The death of the Titanic somehow sank. Stages of the sinking of the Titanic. The tragic prediction of disaster by William Steed

For the first time, the Titanic hit the headlines as the largest ship in the history of mankind, and its first voyage was to make a long journey across the Atlantic in April 1912. As everyone knows, instead of a triumphant voyage, the history of shipping was supplemented by the greatest catastrophe. On its fourth day of travel 105 years ago, 643 kilometers off the coast of Nova Scotia, the ship collided with an iceberg and sank within 2 hours and 40 minutes. On that terrible day, 1,500 passengers died, who mostly died not from injuries or asphyxia, but from hypothermia. Few managed to survive in the icy water of the Atlantic Ocean, the temperature of which in April 1912 dropped to -2 ° C. Don't be surprised, water may well remain liquid in this cold, given that in the ocean it is a solution of salt with other nutrients, and not pure H2O.

But if you study the history of the Titanic more deeply, you will also find stories about people who, during an unforeseen catastrophe, acted decisively, avoided death and helped other drowning people. Over 700 people survived the disaster, although for some of them it was a matter of happy accident. Here are 10 stories of survivors of the most tragic disaster in the Atlantic.

10. Frank Prentice - Crew Member (Warehouse Assistant)

Just before the Titanic finally sank, the ship's stern briefly rose into the air perpendicular to the water level. At the same time, team member Frank Prentice, one of the last people on the ship, along with 2 of his comrades, decided to jump off the sinking liner into cold water. One of his colleagues hit the Titanic propeller during the fall, but Prentice managed to fly 30 meters to the very water, where the lifeless body of a friend was already waiting for him. Fortunately, Frank was soon picked up by a lifeboat.

It is easy to verify Prentice's story, especially since his clock stopped at exactly 2:20, which is exact time final sinking of the Titanic in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Remarkably, Prentice survived another shipwreck a few years later while serving aboard the warship Oceanic during World War I.

9. Eight Chinese passengers from the third class

It may surprise you, but if you read the reports of the large-scale evacuation of the sinking Titanic, you will realize that at first it was a very civilized process. All the passengers obediently obeyed the orders of the crew of the ship, and many of them were glad to give their places in the lifeboats to women and children. They did it voluntarily and without coercion. Panic did not deprive people of prudence and honor. At least not all of them, and not all at once.

But if you want to know how passengers survived an early 20th century shipwreck with a more practical approach to testing, you might be interested in hearing about the 8 Chinese immigrants who boarded the legendary ship all on the same ticket. It was a group of people from Guangzhou who lost their jobs due to the coal crisis and sailed home to Hong Kong.

In various immigration reports, their names have changed, but today this is no longer important. When the iceberg struck, seven of them crept into the lifeboats before the lifeboats were directed to the landing pads. The Chinese hid in boats under blankets, and for a long time remained unnoticed. Five of them survived. The eighth Chinese also suffered a shipwreck - he was picked up by lifeboat number 14 (which also saved Harold Phillimore, whom we will talk about a little later). Saving 6 people from a group of 8 comrades is a good statistic, but it is difficult to call their behavior heroic.

8. Olaus Jorgensen Abelzeth - Second Class Passenger

Olaus Jorgensen Abelseth was a Norwegian shepherd who worked on a livestock farm in South Dakota. He was returning from a trip home after visiting relatives, and in April 1912 boarded the Titanic with five members of his family.

During the evacuation from the Titanic, people were seated in lifeboats for certain reasons. An adult male could get on board a lifeboat only if he had a good experience in navigation, which would be useful for managing a craft in the waters of the open ocean. There were only 20 lifeboats, and each of them had to be attended by at least one experienced sailor.

Abelset had six years of sailing experience, a former fisherman, and was offered a place on another boat, but the man refused. And all because some of his relatives could not swim, and Olaus Jorgensen decided to stay with them to take care of the survival of his family. When the Titanic completely sank, and Olaus' relatives were washed into the water, the man remained afloat in the cold ocean for 20 minutes until he was rescued. When Abelset was in the boat, he actively helped rescue other shipwreck victims, pumping out the frozen ones in the icy water.

7. Hugh Woolner and Maurits Bjornström-Steffanszoon - First Class Passengers

Hugh Woolner and Mauritz Björnström-Steffansson were sitting in the smoking room when they heard about the iceberg collision. The gentlemen escorted their girlfriend to the lifeboats and helped the crew of the Titanic to get the women and children onto the lifeboats. Hugh and Maurits were on the lower deck when they decided to jump into the last boat while it was descending. Their jump was made 15 minutes before the final sinking of the Titanic, so it was a now or never attempt.

Bjornström-Steffanszoon successfully jumped into the boat, but Woolner was less fortunate and missed. However, the man managed to grab onto the edge of the boat, and his friend managed to stop Hugh while he hung over the ocean. Ultimately, Woolner was helped into the boat. It was a rescue full of drama.

6. Charles Join - crew member (chief baker)

Most of the victims of the Titanic crash died of hypothermia (hypothermia) within 15 to 30 minutes in icy water, but Charles Joughin is real proof that there are exceptions to every rule. Join was drunk when the steamer hit an iceberg. Despite the extreme conditions and his drunken state, the baker greatly helped other drowning people, throwing deck chairs and chairs overboard the Titanic so that people had something to grab on to and not drown. After the liner finally submerged, Charles drifted in the area of ​​​​the crash site for more than two hours, until he was nailed to one of the rescue boats.

Survival experts attribute Joinin's success to the fact that the alcohol increased his body temperature, as well as the fact that, as the baker himself claimed, he tried not to submerge his head in ice water. Some critics doubt that the man was in the water for that long, but the fact remains that Join has witnesses from the lifeboat.

