Stories of survivors of the Titanic. How many people died on the Titanic? The true story of the disaster. Daniel Buckley dressed up as a woman to get into a lifeboat
The sinking of the Titanic is one of the major tragedies of the 20th century.
This is a terrible event ruzheno many myths, conjectures and rumors.
But few people know what happened to the passengers of the fateful flight, who managed to survive the worst maritime disaster of the century.
The following selection of documentary photos will give a complete picture of what happened next with those who managed to escape from the sinking ship.
Passengers of the Titanic photo
Frederick Fleet
In this photo, 24-year-old British sailor Frederick Fleet a few days after the sinking of the Titanic. The guy was the first to spot the iceberg.
He took part in two world wars. In 1965, after a protracted depression, Fleet took his own life.
As for the events on the Titanic, the events developed approximately as follows:
On April 10, 1912, the ship entered its first and last voyage. The huge liner raced at full speed from Southampton to New York.
On April 14, 1912, at 11:39 p.m., Friedrich Fleet spotted an iceberg right on the course, which eventually destroyed the Titanic.
After two hours and 40 minutes, faced with a huge boulder, he went to the bottom.
Of the 2224 people on board the "unsinkable" ship, only about 700 people fit into lifeboats, thanks to which they survived.
The remaining 1,500 died by being left on the sinking ship or died within minutes of falling into the frigid waters of the North Atlantic Ocean.
Shortly before dawn on April 15, the flotilla of survivors was spotted by the steamer Carpathia, which arrived at the site of the sinking of the Titanic. By 9 am, all the surviving passengers were on board the Carpathia.
Photo of the iceberg Titanic
Iceberg that sank the Titanic.
The surviving passengers of the Titanic in boats swim up to the ship Carpathia, April 15, 1912.
All the same surviving passengers after a shipwreck in boats.
Sketch of the sinking Titanic.
A sketch of a sinking ship, drawn by passenger survivor John B. Thayer. Some time later, the drawings were supplemented by Mr. P.L. Skidmore (P.L. Skidmore) is already on board the ship "Carpathia", April 1912.
The surviving passengers of the Titanic are trying to keep warm on board the ship "Carpathia".
When Carpathia made her way to New York, it was decided to send out radio messages. So the news of the ongoing tragedy spread quite quickly.
People were in shock, the relatives of the passengers were in a panic. In search of information about their loved ones, they attacked the offices of the shipping company White star line in New York and also in Southampton.
Some of the wealthy and famous surviving passengers and victims were identified prior to the Carpathia's arrival at the port.
But relatives and friends of passengers of a lower class, as well as the families of crew members, continued to remain in the dark about the fate of their relatives.
The lack of connections did not allow them to get the news immediately and they had to wait in painful uncertainty.
The Carpathia arrived in New York Harbor on a rainy evening on 18 April. The ship was surrounded by more than 50 tugboats carrying journalists. They shouted, called out to the survivors, offering money for first-hand interviews.
A reporter from one of the major American publications, who at that time was on board the Carpathia, had already managed to interview the survivors. He placed his notes in a floating cigar box and tossed them into the water so the publisher's editor could fish for the message and get the scoop first.
After all lifeboats were launched at Pier 59, owned by the White Star Line. The ship itself docked at Pier 54. In the pouring rain, the ship was greeted by an alarmed crowd of 40,000 people.
People wait for news outside the White Star Line shipping company's office in New York.
Lifeboats, thanks to which several hundred people survived.
Lifeboats at the pier of the White Star Line shipping company in New York, April 1912.
People waiting for Carpathia to arrive in New York.
Huge crowds of relatives and friends stand in the rain, waiting for the arrival of the steamer "Carpathia" in New York, April 18, 1912.
About 40 thousand people are waiting for Carpathia.
Those who managed to survive the fateful voyage on the Titanic in New York were met at the port by family and friends, as well as numerous media representatives.
Someone mourned the dead, someone wanted an autograph, and someone tried to interview the survivors.
The next day, the US Senate called a special hearing on the disaster at the old Waldorf-Astoria hotel.
The entire crew of the Titanic consisted of 885 people, of which 724 people were from Southampton. At least 549 people did not return home from the fatal flight.
Surviving crew members.
