Scientists have found a record on the Titanic. Incredible find of scientists researchers of the Titanic
In September 1985, under the leadership of the famous oceanologist Robert Ballard, an American-French expedition discovered at the bottom Atlantic Ocean one detail of the Titanic - a steam boiler. Soon the remains of the ship itself were also found.
Thus ended the long-term search for the sunken legendary ship, which was carried out by independent researchers, but for some time was unsuccessful due to incorrect coordinates of the shipwreck.
The discovery of the remains of the Titanic opened a new page in its history of death. Only with time did the answers to numerous questions related to the disaster become known, and many facts that were considered irrefutable turned out to be, unfortunately, incorrect.
This post is dedicated to the Titanic, which rests at the bottom of the ocean at a depth of four kilometers. You will see modern photos Titanic and you can compare them with archival black and white photographs. This post will surely interest you with its mystery and mystery.
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.
Nose model. 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.
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 the well in which the main staircase. To the left is something very torn - there was a second pipe.
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.
The photo on the left shows the winch of the spare anchor towering above the bow.
Main anchor on the port side. It's amazing how he didn't fly down when he hit the bottom.
Spare anchor.
Behind the spare anchor is a mooring device.
Open hatch to hold No. 1. The lid flew off to the side, apparently when it hit the bottom.
There used to be the remains of a “crow’s nest” on the mast, where the lookouts were, but ten or twenty years ago they fell off and now only a hole in the mast reminds of the “crow’s nest”, through which the lookouts got on spiral staircase. The protruding tail behind the hole is the fastening of the ship's bell.
Board of the ship.
Only one of the steering wheels remained from the captain's bridge.
Boat deck. The superstructure on it in some places is either uprooted or torn.
The surviving part of the superstructure in front of the deck. Below on the right is the entrance to the front staircase of the 1st class.
Surviving davits, a bathtub in Captain Smith's cabin and the remains of a steamship whistle that was installed on one of the pipes.
In place of the main staircase, a huge well now gapes. There are no traces of the stairs.
Staircase in 1912
And the same perspective in our time. Looking at the previous photo, it's hard to believe that this is the same place.
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.
1st class lounge on D deck. This is the bottom of the main staircase.
Although almost all of the ship's wooden trim has long been eaten away by microorganisms, some elements are still preserved here.
The restaurant and the 1st class lounge on D deck were separated from the outside world by large stained glass windows that have survived to this day.
Remains of former beauty.
Outside, the windows are guessed by the characteristic double portholes.
Luxurious chandeliers have been hanging in their places for more than 100 years.
The once-splendid interiors of the 1st class cabins are now littered with debris and debris. In some places you can find preserved elements of furniture and objects.
A few more details. The door to the restaurant on D deck and a sign indicating service doors.
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.
Hundreds of items are scattered across the ocean floor, ranging from ship parts to personal belongings of passengers.
Some pairs of shoes lie in a very characteristic position: for some, this place has become a grave.
In addition to personal belongings and items, large parts of the plating are also scattered along the bottom, which they also repeatedly tried to raise to the surface.
If the bow was preserved in a more or less decent condition, then the aft part, after falling down, became a shapeless pile of metal. Starboard.
Left side.
On the promenade deck of the 3rd class, individual details of the vessel are hardly guessed.
One of three huge screws.
After the ship broke into two parts, even steam boilers spilled to the bottom.
The engine room was just at the fault point, and now these giants, the height of a three-story house, are available to the gaze of researchers. piston device.
Both steam engines together.
The dry dock in Belfast, where the final painting of the ship's hull was carried out, still exists as a museum exhibit.
And this is what the Titanic would look like against the backdrop of the largest passenger liner of our time, the Allure of the Seas", put into operation in 2010.
