The Titanic sank. Pursuit of the Blue Ribbon of the Atlantic. North and South transatlantic routes. ice conditions

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 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 the bow and the last in the stern were solid, in all the rest there were sealed doors that allowed the crew and passengers to move between compartments. On the flooring of the second bottom, in the bulkhead "K", there were the only doors that led to the cooling chamber. On decks "F" and "E" in almost all bulkheads there were airtight doors connecting the rooms used by passengers, all of them could be battened down both remotely and manually, using a device located directly on the door and from the deck that reached bulkhead. To batten down such doors on the passenger decks, a special key was required, which was available only to the senior stewards. But on deck "G" there were no doors in the bulkheads.

In bulkheads "D" - "O

”, Directly above the second bottom in the compartments where the machines and boilers were located, there were 12 vertically closed doors, they were controlled from the navigation bridge with the help of an electric drive. In case of danger or accident, or when the captain or watch officer deemed it necessary, the electromagnets, on a signal from the bridge, released the latches, and all 12 doors lowered under the influence of their own gravity and the space behind them turned out to be hermetically closed. If the doors were closed by an electric signal from the bridge, then it was possible to open them only after removing the voltage from the electric drive.

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 steamer had 20 lifeboats, which was enough for landing 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

, located one above the other at a distance of 2.5-3.2 m. The topmost one was a boat, under it there were 7 others, indicated from top to bottom with letters from “A” to “G”. Only decks "C", "D", "E" and "F" ran the entire length of the vessel. The boat deck and the "A" deck did not reach either the bow or the stern, and the "G" deck was located only in the front of the liner - from the boiler rooms to the bow and in the aft - from the engine room to the stern cut. On the open boat deck there were 20 lifeboats, along the sides there were promenade decks.

Deck "A"

167 m long, almost all of it was intended for first-class passengers.

Deck "B"

170 m long was interrupted in the bow, forming an open space above deck "C", and then continued in the form of a 38-meter bow superstructure with anchor handling equipment and a mooring device. In front of deck "C" there were anchor winches for 2 main side anchors, there was also a galley and a dining room for sailors and stokers. Behind the bow superstructure there was a promenade (the so-called inter-superstructure) deck for third-class passengers 15 m long. On deck “D” there was another, isolated, third-class promenade deck. Along the entire length of deck "E" were the cabins of passengers of the first and second classes, as well as the cabins of the stewards and mechanics. In the first part of deck "F" there were 64 cabins for passengers of the second class and the main living quarters for passengers of the third, stretching for 45 m and occupying the entire width of the liner. There were 2 large saloon, dining room for third-class passengers, a swimming pool and a Turkish bath complex.

G-deck

captured only the bow and stern, between which the boiler rooms were located. The forward part of the deck, 58 m long, was 2 m above the waterline, gradually lowered towards the center of the liner and at the opposite end was already at the level of the waterline. There were 26 cabins for 106 third-class passengers, the rest of the area was occupied luggage compartment for first class passengers, post offices and a squash court with a gallery for spectators. Behind the bow of the deck there were coal bunkers, which occupied 6 watertight compartments around the chimneys, followed by 2 compartments with steam pipes for reciprocating steam engines and a turbine compartment. This was followed by the aft part of the deck 64 m long with warehouses, pantries and 60 four-berth cabins for 186 third-class passengers, which was already below the waterline.

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

located about one and a half meters above the keel and occupied 9/10 of the length of the vessel, not capturing only small areas in the bow and stern. On the second day, boilers, reciprocating steam engines, a steam turbine and electric generators were installed, all firmly fixed on steel plates, the remaining space was used for cargo, coal and drinking water tanks. In the engine room section, the second bottom rose 2.1 m above the keel, which increased the protection of the liner in case of damage to the outer skin.

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

, size 7.3 × 6 m, height - 18.5 m. The first three removed smoke from the boiler furnaces, the fourth, located above the turbine compartment, served as an exhaust fan, a chimney for ship kitchens was connected to it. A longitudinal section of the vessel is presented on its model exhibited at the Deutsches Museum in Munich, where it is clearly seen that the last pipe was not connected to the fireboxes. The fourth chimney was purely decorative to make the ship look more powerful.

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.

The radio equipment on the liner was the most modern, the power of the main transmitter was 5 kilowatts, the power came from an electric generator. The second, an emergency transmitter, was powered by batteries. 4 antennas were stretched between the two masts, up to 75 m long. The guaranteed range of the radio signal was 250 miles. During the day, under favorable conditions, communication was possible at a distance of up to 400 miles, and at night - up to 2000.

radio equipment

arrived on board on April 2 from the Marconi company, which by that time had monopolized the radio industry in Italy and England. Two young radio officer officers assembled and installed the station all day, for verification, a test connection was immediately made with the coast station at Malin Head (English), on the north coast of Ireland, and with Liverpool. On April 3, the radio equipment worked like clockwork, on this day a connection was established with the island of Tenerife at a distance of 2000 miles and with Port Said in Egypt (3000 miles). In January 1912, the Titanic was assigned radio call signs "MUC", then they were replaced by "MGY", previously owned by the American ship Yale. As the dominant radio company, Marconi introduced its own radio call signs, most of which began with the letter "M", regardless of the location of the station and the country of home of the vessel on which it was installed.