5. Richard Norris Williams - First Class Passenger

Richard Norris Williams was traveling with his father first class and together they sailed to a tennis tournament. After the iceberg collision happened, both of them kept their cool, demanding that the bar be opened, and spent some time at the gym. The Williamses even managed to help one passenger when they realized that it was not the time to chill.

As a result, Richard had a chance to watch how his father was covered by a chimney and swept into the sea by one of the waves, which washed away the Collapsible A model collapsible boat into the ocean. It was one of the last 2 boats aboard the sinking Titanic, and the crew did not physically have time to prepare both these life-saving appliances for landing people in them and proper launching.

Later, on board the British steamship Carpathia, the first to come to the rescue of the victims of the Titanic, doctors advised the surviving Norris to amputate both frostbitten legs. The athlete opposed the recommendations of the doctors, and contrary to the initial forecasts of the doctors, not only did he not lose his legs, but also restored their functionality. Moreover, the man returned to the sport of tennis and won a gold medal at the 1924 Olympics. In addition, he was decorated for meritorious service in the First World War.

4 Rhoda "Rose" Abbott - Third Class Passenger

Everyone knows the “women and children first” maritime rule, but not everyone knows how strict it was. If a boy was over 13, he was no longer considered a child. This did not sit well with third-class passenger Rhoda Abbott, who was not going to give up her two sons, 13 and 16 years old. Abbott gave away a place on the boat so that she could stay with her children until the end. She was a woman of strong convictions, a member of the Christian humanitarian mission The Salvation Army and a single mother. Rhoda grabbed each child's hand and together they jumped over the side of the sinking ship.

Unfortunately, both of her sons drowned, and the mother-heroine surfaced without them. Like Richard Norris Williams, Rosa hopped aboard the capsized Collapsible A. Her legs suffered from hypothermia almost as badly as the legs of a tennis player. Abbott spent 2 weeks in the hospital, but that doesn't change the fact that she was the only woman alive after swimming in the icy waters of the Atlantic Ocean on the night of the Titanic crash.

3. Harold Charles Phillimore - crew member (steward)

The famous character of Rose Decatur, played by Kate Winslet in the James Cameron film, was fictional, but Harold Charles Phillimore, the steward, could be the prototype for this romantic story.

The man was found clinging to floating debris amidst a sea of ​​corpses as the last lifeboat arrived at the crash site in search of survivors. Phillimore shared part of a drifting wooden beam with another passenger, which in Cameron's story Rosa Decatur did not do, allowing the love of her life to die of hypothermia. After a tragic shipwreck, Harold Phillimore continued his nautical career, achieved outstanding success and earned medals for his service in the Navy during the First World War.

2. Harold Bride - Representative of Marconi Wireless

Harold Bride was one of two telegraph operators of the British company Marconi Wireless, whose task was to provide communication between the ship's passengers and the mainland. Bride was also responsible for navigational messages and warnings from other ships. At the time of the crash, Harold and his colleague James Phillips were allowed to leave their post in order to be rescued as soon as possible, but both of them kept the Titanic in touch with the rest of the world until the last minutes of the legendary steamer.

The telegraph operators worked until the water began to fill their cabin. Then they realized that it was time to leave the ship. Colleagues boarded the last lifeboat, known as Collapsible B. Unfortunately, during the launch, she turned upside down, and all her passengers were in freezing water. Harold Bride got so bad in his legs that he struggled to climb a rescue ladder aboard the British steamship Carpathia when it arrived at the scene of the accident to help the surviving victims.

On the way to his rescue, Harold swam past a dead body, which turned out to be his comrade James Phillips, who died that terrible night from hypothermia. Subsequently, Bride did not enjoy talking in public about what happened because he was "deeply affected by the whole experience, especially the loss of his colleague and friend Jack Phyllis."

1. Charles Lightoller - Captain Second Rank

Charles Lightoller began his maritime career at the age of 13, and by the time he served on the Titanic as a captain second rank, he had seen a lot. Before entering into a contract with the British shipping company White Star, which owned a giant steamer, Lightoller had already survived a shipwreck in Australia, a cyclone in Indian Ocean, and hitchhiking off Western Canada all the way to England after participating in unsuccessful exploration of gold-bearing places in the Yukon (Yukon).

When the Titanic hit the iceberg, Lightoller was one of the first to launch lifeboats into the water. At about 2:00 (20 minutes before the liner was completely flooded), his superiors ordered him to get into the boat and save himself, to which Charles bravely replied something like this: “no, I’m not damn likely to do it” (not damn likely).

In the end, he ended up in the water, swam to the overturned Collapsible B, which we already mentioned above, and helped maintain order and morale among the survivors. The officer made sure that the boat did not capsize again with all the passengers on board, and seated people so that no one was washed away into the icy ocean.

Captain Second Rank Charles Lightoller was the very last person to be rescued from the Titanic into the Atlantic Ocean, and he was taken aboard the Carpathia almost four hours after rescuers from other ships appeared. In addition, he was the most senior among all the surviving crew members, and, according to the charter, participated in the hearings of the US Congress on the tragic sinking of the Titanic.

Many people have heard, many have read, but many still do not know the real and bitter truth about the death of the world's largest passenger liner with the mighty name "Titanic". It belonged to the British company White Star Line. In just two years, shipbuilders managed to construct the impossible, and already on May 31, 1911, the Titanic was launched. His first cruise flight turned into a huge tragedy, the news of which swept over the course of two days around the world. What happened? How did the Titanic sink? How could the most unsinkable ship in the world be at a depth of 4 km? The owners of the company declared that God himself could not sink the Titanic. Maybe he got mad at people?