Comparison in numbers:
The displacement of the "Allure of the Seas" is 4 times greater than that of the "Titanic";
Length modern liner 360 m (100 m more than the Titanic);
The greatest width is 60 m versus 28 for the Titanic;
Draft is approximately the same (about 10 m);
The speed is also almost the same (22-23 knots);
The number of the team is 2.1 thousand people (there were up to 900 on the Titanic, many of whom were stokers);
Passenger capacity - up to 6.4 thousand people (on the Titanic up to 2.5 thousand).
On the night of April 14-15, 1912, the largest ship in the world, the Titanic, wrecked in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. The catastrophe that struck the whole world took the lives of a large number of those on board the liner, many rich people and second-class passengers, but still many managed to escape. The collision of the liner with an iceberg was the cause tragic disaster, which many people remember to this day. For a long time, the location of the sunken ship was unknown, only in 1985 they found the place of his rest. And it is here that many expeditions go to study, considered one of the most unsinkable ships, the Titanic. For a thorough study, several ships were sent to the site of the tragedy, which followed the route of the Titanic itself. Since the crash, the sunken Titanic, this year, exactly one hundred years have passed.
In 2001, almost a hundred years after the disaster, UNESCO takes under the protection of the convention the wreckage of the legendary ship, before that the Titanic was considered just one of wrecked more than a century ago by a liner. Almost 3750 meters of depth, in given time, hide the remains of the Titanic superliner at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.
Relatives of those who died in a terrible disaster, follow the course of the Titanic, a century after the tragedy, in order to honor the memory of their loved ones.
The wreck of the Titanic - where and when the Titanic sank
During its first voyage, on the night of April 14 to April 15, 1912, the British liner Titanic crashes in the Atlantic Ocean, due to the inattention of the lookout, who noticed the obstacle very late. Due to the numerous minor damages that the ship receives as a result of a collision with an iceberg, less than three hours later the ship is completely submerged, taking with it the lives of passengers, of whom there were more than 2200 on board, of which only 706, including the ship's crew, were injured lucky to be alive. In 1985, under the command of Robert Ballard, director of the Institute of Oceanology in the USA, Massachusetts, Woods Hall, the expedition located the wreck of the British steamer Titanic - 645 km west of Newfoundland.
Some time after the disaster, relatives of the victims of the tragedy are trying to assemble an expedition to search for the remains of the liner and even raise it from the seabed to the surface, but an operation of such a plan, at the beginning of the 20th century, was unrealistic from a technical point of view, so no one undertook it.
A decade later, after the collapse of the Titanic, the level of technology and science, as well as the invention of various research instruments underwater world, allowed to hope for a good result, Robert Ballard in the 70s went in search of the remains of the legendary liner. French Institute Research and Development of the Ocean (IFREMER) provided numerous valuable assistance to Ballard and his expedition, providing Robert with high-quality precision sonar, the beam of which could “scrawl” the bottom of the ocean from the deck of a research ship. The expedition was not immediately successful, despite the good technique and equipment. Almost resigned to defeat, Ballard's expedition was about to leave the northern waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Just at that moment, their ship's instruments detect an object. Judging by the photographs of the Titanic in 1912, it was found that this strange object nothing but one of the liner's steam boilers.
A little later, the remaining remains of the steamer were found not far from the boiler, and things belonging to the dead passengers were also found.
At a depth of approximately 3.9 km, the remains of the big steamer The Titanic, which, unfortunately, is pointless to raise to the surface - the giant remains of a rusted liner that split into two parts during flooding will remain at the bottom of the sea.
A century has passed since the terrible tragedy, but to this day, scientists are trying to find out new facts and find out real reason disasters. Regarding the legendary British steamer, many books have been written and films made.
As you know, legends in any case have at least some part of the truth, thereby arousing the interest of people. Scientists are trying to uncover a huge amount of unusual information and secrets, and there are still many mysteries of the Titanic that it has been hiding from humanity for a century now.
