Versions of the wreck of the Titanic. Torpedo from a German submarine. Secrets and mysteries of the Titanic disaster

April 9, 1912. "Titanic" in the port of Southampton the day before sailing for America.

April 14 marks the 105th anniversary of the legendary catastrophe. The Titanic is a British steamer of the White Star Line, the second of three Olympic-class twin steamships. 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 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. 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.

crash passenger liner The Titanic, which killed 1,517 out of 2,229 passengers and crew (official figures vary slightly), was one of the largest peacetime maritime disasters.

Only a few catastrophes caused such a resonance and had such a strong impact on public consciousness. The disaster changed attitudes towards social injustice, affected the rules for the implementation of passenger traffic in the Atlantic Ocean, contributed to the tightening of requirements for the availability of a sufficient number of lifeboats on board passenger ships and led to the creation of the International Ice Service.

April 14, 2016 marks the 104th anniversary of the Titanic disaster, which has become one of the most famous ships in history. The theme of the sinking of the Titanic is devoted to many books and films, exhibitions and memorials.

At 2:20 a.m., the Titanic broke in two and sank. At that time, about a thousand people were on board. The people who ended up in the icy water soon died of hypothermia. (Frank O. Braynard Collection)

The British passenger liner Titanic leaves Southampton, England on her first and last voyage on April 10, 1912. Before leaving for New York, the Titanic called at Cherbourg (France) and Queenstown (Ireland). Four days later, on April 14, 1912, at 23:40 local time, the liner collided with an iceberg 603 kilometers south of Newfoundland.

The disaster shocked the whole world. The investigation into the causes of the sinking of the Titanic, which began a few days after the disaster, contributed to a significant improvement in the safety of shipping. (United Press International)

The passenger liner Titanic departs on its first and last voyage to New York from Queenstown, Ireland, 1912. On board the liner were the richest people of that time: millionaires John Jacob Astor IV, Benjamin Guggenheim and Isidore Strauss, as well as more than a thousand emigrants from Ireland, Scandinavia and other countries who were about to start new life in America.

Workers leave the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, where the Titanic was built between 1909 and 1911. At the time of its launch, the Titanic was the largest passenger liner in the world. In this 1911 photograph, the Titanic is in the background.

Dining room on the Titanic, 1912 The liner was designed and built with the latest technology and served as the epitome of luxury and comfort. On board was a gym, swimming pool, libraries, high-class restaurants and luxurious cabins.

Room for second class passengers aboard the Titanic, 1912. More than 90% of second-class passengers were men who remained on board the sinking liner, as women and children were the first to board the lifeboats.

The Titanic leaves Southampton, England, April 10, 1912. Some experts believe that the reason for the Titanic disaster was the poor quality of the hull rivets that were used in the construction of the liner.

The height of the liner from the keel to the top of the chimneys was 53.3 meters, 10.5 of which were below the waterline. The Titanic was taller than most city buildings of the time.

Captain of the Titanic, Edward John Smith, who steered largest liner of his time. The length of the Titanic was 269.1 meters, width - 28.19 meters, displacement - more than 52 thousand tons.

An undated photograph of the Titanic's first mate, William McMaster Murdoch, who is revered as a hero in his homeland of Dalbitty, Scotland. However, in the film "Titanic", which received many "Oscar" awards, Murdoch's character appears as a coward and a murderer.

At a ceremony marking the 86th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, 20th Century Fox Executive Vice President Scott Neeson presented a $8,000 check to Dolbitty School to apologize to the officer's family.

Presumably, the iceberg that the Titanic passenger liner collided with on April 14, 1912. The photo was taken from the cable-laying vessel Mackay Bennett, which was piloted by Captain Descarteret.

The ship Mackay Bennett was one of the first to arrive at the site of the Titanic disaster. According to Captain Descarteret, it was the only iceberg near the crash site of the ocean liner.

Passengers and some crew members were evacuated in lifeboats, many of which sailed only partially filled. This photograph of lifeboats approaching the Carpathia was taken by Carpathia passenger Louis M. Ogden.