But let's move on to more real facts. So, on April 10, 1912, the greatest ship of all time, the Titanic, sailed from the port of Southampton, on board of which at that moment were the most famous people of Great Britain. These were businessmen, actors and actresses, scientists and writers, etc. The Titanic set off on a 7-day voyage across the Atlantic Ocean to New York, stopping along the way at small ports to deliver and receive cargo, as well as disembark and disembark passengers. The fifth day of the exciting journey was fatal for all the passengers of the liner. Crossing the Atlantic, at about 3:00 am, the starboard side of the ship was cut by a small iceberg, which was not immediately noticed by the looking sailor. As many as five lower compartments were flooded in a matter of minutes.

After 2.5 hours, the Titanic disappeared into sea ​​depths. Of the 2,200 people, only 715 were able to escape. Almost 1,500 people tragically died. And now the most intriguing question arises, who is to blame for this tragedy? God? Shipbuilders? or not the professionalism of the captain of the ship? But nevertheless, after numerous investigations, objective and subjective reasons for the death of the Titanic were still collected, but we will talk about them a little later. To begin with, one should delve into these facts and analyze the broader reasons that influenced the outcome of events and the death of innocent people.

Responsible for the sinking of the Titanic

shipbuilders

Let's start, perhaps, with shipbuilders, namely with the ship's plating itself. In 1994, a study was carried out with a piece of the skin of the sunken Titanic. The results were very deplorable, because. the plating was so thin that even the smallest piece of ice floe could inflict enormous damage on it, and if we take into account the huge Iceberg, then the damage was still not very big, thanks to the actions of the captain of the ship. The impact caused by the iceberg was tragic because the ship's hull plating included phosphorus in its composition, which, at low temperatures, caused this plating to break. The inability of shipbuilders to create high-quality steel at that time, as well as ship designs, makes them also guilty of this tragedy. It was also known that the construction design of the Titanic included the use of the necessary materials, but most of them were of poor quality or were not available at all. This is proven by the fact that some people made a lot of money on this and shipbuilders may not be guilty of this.

radio operators

Now about no less important employees of the ship - radio operators. In 1912, radio communication on the high seas was new, and not every ship could establish it. The bottom line is that the radio operators, for some unknown reason, were not part of the ship's crew, but worked for the Marconi company, which was engaged in the transmission of paid messages in the form of Morse code. Currently, they can be compared with SMS messages on the phone.

Based on the surviving records, the radio operators managed to transmit more than 250 radiotelegrams on April 14, and the signals that came from other ships that also sailed across the Atlantic were simply ignored by the radio operators, because. they needed to make money. According to the records of radio operators, which were not taken into account by them, it became known that the Titanic had been alerted of the danger with the exact coordinates since 20-00 on the evening of April 14. There were even messages for the captain personally, in which it was written about nearby icebergs, but the radio operators were too lazy to deliver this information to the captain, and continued to send paid messages. But the entire crew of the ship was instructed in advance about possible glaciers, because. route passed through them.

Iceberg

Video - Titanic. The mysteries of the death of the liner

As you can see, the Titanic still managed to sink, and not only for the above reasons, there are several more. Perhaps the most important of them is the lack of binoculars from the looking sailor, who was on the ship, but was locked in a safe, and the second mate had the key. It was David Blair, who was removed from the flight for unknown reasons. He simply forgot to give this key to his reliever, so the looking sailor could not see the danger. With binoculars, trouble could be foreseen for 6 km., And without binoculars, the sailor could notice just 400 meters away. It was calm and the night was moonless. Even the weather conditions that night were against the ship, because the light of the moon in any case was able to reflect on the iceberg and give it away in advance.

It was also known that the iceberg was black, which means that it had turned upside down shortly before. It is possible that even under the moon the shine of the iceberg could not be noticeable, because. its white side was under water.

The fact that the first assistant did not notice the iceberg first is not clear. on the bridge is always more visible than with " eagle's nest» sailor.

About maneuver

It should be clarified that the captain of the ship was not on the bridge at the time of the crash, he was replaced by first assistant Murdoch. The results of the studies carried out indicate that the first officer gave the order "Left rudder" and immediately after that gave the order "Reverse". But the second command was carried out late and the reverse was made after a collision with an iceberg. It is believed that if Murdoch ordered, on the contrary, to increase speed, then the turn of the ship would not be smooth, but sharp. Perhaps the experience of the team failed in this situation as well. they did not participate in the testing of the ship after launching, and it is very difficult to create a maneuver of such a huge ship without preparation. Some believe that if the Titanic had not changed course, but had rammed an iceberg, it would have remained unscathed, because. the bow of the ship was protected and could only get a small dent at most.

Having considered the expanded picture of the circumstances of that night, we should return to the objective and subjective reasons for the sinking of the Titanic.

Subjective causes of the sinking of the Titanic

1. The rules of the British Merchant Shipping Code were outdated. They said that lifeboats were put on a ship depending on its tonnage, and not on the number of passengers. This means that there were not enough boats on the Titanic, so about 500 more people were not saved.

2. There is evidence that the helmsman, at the command "Take to the left", turned the steering wheel to the right.

3. The director of the company, J. Ismay, was sailing on board the ship, but he ordered the captain to sail on and not take any action so as not to incur losses. The captain followed his order, but water entered the compartments at a rate of 350 tons per minute.

4. To date, no one has survived after the crash. Those who escaped died a natural death. Last Passenger The Titanic died in 2009. It was a woman who was on the Titanic as a 5 year old child. Only she knew the true truth of the death of the ship, which her relatives told her, but the secret died with her.