The captain of the ship, Morgan Roberts, twenty years before the crash of the Titanic, publishes a wonderful book that tells about the nightmarish catastrophe of the ship, of which only a small number of people survived and the captain of the ship. In this story, the two Titanic ships and the Titanic steamship described in Roberts’ book surprisingly coincided, the sizes of the ships also coincided, the number of passengers and even the number of passengers turned out to be the same. lifeboats on decks. It is horrifying that the shipwreck in the book, written two decades before the tragedy itself, exactly matches reality, the Titan also sank from a collision with an iceberg. The success of the book after the disaster increased significantly, although it was written before the actual crash of the Titanic.
At the end of the last century, another book was published in which its authors described the facts related to the steamship disaster. Scientists claim that the Titanic crash was deliberately set up, the facts pointing to this were undeniable, for example, there were two times fewer lifeboats than passengers on the ship. Take even the fact that the owner of the Titanic, the most famous millionaire Pearson Morgan, refuses to sail on his own liner at the last moment. Although he persuades his friend John Astor, the richest man in America, to go. Shortly after the disaster, resting and relaxing on French resort Titanic owner Pearson Morgan was having a great time.
By happy accident at the last moment, about fifty people refuse an exciting trip on the largest British steamer, there were no good reasons for this. The most interesting thing was that the ship's passengers who refused to travel are close friends of Morgan, which causes a certain suspicion. By order of the owner of the liner, Morgan, unique paintings were left on the shore, the collections of which were to be transported aboard the Titanic.
Video Titanic did not sink
Photos and pictures of Titanic
Natalia Derevianko
Dawn April 15, 1912. North Atlantic. The orange sun rises above the sea horizon, dimming the light of the stars and driving away the morning haze. The night is slowly receding, hiding the traces of one of the largest maritime disasters in the history of mankind.
Doors, cushions, chairs, tables, deckchairs, scraps of paper, debris were everywhere. They swayed smoothly on the waves among the white spots, reminiscent of seagulls from a distance. But upon closer examination, you understand that these spots are the bodies of the dead passengers and members of the Titanic crew in their snow-white life jackets. Some of them looked up at the sky, as if waiting for salvation, but most doomedly bowed their heads into the water, resigned to their fate. And no one will help them, no one will save them. Everything is over…
Perhaps such a picture was revealed to the eyes of the Carpathia, which, with the surviving passengers of the Titanic, changed course, walked past the crash site back to New York.
At the same time, the leadership of the White Star Line decided to raise the bodies of all the dead from the surface of the ocean. And this had to be done as quickly as possible, since the bodies were still more or less grouped and not carried away by the current. The second factor is that a long stay of the body in water can complicate the identification process. And of course, the company wanted to at least somehow rehabilitate itself in front of the families of the victims - by delivering the bodies to relatives for further burial.
The center of the entire operation to lift the bodies was the small Canadian town of Halifax. It was here that White Star Line chartered four ships:
- Minia
- "Montmagny"
- "Algerin"
An agreement was also concluded with a large Halifax funeral home, John Snow and Company, to provide all funeral procedures.
Meanwhile, information began to appear in the press about the “cemetery in the ocean”, "...hundreds of dead bodies, frightening passengers, sailing past the ships ...".
McKay-Bennett was a British cable-laying vessel owned by the Commercial Cable Company. . His main task was laying and repairing deep-sea cables. In addition, the ship often participated in rescue operations(for example, saving the crew of the sinking schooner Caledonia on February 12, 1912). But that's not what made him famous.
April 17, 1912 at 12.35 after all the preparations, "Mackay-Bennett", under the command of Captain F. Lardner and with 75 crew members on board, sets off on his "terrible flight." During this mission, not a cable was loaded on board, but coffins. For this work, the leadership of the White Star Line undertook to pay the team $550 per day.
Mackay-Bennet cable layer
On board was the owner of the funeral company - John Snow Jr. Under his leadership, 103 coffins, several tons of ice, embalming solutions, bags and 20 tons of iron bars were loaded. The sailors, free from work, sewed bags from canvas for the personal belongings of the dead.
One of the bags for the personal belongings of the dead.