The photograph was featured in an exhibition of documents relating to the Titanic disaster that Walter Lord bequeathed to the National maritime museum in Greenwich, England.

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.

This photograph was also on display in an exhibition of documents that Walter Lord bequeathed to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.

Although the Titanic had advanced security measures such as watertight compartments and watertight remote controlled doors, the ship lacked lifeboats for all passengers.

There were only enough boats for 1178 people - this is only a third of all passengers and crew. In this photo you see the rescue of passengers from the Titanic.

Reporters interview the passengers of the sunken Titanic who disembarked from the rescue ship Carpathia on May 17, 1912.

Seven-year-old Eva Hart with her father Benjamin and mother Esther, 1912 Eva and her mother escaped from the sinking Titanic, but her father died during the crash of a British liner on the night of April 15, 1912.

People are standing on the street, waiting for the arrival of the ship "Carpathia".

A huge crowd of people gathered outside the office of the White Steamship Company. star line on Broadway in New York to find out last news about the sinking of the Titanic, April 14, 1912.

People read reports outside the offices of The Sun newspaper in New York after the sinking of the Titanic.

Two messages sent from America to insurers Lloyds of London in London erroneously claimed that other ships, including the Virginia, were in the vicinity and assisted during the Titanic disaster.

These lots will be auctioned off at Christie's in London in May 2012.

Titanic survivors Laura Francatelli and her employers Lady Lucy Duff-Gordon and Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon stand aboard the rescue ship Carpathia. Francatelli said she heard a terrible roar and then cries for help as her boat pulled away from the sinking ocean liner Titanic on that tragic night in 1912.

The passenger liner Titanic shortly before departure for its first and last voyage, 1912.

In a photo released auction house Henry Aldridge & Son/Ho in Wiltshire, UK, April 18, 2008, captured an extremely rare artifact - passenger ticket to the Titanic.

An exhibit bequeathed to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England, by Walter Lord, is a telegram from Marconi. Miss Edith Russell (journalist and Titanic survivor) wrote in Women's Wear Daily: "Saved on Carpathia, tell mother." "Carpathia", April 18, 1912.

The lunch menu of the restaurant aboard the Titanic, signed by the surviving passengers. Walter Lord bequeathed this document to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England.

Prow of the sunken Titanic, 1999.

One of the propellers of the Titanic passenger liner. The picture was taken during an expedition to the shipwreck on September 12, 2008. Five thousand artifacts will be sold at an auction on April 11, 2012, almost 100 years after the Titanic disaster.

The starboard side of the bow of the Titanic. This image was released by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on August 28, 2010.

Part of the side of the Titanic, chains and an additional anchor buoy. Dr. Robert Bollard, who found the wreck of the Titanic almost 20 years ago, returned to the scene of the tragedy to look at the damage done to the ship and its treasures by marauders and seekers of easy enrichment.

The huge propeller of the sunken Titanic lies at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. The picture is not dated. The first tourists who visited the shipwreck in September 1998 saw the propeller and other parts of the famous liner.

This 17-ton fragment of the Titanic's hull was brought to the surface during an expedition to the shipwreck in 1998.

A 17-ton fragment of the Titanic passenger liner, which was raised from the bottom of the ocean during an expedition to the shipwreck, July 22, 2009. On April 11, 2012, this exhibit will be sold at auction along with 5,000 other artifacts.

A Waltham American gold pocket watch - personal item of Karl Asplund - against the backdrop of a painting of the Titanic by CJ Ashford. The clock was found on the body of Karl Asplund, who sank along with the Titanic.

Money from the Titanic. The owner of one of the richest collections of things found on the Titanic, put it up for auction in 2012 - the year of the 100th anniversary of the collapse of the famous liner.

Photographs by Felix Asplund, Selma and Carl Asplund and Lillian Asplund in Devizes, Wiltshire, England. These photos are part of Lillian Asplund's collection of Titanic related items.

Lillian was 5 years old in April 1912 when the Titanic hit an iceberg and sank on its maiden voyage. The girl escaped, but her father and three siblings were among the 1,514 people who died.