Objective reasons for the sinking of the Titanic

1. Due to the fact that the iceberg turned over, because he was melting at that time, he was not visible from the ship.

2. The speed of the ship was very high. As a result, the blow was the most powerful. The fault here is solely the captain of the ship.

3. Radio operators, busy sending paid messages, did not convey important information about the danger to the captain. Considering that they were not part of the team, this does not relieve them of responsibility.

4. Titanic steel at the time was not the best quality. pressure on her low temperatures leading to brittleness and brittleness. There is no fault of the shipbuilders here, because. they performed work with the raw materials that were purchased by the management of the shipbuilding company.

5. All compartments of the ship were protected by iron doors, but the pressure of the water was so strong that they simply shattered into small pieces. Thus, compartment after compartment was filled with water.

6. The lookout did not have binoculars, which reduced the radius of his view from the "eagle's nest".

7. The ship did not have red flares, the launch of which meant a signal of danger. As a result of this, white rockets were launched, which did not matter to neighboring ships.

This article did not consider the ships that came to the aid of the Titanic on that fateful night, but it is worth noting the fact that the closest ship that was near the Titanic was a ship with poachers who hunted seals that night, but saw the launch white rockets, they thought that this was a signal that they needed to stop and the captain of this ship ordered his crew to sail as quickly as possible in the opposite direction. Perhaps, thanks to these poachers, if they had not sailed away, many more people would have been saved, but there was no radio communication on their ship.

Thus, having analyzed the most truthful facts about how the Titanic sank, one can only guess which reason is still the most truthful.

The sinking of the Titanic scientific facts video

The Titanic (RMS Titanic) is a British steamer of the White Star Line, the second of three Olympic-class twin steamers. 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 at 2:20 am the next day - 2 hours and 40 minutes after the collision. There were 1,309 passengers and 898 crew members on board, for a total of 2,207 people. Of these, 712 people were saved, 1495 died. The Titanic disaster became legendary, several feature films were shot based on its plot.

Laid down on March 31, 1909 at the shipyards of the Harland and Wolf shipbuilding company in Queens Island (English) (Belfast, Northern Ireland), launched on May 31, 1911. In addition to the fact that at the time of its construction, the Titanic was the largest passenger liner, it took a record amount of fat, locomotive oil and liquid soap to lubricate the gangway guides to launch the ship - 23 tons. The ship passed sea trials on April 2, 1912. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the ship, the Titanic Museum was opened at the Harland and Wolf shipyard.

titanic: the whole truth about the sunken ship

Technical characteristics of the liner

Gross tonnage 46,328 registered tons, displacement 52,310 tons with a draft of 10.54 m (many sources indicate a displacement of 66 thousand tons, but this is not true.

Length 269 m, width 28.19 m, distance from the waterline to the boat deck 18.4 m.

Height from the keel to the tops of the pipes - 52.4 m;
Engine room - 29 boilers, 159 coal furnaces;
The unsinkability of the ship was ensured by 15 watertight bulkheads in the hold, creating 16 conditionally watertight compartments; the space between the bottom and the flooring of the second bottom was divided by transverse and longitudinal partitions into 46 watertight compartments.
Maximum speed 23 knots.

Watertight bulkheads, marked from bow to stern with the letters "A" to "P", rose from the second bottom and passed through 4 or 5 decks: the first 2 and the last 5 reached deck "D", 8 bulkheads in the center of the liner reached only the deck "E". All bulkheads were so strong that they had to withstand significant pressure when getting a hole.

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

First 2 bulkheads

In bulkheads "D" - "O

In the ceiling of each compartment was a spare hatch, usually leading to the boat deck. Those who did not have time to leave the room before the doors closed could climb its iron ladder.

British Code of Navigation requirements

In formal accordance with the current requirements of the British Merchant Shipping Code, the ship had 20 lifeboats, which were enough to board 1178 people, that is, for 50% of the people who were on board at that moment and 30% of the planned load. 65 people were placed in one boat, but the sailors of the Titanic in the first minutes after the collision sent boats with only 20 passengers. The chief engineer of the ship, seeing this, told the sailors that 65 people fit in the boat. The team did not agree, fearing that the boat might not withstand the overload. Only after the engineer convinced the team of the reliability of the boats (which, according to the results of all checks, could withstand the weight of 70 adult men), the boats began to fill up completely. There were also "collapsible boats" used by some officers (Charles Lightoller was one of them).

The Titanic had 8 steel decks

Deck "A"

Deck "B"

G-deck

Titanic Size Comparison

Size comparison of the Titanic with modern cruise ship Queen Mary 2, Airbus A-380, bus, car and person.
One was aft, the other was on the forecastle, each was steel with a teak top. On the front, at a height of 29 m from the waterline, there was a mars platform (“crow's nest”), which could be reached by an internal metal ladder.

Description

In front of the boat deck there was a navigation bridge, 58 m away from the bow. On the bridge there was a wheelhouse with a steering wheel and a compass, immediately behind it was a room where navigation charts were stored. To the right of the wheelhouse were the navigational cabin, the captain's cabin and part of the officers' cabins, to the left - the rest of the officers' cabins. Behind them, behind the front funnel, was the cabin of the radiotelegraph and the cabin of the radio operator. In front of deck "D" there were living quarters for 108 stokers, a special spiral ladder connected this deck directly to the boiler rooms, so that stokers could leave for work and return without passing by the cabins or saloons for passengers. In front of deck "E" there were living quarters for 72 loaders and 44 sailors. In the first part of the "F" deck there were quarters of 53 stokers of the third shift. Deck G contained quarters for 45 stokers and oilers. The abbreviation "RMS" in the name "Titanic" literally means "Royal Mail Ship". The ship had a standard ocean post office (Transatlantic Post Office) and a mail depot on decks F and G, staffed by 5 postal employees who were considered British civil servants. The postmaster was O. C. Woody. The Titanic Post Office had a standard calendar postmark with "Transatlantic Post Office 7" all around. This stamp was used to cancel postage stamps on letters and postcards sent from the Titanic, as well as to register registered letters in transit delivered to the Titanic from Southampton, Cherbourg and Queenstown.