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.

Shortest route from northern Europe to the USA 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. From the South Highway, along the western route of which the Titanic also moved, reports of icebergs came one after another. 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 that it is necessary to monitor the fresh water system - water in the pipelines may 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

Monday, April 15, 1912
00:05 - The trim on the nose became noticeable. An order was given to uncover the lifeboats and convene the crew and passengers to the assembly points.
00:15 - the first radiotelegraph signal for help was transmitted from the Titanic.
00:45 - The first flare is fired and the first lifeboat (No. 7) is launched. The bow deck goes under water.
01:15 - Class 3 passengers are allowed on deck.
01:40 - The last flare is fired.
02:05 - the last lifeboat is launched (collapsible boat D). The bow of the boat deck goes under water.
02:08 - The Titanic jerks violently and moves forward. A wave rolls over the deck and floods the bridge, washing passengers and crew members into the water.
02:10 - the last radiotelegraph signals were transmitted.
02:15 - The Titanic lifts the stern high, exposing the rudder and propellers.
02:17 - Electric lighting goes out.
02:18 - The Titanic breaks in two as it sinks rapidly.
02:20 - The Titanic sank.
02:29 - At a speed of about 13 miles per hour, the bow of the Titanic crashes into the ocean floor at a depth of 3750 meters, burrowing into the sedimentary rocks of the bottom.
03:30 - flares fired from the Carpathia are noticed from the lifeboats.
04:10 - Carpathia picked up the first lifeboat from the Titanic (boat No. 2).
08:30 - Carpathia picked up the last (No. 12) lifeboat from the Titanic.
08:50 - Carpathia, taking on board 710 people who escaped from the Titanic, heads for New York.
Thursday, April 18, 1912
The Carpathia Arrives in New York

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"

D, taken by one of the passengers of the Carpathia
There were 2,207 people on board the Titanic, but the total capacity of the lifeboats was only 1,178 people. The reason was that, according to the rules then in force, the total capacity of lifeboats depended on the tonnage of the ship, and not on the number of passengers and crew members. The rules were drawn up in 1894, when the largest ships had a displacement of about 10,000 tons. The displacement of the Titanic was 52,310 tons.

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"

Serious criticism fell upon the crew of the SS Californian and personally on the ship's captain, Stanley Lord. The ship was only a few miles from the Titanic, but did not respond to her distress calls. The Californian radioed the Titanic to alert the Titanic of ice build-up—which caused the Californian to stop overnight—but the warnings were ignored by the Titanic's senior wireless operator, Jack Phillips.

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

Ownership Total number Rescued Rescued in % Victims Victims in %
I class 324 201 62 123 38
II class 277 118 42.6 159 57.4
III class 708 181 25.6 527 74.4
Team 898 212 23.6 686 76.4
Total 2207 712 32.26 1495 67.74

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. Total number more than 1,700 people died on the ship, this is the largest disaster on river ships.

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 temperature was sea water at the site of the wreck). 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 the latest studies of the ship's hull by 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 liner was extremely unsatisfactory, there was no direct communication with the captain - he had to report all messages orally. Radio communication at sea in 1912 was still a novelty. Unlike the rest of the team, the radio operators did not work for the shipping company, but for the Marconi K ° company, for which the transfer of paid messages to especially wealthy passengers was a priority - it is known that in just 36 hours of work, the radio operators transmitted more than 250 telegrams.

The radio log from the Titanic did not survive

, but according to the surviving records from various ships that had contact with the liner, it was possible to more or less restore the picture of the work of radio operators. Reports of drifting ice and icebergs began to arrive already in the morning of the fatal date - April 14, the exact coordinates of the high-risk zone were indicated. The Titanic continued to sail on, without swerving off course or slowing down. At 19:30, in particular, a telegram came from the Mesaba transport ship: “I report ice from 42 degrees to 41 degrees 25 minutes north latitude and from 49 degrees to 50 degrees 30 minutes west longitude. Saw a large number of icebergs, ice fields. At this time, the Titanic's senior communications officer, Jack Phillips, worked for the benefit of passengers, transmitting an inexhaustible stream of messages to the Ras Cape station, while most important message so the captain didn’t get it, lost in a pile of paper - the Mesaba radio operator forgot to mark the message as “Ice Report” with the MSG prefix, which meant “personally to the captain.” This little detail overshadowed Philips' selfless work.

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 screw was driven steam turbine, which worked on residual steam from on-board vehicles, this turbine did not have a 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.

The navigators had no experience in operating this vessel, which explains the untimely and inefficient maneuvering attempts. At the same time, Captain Smith, First Officer Wild, and First Officer Murdoch, who was on duty during the accident, had experience working on the Olympic built according to a similar project. In 1903, in a critical situation, Murdoch, with his timely and decisive actions, canceling the command of his superiors, saved the steamer Arabic from a collision.