Surviving crew from left to right first row: Ernest Archer, Friedrich Fleet, Walter Perkis, George Simons and Frederic Klachen.
Second row: Arthur Bright, George Hogg, John Moore, Frank Osman and Henry Etsch.
People surrounded the Titanic survivor.
A crowd of people in the port of Devonport surrounded a man who survived from the Titanic to hear firsthand how it really happened.
Payment of compensation to victims.
April 1912
J. Hanson, seated right, District Secretary of the National Union of Sailors and Firefighters. The people around him are the survivors of the Titanic, who are receiving compensation as victims of the disaster.
Relatives waiting for the survivors of the Titanic.
People wait on the Southampton railway platform for their loved ones who survived the sinking of the Titanic.
Relatives in Southampton meet their loved ones.
Relatives waiting for the surviving crew members.
Relatives are waiting for the surviving members of the Titanic crew to disembark in Southampton.
People are returning to their homes in England. The disaster claimed the lives of 549 crew members. In total, there were 724 of those from Southampton who worked on the ship, ranging from a sailor to a cook or postman.
Relatives a few minutes before meeting with surviving relatives.
Survivors on the Titanic
Relatives greet shipwrecked relatives who have arrived in Southampton.
A surviving crew member kisses his wife, who was waiting for him on land in Plymouth, April 29, 1912.
Stewards giving evidence after a shipwreck.
The surviving stewards stand outside the courthouse. They are invited to testify to the commission investigating the Titanic disaster.
The surviving passenger of "Titanic" Signs autographs to passers-by.
People who survived on the Titanic
25. The Pasco brothers, members of the crew of the ill-fated ship, were lucky enough to survive all four.
Orphans of the Titanic
April 1912
The miraculously saved two babies could not be identified at first.
The children were later identified as Michel (age 4) and Edmond (age 2) Navratil. To get on the ship, their father took the name Louis Hoffman and used the fictitious names Lolo and Mamon for the children.
The father, with whom the children sailed to New York, died, as a result of which difficulties arose with the real names of the brothers.
However, later they, nevertheless, were able to identify and the kids were safely reunited with their mother.
In this photo, Edmond and Michel Navratil, who have already grown up, are with their mother.
Cameraman Harold Thomas Coffin being interrogated by a Senate committee at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York, May 29, 1912.
29. Child of the Titanic
A nurse holds the newborn Lucien P. Smith. His mother Eloise was pregnant with him when she returned with her husband after honeymoon aboard the Titanic.
The baby's father died in the crash.
Eloise subsequently married another survivor of the dreaded flight, Robert P. Daniel.
And finally, a photograph of the Titanic itself on the day it left on its first and last fateful voyage...
Stories to be told!
When the Titanic left Southampton on April 10, 1912 for her maiden voyage, she was the largest and most luxurious ship in the world. Tragically, the White Star shipping company never made it to New York. She collided with an iceberg on April 14, 1912 at 11:40 pm and sank in the North Atlantic at 2:20 am on April 15. Then more than 1,500 passengers and crew members died, and only 705 people managed to survive this terrible maritime disaster.
This event stunned the whole world, because many people initially believed that the luxury liner was unsinkable. This tragedy still attracts attention, many are interested in how the passengers and crew acted on that fateful night. Most of us know the fictional story of Jack and Rose or have heard of The Unsinkable Molly Brown, but there are also some intriguing but little-known stories.
1. Alex McKenzie
Alex McKenzie, 24, never set foot on board the Titanic, despite having already packed his luggage and queued up to board the luxury liner. His parents bought him a ticket for the first voyage of the ship as a gift. Suddenly, Alex heard a voice that warned him that he would die if he went on a journey on an advertised ship.
The voice sounded so clear that Alex looked around to see who was speaking, but no one was around. Deciding that he misheard, Mackenzie continued to move towards the gangway, but suddenly he heard this message again. He ignored him again, only to hear the voice again, much louder this time. Then Alex obeyed and refused the trip, deciding to return to his hometown Glasgow, where he had to explain to his parents why he refused to board the greatest ship in the world.