Second bottom

Power of steam engines and turbines

Screws "Olympic" before launching. Identical were on the Titanic
The registered power of steam engines and turbines was 50 thousand liters. With. (actually 55 thousand hp). The turbine was located in the fifth watertight compartment in the stern of the liner, in the next compartment, closer to the bow, steam engines were located, the other 6 compartments were occupied by twenty-four double-flow and five single-flow boilers that produced steam for the main machines, turbines, generators and auxiliary mechanisms. The diameter of each boiler was 4.79 m, the length of the double-flow boiler was 6.08 m, the single-flow boiler was 3.57 m. Each double-flow boiler had 6 fireboxes, and the single-flow boiler had 3. In addition, the Titanic was equipped with four auxiliary machines with generators, each with a capacity of 400 kilowatts, generating electricity at a voltage of 100 volts. Next to them were two more 30-kilowatt generators. High-pressure steam from the boilers went to 2 triple expansion steam engines, which rotated the side propellers. From the machines, the steam then entered the low-pressure turbine, which drove the middle propeller. From the turbine, the exhaust steam entered the condensers, from where fresh water went back to the boilers in a closed cycle. The Titanic developed a decent speed for its time, although it was inferior to the competitor's turbo ships - Cunard Line.

The liner had 4 ellipsoid tubes

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

The telephone exchange serviced 50 lines.

radio equipment

Celebrities on the ship

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

Threat to shipping in the North Atlantic

The threat to shipping in the North Atlantic is icebergs breaking off from glaciers in western Greenland and drifting under the influence of currents. Ice fields (huge ice floes or accumulations of ice floes) originating in the Arctic Basin, as well as off the coast of Labrador, Newfoundland and in the Strait of St. Lawrence, and drifting under the influence of winds and currents.

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

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

Wednesday, April 10, 1912
12:00 p.m. — The Titanic leaves the Southampton harbor and narrowly avoids colliding with the American liner New York. There are 2,060 people on board the Titanic (1,152 passengers).
19:00 - stop in Cherbourg (France) for disembarkation 24 and embarkation of 274 passengers and mail.
21:00 - Titanic left Cherbourg and headed for Queenstown (Ireland).
Thursday, April 11, 1912
12:30 pm stop at Queenstown for disembarkation 8 and disembarkation of 123 passengers and mail; one crew member, 23-year-old fireman John Coffey (John Coffey), deserts the Titanic for unknown reasons. On board, at the same time, he leaves all his documents.
14:00 - The Titanic leaves Queenstown with 1,337 passengers and 908 crew (2,209 people) on board.
Sunday, April 14, 1912
0900 hours - Caronia reports ice at 42°N, 49-51°W.
13:42 - "Baltik" reports the presence of ice in the area of ​​41°51'N, 49°52'W.
13:45 - America reports ice at 41°27'N, 50°8'W.
19:00 - air temperature 43 ° Fahrenheit (6 ° C).
19:30 - air temperature 39 ° Fahrenheit (3.9 ° C).
19:30 - The Californian reports ice at 42°3'N, 49°9'W.
21:00 - air temperature 33 ° Fahrenheit (0.6 ° C).
21:30 - Second Officer Lightoller warns the ship's carpenter and watchmen in the engine room to monitor the system fresh water- water in pipelines can freeze; he tells the lookout to watch the appearance of ice.
21:40 - Mesaba reports ice at 42°-41°25'N, 49°-50°30'W.
22:00 - air temperature 32 ° Fahrenheit (0 ° C).
10:30 p.m. - Sea water temperature dropped to 31° Fahrenheit (-0.56°C).
11:00 p.m. — The Californian warns of ice, but the Titanic's radio operator cuts off the radio before the Californian can give the area's coordinates.
23:39 - At a point with coordinates 41 ° 46 'north latitude, 50 ° 14 ' west longitude (later it turned out that these coordinates were calculated incorrectly), an iceberg was sighted at a distance of about 650 meters straight ahead.
23:40 - Despite the maneuver, after 39 seconds, the underwater part of the vessel touched, the hull received numerous small holes for a length of about 100 meters. Of the 16 watertight compartments of the ship, the first 5 were cut through.

Stages of the sinking of the Titanic

Iceberg

Photo of an iceberg taken by the chief steward of the German ship Prinz Adalbert on the morning of April 16, 1912. The steward was unaware of the disaster at the time, but the iceberg caught his attention because it had a brown streak at its base, indicating that the iceberg had hit something less than 12 hours earlier. It is assumed that it was with him that the Titanic collided.
Recognizing an iceberg in a light haze, the forward looking Fleet warned “there is ice in front of us” and hit the bell three times, which meant an obstacle right on the course, after which he rushed to the telephone connecting the “crow’s nest” with the bridge. Moody's sixth mate, who was on the bridge, responded almost instantly and heard a cry of "ice right on the nose!!!" (English ice right ahead!!!). With a polite thank you, Moody turned to the officer of the watch, Murdoch, and repeated the warning. He rushed to the telegraph, put his handle on the “stop” and shouted “right to board”, at the same time transmitting the order “full back” to the engine room, pressed the lever, which turned on the closing of the watertight doors in the bulkheads of the boiler rooms and the engine room.