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 Gerard C. Affeld, who commanded 5 transatlantic ships, testified 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

there were outdated rules of the British Merchant Shipping Code, which made the number of lifeboats dependent on the tonnage of the ship, and not on the number of passengers. The rules were established in 1894 when the tonnage of passenger ships did not exceed 12,952 tons, and all ships of 10,000 tons and above fell into one category. For such vessels, regulations required that the lifeboats had enough space for 962 people. The tonnage of the Titanic was 46,328 tons.

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. Time to dodge ice block there was plenty, but the helmsman, Robert Hitchens, panicked and turned the helm the wrong way. 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 thought only about the financial side of the matter. 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

On September 1, 1985, an expedition led by the director of the Woods Hall Institute of Oceanology, Massachusetts, Dr. Robert D. Ballard, discovered the Titanic's place of occurrence at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean at a depth of 3750 meters.

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 remains of the ship 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

Research into the sinking of the Titanic was undertaken in August-September 2001 by Oscar-winning Titanic director James Cameron. Cameron and a group of scientists plunged to the Titanic on the Russian deep-sea submersibles Mir-1 and Mir-2. With the help of two small ROV submersibles "Jack" and "Elwood" and CGI technology, the documentary "Ghosts of the Abyss: Titanic" (2003) was filmed, in which viewers can look inside 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 similarities between the Olympic and Titanic have given rise to a conspiracy theory according to which tragic flight in fact, it was not the Titanic that was sent, but the Olympic. This became possible after the replacement of stern sheets with the name of the vessel, as well as all household and interior items bearing the name of the vessel (of which, in general, there were quite a few). According to supporters of the theory, this would explain many facts: the lack of binoculars for lookouts, reverse while avoiding the iceberg, high speed.

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 dangerous area the ship was subjected to a deliberate 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 on 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 propulsion equipment, including a diesel power plant, a 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

Main article: Titanic in culture
The crash of the liner was one of the most famous disasters in the history of mankind. To some extent, the image of the Titanic has become a symbol of the death of something that seemed powerful and unsinkable, a symbol of the weakness of human technogenic civilization before the forces of nature. The catastrophe was widely reflected in art, especially mass art. The first film dedicated to the disaster - "The Survivor of the Titanic" - appeared already in May 1912, a month after the crash. In the same year, 1912, but before the catastrophe occurred, Morgan Robertson's book "Futility, or the death of Titan" ("Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan") was published, the action of which took place on board a passenger ship "Titan", similar in description and displacement to the "Titanic". In this book, the Titan dies after colliding with an iceberg in the fog while sailing from New York to the UK. As a result, a legend appeared about the “prediction” of the Titanic disaster by Morgan Robertson. This fact is reinforced by the fact that despite the publication of the book in 1912, it was written in 1898.

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".

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Titanic staircase that adorned the ship in 1912:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

100 years ago, on the night of April 15, 1912, after a collision with an iceberg in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, the Titanic sank with more than 2,200 people on board.

"Titanic" (Titanic) - the largest passenger ship of the early XX century, the second of three twin steamers produced by the British company "White Star Line" ( white star line).

The length of the Titanic was 260 meters, width - 28 meters, displacement - 52 thousand tons, height from the waterline to the boat deck - 19 meters, distance from the keel to the top of the pipe - 55 meters, top speed - 23 knots. Journalists compared it in length with three city blocks, and in height with an 11-story building.

The Titanic had eight steel decks located one above the other at a distance of 2.5-3.2 meters. To ensure safety, the ship had a double bottom, and its hull was separated by 16 watertight compartments. Watertight bulkheads rose from the second bottom to the deck. The chief designer of the ship, Thomas Andrews, stated that even if four of the 16 compartments were filled with water, the liner would be able to continue its journey.

The interiors of the cabins on decks B and C were made in 11 styles. Third class passengers on decks E and F were separated from first and second class by gates located in different parts of the ship.

Before the release of the Titanic in its first and last flight it was especially emphasized that 10 millionaires would be on board the ship on the first voyage, and hundreds of millions of dollars worth of gold and jewelry would be in its safes. American industrialist, heir to mining magnate Benjamin Guggenheim, millionaire with a young wife, assistant to US Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft, Major Archibald Willingham Butt, US Congressman Isidore Strauss, actress Dorothy Gibson, wealthy social activist Margaret Brown, British fashion designer Lucy Christiane Duff Gordon and many other famous and wealthy people of that time.

On April 10, 1912, at noon, the Titanic set off on its only journey from Southampton (UK) to New York (USA) with stops in Cherbourg (France) and Queenstown (Ireland).

During the four days of the journey the weather was clear and the sea calm.

On April 14, 1912, on the fifth day of the journey, several ships sent messages about icebergs in the area of the ship's route. For most of the day, the radio was broken, and many messages were not noticed by radio operators, and the captain did not pay due attention to others.

By evening, the temperature began to drop, reaching zero Celsius by 22:00.