2. Edith Russell
Many people dreamed of being a first-class passenger aboard the Titanic, but not Edith Rosenbaum (later known as Edith Russell). She couldn't shake the bad feeling. Edith boarded the Titanic on her first stop in Cherbourg, France, returning from a French fashion show in Paris. In a letter to her secretary, Edith wrote: “We are going to Queenstown. I just hate leaving Paris and would love to come back here again. I was going to rest on this trip, but I can't get rid of the depression and foreboding. How I wish all this would be over as soon as possible!
When the Titanic hit an iceberg, Edith asked the steward to bring a pig-shaped music box from her first-class cabin. She stood on the boat deck with her hand on that music box and refused to get into the lifeboat until all the women and children had been put in. Suddenly, someone grabbed a box wrapped in a blanket, thinking it was a child, and threw it into the boat. Not wanting to part with such a beloved thing, Edith jumped into the boat. The music box saved her life.
3. Two homeless children in the sea
Since adult male passengers were not put on lifeboats during the sinking of the Titanic, the father was forced to place his two sons in the boat, while he himself remained on board the ship. The kids could only speak French and did not have any personal items with them, so the rescue ship "Carpathia" could not identify them in any way. In order to find a family of boys in France, newspapers printed articles about two "marine homeless children" and published their photographs.
Meanwhile, the mother desperately searched for her two sons, who disappeared without a trace. The story of two homeless children caught up with her in Nice, France. After the woman described the signs of her children to the rescue service, the boys were identified as four-year-old Michel and two-year-old Edmond. The boys were abducted by their father, Michel Navratil, who traveled on a ship under the alias "Mr. Hoffman" and hoped to start in the US new life with own children.
4. Edward and Ethel Beane
Second class passengers Edward and Ethel Beane were about to celebrate their recent marriage aboard the Titanic. When the Titanic hit an iceberg, the newlyweds from England weren't bothered, as they, like many, thought the ship was unsinkable. They weren't worried until a passenger from the next cabin warned them twice about the seriousness of the situation.
Ethel reluctantly boarded the lifeboat, leaving Edward aboard the ship. While Ethel was swimming in safe place, her husband had to jump overboard to be reunited with his wife. Edward swam away from the sinking ship until he found salvation on a boat. Fortunately, the happy couple is reunited to continue their married life.
5. Thomas Millar
After the death of his wife and three months before the Titanic's maiden voyage, Thomas Millar decided to take a job as a deck mechanic's assistant on the White Star luxury liner. He did this to secure the future of his two sons, Thomas and Ruddick.
Millar left his children in the care of an aunt in a village near Belfast. He hoped that he would be able to start a new life in the United States, which his sons would later join. Before leaving for America, Thomas gave each of his sons one penny and told them that they should not spend it until he returned. Thomas Millar never returned to his sons because he lost his life aboard the ship. While Thomas Jr. spent his penny, the Ruddick coin is still kept by the Millar family as a symbol of a father's love for his children.
6. Father Francis Brown
Father Francis Brown was a first class passenger on board the Titanic. He was one of those people who had many rare photographs of life on board the ship. The Jesuit priest was a passionate photographer; he received a ticket for the first flight of the Titanic as a gift from his uncle. Excited that he was on board a luxurious vessel, and aware that he was present on historical event, Father Brown took many photographs, which were published in printed publications Worldwide.
While most of the Titanic's passengers were bound for New York, Father Brown was one of eight passengers who abandoned the ship as it called at Queenstown (now known as Coba) in Ireland, the last port before the Atlantic voyage. Despite the fact that the rich couple offered to pay for the rest of the trip to New York, the priest was called off the ship by his leadership. Therefore, Father Brown survived the disaster, as did the photographs he took, which now give us a glimpse of life on that ill-fated ship.
7. Two cousins
There were two cousins aboard the Titanic, but neither of them was aware of the presence of their distant relative. William Edwy Ryerson was the steward who served the first-class saloon dining room. He knew little about his second cousin, Arthur Ryerson, who was also on board the ship as a first class passenger along with his wife, Emily, and their three children.
Arthur's family was on their way to their hometown of Cooperstown, New York, after they were informed that Arthur's son had passed away. William and Arthur had a common great-great-grandfather, but they were from completely different circles. William was born into a working-class family in Port Dover, Ontario, Canada, while Arthur lived a prosperous life.
While William was seating passengers on the lifeboats, Arthur negotiated with the crew members to place his 13-year-old son John in the lifeboat along with his wife and daughters. Arthur was the only member of the family who died during maritime disaster, while William escaped the sinking ship in a lifeboat.