Photo of an iceberg taken from the cable-laying ship Mina, which was one of the first ships to find dead passengers and the wreckage of the ship. Presumably, the Titanic could have collided with this particular iceberg, since, according to the crew of the Mine, it was the only iceberg near the crash site.
According to the terminology of 1912, the command "right on board" meant turning the stern of the ship to the right, and the bow to the left (since 1909, Russian ships have already used natural command delivery, for example: "left rudder"). The helmsman, Robert Hitchens, leaned on the handle of the steering wheel and quickly turned it clockwise until it stops, after which Murdoch was told "Right rudder, sir!" At that moment, Alfred Oliver, the helmsman of the watch, and Boxhall, who was in the chart house, came running to the bridge when the bells rang out in the "crow's nest". A. Oliver, in his testimony in the US Senate, however, definitely stated that at the entrance to the bridge he heard the command "left rudder" (corresponding to turning to the right), and this command was carried out. According to Boxhall (British Inquiry Question 15355), Murdoch reported to Captain Smith: "I turned to port and reversed, and was about to turn to starboard to get around him, but he was too close."

It is known that binoculars for lookouts were not used on the Titanic, since there was no key to the safe with binoculars. He was taken in by Captain Blair's second mate when the captain kicked him off the team, taking on board a team member from the Olympic. It is possible that the lack of binoculars was one of the reasons for the crash of the liner. However, the existence of binoculars became known only 95 years after the shipwreck, when one of them was exhibited in auction house"Henry Eldridge and Sons" in Devizes, Wiltshire. The second assistant to the captain of the Titanic was to be David Blair, for which he arrived on April 3, 1912 from Belfast to Southampton. However, the management of the White Star Line replaced him at the last moment with Henry Wilde, the first officer from the similar ship Olympic, because he had experience in managing such big liners, causing Blair, in his haste, to forget to hand over the key to the person who took his place. However, many historians agree that the presence of binoculars would not have helped to prevent a catastrophe. This is also confirmed by the fact that the lookouts in the "crow's nest" noticed the iceberg before those on the bridge who had binoculars with them.

Lifeboat "Titanic"

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

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

Rescue of passengers and crew

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

"Californian"

Evidence from a British investigation showed that at 22:10 the Californian observed the ship's lights to the south. Captain Stanley Lord and third officer S. W. Groves (who was released by Lord at 11:10 p.m.) later decided it was a passenger liner. , and that a port light appeared. By order of the Lord, Morse light signals were sent to the ship between 23:30 and 01:00, but no response was received.

Captain Lord retired to his cabin at 11:00 pm for a night's rest, but Second Officer Herbert Stone, while on duty, notified Lord at 01:10 am that an unknown ship had fired 5 missiles. Lord asked if they were company signals, i.e. colored flashes used for identification. Stone replied that he did not know and that the missiles were white. Captain Lord instructed the crew to continue signaling the ship with a Morse lamp and went to bed. Three more rockets were seen at 01:50 am, and Stone noted that the ship looked strange in the water, as if it was tilted. At 02:15 am, Lord was notified that the ship was no longer in sight. Lord asked again if the rocket lights had any color and was informed that they were all white.

The Californian eventually decided to react. At approximately 05:30 a.m., Chief Officer George Stuart woke up wireless operator Cyril Farmstone-Evans and informed him that rockets had been seen during the night and asked to contact the ship. In response, he received news of the sinking of the Titanic; Captain Lord was notified of this, and the ship went to provide assistance. It arrived much later than the Carpathia, which had already picked up the survivors.

As a result of the investigation, it turned out that the ship seen by the Californian was the Titanic, and that the Californian could have come to his aid if not for the actions of Captain Lord. Nevertheless, Lord declared his innocence until the end of his life, and many researchers still argue that the well-known relative position of the Titanic and the Californian make it impossible for the former to be the very “mysterious ship”, the theme of which “caused ... millions of words and… hours of heated debate”

In the early days, newspapers reported false information about the number of victims, based on conflicting rumors.
Almost all the women and children from cabins 1 and 2 were saved. More than half of the women and children in Class 3 cabins died as they had difficulty finding their way up through the maze of narrow corridors. Nearly all of the men also died. The tragedy of the Polsson family claimed the lives of Alma's mother and all her four young children, whom Father Niels was waiting in vain for in New York.

The fate of the passengers

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

In May 2006, at the age of 99, the last American eyewitness who survived the crash of the Titanic died. This was reported by the Boston funeral home. She died yesterday at her home. Swedish-born Lillian Gertrud Asplund (Swed. Lillian Gertrud Asplund), who was five years old at the time of the disaster, lost her father and three brothers in her. Her mother and brother, who was then three years old, survived. They were third-class passengers and escaped in boat number 15. Asplund was the last to remember how the tragedy happened, but she avoided publicity and rarely spoke about this event.