At 23:00, a message was received from the Californian about the presence of ice, but the radio operator of the Titanic cut off the radio traffic before the Californian had time to report the coordinates of the area: the telegraph operator was busy sending personal messages to passengers.

At 23:39, two lookouts noticed an iceberg in front of the liner and reported this by telephone to the bridge. The most senior of the officers, William Murdoch, gave the command to the helmsman: "Left rudder."

At 23:40 "Titanic" in the underwater part of the ship. Of the 16 watertight compartments of the ship, six were cut through.

At 00:00 on April 15, the designer of the Titanic, Thomas Andrews, was called to the captain's bridge in order to assess the severity of the damage. After reporting on the incident and inspecting the ship, Andrews informed everyone present that the liner would inevitably sink.

The ship began to feel a roll on the bow. Captain Smith ordered the lifeboats to be uncovered and the crew and passengers called for evacuation.

By order of the captain, the radio operators began to send out distress signals, which they transmitted for two hours, until the captain released the telegraph operators from duty a few minutes before the sinking of the ship.

Distress signals, but they were too far from the Titanic.

At 00:25, the coordinates of the Titanic were taken by the ship Carpathia, which was 58 nautical miles from the wreck, which was 93 kilometers. ordered to immediately go to the disaster site of the Titanic. Rushing to the rescue, the ship was able to reach a record speed of 17.5 knots - with the maximum possible speed for a vessel of 14 knots. To do this, Rostron ordered to turn off all appliances that consume electricity and heating.

At 01:30, the operator of the Titanic telegraphed: "We are in small boats." By order of Captain Smith, his assistant, Charles Lightoller, who led the rescue of people on the port side of the liner, put only women and children into the boats. The men, according to the captain, were to remain on deck until all the women had boarded the boats. First mate William Murdoch on the starboard side to the men, if there were no women and children in the line of passengers gathering on deck.

Around 02:15, the Titanic's bow dropped sharply, the ship moved forward significantly, and a huge wave swept across the decks, which washed many passengers overboard.

Around 02:20, the Titanic sank.

Around 04:00 am, about three and a half hours after receiving the distress signal, the Carpathia arrived at the wreck of the Titanic. The ship took on board 712 passengers and crew members of the Titanic, after which it arrived safely in New York. Among those rescued were 189 crew members, 129 male passengers and 394 women and children.

The death toll, according to various sources, ranged from 1400 to 1517 people. According to official figures, after the disaster, 60% of passengers are in first class cabins, 44% in second class cabins, and 25% in third class.

The last surviving passenger of the Titanic, who traveled on board the liner at the age of nine weeks, died on May 31, 2009 at the age of 97. The ashes of the woman were scattered over the sea from the pier in the port of Southampton, from where the Titanic set off on its last voyage in 1912.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources

Many have seen a film about the catastrophe of the largest liner in the history of mankind, the Titanic. They know, for example, in which ocean the Titanic sank, and also that the cause of its death was a collision with an iceberg, but, unfortunately, not everyone is well aware of the history of this disaster, as well as the true causes of the shipwreck.

This ship was indeed a marvel of the time, built by the English company White StarLine. In height, it was about the size of an eleven-story high-rise building, and in length - like three large blocks. The ship was equipped with 8 decks and had 16 watertight compartments, which ensured a high level of safety for this liner.

Despite such a powerful and sturdy design, the Titanic sank on its first voyage. There is still a lot of discussion around the death of this giant of shipbuilding and many questions arise related to its disaster. For example, how and why the ship went to the bottom, in what year the Titanic sank, etc.

In what year did the Titanic sink, the first test and access to the ocean

Let's try to figure it out in order with all the nuances and reveal all the secrets of the death of this giant ship. So, the Titanic set off on its maiden voyage on April 10, 1912. Before that, in 1911, the liner was first released into the waters of the oceans for a test voyage. The ship was on this test cruise until April 1912, when it arrived in the English port of Southampton, and on April 10 of the same year, the Titanic set off on its first and, unfortunately, last voyage. Five days later, on the night of April 14-15, the ship collided with an iceberg, as a result of which it sank in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Of all the passengers on board, more than 1,500 people died.

Secrets and mysteries of the Titanic disaster

The commission that investigated the death of this ship was unequivocal in its conclusions and placed all responsibility on the captain of the ship, Smith. He was accused of moving too fast at night on the ice field, although he was warned of the danger. But there are many other mysteries and mysteries in this story.

So, in 1985, a group of oceanographers led by Robert Ballard managed to raise a lot of debris from the ship from the bottom and study them in detail. As a result, scientists have sensational discovery. It turns out that the structure of the ship was made of low grade steel, which caused the ship's bottom to split.

And there was also a hypothesis that the Titanic broke up even before it collided with the iceberg. Low-quality steel could not withstand such loads and cracked. After carefully examining the metal from which the rods and rivets were made in the structure of the ship, scientists found a high level of scale concentration in it. It makes the steel very brittle, which can subsequently lead to its rapid destruction. As proof of the validity of this version is the fact that the creators of the Titanic planned to complete its construction as soon as possible. This haste was the second reason for the death of the ship.

