sir! The ship is five or six miles from us! Boxhall saw clearly through his binoculars that it was a single-tube steamer. He tried to contact him with a signal lamp, but the unknown vessel did not answer. “Apparently, there is no radiotelegraph on the ship, they could not see us,” Captain Smith decided, and ordered the helmsman Rowe to signal with emergency rockets. When the signalman opened the box of rockets, both Boxhall and Roe were dumbfounded: the box contained ordinary white rockets, not emergency red ones. “Sir,” Boxhall exclaimed in disbelief, “there are only white rockets here!” - Can't be! said Captain Smith in astonishment. But, making sure that Boxhall was right, he ordered: - Shoot the whites. Maybe they'll guess we're in trouble. But no one guessed, everyone thought it was a fireworks display on the Titanic

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

On the map is the place where the Titanic sank

So, the night of April 14-15, 1912. Atlantic. Board of the fishing vessel "Samson". "Samson" returns from a successful fishing trip, having avoided encounters with US ships. On board are several hundred slaughtered seals. The tired crew rested. The watch was carried by the captain himself and his first assistant. Captain Ness was in good standing with his masters. The voyages of his steamer were always successful and brought a good profit. Hendrik Ness was known as an experienced and risky captain, not too scrupulous in violating territorial waters or in exceeding the number of prey animals. The Samson often found itself in alien or forbidden waters, and was well known to the ships of the US Coast Guard, with which he successfully avoided close acquaintance. In a word, Hendrik Ness was an excellent navigator and a gambling, successful businessman. Here are the words of Nessus, from which the whole picture of what is happening becomes clear:

“The night was amazing, starry, clear, the ocean is calm and gentle,” said Ness. - My assistant and I chatted, smoked, sometimes I went out of the wheelhouse to the bridge, but I didn’t stay there for a long time - the air was right chilling. Suddenly, accidentally turning around, I saw two unusually bright stars in the southern part of the horizon. They surprised me with their brilliance and size. Shouting to the officer on duty to give a spyglass, I pointed it at these stars and immediately realized that these were the top lights of a large vessel. "Captain, I think it's a Coast Guard ship," the aide said. But I have thought about it myself. There was no time to estimate on the map, but we both decided that we had climbed into the territorial waters of the United States. Meeting with their ships did not bode well for us. A few minutes later, a white rocket took off over the horizon, and we realized that we had been discovered and were required to stop. I still hoped that everything would work out and we could escape. But soon another rocket took off, after some time a third ... Things turned out badly: if we had been searched, I would have lost not only all the booty, but also, possibly, lost the ship, and we would all have ended up in prison. I decided to leave.

He ordered to turn off all the lights and give full speed. For some reason they didn't follow us. After some time, the border ship disappeared altogether. (That is why the Titanic witnesses claimed to have clearly seen a large steamer in the distance that had left them. The ill-fated California was at that time jammed with ice and was not visible from the Titanic at all.) I ordered to change course to the north, we went at full speed and only in the morning slowed down. On the twenty-fifth of April we anchored off Reykjavik in Iceland, and only then, from the newspapers delivered by the Norwegian consul, did we learn of the tragedy of the Titanic.

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

Hendrik Ness spoke about the incident only 50 years later, before his death. Nevertheless, no one can be directly blamed for the sinking of the Titanic. If the rockets were red, he would certainly rush to the rescue. In the end, no one was able to help. Only the steamer "Carpathia", developing an unprecedented speed for her of 17 knots, rushed to the aid of dying people. Captain Arthur X. Roston ordered the preparation of beds, spare clothing, food, accommodation for the rescued. At 2 hours 45 minutes of the Carpathia, icebergs and their fragments, large ice fields began to meet. Despite the danger of collision, the Carpathia did not slow down. At 3:50 a.m. on the Carpathia they saw the first lifeboat from the Titanic, at 4:10 a.m. they began to rescue people, and by 8:30 a.m. the last living person was picked up. In total, "Carpathia" saved 705 people. And the Carpathia delivered all the rescued to New York. Pictured is a boat from the Titanic

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

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

In this photo we see the propeller of the Titanic

Huge ship anchor

One of the Titanic's piston engines

Preserved under water cup from the Titanic

Here is the same hole formed after the meeting with the iceberg. Perhaps, in addition to weak steel, the rivets between the sheets of metal could not stand it, and water poured into the 4 compartments of the Titanic, leaving no chance of salvation. There was no point in pumping water, it was equivalent to pumping water from ocean to ocean. The Titanic sank to the bottom, where it rests to this day. There is talk of bringing the Titanic to the surface to make it a museum, while various souvenir enthusiasts continue to tear the ship apart. How many more secrets does the Titanic hold? It is unlikely that anyone will give an answer to this question in the near future ..