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

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

Distribution of victims by social status

Vessel Country Tonnage Year Number of casualties Cause of death
Goya Flag of German Reich (1935–1945).svg Germany 5 230 1945, April 16 ~ 7 000 Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Attack of the submarine L-3
Junyo-maru Flag of Japan.svg Japan 5 065 1944, September 18 5 620 United Kingdom Attack of the submarine HMS Tradewind
Toyama Maru Flag of Japan.svg Japan 7 089 1944 June 29 5 600 United States of America USS Sturgeon submarine attack
Cap Arkona Flag of German Reich (1935–1945).svg Germany 27 561 1945, May 3 5 594 Great Britain Air attack
Wilhelm Gustloff Flag of German Reich (1935–1945).svg Germany 25 484 1945, January 30 ~ 5 300…9 300 Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Armenia Flag of the Soviet Union (1923-1955).svg USSR 5 770 1941, November 7 ~ 5 000 Germany Air attack
Ryusei-maru (eng. SS Ryusei Maru) Flag of Japan.svg Japan 4 861 1944, February 25 4 998 United States of America Attack of the submarine USS Rasher
Doña Paz Flag of the Philippines (navy blue).svg Philippines 2 602 1987 December 20 4 375 Tanker collision and fire
Lancastria Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Great Britain 16 243 1940, June 17 ~4 000 Germany Air attack
General Steuben Flag of German Reich (1935–1945).svg Germany 14 660 1945, February 10 3 608 Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Attack of the submarine S-13
Tilbeck War Ensign of Germany 1938-1945.svg Germany 2 815 1945, May 3 ~ 2 800 Great Britain Air attack
Salzburg Flag of German Reich (1935–1945).svg Germany 1 759 1942, October 1 2 086 Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Attack of the submarine M-118
Bismarck War Ensign of Germany 1938-1945.svg Germany 50 900 1941, 27 May 1995 Great Britain battle with British ships
Titanic Flag of the United Kingdom.svg UK 52310 1912 April 15 1495 Iceberg impact
Hood, battlecruiser Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg Great Britain 41 125 1941, 24 May 1 415 Germany battle with German ships
Lusitania Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Great Britain 31 550 1915, May 7 1 198 Germany U-20 submarine attack
Among the disasters that occurred outside of hostilities, the Titanic ranks third in terms of the number of victims. The sad leadership is behind the Doña Paz ferry, which collided with an oil tanker in 1987. More than 4,000 people died in the collision and subsequent fire. Second place is held by the wooden paddle steamer "Sultana", which sank on April 27, 1865 on the Mississippi River near Memphis due to the explosion of a steam boiler and fire. The total death toll on the steamer exceeded 1,700, the largest disaster on a riverboat.

Looking for the wreckage

In 1994, a piece of ship plating was transferred to the laboratory of the Canadian Department of Defense in Halifax. The laboratory workers decided to subject it to the so-called impact test on Charpy samples, which determines the brittleness of steel. The essence of the test was as follows: a prototype, fixed in a special clamp, had to withstand the impact of a 30-kilogram pendulum. For comparison, a similar piece of steel used in modern courts was tested. Before testing, both samples were kept in an alcohol bath at a temperature of 1.7 °C (the same was the temperature of sea water at the site of the shipwreck). Modern steel passed the test with honor: as a result of the impact, the metal plate only bent in a V-shape, and the fragment of the Titanic was broken into two parts. Perhaps he became so fragile after lying at the bottom of the Atlantic for 82 years. Canadian researchers managed to get a sample of 80-year-old steel from the Belfast shipyard, where the Titanic was built at one time. He endured the impact test on Sharpy samples no better than his sunken brother.

The experts concluded that the steel used to cover the Titanic's hull was of poor quality, with a large admixture of phosphorus, which made it very brittle at low temperatures. If the skin had been made of high quality, tough, low phosphorus steel, it would have softened the force of impact to a great extent. The metal sheets would have simply bent inward and the damage to the hull would not have been so serious. Perhaps then the Titanic would have been saved, or at least would have remained afloat for a long time, sufficient to evacuate most of the passengers. Also, according to the research data, the susceptibility of steel sheathing in cold waters to brittle rupture was revealed, which also accelerated the sinking of the vessel.

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

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

Research and tests

Conducted research and tests, analysis of procurement documents showed that forged iron rivets were used as rivets, and not steel, as was originally planned. Moreover, these rivets were of poor quality, they contained a lot of third-party impurities, in particular coke, during forging, this coke collected in the heads, further increasing fragility. During the impact of the iceberg, the heads of cheap rivets simply broke, and sheets of 2.5-centimeter steel diverged under the pressure of ice.

Internal communication system

The radio log from the Titanic did not survive

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

The news about the absence of binoculars from the lookout was received with criticism (according to many testimonies, the binoculars were only on the Belfast-Southampton segment, after this stop Hogg, on the orders of the captain, for some reason folded them in his cockpit). There is an opinion that having binoculars looking ahead, despite a moonless night, would notice an iceberg not a quarter of a mile (450 m), but 2 or 3 miles (4-6 km). On the other hand, binoculars narrow the field of view, so they are used only after the lookout has noticed something, for a more detailed study of the alleged object. At the same time, lookouts without binoculars discovered the iceberg earlier than the watch officer who had binoculars. On the other hand, on the Titanic there was a special group of lookouts who had some experience. On many other ships, random sailors from the crew were placed as lookouts.

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

The question of what prevented the senior on the bridge, the first assistant W. Murdoch, whose immediate duty was to constantly monitor the situation, to discover the iceberg himself in a timely manner, remains open: Murdoch died in a shipwreck. The captain of the Carpathia, Rostron, said that 75% of the objects in the sea are detected from the bridge earlier than from the "crow's nest". When his ship sailed at night to the site of the accident of the Titanic, all the icebergs on their way were seen from the bridge before they were discovered by the lookouts.

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

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

Attention should be paid to the fact that the accident occurred on the first flight.