Scientists believe that if high-quality steel was used as the material for the manufacture of rods and rivets, which play a major role in the safety of the vessel, then perhaps the disaster could have been avoided.

Of course, in the crash of the Titanic, in addition to the use of low-quality material, other factors also played a role:

ignoring the ice danger at night by the captain's staff;
negligent attitude of the ship's crew to their duties (after all, the entire captain's staff was warned that there was an iceberg ahead);
inconsistency of seats in lifeboats - for example, out of more than 2 thousand passengers, only about 700 were landed on boats, the rest went under water. But also in confirmation of this there is the fact that these boats were originally designed only for 1178 people, and according to various sources, there were more than 2 thousand people on board.

conclusions

As you can see, despite the fact that the Titanic was one of the largest liners of that time and was equipped according to all safety rules, the slightest neglect of simple rules, the negligent attitude of the captains to their duties and the haste in the process of building this ship led to its collapse during first exit in open ocean. Until 1985, not all the facts were known about this terrible disaster. People knew in which ocean the Titanic sank, how many people died approximately, and also that the ship was wrecked as a result of a collision with an iceberg. But after the research, a team of scientists led by Ballard managed to reveal many new details about the true cause of the disaster of this ship.

building

Construction and equipment

Specifications

Bulkheads

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.

The first 2 bulkheads in the bow and the last in the stern were solid, all the rest had sealed doors that allowed the crew and passengers to move between compartments. On the flooring of the second bottom, in the bulkhead "K", there were the only doors that led to the cooling chamber. On decks "F" and "E" in almost all bulkheads there were airtight doors connecting the rooms used by passengers, all of them could be battened down both remotely and manually, using a device located directly on the door and from the deck that reached bulkhead. To batten down such doors on the passenger decks, a special key was required, which was available only to the senior stewards. But on deck "G" there were no doors in the bulkheads.

In the bulkheads "D" - "O", directly above the second bottom in the compartments where the machines and boilers were located, there were 12 vertically closed doors, they were controlled by an electric drive from the navigation bridge. In case of danger or accident, or when the captain or watch officer deemed it necessary, the electromagnets, on a signal from the bridge, released the latches, and all 12 doors lowered under the influence of their own gravity and the space behind them turned out to be hermetically closed. If the doors were closed by an electric signal from the bridge, then it was possible to open them only after removing the voltage from the electric drive.

Deck "G" captured only the bow and stern, between which the boiler rooms were located. The forward part of the deck, 58 m long, was 2 m above the waterline, gradually lowered towards the center of the liner and at the opposite end was already at the level of the waterline. There were 26 cabins for 106 third class passengers, the rest of the area was occupied by the luggage compartment for first class passengers, the ship's mail and the ball room. Behind the bow of the deck there were coal bunkers, which occupied 6 watertight compartments around the chimneys, followed by 2 compartments with steam pipes for reciprocating steam engines and a turbine compartment. This was followed by the aft part of the deck 64 m long with warehouses, pantries and 60 cabins for 186 third-class passengers, which was already below the waterline.

Masts

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.

Service premises

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. RMS in the name stands for Royal Mail Vessel. The ship had a post office and a warehouse on decks "F" and "G", where 5 postal workers worked.

Second bottom

The second bottom was located about one and a half meters above the keel and occupied 9/10 of the ship's length, not capturing only small areas in the bow and stern. On the second day, boilers, reciprocating steam engines, a steam turbine and electric generators were installed, all firmly fixed on steel plates, the remaining space was used for cargo, coal and drinking water tanks. In the engine room section, the second bottom rose 2.1 m above the keel, which increased the protection of the liner in case of damage to the outer skin.

Power point

Propellers of the Titanic before launching the ship

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.

Pipes

The liner had 4 pipes, each of which had a diameter of 7.3 m, a height of 18.5 m. The first three removed smoke from the boiler furnaces, the fourth, located above the turbine compartment, served as an exhaust fan, a chimney for ship kitchens was connected to it . A longitudinal section of the vessel is presented on its model exhibited at the Deutsches Museum in Munich, where it is clearly seen that the last pipe was not connected to the fireboxes. The fourth chimney was purely cosmetic to make the ship look more powerful.

Electrical supply

Connection

The telephone exchange serviced 50 lines. The radio equipment on the liner was the most modern, the power of the main transmitter was 5 kilowatts, the power came from an electric generator. The second, an emergency transmitter, was powered by batteries. 4 antennas were strung between the two masts, some up to 75 m long. The guaranteed range of the radio signal was 250 miles. During the day, under favorable conditions, communication was possible at a distance of up to 400 miles, and at night - up to 2000.