Artifacts found at the wreck of the Titanic are on display at the TITANIC The Artifact Exhibit in California scientific center: binoculars, comb, dishes and a cracked incandescent lamp. February 6, 2003.

Glasses found among the wreckage of the Titanic. The complete collection of artifacts found at the Titanic wreck will be auctioned in April 2012 - 100 years after the tragedy.

Golden spoon from the Titanic.

The chronometer from the captain's bridge of the Titanic is exhibited in Science Museum in London. It is one of more than 200 items recovered from the ocean floor at the site where the Titanic sank.

Visitors to the exhibition at the museum can go through the entire history of the famous liner in chronological order - from the drawings for its construction to the moment of death after a collision with an iceberg.

The Titanic's speed gauge and Gimbal lamp are among the artifacts on display at the museum in New York.

Items from the sunken Titanic on display at the New York Museum.

A cup and pocket watch are among the many items found on the Titanic, as well as a White Star Line flag button and a small porthole.

These spoons from the Titanic are part of an exhibition at the Museum of South Norwalk, Connecticut.

The gilded handbag is one of the items from the Titanic.

The stern of the Titanic, with two propellers sticking out of the mud and sand, rests on the ocean floor 600 meters south of the ship's bow.

First full shot legendary wreckage. The photo mosaic consists of 1,500 high resolution sonar images.

The right side of the ship. The bow of the Titanic was the first to sink to the bottom of the ocean, so that its front part was buried in the sand, forever closing the mortal wounds left by the iceberg.

Mutilated stern in profile.

The stern of the Titanic, top view. This interweaving of metal is a mystery to scientists. As one of them said: "If you decipher this, you will love Picasso."

Two engines of the Titanic are visible through a crack in the stern. These huge structures, covered with rust, once set in motion the largest liner in the world at that time.

April 10, 1912 from Southampton Port to her first and last swim The Titanic liner set off, which after 4 days collided with an iceberg. About the tragedy that claimed the lives of almost 1496 people, we know largely thanks to the film, but let's get acquainted with real stories passengers on 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 ship's restaurant. first class 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 lifeboat 8 o'clock, - said Helen. “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."

Before that, on October 20, 1910, Violet became a flight attendant. transatlantic liner"Olympic", which a year later, due to unsuccessful maneuvering, collided with a cruiser, 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.

April 21, 1912" New York Times "published the story of Edward and Ethel Bean, who sailed on the Titanic in the second class. After the crash, Edward helped his wife get into the boat. But when the boat had already sailed, he saw that it was half empty and jumped 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 information contained in it. a large number the names of the stowaways and 1st class passengers who remained on the Titanic. 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.

The Titanic is the largest and most luxurious liner of its time. He was not embarrassed to be called unsinkable, and he really seemed like that. She set out on her maiden voyage at noon on the tenth of April from the English port of Southampton. Destination follow was to become american city NY. But the Titanic, as you know, did not reach the shores of the United States ...

Collision of the Titanic with an iceberg

On April 14, 1912, the liner at full steam (at a speed of 22.5 knots, it was almost the maximum speed) was rushing across the North Atlantic. Nothing foreshadowed the tragedy, there was complete calm. An orchestra was playing on the upper deck in a restaurant with a beautiful interior. Rich people from the first class drank champagne, walked under open sky and enjoy the wonderful weather.

Late in the evening on April 14, at 23:39, two lookouts (as the sailors who observe the situation from a comfortable position during the voyage are officially called) noticed an iceberg right on the course and reported this by phone to the bridge. Officer William Murdoch immediately commanded "Left rudder." Thus he tried to prevent a collision.

But the multi-ton ship could not turn instantly, although in this case every second was worth its weight in gold - a block of ice was getting closer. And only after about half a minute the nose of the Titanic began to tilt to the left. Ultimately, the visible part of the iceberg "missed" the ship without hitting the starboard side.

The Titanic managed to turn two points, which was enough to prevent a head-on collision, but the liner still could not completely get away from the ice block - it ran into its hidden part, which was under water. This contact lasted approximately nine seconds. As a result, six holes were formed - all of them were below the waterline.