Flight engineer Frederick Hamilton described in detail everything that was happening:
“Morning April 20, 1912. To the north of us, the outlines are visible huge iceberg. I think we are very close to the crash site of many hopes and prayers. The embalmer is getting livelier, because soon he has a lot of work to do.
Evening April 20, 1912. The McKay-Bennett reaches the crash site. The start of the operation to remove the bodies was scheduled for the early morning of the next day. Men will need all their courage to survive what lies ahead.
It's been 6 days since the sinking of the Titanic...
The crew of the McKay-Bennett. 1912 Captain F. Lardner in the center of the second row.
Dawn April 21, 1912. The eyes of the crew are presented with a terrible picture - hundreds of bodies swaying on the waves, among the wreckage. And only now the sailors realized the scale of everything that had happened. Some began to pray, others were simply numb. Thus passed in silence for about half an hour. Then, having come to their senses, the sailors lowered the boats and carefully headed towards the "marine cemetery".
“The sea is restless. Wind southwest. Coordinates 41° 59` US 49 ° 25` ID. We take out the bodies. Breaking through the ice."
According to the description of one of the crew members, the skin of the passengers frozen in the water was white, their hair and eyebrows were covered with frost. The maceration and the fact that the bodies were swollen made the work very difficult, and the work had to be done very quickly. The bodies raised from the water in the air began to decompose very quickly. It was ordered to lift from 5 to 10 bodies and return to the ship.
The square indicates the search area for bodies by the Mackett-Bennet vessel. Photo from the original map.
During the first day, 51 bodies were raised (including two children and three women). 24 bodies were badly damaged or mutilated during the sinking of the ship, making identification impossible. It was decided to bury them at sea. The process of burial at sea was as follows. The iron bars that they took with them (weighing 12 kg with a hole at the end) served as a load for the bodies. When the boat sailed up to the body, the corpse was examined, and a decision was made to raise it or not. More lucky 1 and 2 class. Crew or third class were often buried at sea.
A life jacket was removed from the corpse, rods were tied to the legs, and the body sank. The rest of the bodies were taken aboard the McKay-Bennett, where they were disbanded. First, the bodies were laid out on deck. In the presence of two people, pockets were examined, and an inventory of everything found was compiled. Personal belongings, jewelry and other items were put in a bag. The corpse was assigned a number, the same number was applied to the bag with his personal belongings. This was supposed to facilitate the identification procedure on board or shore. Clothes were cut from the corpse and burned. Then the medical examiners set to work. They carefully examined the body, fixing all the abrasions, scratches, injuries, tattoos. Pajamas were then put on first-class passengers. All data obtained in this way, according to the new rules, was recorded in a special journal. An interesting fact is that such an identification procedure was used for the first time in history, and it is still used by experts working at the scene of mass deaths of people (air crashes, major accidents, in places of military operations, etc.). Even after the death of the passengers, their bodies were treated according to class. The bodies of the Titanic's crew were not embalmed or even sacked (on board they were in large boxes covered with ice). The bodies of second and third class passengers were placed in bags, while the bodies of first class passengers were placed in coffins. They were placed on the poop.
From Frederick Hamilton's notes:
"Monday April 22, 1912. This morning we passed a huge iceberg. I really wanted to take a picture of him, but it was raining. We are now to the east huge field debris. And among the deck chairs, parts of interiors, paper, boxes and other things - bodies, bodies, bodies ... "
“… 20.00. The bell rang twice. I hear a splash of water. This means that the funeral ceremony has begun. Again the bell tolls twice and again splash, splash, splash…”
It can be added that the ceremony was conducted by the priest of the Cathedral of All Saints in the city of Halifax, Cameron Hynd.
And here is what the captain himself writes in the ship's log:
“Today I made a difficult decision. We put 24 unidentified bodies in bags, attached a weight of 23 kg to each and buried them at sea. We simply won’t be able to bring everyone ashore.”