The radio equipment came on board on April 2 from the Marconi company, which by this time had monopolized the radio industry in Italy and England. Two young radio officers assembled and installed the station all day, for verification, a test connection was immediately made with the coast station at Malin Head ( English), on the north coast of Ireland, and with Liverpool. On April 3, the radio equipment worked like clockwork, on this day a connection was established with the island of Tenerife at a distance of 2000 miles and with Port Said in Egypt (3000 miles). In January 1912, the Titanic was given the radio call sign " MUC', then they were replaced by ' MGY", previously owned by the American ship Yale. As the dominant radio company, Marconi introduced its own radio call signs, most of which began with the letter "M", regardless of its location and the country of residence of the vessel on which it was installed.

Swimming and crash

Many celebrities of that time took part in the first trip of the liner, including the millionaire and major 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 Cosm 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.

North and South transatlantic routes. ice conditions

The threat to shipping in the North Atlantic is icebergs breaking off from glaciers in western Greenland and drifting under the influence of currents. Danger is also borne by ice fields 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. From the South Highway, along the western route of which the Titanic also moved, reports of icebergs came one after another. 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.

Chronology

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 922 passengers on board the Titanic.
- 19:00 - stop in Cherbourg (France) to take on board 274 passengers and mail.
- 21:00 - Titanic left Cherbourg and headed for Queenstown (Ireland).

Sunday, April 14, 1912
- 09:00 - Caronia reports ice in the region of 42 ° north latitude, 49-51 ° west longitude.
- 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 that it is necessary to monitor the fresh water system - water in the pipelines may 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 vessel, 6 were cut through (in the sixth, the leak was extremely insignificant).

Stages of the sinking of the Titanic

Monday, April 15, 1912
- 00:05 - The trim on the nose became noticeable. An order was given to uncover the lifeboats and convene the crew and passengers to the assembly points.
- 00:15 - the first radiotelegraph signal for help was transmitted from the Titanic.
- 00:45 - The first flare is fired and the first lifeboat (No. 7) is launched. The bow deck goes under water.
- 01:15 - Class 3 passengers are allowed on deck.
- 01:40 - The last flare is fired.
- 02:05 - the last lifeboat is launched (collapsible boat D). The bow of the boat deck goes under water.
- 02:08 - The Titanic jerks violently and moves forward. A wave rolls over the deck and floods the bridge, washing passengers and crew members into the water.
- 02:10 - the last radiotelegraph signals were transmitted.
- 02:15 - The Titanic lifts the stern high, exposing the rudder and propellers.
- 02:17 - Electric lighting goes out.
- 02:18 - The Titanic breaks in two as it sinks rapidly.
- 02:20 - The Titanic sank.
- 02:29 - At a speed of about 13 miles per hour, the bow of the Titanic crashes into the ocean floor at a depth of 3750 meters, burrowing into the sedimentary rocks of the bottom.
- 03:30 - flares fired from the Carpathia are noticed from lifeboats.
- 04:10 - Carpathia picked up the first lifeboat from the Titanic (boat No. 2).
- 08:30 - Carpathia picked up the last (No. 12) lifeboat from the Titanic.
- 08:50 - Carpathia, taking on board 710 people who escaped from the Titanic, heads for New York.
Thursday, April 18, 1912
- The Carpathia Arrives in New York

clash

Photo of an iceberg taken by the chief steward of a German ship Prince 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 the Titanic collided with him.

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!!!" (“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 "stop" and shouted "right to board", while simultaneously transmitting the order "full back" to the engine room, pressed the lever, which included closing the watertight doors in the bulkheads of the boiler rooms and the engine room.

Photo of an iceberg taken from the cable-laying ship Mine”, which was one of the first ships to discover the corpses of passengers and the wreckage of the ship. Presumably, the Titanic could have collided with this particular iceberg, since, according to the crew, “ Mines", 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 vessel to the right, and the bow to the left (since 1909, Russian ships have already used the natural giving of commands, for example: "left rudder"). Coxswain Robert Hitchens ( English) leaned on the handle of the steering wheel and quickly turned it counterclockwise until it stops, after which Murdoch was told "Right rudder, sir!" At that moment, the helmsman Alfred Oliver and Boxhall, who was in the chart house, ran 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 "rudder left" (corresponding to a turn 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 lookout binoculars were not used on the Titanic because the key to the binocular safe was missing. 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 at the Henry Eldridge and Sons auction house in Devizes, Wiltshire. The second mate 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 Wild, the first officer from a similar ship, the Olympic, because he had experience in operating such large liners, as a result of which Blair in a hurry forgot to hand over the key to the person who came to 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.

The Titanic is sinking

lifeboats

There were 2,224 people on board the Titanic, but the total capacity of the lifeboats was only 1,178. The reason was that, according to the rules then in force, the total capacity of lifeboats depended on the tonnage of the ship, and not on the number of passengers and crew members. The rules were drawn up in 1894, when the largest ships had a displacement of about 10,000 tons. The displacement of the Titanic was 46,328 tons.

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 commanded the launching of 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 Officer Murdoch, who commanded the launching of the boats on the starboard side, allowed the men to go down if there were no women and children. 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 boats, because the Titanic, which had no external damage, seemed safer to them. The last boats filled better, because it was already obvious to the passengers that the Titanic 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, passengers of the 1st class were saved in it.