Contrary to popular misconception, the iceberg did not "cut" the bottom of the liner. Everything was a little different: from the strong pressure, the rivets on the skin burst, the steel sheets arched and gaps appeared between them. Through them, water began to penetrate into the compartments. And the penetration rate, of course, was huge - more than seven tons per second.

The iceberg bent the ship's hull, resulting in a leak

Further chronology of the tragedy

Most of the passengers on the upper deck did not feel any threat at first. The stewards, who served appetizers in the restaurant, noted only a slight clinking of spoons and forks on the tables. Some of the passengers felt a slight jolt and rattle, which ended quickly. Some people thought that the propeller blade just fell off the ship.

On the lower decks, the first consequences were more tangible: the local passengers heard an unpleasant rattle and rumble.

Exactly at midnight, Thomas Andrews, the man who designed the Titanic, came to the bridge. He had to assess the nature and severity of the resulting damage. After reporting on the incident and inspecting the ship, Andrews told everyone in the audience that the Titanic would definitely sink.

Soon the ship began to list noticeably. The 62-year-old captain of the ship, Edward Smith, gave the order to prepare the boats and start calling passengers for evacuation.

And the radio operators, in turn, were ordered to send SOS signals to all nearby ships. They did this for the next two hours, and only a few minutes before the complete sinking, Smith freed the telegraphers from work.

Distress signals were received by several ships, but almost all of them were too far from the Titanic. At 00:25 a message about the tragedy on the Titanic was received by the Carpathia ship. It was located at a distance of 93 kilometers from the crash site. Immediately, the captain of the Carpathia, Arthur Rostron, sent his ship to the area. The Carpathia, hurrying to help people, managed to reach a record speed of 17.5 knots that night - for this, all electrical appliances and heating were turned off on the ship.

There was another ship that was even closer to the Titanic than the Carpathia - only 10 nautical miles (this is equal to 18.5 kilometers). Theoretically, he could help. We are talking about the ship "Californian". The Californian was surrounded by ice, and therefore its captain decided to stop the ship - it was planned to start moving again only the next morning.

At 11:30 p.m., Titanic radio operator Phillips and Californian radio operator Evans were talking to each other. Moreover, Phillips at the very end of this dialogue rather rudely asked Evans not to clog the air, since at that moment he was transmitting a signal to Cape Race (this is a cape on the island of Newfoundland). After that, Evans simply turned off the power in the radio room and went to sleep. And 10 minutes later, the Titanic collided with an iceberg. Some time later, the Titanic sent the first distress call, but the Californian could no longer receive it.

On top of that, there were no red emergency flares on the Titanic. Confidence in the unsinkability of the ship was so high that no one bothered to take the red rockets with them. Then it was decided to fire volleys with ordinary whites. The calculation was that the crew of a nearby ship would guess that the Titanic was in trouble. The Californian officers did see white rockets, but they thought it was just some kind of fireworks. A fantastic series of misunderstandings!

At half past one in the night, passengers began to be seated in boats. It immediately became clear that there were not enough places for everyone. In total, there were twenty boats on board and their total capacity was 1178 people.

By order of Captain Smith, his assistant Charles Lightoller, who supervised the evacuation process on the port side of the liner, only children and women were taken into the boats. Men, according to the captain, were obliged to be on the ship to the last. But William Murdoch, another assistant to Smith, who led the evacuation on the starboard side, gave places in the boats and men when there were no women and children in the line of those gathered.

At about 02:15, the nose of the liner suddenly dropped down and the rest of the ship moved forward. A large cold wave swept across the decks, many people were simply blown overboard.

Around 02:20, the Titanic completely disappeared under ocean water. The liner was so huge that it took 160 minutes to sink.

After the stern was completely submerged, hundreds of people swam to the surface. They swam in icy water among all sorts of things from the ship: wooden beams, pieces of furniture, doors, etc. Many tried to use all this as a watercraft.

The temperature of the ocean water that night was −2°C ( sea ​​water does not freeze at this temperature due to the concentration of salt in it). A person here died from severe hypothermia on average within half an hour. And many of those moving away from the sunken ship on boats heard the heartbreaking cries of those who did not have enough space in the boats ...