Note that almost all of them were third-class passengers or crew members. I was noticed interesting fact. After the body of J. Astor was found, for which the crew received a reward from his son Vincent in the amount of $ 10,000, none of the passengers were buried at sea anymore. Is it a coincidence?
MacKay-Bennett carried out the search and recovery of the bodies until April 26, when the Minia ship arrived to help him. On April 30, the ship returned to Halifax with her "cargo".
Funeral procession aboard the McKay-Benette.
The bodies of the deceased passengers of the Titanic aboard the McKay-Bennett.
The bodies of the Titanic crew in wooden boxes with ice were among the first to be carried off the board, then the bodies of second and third class passengers, who were placed in bags. The bodies of the first class passengers were all in coffins, which were the last to be carried ashore. The whole procession passed in dead silence, although the pier was packed with relatives, onlookers, journalists who had already nicknamed the ship the "ship of death."
Between April 21 and 26, 1912, McKay-Bennett found 306 bodies (body numbers 1-306). 116 were buried at sea and 190 were taken to Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Sailors from the McKay Bennett inspect the overturned collapsible lifeboat B of the Titanic.
Minia
The Minia is the second ship chartered by the White Star Line to search for the dead. On April 21, 1912, a message came from the McKay-Bennett that they had reached the crash site, about in large numbers victims and they may not have enough bags, embalming agent, coffins, etc. On the same day, under the command of Captain William de Calteret, the Minia cable-laying ship (on board 150 coffins, 20 tons of ice and 10 tons of iron bars) comes to the rescue from Halifax.
On April 26, the ship reached the crash site and replaced the McKay-Bennett. On the same day, the weather deteriorated badly. The wind picked up and a fine, nasty rain began to fall, making a long search impossible. Lifting the bodies became dangerous for the rescuers themselves.
Minia cable layer.
From an interview with Captain W. de Calteret:
“We always had to wait for the weather to improve. And as soon as the ocean became favorable to us, we immediately began work. We saw the bodies, but they were drifting very far apart. It was difficult to get to them, and, unfortunately, the steamers passing by did not want to help us ... "
But, due to a break in an important cable off the coast of Canada, the Miniya had to be withdrawn earlier than planned.
The chronology of raising the bodies is as follows:
- On April 26, 11 bodies were taken on board;
- April 27 - 1;
- April 28 - 1;
- April 29 - 1;
- April 30 - 1;
- May 1 - 2;
The crew of the Minia lift the body deceased passenger"Titanic".
There was a rumor that the members of the Minii team, in violation of all the rules, were engaged in looting. Overcoming long distances between lonely drifting bodies, they along the way collected things from the surface of the ocean as souvenirs. I had little faith in this, but collecting material for the article, I was convinced of the opposite. nReading the memoirs of Captain de Calteret, I came across this. I quote the paragraph in full.
“... The death of people occurred from hypothermia, only one choked. In his lungs was sea water. I remember the bodies of two men the most. One probably fell off high altitude and hit the superstructureship. He was missing a foot, and the other leg was broken and twisted. The second may have died in the explosion. His face was burned and his eyes were missing. Yes, something definitely exploded there, I saw chairs from a restaurant on board, their headrests were stained with coal, some were broken. We also raised a large section of the wooden ladder…”
“… Chaise lounges were raised in good condition, a piece of beautiful fittings, a lady’s boa, a pantry locker from the first class cabin….”
But on the other hand, thanks to these people, today we can see those objects that, perhaps, would not have survived to this day.
Inspection of the body of the deceased passenger of the Titanic on board the Minia.
On board the Mini.
Having found 17 corpses (body numbers 307-323), of which two ( not identified) were buried at sea, on May 3, 1912, with 15 bodies on board, the ship headed for Halifax.
Representatives of John Snow and Company take the coffins from the Minia to the morgue.
On May 6, after mooring at the port of destination, the crew transferred the unused coffins and bags to the third vessel, the steamer Montmagny, which was leaving to search for the bodies.