And this fact is not surprising, because at the time of construction and commissioning, "" was one of the largest liners in the world. His first voyage, which is also the last, took place on April 14, 1912, because the ship, after a collision with an ice block, sank 2 hours and 40 minutes after the impact (at 02.20 on April 15). Such a large-scale catastrophe has become a legend, and in our time the causes and circumstances of its occurrence are being discussed, feature films are being shot, and researchers continue to study the remains of the liner at the bottom and compare them with photographs of the ship taken in 1912.

If we compare the model of the bow shown in the photo and the remains that now lie at the bottom, it is difficult to call them identical, because the front of the ship was heavily immersed in the silt during the fall. Such a spectacle greatly disappointed the first researchers, since the location of the wreckage did not allow to inspect the place where the ship hit the ice block without the use of special equipment. The torn hole present in the case, clearly visible on the layout, is the result of hitting the bottom.

The remains of the Titanic are at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, they lie at a depth of about 4 km. The vessel cracked in the process of submerging under water and now its two parts lie on the bottom, at a distance of about 600 meters from one another. Within a radius of several hundred meters near them are multiple debris and objects, including a huge piece of the ship's hull.

Panorama of the bow of the Titanic, the researchers managed to make by processing several hundred images. If you look at it from right to left, you can see the winch from the spare anchor, which sticks out directly above the bow edge, then the mooring device is noticeable, and next to it is an open hatch leading to hold No. 1, breakwater lines go from it to the sides. The lying mast, under which there are two more hold hatches and winches for lifting cargo, is clearly visible on the superstructure deck. The captain's bridge used to be located on the front of the main superstructure, but now it can only be found at the bottom in parts.

On the other hand, the superstructure with the captain's and officer's cabins and the radio room is well preserved, although it is crossed by a crack that has formed in place of the expansion joint. The visible hole in the superstructure is the location of the chimney. Another hole behind the superstructure is the well, where the Titanic's front staircase is located. A large torn hole located to the left is the place of the second pipe.

Photo of the main anchor on the port side of the Titanic. It remains a mystery how he did not fall down in the process of hitting the bottom.

Behind the Titanic's spare anchor is a mooring device.

Even 10-20 years ago, on the mast of the Titanic, one could see the remains of the so-called "crow's nest", where the lookouts were located, but now they have fallen off. The only reminder of the "crow's nest" is the hole in the mast, through which the sailors-lookout could get to the spiral staircase. The tail behind the hole was once a bell mount.

Comparative photos of the deck of the Titanic, which housed the lifeboats. On the right, you can see that the superstructure on it is torn in places.

The Titanic staircase that adorned the ship in 1912:

Photo of the remains of the ship, taken from a similar angle. Comparing the two previous photos, it's hard to believe that this is the same part of the ship.

Behind the stairs were equipped with elevators for 1st class passengers. Only individual elements remind of them. The inscription, which can be seen in the photo on the right, was opposite the elevators and pointed to the deck. It is this inscription - a pointer directing to deck A (the letter A, made of bronze, has disappeared, but traces still remain).

Deck D, 1st class lounge. Despite the fact that most of the wooden trim has been eaten away by microorganisms, some elements reminiscent of the front staircase have been preserved.

The 1st class lounge and the Titanic restaurant, located on deck D, had large stained glass windows that have survived to this day.

This is exactly what "" would look like along with the largest modern passenger liner, which is called "Allure of the Seas".

It was put into operation in 2010. A few comparative values:

Allure of the Seas has 4 times the displacement of the Titanic;
a modern liner - the record holder has a length of 360 m, which exceeds "" by 100 m;
maximum width of 60 m compared to 28 m of shipbuilding legend;
the draft is almost the same (almost 10 m);
the speed of these ships is 22-23 knots;
the number of command staff of "Allure of the Seas" - more than 2 thousand people (attendants "" - 900 people, mostly they were stokers);
the passenger capacity of the giant of our time is 6.4 thousand people (y - 2.5 thousand).