8. Countess of Rothes
On a journey through North Atlantic The Titanic also included some of the richest people in the world, and one of the honored passengers on board was Lucy Noelle Martha, Countess of Rotes. She traveled to the US with her cousin Gladys Cherry and her maid, Roberta Mayoni. Her goal was to meet her husband and two children to start a new life in the USA.
The Countess and her cousin were awakened when the ship collided with an iceberg. Captain Smith instructed everyone to return to their quarters and put on life jackets. At about 1:00 a.m., the Countess, along with her cousin and maid, embarked on boat No. 8, which was the first to be launched. Tom Jones, a lifeboat sailor, quickly recognized the countess as a strict leader and ordered her to steer the boat. She sat at the helm of the boat and steered it for more than an hour, after which she switched places with her cousin to try to calm a Spanish bride who had lost her fiancé on the ship.
The Countess rowed the oars throughout the night and morally supported the passengers until the Carpathia arrived at the crash site.
She provided assistance not only during the journey on the boat. The Countess remained aboard the Carpathia after the ship docked in New York, helping those passengers who had lost everything in the crash. On her return to Scotland, the Countess of Rothes purchased a silver watch inscribed with "April 15, 1912, Countess of Rothes", which she sent to Tom Jones as a gift and in gratitude for his efforts on board the lifeboat. He responded to her gift with a letter, thanking her for her kindness and courage, and sent her a brass plaque from the lifeboat. The sailor and the countess corresponded until her death in 1956.
9. James Moody
Another hero aboard the ship was 6th Officer James Moody, who decided to stay on board despite being offered a place on the lifeboat. The 24-year-old junior officer received a small salary of $37 for his service on the ship and his own cabin while on board the Titanic.
Before the Titanic set off on its first transatlantic voyage, Moody unwittingly saved the lives of six crew members who were not allowed to board the gangplank because they were late. When the ship hit the iceberg, a young officer was on duty and answered Lukut's call to Frederick Fleet, asking him, "What do you see?" Fleet replied: "Iceberg, right in front of us!".
When the captain announced that the ship would sink within a few hours, Officer Moody launched lifeboats 12, 14, and 16. Fifth Officer Harold Lowe suggested that Moody steer lifeboat 14, which was normal for lower-ranking officers. But Moody turned down Lowe's offer. Despite his low rank, Moody remained on the ship and helped First Officer Murdoch until the water began to flood the boat deck. Moody was repeatedly offered to become the commander of the boat, but every time he courageously decided to stay on the ship in order to save as much as possible more lives and watch the disaster until the very end. Second Officer Lightoller was the last person to see Moody alive at 2:18 a.m., when he was trying to launch collapsible lifeboats.
10 Jack Phillips
Jack Phillips was the senior radio operator aboard the Titanic and was paired with junior operator Harold Bride. Two men were engaged in receiving and sending messages from passengers using Morse code, and also received weather warnings for the captain.
Before the disaster, Phillips received numerous iceberg warnings from other ships, Bride delivered many of them to the captain. However, due to a large number passenger communications Phillips was unable to deliver all the warnings to Captain Smith; he believed that the captain had already received enough warnings about the danger of icebergs. When another report of the iceberg came from the steamer Californian, Phillips replied: “Shut up! I have negotiations with Cape Race! Subsequently, Phillips began to be called one of the perpetrators of the crash.
However, when the ship hit an iceberg 400 nautical miles off Newfoundland, Phillips did everything he could to send out distress calls to ensure the rescue of passengers and crew. The 25-year-old telegraph operator remained at his post even when the captain relieved him of his duties. He relentlessly sent messages to nearby ships until 2:17 a.m., when the ship was already sinking to the bottom of the ocean.
His connection to the Carpathia helped save 705 passengers. Many ships later reported that Phillips' messages were absolutely clear, despite the chaos that was going on around him. Unfortunately, despite having a collapsible lifeboat, Jack Phillips died in a sea disaster.
Until December 1987, when the Philippine ferry Doña Paz was wrecked, the sinking of the Titanic remained the largest maritime disaster in terms of the number of victims in peacetime. Informally, it is the most famous disaster of the 20th century.