"Montmagny"
The Montmagny was a small lighthouse service vessel owned by the Canadian Department of Marine and Fisheries. Captain Peter Johnson. The ship left the small port of Sorel and headed for Halifax, where it replenished its supplies upon arrival and where additional crew members were hired. One of the embalmers at the John Snow and Company Funeral Home came aboard. A surgeon from a local hospital is called to help him. The Reverend S. Prince of the local St. Paul's Church went to sea as a chaplain.
Steamboat Montmagny.
On the morning of May 6, 1912, the Minia berthed in the port of Halifax. And while all attention was paid to unloading the ship and photographing, no one noticed how at noon the Montmagny quietly left at sea.
Having reached the site of the Titanic disaster, the weather deteriorated again. Rain is coming. "Montmagni" was able to pick up only 4 bodies during May 9-10 (numbers 326-329). For some unknown reason, they missed numbers 324 and 325. One body was buried at sea. The remaining three were delivered on May 13 to Louisbourg, where they were transported by rail to Halifax. Replenishing supplies, "Montmagni" again returned to the crash site, but, alas, apart from small wooden fragments, he did not find anything. No tel.
On May 19, at about 1800, the Montmagny relieved the Algerin, the last ship hired by the White Star Line. May 23, 1912 "Montmagny" returned to Halifax and continued its service for the benefit of the Canadian government.
"Algerin".
"Algerin" — the last, fourth vessel to participate in the body-lifting operation under the command of the White Star Line. Captain - John Jackman.
Cargo-passenger ship "Algerin".
There is very little information about what happened on board and around the Algerin voyage. It is known that the ship left the port of St. Johns (Newfoundland) and explored the crash site for three weeks. One body was found (number 330). Having stopped searching, Algerin returned to the port of St. Johns on June 6, 1912 and reloaded the coffin onto the Florizel steamer, which delivered the body to Halifax on June 11.
This concludes the official operation to recover the bodies of the passengers of the Titanic, organized by the White Star Line. The final lists of the dead and missing were compiled. But, despite all the efforts, the bodies continued to frighten the steamers passing by for some time.
What else can be added.
It is known that the Carpathia did not raise the bodies of the three dead from collapsible boat A, leaving the boat to drift. Officers Wild and Murdoch tried to lower this boat as one of the last, but because of the waves surging on the deck, the collapsible sides of the boat did not have time to raise. As a result, half-flooded and overloaded with passengers, she was washed into the ocean. A month later (May 13), ironically, another White Star Line steamer, the Oceanic, finds a lifeboat 160 miles away. south of the place disasters. Later, passenger Sir Shane Leslie recalled:
“... At noon, the sea was calm when the lookout shouted that some incomprehensible object was visible ahead. The ship slowed down and it soon became apparent that the object was a lone lifeboat floating in the Atlantic. What was truly terrible were the three bodies that were in it. By order from the bridge, a boat was sent to her with an officer and a doctor. The spectacle that followed was terrible. The hair of two dead sailors was white from the sun and salt, and a third body, dressed in evening dress, sprawled on the benches. All three bodies were sewn into canvas bags with a steel bar attached. Then, one by one, they were wrapped in the British flag, buried and buried at sea."
These were bodies numbered 331-333, which are not included in the official lists.
June 6, 1912. the ship "Ilford" finds a body (number 334), which was buried at sea. Not on the official list.
On June 8, 1912, the steamer Ottawa accidentally finds a body (number 335). Buried at sea. Not included in the official list.
Summing up, we can say that during the operation from April 17 to June 8, 1912, 333 bodies out of 1512 dead (about 22%).
During the search period, 209 bodies were brought to Halifax. 59 of them were taken by relatives and buried in their homeland. Three different cemeteries in Halifax became the final resting place for the remaining 150 bodies.
101 years have passed since the sinking of the Titanic, but its victims are not forgotten and, it seems to me, will never be forgotten. Every year, memorial masses are held at the site of the wreck of the liner, and their names are remembered every year. And, as you know, the one who is not forgotten lives forever.