On the night of September 1, 1985, an American-French expedition led by oceanologist Robert Ballard discovered the Titanic steam boiler at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Soon the remains of the ship itself were discovered. Thus ended the long epic search for the sunken ship, which was carried out by several independent researchers, but for a long time was unsuccessful due to incorrect coordinates of the death of the ship, broadcast on the fateful night of 1912. The discovery of the remains of the Titanic opened a new page in its history: the answers to many controversial issues; a number of facts that were considered proven and irrefutable turned out to be erroneous.

The first intentions to find and raise the Titanic appeared immediately after the disaster. The families of several millionaires wanted to find the bodies of their dead relatives in order to properly bury them, and discussed the issue of raising the Titanic with one of the companies that specialized in underwater rescue work. But at that time there was no technical possibility to carry out such an operation. A plan was also discussed to drop charges of dynamite on the ocean floor so that some bodies would rise from the explosions to the surface, but these intentions were eventually abandoned.

Later, a number of crazy projects were developed to raise the Titanic. For example, it was proposed to fill the ship's hull with ping-pong balls or attach helium tanks to it, which would lift it to the surface. There were many other projects, mostly fantastic. In addition, before trying to raise the Titanic, it had to be found first, and this was not so simple.

One of the controversial issues in the history of the Titanic for a long time remained the coordinates broadcast along with the distress signal. They were determined by the fourth assistant captain, Joseph Boxhall, based on the coordinates that were calculated a few hours before the collision, the speed and course of the vessel. There was no time to check them in detail in that situation, and Carpathia, who came to the rescue a few hours later, successfully reached the boats, however, the first doubts about the correctness of the coordinates arose already during the investigation of 1912. At that time, the question remained open and When the first serious attempts to search for the Titanic began in the 80s, the researchers faced a problem: the Titanic was neither at the indicated coordinates, nor near them. The situation was also complicated by the local conditions of the disaster - after all, the Titanic was at a depth of almost 4 km and the search required appropriate equipment.

In the end, luck smiled at Robert Ballard, who, step by step, was preparing for the expedition for almost 13 years. After almost two months of searching, when only 5 days remained until the end of the expedition and Ballard had already begun to doubt the success of the event, some strange shadows appeared on the monitor connected to the video camera on the descent vehicle. This happened at almost one in the morning on September 1, 1985. It soon became clear that this was nothing more than the wreckage of a ship. After some time, one of the steam boilers was discovered and there was no doubt that the wreckage belonged to the Titanic. The next day, the front of the ship's hull was discovered. The lack of a stern turned out to be a big surprise: after an investigation in 1912, it was officially considered that the ship sank entirely.

Ballard's first expedition gave answers to many questions and gave the world a number of modern photographs of the Titanic, but much remained unexplained. A year later, Ballard again went to the Titanic, and this expedition already used a deep-sea descent vehicle that could deliver three people to the ocean floor. There was also a small robot that allowed research inside the ship. This expedition clarified many questions that had remained open since 1912, and after it Ballard no longer planned to return to the Titanic. But what Ballard did not do, others did, and new expeditions soon reached the Titanic. Some of them were purely research in nature, some pursued the goal of lifting various objects from the bottom, incl. and for sale at auctions, which caused many scandals about the moral and ethical side of the issue. James Cameron also descended to the Titanic several times; not only for the filming of his 1997 film, but also for research using robotics inside the ship (see the documentary "Ghosts of the Abyss: Titanic"), which revealed many new facts about the condition of the ship and its once magnificent finish.

As for the issue of raising the Titanic, it became clear after Ballard's expeditions that this operation would not only be daunting and expensive; the ship's hull has long been in such a state that it will simply crumble into pieces, if not during lifting, then on the surface.

1. Let's see how the Titanic looks now and how it looked before. The Titanic sank in the Atlantic at a depth of almost 4 km. During the dive, the ship broke into two parts, which now lie on the bottom about six hundred meters apart. A lot of debris and objects are scattered around them, incl. and a pretty big piece of the Titanic's hull.

2. Model of the bow. When the ship fell to the bottom, the nose was very well buried in the silt, which greatly disappointed the first researchers, because it was impossible to inspect the place of impact on the iceberg without special equipment. The ragged hole in the body, which is visible on the layout, was formed from hitting the bottom.