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

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.

Refusal of assistance by the steamer "Californian"

"Californian"

Serious criticism fell upon the SS Californian team and personally on the captain of the ship, Stanley Lord. The ship was only a few miles from the Titanic but did not respond to its distress calls and missile signals. The Californian warned the Titanic by radio of ice buildup, which caused the Californian to stop for the night, but the warnings were condemned by the Titanic's senior wireless operator, Jack Phillips.

British investigation evidence showed that at 10:10 p.m., 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 that it was a passenger liner. At 11:50 p.m., the officer saw that the ship's lights were flickering, as if they had been turned off or turned sharply, and that the port lights appeared. By order of the Lord, Morse light signals were sent to the ship between 11:30 p.m. and 1:00 a.m., but they were not received.

Captain Lord retired to his cabin at 11:00 p.m. to spend the night, however, Second Officer Herbert Stone, while on duty, notified Lord at 1:10 a.m. that the ship had fired 5 missiles. Lord wanted to know if these were company signals, that is, 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 1:50 am and Stone noted that the ship looked strange in the water, as if it was tilted. At 2:15 am, Lord was notified that the ship was no longer in sight. The Lord asked again if the lights had any color and was informed that they were all white.

The Californian eventually answered. At approximately 5:30 am, Chief Officer George Stewart woke up wireless operator Cyril Farmstone Evans and informed him that rockets had been seen during the night and asked him to contact the ship. He received news of the sinking of the Titanic, Captain Lord was notified, and the ship went to assist. It arrived much later than the Carpathia, which had already picked up the survivors.

The investigation revealed that the ship the Californian had seen was actually the Titanic, and that the Californian could have come to its rescue, so Captain Lord acted inappropriately by not doing so. However, Lord maintained his innocence for the rest of his life, and many researchers argue that the famous positions of the Titanic and the Californian make it impossible for the former to be the infamous "Mystery Ship," a topic that "evoked ... millions of words." and … hours of heated debate”, and continues to do so [ non-authoritative source?] .

The composition of the dead and the survivors

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 Paulson family claimed the lives of Alma's mother and all her four young children, whom Father Nils was waiting in vain for in New York.

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

The last of the Titanic's passengers, Millvina Dean, who was two and a half months old at the time of the sinking of the liner, 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 peculiar record belongs to Jessop's maid, Violette, who survived accidents on all 3 Olympic-class ships. 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.

The sinking of the Titanic is one of the largest maritime disasters

Vessel	A country	Tonnage	Year	Number of victims	Cause of death
Goya		5230	, April, 4	7000 ~ 7000	Attack submarine L-3
Junyo-maru	Japan	5065	, September 18	5620 5620	Attack submarine HMS Tradewind
Toyama-maru ( English Toyama Maru)	Japan	7089	, June 29	5600 5600	Attack submarine USS Sturgeon
Cap Arkona		27561	, May 3	5594 5594	Air attack
Wilhelm Gustloff		25484	, January 30	9343	Attack submarine S-13
Armenia	USSR	5770		5000 ~ 5000	Air attack
Ryusei-maru ( English SS Ryusei Maru)	Japan	4861	, 25 February	4998 4998	Attack submarine USS Rasher
Doña Paz	Philippines	2602		4375 ~ 4375	Tanker collision and fire
Lancastria		16243		4000 ~4000	Air attack
General Steuben		14660		3608 3608	Attack submarine S-13
Tilbek		2815	, May 3	2800 ~ 2800	Air attack
Salzburg		1759		2000 ~ 2000	Attack submarine M-118
Titanic		52310		1514 1514	Iceberg collision
Bismarck		50900	, May 27	1995	battle with British ships
Hood, battlecruiser		41125	, May 24	1415 1415	battle with German ships
Lusitania		31550		1198 1198	Attack submarine U-20

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. The 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.

Theories about the causes of the accident

sheathing

On the other hand, this test only proves that modern steel is much better than the one 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.

radio operators

The internal communication system of the liner was extremely unsatisfactory, there was no direct communication with the captain - he had to report all messages orally. The reason was that the radiotelegraph station was considered a luxury, and the main task of the telegraph operators was to serve especially wealthy passengers - it is known that in just 36 hours of operation, radio operators transmitted more than 250 telegrams. Payment for telegraph services was made on the spot, in the radio room, and at that time was very expensive, tips were received in large quantities.

The radio log from the Titanic did not survive, but according to the surviving records from various ships that had contact with the liner, it was possible to more or less restore the picture of the work of radio operators. Reports of drifting ice and icebergs began to arrive already in the morning of the fatal date - April 14, the exact coordinates of the high-risk zone were indicated. The Titanic continued to sail on, without swerving off course or slowing down. At 19:30, in particular, a telegram came from the Mesaba transport ship: “I report ice from 42 degrees to 41 degrees 25 minutes north latitude and from 49 degrees to 50 degrees 30 minutes west longitude. I saw a large number of icebergs, ice fields. At this time, the senior communications officer of the Titanic, Jack Phillips, worked for the benefit of the passengers, transmitting an inexhaustible stream of messages to the Cape Ras station, while the most important message never reached the captain, lost in a pile of paper - the Mesaba radio operator forgot to mark the message as "Ice Report" with prefix MSG, which meant "personally to the captain." This little detail overshadowed Philips' selfless work.