1496 people died in this disaster. Most of the people died from hypothermia, because the temperature ocean water was −2°С. An hour and a half after the Titanic was completely submerged, the steamship Carpathia arrived at the scene of the tragedy and picked up the survivors in the boats. 712 passengers and crew members were saved.
Frederick Fleet, lookout on the Titanic, who first spotted the iceberg. He survived and later participated in the first and second world wars. In 1965 he committed suicide.
People wait outside the White Star Line offices in New York for news.
April 1912. Boats of the Titanic at the White Star Line, New York.
April 18, 1912. People wait for the arrival of the steamship Carpathia, carrying the survivors of the Titanic, in New York.
Surviving crew members, front row: Ernest Archer, Frederick Fleet, Walter Perkis, George Symons and Frederick Clench. Second row: Arthur Bright, George Hogg, John Moore, Frank Osman and Henry Etches.
A crowd in Devonport listens to a Titanic survivor.
The secretary of the National Union of Sailors and Firefighters pays a monetary reward to the surviving crew members of the Titanic.
Relatives are waiting on the railway platform for the arrival in Southampton of the Titanic survivors.
April 29, 1912. Relatives are waiting for the survivors of the Titanic disaster, on the shore, in Southampton.
April 29, 1912: Relatives greet survivors of the Titanic as they return to Southampton.
April 29, 1912. The stewards who survived the Titanic disaster are waiting for interrogation by the commission to investigate the causes of the accident.
April 29, 1912. The four crew members of the Titanic, the Pasco brothers, who survived, returned to Southampton.
Four-year-old Michel and two-year-old Edmond Navratil. They are known as the orphans of the Titanic - Louis and Lola. They sailed on the Titanic with their father M. Navratil, who died during the disaster. Since the children were toddlers and did not speak English, they could not identify themselves. French-speaking first-class passenger Margaret Hayes took charge of the boys until their mother, Marcel, recognized them from photographs in newspaper articles. Marcel traveled to New York, where she was reunited with her sons on May 16, 1912.
Louis and Lola.
Radio operator Harold Thomas Coffin in front of a Senate commission, at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York.
In this photo taken in November 1912, a nurse holds the newborn Lucien P. Smith in her arms. Lucien's parents, Eloise and Lucien P. Smith Sr., married in February 1912 and were returning on the Titanic from honeymoon trip. She was eighteen, he was twenty-four; she escaped, he died. On board the Carpathia, Eloise met another Titanic survivor, Robert Williams Daniel. It is worth noting that Daniel was one of those men who escaped not because he got into the boat from the deck of the ship, but because he jumped into the water and swam to the already lowered boat.
They married in August 1914, but divorced nine years later, in 1923. In the same 1923, Eloise married a third time, and Robert married a second (but not the last - both of them were married three times). In 1935, he was elected Senator of the State of Virginia and served in this position until his death in 1940, and his son from his third marriage, also Robert Williams Daniel, was elected to the US House of Representatives in 1972 and served there until 1983. Robert Jr. was four years old when his father died, and he himself lived almost to the centennial anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic - he died on February 4, 2012.
MK correspondents reveal new secrets of the most famous liner
Scientists told "MK" new circumstances of the death of the famous liner. MK correspondents found in St. Petersburg the descendants of an honest cashier from the Titanic, and also found out that the survivors of the shipwreck were shot in the camps.
"TITANIC" DESTROYED THE MOON AND THE CAPTAIN
Scientists continue to find out new circumstances of the death of the famous liner
Hundreds of books have been written about this tragedy, dozens of films have been shot, but it still haunts the minds of researchers. Among the latest works on one of the most high-profile catastrophes of the past century are the studies of Samuel Halpern and a group of astronomers led by Donald Olson. "MK" contacted both authors to find out their point of view on the events of a century ago.
“You can only blame the captain of the ship”
Recall that, according to the results of the 1912 investigation, the iceberg that the Titanic collided with was seen 37 seconds before the collision. The ship changed course almost instantly, but the accident was no longer avoided.