3. Panorama of the bow, assembled from several hundred photographs. From right to left: the winch of the spare anchor sticks out directly above the edge of the bow, behind it there is a mooring device, immediately behind it is an open hatch into hold No. 1, from which the breakwater lines diverge to the sides. A fallen mast lies on the deck between the superstructure, under it there are two more hatches into the holds and winches for handling cargo. In front of the main superstructure, there used to be a captain's bridge, which collapsed during the fall to the bottom and is now guessed now only in separate details. Behind the bridge, a superstructure with cabins for officers, a captain, a radio room, etc., has been preserved, which is crossed by a crack formed at the site of the expansion joint. A gaping hole in the superstructure - a place for the first chimney. Immediately behind the superstructure, another hole is visible - this is a well in which the main staircase was located. To the left is something very torn - there was a second pipe.

4. The nose of the Titanic. The most button accordion object of underwater photographs of the ship. At the end, you can see a loop on which a cable was put on that held the mast.

5. The photo on the left shows the winch of the spare anchor towering over the bow.

6. The main anchor of the port side. It's amazing how he didn't fly down when he hit the bottom.

7. Spare anchor:

8. Behind the spare anchor is a mooring device:

9. Open hatch to hold No. 1. The lid flew off to the side, apparently when it hit the bottom.

10. On the mast there used to be the remains of a "crow's nest", where the lookouts were, but ten or twenty years ago they fell off down and now only the hole in the mast, through which the lookouts got to the spiral staircase, reminds of the "crow's nest". The protruding tail behind the hole is the fastening of the ship's bell.

11. Board of the vessel:

12. Only one of the steering wheels remained from the captain's bridge.

13. Boat deck. The superstructure on it in some places is either uprooted or torn.

14. The preserved part of the superstructure in front of the deck. Below on the right is the entrance to the front staircase of the 1st class.

15. Surviving davits, a bath in Captain Smith's cabin and the remains of a steamship whistle that was installed on one of the pipes.

16. A huge well now gapes in place of the front staircase. There are no traces of the stairs.

17. Staircase in 1912:

18. And the same perspective in our time. Looking at the previous photo, it's hard to believe that this is the same place.

19. Behind the stairs there were several elevators for 1st class passengers. Separate elements have been preserved from them. The inscription, depicted at the bottom right, was placed opposite the elevators and denoted the deck. This inscription belonged to deck A; the bronze letter A has already fallen off, but traces of it remain.

20. 1st class lounge on deck D. This is the bottom of the main staircase.

21. Although almost all the wooden trim of the ship has long been eaten away by microorganisms, some elements are still preserved here.

22. The restaurant and the 1st class lounge on deck D were separated from the outside world by large stained glass windows that have survived to this day.

23. Remains of former beauty:

24. From the outside, the windows are guessed by the characteristic double portholes.

25. Chic chandeliers have been hanging in their places for over 100 years.

26. The once-splendid interiors of 1st class cabins are now littered with debris and debris. In some places you can find preserved elements of furniture and objects.

29. Some more details. The door to the restaurant on deck D and a sign indicating service doors:

30. The stokers had their own "front staircase". In order not to meet passengers, a separate staircase led from the boiler rooms to the cabins of the stokers.

31. Hundreds of items are scattered across the ocean floor, ranging from ship parts to personal belongings of passengers.

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

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

First voyage and the sinking of the Titanic

May 31, 1911 In 1999, the largest passenger liner was launched in Belfast (Northern Ireland), which required a record amount of locomotive oil, grease and liquid soap to lubricate the gangways. This process lasted only 62 seconds. April 10, 1912 the ship sails on its first and, unfortunately, last voyage. There were 2,207 people on board the Titanic, including 898 crew members and 1,309 passengers, among whom were famous personalities, millionaires and industrialists, writers and actors. April 14, 1912 an iceberg was seen from the ship at a distance of about 450 meters. The Titanic made a maneuver, but still collided with an obstacle and received numerous holes 100 meters long. Thus, 16 watertight compartments were damaged, and under the weight of the ship he listed very strongly. Water continued to flood all compartments. 2 hours 40 minutes after the impact, the liner sank completely.

Passenger rescue

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

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

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

Survivors and dead

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

Crash hypotheses

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

Exploration of the shipwreck

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

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

Film "Ghosts of the Abyss" (2003)