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

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

High liner speed

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

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

The main subjective cause of death

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

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

A set of adverse factors

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

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

At the time of the sinking, the ships closest to the Titanic were: the Carpathia, the fishing vessel Samson and the Californian. Of these, the telegraph was installed on the Carpathia and the Californian.
The Carpathia was 49 miles from the Titanic. And it was this ship that was the first to arrive at the crash site 4 hours later and took all the surviving passengers from the boats.
The fishing schooner Samson was 17 miles from the Titanic. Fishermen were engaged in illegal catching of seals on this vessel. At the sight of white flares (they indicated attention) and because of the bright light of the liner, the captain of the Samson thought it was a coast guard signal and hurried to take the ship away. There were no red signal flares on the Titanic (they indicated danger and the captain who sees them is obliged to go there). If there were red flares on the liner, then the victims could have been avoided.
The ship "Californian" was 26 miles from the "Titanic" and at the sight of flares, the captain thought that fireworks were being set off there. At the same time, the ship's radio station did not function, since the only radio operator was resting after the watch. The next morning the captain told the story of the missiles to the telegrapher. The telegraph operator began to check incoming messages, and five minutes was enough for him, and he understood everything about the sinking of the Titanic. For this, the captain of the Californian lost his rank for failing to provide assistance to a sinking ship.

Flood depth

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

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

In April 2012, one hundred years after the shipwreck, the wreck acquired the protection of the 2001 UNESCO Convention for the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage. From now on, the states parties to the Convention have the right to prevent the destruction, looting, sale and unauthorized distribution of objects found at the shipwreck. They can take all necessary measures to protect the wreckage of a sunken ship, as well as to ensure that the human remains resting in them are properly treated.

Investigation of the site of the sinking of the Titanic

In addition, 12 dives on the same vehicles were carried out in September 1995 in preparation for the filming of the film Titanic. Footage of the exterior and interior of the wreck was used in the film.

Conspiracy theory

The theory is based on the assumption of fraud in order to obtain insurance. In 1911, when leaving for voyage 11, the Olympic collided with the British cruiser Hawk. At the same time, the latter miraculously remained afloat, while the Olympic escaped with minor damage. By that time, the White Star Line company was already suffering serious financial losses. The insurance for the ship could well cover all the losses, but the damage received in the collision with the cruiser was not enough to pay the insurance. It was necessary that the ship received even more damage (which, however, would not affect its buoyancy). Therefore, when passing through a dangerous area, the ship was deliberately exposed to the risk of colliding with an iceberg - the owners of the White Star Line company were confident that even if they received serious damage, the ship would not sink.

Despite the seemingly obvious absurdity of this version, it has become widespread, and it turned out to be very difficult to refute it. Against her, for example, was the fact that many passengers of the Titanic had previously sailed on the Olympic and would hardly have noticed the substitution. In addition, the presence on board the top officials of the White Star Line also testified not in favor of the conspiracy theory. Supporters of the conspiracy theory explained the presence of Bruce Ismay on board by his desire to divert suspicion from himself and confidence in the "unsinkability" of the ship. Actually, the conspiracy theory was debunked only after the parts were lifted from the ship, on which the number 401 (the building number of the Titanic) was knocked out, since the building number of the Olympic was 400. However, despite numerous counterarguments, the version of the conspiracy is still still continues to exist - evidence of this is a number of modern popular science articles and documentaries that defend this point of view.

The Titanic II will set sail in 2016
Australian billionaire Clive Palmer has announced his intention to build a replica ship, the Titanic 2 cruise ship.

It will be built at a Chinese shipyard and, recreating the appearance of the legendary ship (there will be the same four steam pipes), will at the same time be equipped with modern navigation and running equipment, including diesel power plant, bow bulb, side thrusters (thrusters) and an enlarged steering wheel. The vessel is expected to be ready for its maiden voyage in April 2016.

Monument to the crew of the Titanic in Southampton

The film "Titanic"

The film Titanic, released in 1997 by James Cameron, was the world box office leader for 13 years ($1,845,034,188, including $600,788,188 in the US), but in 2010, the Titanic record was broken by the film Avatar ”, released by the same director; In April 2012, on the centenary of the disaster, Cameron released his old film in 3D.

In honor of the centenary of the sinking of the liner, the mini-series "Titanic" directed by Jon Jones was filmed. World premiere March 21, 2012.

"Titanic: Blood and Steel" is a 12-episode film, where the main characters will be the actual creators of the liner, previously called unsinkable, forced to work in an atmosphere of political and financial pressure. The world premiere took place on April 15, 2012.

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

Manufacturers "Revell" and "Zvezda" produce prefabricated plastic models-copies of the "Titanic".

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: Managing Director of White star line Bruce Ismay later claimed that John Pierpont Morgan, the owner of IMM, which owned the Titanic, forced the crew to sail at maximum speed in order to "sail to New York and disembark people before the inevitable explosions occur."

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

The tragic prediction of disaster by William Steed

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

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

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

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

Captain Edward Smith

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

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

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

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

Later, when the last boat was launched, Smith walked the boat deck for the last time. 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 reviews about the Asian who escaped in boat number 13 lead to the conclusion that it was Hosono.

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

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

Real Titanic necklace

The "Heart of the Ocean" necklace actually existed

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

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

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

Mistakes and theories

Perhaps the Supermoon is to blame for the disaster

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

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

In 2010, journalist Louise Patton, granddaughter of one of the Titanic's officers, suggested that the ship would have avoided the collision if, after reporting the iceberg, Robert Hitchins, the helmsman, had not panicked and first turned the rudder to opposite side. 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. He reminded her of a huge ice cave, which Shutes 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 link between the sinking of the Costa Concordia and the Titanic?

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

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

The history of the creation of the ship

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

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

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

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

The first voyage of the "unsinkable"

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

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

Tragic foresight of the sinking of the Titanic

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How was the evacuation of people from the Titanic?

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

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

Memoirs of eyewitnesses of the tragedy

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

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

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

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

Indirect causes of the shipwreck

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

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

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

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

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

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