However, Samuel Halpern and his colleagues, who published a book with their new research on the centenary of the tragedy, believe that theoretically the ship could not have collided with the iceberg. The authors took as a basis the memories of those people whose testimony was not used in the investigation a hundred years ago. We are talking about Frederick Fleet, who was on the observation bridge that night, and Robert Hickens at the helmsman. Their evidence made it possible to establish that the iceberg was actually seen a minute before the collision, and if the order to change course had been given even 20 seconds earlier, the catastrophe could have been avoided. However, William Murdoch, the ship's senior mate, who was the officer in charge on the bridge on the night of the tragedy, did not do this, since the change of course also threatened with disaster - the stern could touch the iceberg when turning. Murdoch hesitated, hoping that the ship would pass the danger anyway.
So who is to blame for the death of the ship? About this "MK" talked with Sam Halpern himself.
- What inspired you to study the wreck of the Titanic and how long have you been doing this?
— By the nature of my work, I am a systems analyst and researcher. The Titanic disaster is one of the many topics that interest me.
- What do you not like about official version those events?
- The investigation into the causes of the disaster in hot pursuit, in 1912, did not include many obvious facts for that time. We have this data now. At the same time, experts studying the causes of the tragedy preferred, for example, the testimony of some surviving officers, while ignoring the testimony of other people.
As for the events of that tragic night, there were many factors that led to the disaster. One of them is human. People generally make mistakes.
- Did the crew of the ship, in your opinion, have a chance to save the ship after the collision?
- No, the fate of the Titanic was sealed when the iceberg broke through five main partitions in the ship's hull, as a result of which water began to flow into the forward compartment, the first three holds and the boiler room.
- Can we say that the disaster was the result of the mistake of only one person, William Murdoch?
- No. If anyone is to be blamed for the disaster, it must be the captain of the ship, Edward John Smith. It was he who could have saved the ship much earlier if he had sent the ship south, even before he headed for New York at 17.50. By that time, more than one warning had sounded over the radio that ice was ahead and that by nightfall the ship would be in a place full of icebergs. Edward Smith himself took the risk and did not deviate from the course, this was his fatal mistake.
Has there been any official reaction to your latest book?
“I don't really understand what the official reaction is in this case, but the feedback that my book, written in collaboration with ten other people, has received, has been positive.
“We just explained how so many icebergs came from on the way of the Titanic”
But a team of American astronomers from the University of Austin, Texas, does not deny the generally accepted versions of the circumstances of the tragedy. However, researchers led by Donald Olson decided to establish what caused the abundance of icebergs, one of which collided with the Titanic.
In their opinion, the position of the Moon relative to the Earth played a huge role. In particular, in January 1912, the Earth approached the maximum possible distance from the Sun, and the very next day the Moon reached perigee - the point of its orbit closest to the Earth. The gravitational influence of the Sun and Moon on the Earth has led to a rise in sea levels. And this, in turn, "liberated" huge icebergs, which at a normal water level would stand in one place, gradually decreasing in size. However, the activity of celestial bodies eventually released healthy blocks into the voyage, and one of them met with the Titanic. The head of the research team, Donald Olson, shared with MK his thoughts on the influence of celestial bodies on events on Earth and the fate of the Titanic.
- How did you come to the fact that you connected the Titanic disaster and astronomical anomalies?
“Our group at the University of Texas has been studying unusually high tides caused by various astronomical phenomena and their impact on events in human history for a very long time. In Sky&Telescope magazine, we have already published articles related to the Boston Tea Party, the Battle of Tarawa in 1943, Julius Caesar's invasion of Britain in 55 BC, the landing of troops in Normandy in 1944, known as D-Day, Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. The tides played a decisive role in November 1943 when a landing force of Marines landed on Tarawa. Due to the fact that the landing craft stumbled upon a reef, the Marines had to land on coastal zone under heavy fire. We attribute the decrease in the level of tides during that period to the lunar apogee and the fact that the Moon was in the fourth quarter. Both of these phenomena were observed the day before the landing.
In another article, we talk about the rising moon during the Boston Tea Party. In this case, everything happened quite differently than with the landing on Tarawa. The tides in Boston harbor rose against the backdrop of the new moon and lunar perigee. And again, both phenomena were observed simultaneously, on the eve of the Boston Tea Party. The events of D-Day, which were also affected by the tides, are discussed in our 1994 article, published on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Normandy landings.