Application.
Breakdown by ships involved in the rise of the dead (04/17 - 06/06/1912).
Especially for:
Anatomy of the Titanic
April 9, 1912. "Titanic" in the port of Southampton the day before sailing for America.
April 14 marks the 105th anniversary of legendary disaster. The Titanic is a British steamer of the White Star Line, the second of three Olympic-class twin steamships. largest passenger liner 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 908 crew members on board, for a total of 2,224 people. Of these, 711 people were saved, 1513 died.
Here is how the Ogonyok magazine and the New Illustration magazine talked about this tragedy:
Dining room on the Titanic, 1912
Room for second class passengers aboard the Titanic, 1912.
The main staircase of the Titanic, 1912.
Passengers on the deck of the Titanic. April, 1912
The Titanic orchestra had two members. The quintet was led by the 33-year-old British violinist Wallace Hartley, it included another violinist, double bass player and two cellists. An additional trio of musicians from a Belgian violinist, a French cellist and a pianist were hired for Titanic to give Caf? Parisien continental touch. The trio also played in the lobby of the ship's restaurant. Many passengers considered the Titanic's ship's orchestra to be the best they had ever heard on a ship. Usually, the two members of the Titanic orchestra worked independently of each other - in different parts of the liner and in different time, but on the night of the sinking of the ship, all eight musicians played together for the first time. They played the best and most cheerful music until the last minutes of the liner's life. In the photo: Musicians of the ship's orchestra "Titanic".
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.
There were no survivors among the other members of the orchestra ... One of rescued passengers Titanic would write later: “Many heroic deeds were performed 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 crept up to the place where they stood. The music they performed gave them the right to be included in the list of heroes of eternal glory. In the photo: The funeral of the conductor and violinist of the ship's orchestra "Titanic" Wallace Hartley. April 1912.
The iceberg that the Titanic is believed to have collided with. The photo was taken from the Mackay Bennett, a cable ship operated by Captain DeCarteret. The ship "Mackay Bennett" was one of the first to arrive at the site of the Titanic disaster. According to Captain DeCarteret, it was the only iceberg near the crash site of the ocean liner.
Lifeboat "Titanic", filmed by one of the passengers of the ship "Carpathia". April, 1912
The rescue ship Carpathia picked up 712 survivors of the Titanic. A photo taken by Carpathia passenger Louis M. Ogden shows lifeboats approaching the Carpathia.
April 22, 1912. Brothers Michel (4 years old) and Edmond (2 years old). They were considered "orphans of the Titanic" until their mother was found in France. My father died in a plane crash.
Michel died in 2001, the last male survivor on the Titanic.
A group of rescued Titanic passengers aboard the Carpathia.
Another group of rescued passengers of the Titanic.
Captain Edward John Smith (second from right) with the ship's crew.
Drawing of the sinking Titanic after the disaster.
Passenger ticket for the Titanic. April 1912.
According to the testimonies of the surviving passengers of the first and second class and the information leaked to the press, there were many treasures on board the Titanic. According to the estimates of the managing director of the Andrews shipyard, on which the giant steamship was built, the "cost" of the liner's passengers, among whom were collectors, millionaires and very wealthy people, was about 250 million dollars. These passengers carried with them expensive antique paintings, things, diamonds and gold.
Of course, the paintings, as well as the priceless manuscript of Omar Khayyam's "Rubai", the rarest, magnificently preserved mummy of the Egyptian soothsayer from the time of Pharaoh Amenhotep I (belonged to the archaeologist and Lord Canterville), - all this irretrievably perished in the abyss, but gold bars, diamonds and gold jewelry, undoubtedly remained in the safes and cabins of the Titanic.
After the famous submariner R. Ballard discovered the Titanic in 1989 in the Atlantic, at a depth of 3750 m, three expeditions visited the place of death - two American-French and one Russian.