Iceberg

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 only used after when the lookout noticed something. Lookouts without binoculars spotted the iceberg before the watch officer with binoculars.

The question of what prevented the first assistant W. Murdoch from discovering the iceberg in a timely manner remains open. 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 steamer 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 found by lookouts (British Inquiry, questions 25431-25449).

Maneuvering

There is also an opinion that the most correct decision would be to start only the left car in reverse. Working the propellers apart 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 effectiveness 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. The navigators had no experience in operating this vessel, which explains the untimely and inefficient maneuvering attempts. At the same time, Captain Smith, First Officer Wild, and First Officer Murdoch, who was on duty at the time of the accident, had experience working on the Olympic built according to a similar project. In 1903, in a critical situation, Murdoch, with his timely and decisive actions, canceling the command of his superiors, saved the steamer Arabic from a collision.

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.

Buoyancy

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, 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.

Slowing down or avoiding the iceberg field

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 the route and, as a rule, did not slow down. On the other hand, not everyone followed this practice: the Californian ship closest to the Titanic, having reached the iceberg field, stopped at its border (and gave the Titanic a warning that was ignored).

Delayed reaction on the bridge

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 something to visually detect an iceberg, assess the situation and make a decision.

Causes of the tragedy

Subjective reasons

The main subjective cause of death was the outdated rules of the British Merchant Shipping Code, which made the number of lifeboats dependent on the tonnage of the ship, and not on the number of passengers. The rules were established in 1894 when the tonnage of passenger ships did not exceed 12,952 tons, and all ships of 10,000 tons and above fell into one category. For such vessels, regulations required that the lifeboats had enough space for 962 people. The tonnage of the Titanic was 46,328 tons.

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 launch 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 sinking 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 thought only about the financial side of the matter. 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 knew about the true cause of the sinking of the Titanic,” the writer said.

Objective reasons

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

The iceberg belonged to a rare type of so-called. "black icebergs" (turned over so that their dark underwater part hits the surface), because of which it was noticed too late.
The night was windless and moonless, otherwise 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.

Flood depth

On September 1, 1985, an expedition led by the director of the Institute of Oceanology in Woods Hall, Massachusetts, Dr. Robert D. Ballard, discovered the Titanic's bedrock at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean at a depth of 3750 meters.

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.

Conspiracy theory

Reflection of the Titanic in art

The crash of the liner has become one of the most famous disasters in the history of mankind. To some extent, the image of the Titanic has become a symbol of the death of something that seemed powerful and unsinkable, a symbol of the weakness of human technogenic civilization before the forces of nature. The catastrophe was widely reflected in art, especially mass art. The first film dedicated to the disaster - " Escaped from the Titanic" - appeared already in May 1912, a month after the crash. In the same year, 1912, but before the catastrophe occurred, Morgan Robertson's book "Futility, or the death of the Titan" ("Futility, or the death of the Titan") was published, the action of which took place on board a passenger ship " Titan, similar in description and displacement to the Titanic. In this book, the Titan dies after colliding with an iceberg in the fog while sailing from New York to the UK. As a result, a legend appeared about the “prediction” of the Titanic disaster by Morgan Robertson. This fact is reinforced by the fact that despite the publication of the book in 1912, it was written in 1898.

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

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 seen 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.

Notes

About the fate of the superliners of the company "White Star Line" (Retrieved April 8, 2012)
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Museum "Titanic Belfast"

The Titanic sank. Pursuit of the Blue Ribbon of the Atlantic. North and South transatlantic routes. ice conditions

Technical characteristics of the liner

First 2 bulkheads

In bulkheads "D" - "O

British Code of Navigation requirements

The Titanic had 8 steel decks

Deck "A"

Deck "B"

G-deck

Titanic Size Comparison

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Second bottom

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The liner had 4 ellipsoid tubes

The telephone exchange serviced 50 lines.

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Celebrities on the ship

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

Stages of the sinking of the Titanic

Iceberg

Lifeboat "Titanic"

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"Californian"

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The radio log from the Titanic did not survive

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

High liner speed

The main subjective cause of death

A set of adverse factors

Flood depth

Investigation of the site of the sinking of the Titanic

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Monument to the crew of the Titanic in Southampton

The film "Titanic"

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The sinking of the Titanic is one of the largest maritime disasters

Theories about the causes of the accident

sheathing

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Iceberg

Maneuvering

Buoyancy

Slowing down or avoiding the iceberg field

Delayed reaction on the bridge

Causes of the tragedy

Subjective reasons

Objective reasons

Flood depth

Conspiracy theory

Reflection of the Titanic in art

see also

Notes