In addition, we analyzed tidal currents to establish the site where Caesar landed in his invasion of Britain in 55 BC. Against the background of such experiments, it is not surprising that we took up the dates of the highest tides associated with the lunar perigee, which occurred in January 1912, and, with the help of Fergus Wood, connected this with the iceberg that ruined the Titanic.
The idea that this catastrophe could be associated with astronomical phenomena arose in our minds a long time ago, back in the early 1990s. The article was waiting for the right moment for publication, such as the centenary of the catastrophe.
— How does your research compare with the main version of events?
We are only adding to the already known facts the results of our research. That is, we associate the lunar perigee observed in January 1912 with active tides and, as a result, an abundance of breakaway icebergs that appeared in the path of the ship 3.5 months later.
- As for the tragic night - what specific astronomical circumstances could provoke a catastrophe?
- We know that the night of April 14-15, 1912 was moonless. This means that the visibility was poor and it was difficult to see the iceberg at a distance when there was still a chance to successfully maneuver.
- Did the Titanic have a chance to escape?
- After the collision of the ship with the iceberg, they were no longer there - death was inevitable. Of course, it was the collision with the iceberg that ultimately led to the tragedy. The Titanic did not slow down even after receiving several radio warnings that danger lay ahead. The ship was heading for icebergs at full speed, and this is the most important thing. Our work explains why there were so many icebergs in that place that night in the way of the ship.
- In your article you write that on January 4, 1912, the Moon reached perigee, approaching the Earth at such a small distance that it had not approached for 1400 years. Now that we know what this might entail, we wonder when a similar phenomenon will happen next?
“It can happen no earlier than 2257.
Russian officer rescued a French woman
Descendants of an honest cashier from the Titanic live in St. Petersburg
The exact family lists of the passengers of the Titanic have never been restored. But it is known for certain that there were many subjects on board the liner. Russian Empire, including several Petersburgers. Their relatives still live in the city.
Shipwreck survivors shot in camps
About three dozen Russians went on that ill-fated flight. From Rostov-on-Don, a whole batch of peasants moved to Uruguay. Their relatives were already waiting there. Some managed to escape, and they safely reached America. But after 17 years, yearning for their homeland, they returned to the USSR and were soon shot.
With the Rostov peasants on the lower deck in the third class, an Ossetian guy, Murzakan Kuchiev, also sailed. He was lucky: just before the collision of the ship with the iceberg, he went to upper deck. When the panic began, the Ossetian tore off a life jacket from one of the people and rushed into the water. There he found a chair, perched on it, and so he swam until, almost stiff, he was picked up by a lifeboat from the steamer "Carpathia". On the same ship, the Cossack from the Caucasus, Mikhail, sailed to America (his last name has not been preserved). He was able to survive for several hours in icy water. In the States, he became rich and in 1914 returned home. But in the 1930s, Mikhail was exiled to Siberia, where he disappeared.
There were also Estonians, Armenians, Jews on the Titanic - all with Russian passports.
There were three Petersburgers on board the liner. Two of them were English by origin, but had long been Russified. Arthur Gee headed the Shlisselburg manufactory, he lived in St. Petersburg for more than thirty years. His path lay in Mexico, where Gee wanted to develop his business. The second was Mr. Smith, an agent for the sale of American and English steel products. In St. Petersburg, he already managed to start a family. Both of them went to the bottom.
The third Petersburger from the Titanic had a real opportunity to escape. But he nobly gave way to a woman in the boat. Mikhail Mikhailovich Zhadovsky was in his 69th year. Behind him were the battles of the Russian-Turkish war. A retired captain, he once served in the 4th Life Guards Infantry Battalion of the Imperial Family. His father, General Zhadovsky, lived on Palace embankment, in house 24. Mikhail Mikhailovich had a wife and four sons, also military personnel. But the affairs of the retired officer, apparently, did not develop very well. Otherwise, why would he agree to earn money on the Titanic as a cashier.
During the shipwreck, Zhadovsky had full right, capturing the cash register and documents, get into the boat and escape. Already standing at the side, he gave the money to the boatswain, who took a place in the boat, and said: “I will stay with the captain. I am already 68 years old, and there is still a little time left to live, and the money will be delivered to its destination without me.” He gave way to the Frenchwoman Josephine de Latour. She survived, and a few months after the tragedy, one of the sons of Mikhail Zhadovsky received a letter from her, in which the last minutes of the life of a Russian officer, a cashier from the Titanic, were described.