In a special document, it was specifically stipulated that nothing from the property of the Titanic would be raised to the surface by expeditions. Therefore, even the gutta-percha baby doll, after being photographed, was carefully put in place. The expedition members strictly followed this order, although sometimes they found unique items. In one of the dives, for example, a golden candlestick was found in a cabin crushed by the water column. And he, too, was returned to the Titanic.
The main purpose of these dives was to survey the place of death and the nature of the destruction of the hull. As it turned out, the hull of the liner broke. Its aft part, where there was no hole and where a giant air bag, broke off and sank a little later, separately from the bow.
American underwater mini-robot "Jason" carefully penetrated into interior spaces"Titanic" and took several hundred pictures. Crystal and gilded chandeliers under the ceiling have been preserved there; columns, once sheathed with expensive species of trees; staircase of the main salon; first-class cabins with English porcelain baths; bottles of champagne, Chinese sets with the emblem of the famous shipping line "White Star" ("White Star") with a star inside a red triangle - the object of desire of many collectors. An ancient Greek bronze sculpture of Diana was found, apparently belonging to Margaret Brown, a millionaire from Denver, transporting rare items purchased in different countries. Taking command of one of the lifeboats, she ordered at the last moment to throw it all overboard.
However, a second French submarine expedition received permission to retrieve items from the cabins and bring them to the surface. Apparently, some interesting arguments of the French played a role, convincing lawyers to extract from the bottom of the ocean both scientific data and objects of legal significance.
For example, during the investigation and at the trial, examining the circumstances of the sinking of the Titanic, some passengers claimed that while the Titanic was sinking, individual members of the crew robbed personal safes in the cabins. This was a serious allegation to be investigated.
Titanic Indeed, "Jason" was able to examine some of the office space and passenger cabins, including the one that, according to an eyewitness, was robbed. The Jason operator managed to turn the handle of the safe with the help of a manipulator, in part this indicated that the lock of the safe was really open, but the massive steel door, covered with a thick layer of rust, did not succumb!
Nothing was reported to the press about the safes located in the service rooms and Captain Smith's cabin. It is only known that the French raised 1,412 items to the surface, some of which were handed over to the museum, something went to private collections and sold at auction for a lot of money, and some items were returned to their previous owners, which, alas, by 1991 remained in only a few people are alive.
Russian underwater expedition from the Institute of Oceanology named after P. P. Shirshov, equipped with a deep-sea manned submersible "Mir", together with the Canadian company "SHAH", the American company "OCEAN IMAGE" and the National geographical society United States in 1991 made seventeen deep sea diving at the site of the sinking of the Titanic.
"Mir" managed to shoot a unique film, which received the highest rating from experts and is being studied.
According to experts' reports, the Titanic sank deep into the bottom silt. The bow of it, where the 95-meter wound from the iceberg that ruined the liner should be, was buried too deeply due to the huge weight of the hull. This sad circumstance did not allow to examine the hole. It was only possible to establish that the starboard side plating was strongly pressed inward and rivets burst along the side.
It was sensational that after a thorough study of the film and photographs, some experts said that the iceberg only crushed the giant's body and could not rip open the massive steel skin!
Then the question arises: what caused the sinking of the Titanic? Perhaps, subsequent deep-sea expeditions will give an answer to this.
The Titanic, along with its safes and buried treasures, is apparently destined to rest on ocean floor a very long time. There are already fears that sooner or later amateur divers will be able to get to his cabins. Within a few years, they will be able to build both deep-sea vehicles and unique search electronic equipment. And the depth of 3750 meters will not be a serious obstacle for them.
Expedition to the Titanic
Concerning further fate"Titanic", that is, projects for turning it into an International maritime museum. Already now you can spend on it interesting research on the laws of corrosion of various metals and ecology. And after some ten years on multi-seat submarines deep-sea vehicles will be able to show the floodlit "Titanic" to numerous tourists and lovers of underwater archeology.