At about 04:00, the Carpathia appeared in the area of ​​the sinking Titanic. This ship took 712 people on board, after which it headed for New York. Among the rescued, 394 people are women and children, 129 people are men, and another 189 people are members of the ship's crew.

The number of those who died in this shipwreck was, according to various sources, from 1400 to 1517 people (it is difficult to give an exact figure, because there were many stowaways on the Titanic). Thus, 60% of passengers from first class cabins managed to escape, 44% from second class cabins, 25% from those who bought third class tickets.

Characteristics of the Titanic

When commissioned, the Titanic was 269 meters long and about 30 meters wide. The height of the liner was also impressive: from the waterline to the uppermost boat deck, it was 18.5 meters here (and if you count from the keel to the top of the first tube , it would have turned out to be 53 meters in general). The draft of this liner was 10.5 meters, and the displacement was 52,310 tons.

"Titanic" in 1912 in the port of Belfast (this is where it was built)

The liner was driven by several four-cylinder steam engines and steam turbine. At the same time, steam for them, as well as for all kinds of auxiliary mechanisms, was produced in 29 boilers. It is worth noting specifically that none of the ship's thirty mechanics survived. They remained in the engine room and supported the operation of the steam units to the last.

The role of movers on the Titanic was performed by three propellers. The diameter of the central screw was 5.2 meters, it had four blades. The screws located along the edges had a larger diameter - 7.2 meters, but they had three blades. Propellers with three blades could make up to 80 revolutions per minute, and the central one - up to 180 revolutions per minute.

Above the upper deck, there were also four pipes, each 19 meters high. The Titanic had a double bottom and had sixteen airtight compartments. They were separated by watertight bulkheads. According to calculations, the ship would have remained afloat even if any two compartments or four consecutive compartments at the bow or stern were flooded. But on the night of the tragedy, the iceberg damaged five compartments - one more than allowed.

Composition of the crew and passengers

It is known that in the tragic voyage in the ship's crew there were many people who did not undergo special training: stewards, stokers, stitchers (the so-called people whose task was to bring coal to the fireboxes and throw ash overboard), coca. There were very few qualified sailors - only 39 sailors and seven officers, assistants to the captain. Moreover, some of the sailors did not even have time to get to know the Titanic's device well, as they were accepted into the service just a few days before sailing.

It is worth talking a little about the passengers. Passenger composition was extremely diverse - from mendicant emigrants from Sweden, Italy, Ireland, sailing for a better life V New World, to hereditary millionaires such as John Jacob Astor IV and Benjamin Guggenheim (both dead).

Benjamin Guggenheim put on his best tailcoat and began to drink whiskey in the hall - so he spent last hours life

In accordance with the cost of the purchased ticket, there was a division into three classes. For those who swam in the first class, a swimming pool, a gym were provided physical culture, a sauna, a squash court, an electric bath (a kind of "ancestor" of a solarium) and a special section for pets. There was also a restaurant, elegant dining rooms, and smoking rooms.

By the way, the service in the third class was also worthy, better than on some other transatlantic steamers of that time. The cabins were bright and comfortable, they were not cold and clean enough. The dining room served not too refined, but quite acceptable dishes, there were special decks for walking.

The premises and spaces of the ship were strictly divided according to classes. And passengers, say, third class were forbidden to be on the deck of the first class.

Titanic in books and films

The terrible events that happened on the Titanic in April 1912 served as the basis for many literary works, paintings, songs and films.

The first book about the Titanic was written, paradoxically, long before it sank. The little-known American writer Morgan Robertson published the story "Futility, or the Death of the Titan" back in 1898. It described the seemingly unsinkable ship "Titan", which crashed on an April night, colliding with an iceberg. There were not enough boats on the Titan, and so many of the passengers died.

The story did not sell well at first, but after the incident of 1912, interest in the book increased sharply - there were quite a few coincidences between the events described in the story and the real wreck of the Titanic. And key specifications the fictional "Titan" were similar to the characteristics of the real "Titanic" - a truly amazing fact!