Relatives of this brave man now live in St. Petersburg. They know little more about his history than was said in Josephine's letter.
- In the Soviet years, in general, many Zhadovskys said that they were simply namesakes with that person, after all, he was an officer, a nobleman. And they tried not to remember him, - Ivan Zhadovsky explained to MK in St. Petersburg.
TO WHOM THE TRAGEDY AND TO WHOM INCOME
The sinking of the Titanic is a reason to replenish the treasury
Thanks to Marconi's "wireless telegraph" installed on the Titanic, the world learned almost immediately about what happened in the Atlantic on the night of April 15, 1912. Humanity was in shock. The Titanic, which was declared the first ship in history to be unsinkable under any conditions, sank like a stone just 2 hours after colliding with ice block, claiming more than 1,500 lives. It was not just a shipwreck, it was a collapse of hopes. The catastrophe dispelled the myth about the infallibility of the world's industrial power, about the fact that a person is able to subjugate wildlife. “People will always mourn the sinking of the Titanic as one of the greatest tragedies in history,” the London Times wrote at the time.
April 9, 1912. "Titanic" in the port of Southampton the day before sailing for America.
April 14 marks the 105th anniversary of legendary disaster. The Titanic is a British steamer of the White Star Line, the second of three Olympic-class twin steamships. largest passenger liner world at the time of its construction. During the first voyage on April 14, 1912, she collided with an iceberg and sank after 2 hours and 40 minutes.
There were 1,316 passengers and 908 crew members on board, for a total of 2,224 people. Of these, 711 people were saved, 1513 died.
Here is how the Ogonyok magazine and the New Illustration magazine talked about this tragedy:
Dining room on the Titanic, 1912
Room for second class passengers aboard the Titanic, 1912.
The main staircase of the Titanic, 1912.
Passengers on the deck of the Titanic. April, 1912
The Titanic orchestra had two members. The quintet was led by the 33-year-old British violinist Wallace Hartley, it included another violinist, double bass player and two cellists. An additional trio of musicians from a Belgian violinist, a French cellist and a pianist were hired for Titanic to give Caf? Parisien continental touch. The trio also played in the lobby of the ship's restaurant. Many passengers considered the Titanic's ship's orchestra to be the best they had ever heard on a ship. Usually, the two members of the Titanic orchestra worked independently of each other - in different parts of the liner and in different time, but on the night of the sinking of the ship, all eight musicians played together for the first time. They played the best and most cheerful music until the last minutes of the liner's life. In the photo: Musicians of the ship's orchestra "Titanic".
Hartley's body was found two weeks after the sinking of the Titanic and sent to England. A violin was tied to his chest - a gift from the bride.
There were no survivors among the other members of the orchestra ... One of rescued passengers Titanic would write later: “Many heroic deeds were performed that night, but none of them could compare with the feat of these few musicians, playing hour after hour, although the ship sank deeper and deeper, and the sea crept up to the place where they stood. The music they performed gave them the right to be included in the list of heroes of eternal glory. In the photo: The funeral of the conductor and violinist of the ship's orchestra "Titanic" Wallace Hartley. April 1912.
The iceberg that the Titanic is believed to have collided with. The photo was taken from the Mackay Bennett, a cable ship operated by Captain DeCarteret. The ship "Mackay Bennett" was one of the first to arrive at the site of the Titanic disaster. According to Captain DeCarteret, it was the only iceberg near the crash site of the ocean liner.
Lifeboat "Titanic", filmed by one of the passengers of the ship "Carpathia". April, 1912
The rescue ship Carpathia picked up 712 survivors of the Titanic. A photo taken by Carpathia passenger Louis M. Ogden shows lifeboats approaching the Carpathia.
April 22, 1912. Brothers Michel (4 years old) and Edmond (2 years old). They were considered "orphans of the Titanic" until their mother was found in France. My father died in a plane crash.
Michel died in 2001, the last male survivor on the Titanic.
A group of rescued Titanic passengers aboard the Carpathia.
Another group of rescued passengers of the Titanic.
Captain Edward John Smith (second from right) with the ship's crew.
Drawing of the sinking Titanic after the disaster.
Passenger ticket for the Titanic. April 1912.