Morgan Robertson and his story, where the death of the Titanic was predicted to some extent

And the first feature film about the tragedy was released in May of the same 1912 - it was called "The Escaped from the Titanic". It was 10 minutes long, silent and black and white. The main role here was played by Dorothy Gibson, an actress who herself found herself on the Titanic that ill-fated night and found her salvation in boat number seven.

In 1953, director Jean Negulesco turned to the theme of the tragic journey of the Titanic. According to the plot, a husband, wife and their two children sort things out on the Titanic. And everything seems to be getting better, but then the liner stumbles upon an iceberg and begins to go to the bottom. The family has to endure separation, the wife and daughter sail away on the boat, the son and father remain on the sinking ship. The film, by the way, received one "Oscar" in the same 1953.

But the most famous film about the sinking of the liner is James Cameron's Titanic, which appeared in theaters (and then on DVD) in 1997. He won as many as eleven Oscars and for a long time was considered the highest grossing film in general in history.

Authoritative experts on the sinking of the Titanic (for example, historian Don Lynch and marine painter Ken Marshall) took part in preparing the script and creating the scenery for Cameron's film. Collaboration with respected experts made it possible to accurately convey some episodes of the crash. Cameron's Titanic new wave interest in the history of the liner. In particular, after the release of the film, the demand for books and exhibitions related to this topic increased.

Discovery of the Titanic at the bottom of the Atlantic

The legendary ship lay at the bottom for 73 years before it was discovered. More specifically, it was found in 1985 by a group of divers led by oceanographer Robert Ballard. As a result, it turned out that under the enormous pressure of the water, the Titanic (the depth here was about 4000 meters) fell apart into three parts. The wreckage of the liner was scattered over an area with a radius of 1.6 kilometers. Ballard and his associates first of all found the bow of the vessel, which, apparently, due to its large mass, had sunk heavily into the ground. Food was found 800 meters away. Nearby were seen and the remains of the middle part.

Between the large elements of the liner at the bottom, one could also see small items testifying to that era: a set of copper cutlery, unopened wine bottles, coffee cups, door handles, candelabra and ceramic baby dolls...

Later, several expeditions to the remains of the Titanic were conducted by RMS Titanic, which legally had the rights to fragments of the liner and other related artifacts. During these expeditions, more than 6,000 items were raised from the bottom. They were subsequently valued at $110 million. These items were exhibited in thematic expositions or sold at auctions.

But why wasn't the Titanic fully lifted up? Alas, this is not possible. Experts have found that any attempt to raise the hull of the liner will lead to its destruction, and therefore it is likely to remain at the bottom forever.

Documentary "Titanic": the death of a dream"

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

The weather was perfect

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

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

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

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

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

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

The whole trip was accompanied by a fire

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

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

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

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

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

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

The tragic prediction of disaster by William Steed

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

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

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

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

Captain Edward Smith

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The only Japanese on board

Masabumi Hosono in Japan was hated and greeted as a coward

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

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

It was then believed that it was better for a worthy man to die with honor than to survive in a shameful manner. After returning to Japan, Hosono was branded as a coward and hated by almost the entire country. He was fired from his government job, albeit a few years later, and hired back. Negative Feedback about the Asian who escaped in boat number 13, allow us to conclude that it was Hosono.

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

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

Real Titanic necklace

The "Heart of the Ocean" necklace actually existed

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

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

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

Mistakes and theories

Perhaps the Supermoon is to blame for the disaster

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

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

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

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

Elizabeth Shutes

Elisabeth Shutes claims to have smelled ice before the crash

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

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

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

Parallels with the crash of the Costa Concordia

Is there a connection between death Costa Concordia' and 'Titanic'?

This is interesting: Many people draw parallels between death Italian ship Costa Concordia and the sinking of the Titanic. First, some survivors of the Concordia claimed that Celine Dion's famous song "My Heart Will Go On" was playing in the dining room when the ship hit the rock. Second, both liners met their end 100 years apart.

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

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

optical illusions

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

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

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

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

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