History of the Titanic: Past and Present. In which ocean did the Titanic sink: all the secrets of the Titanic crash, the main causes of the death of the ship and the shocking results of the investigation

On the night of April 14-15, 1912, the most modern at that time passenger liner The Titanic, making its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York, collided with an iceberg and soon sank. At least 1,496 people died and 712 passengers and crew were rescued.

The Titanic disaster very quickly acquired a mass of legends and conjectures. At the same time, for several decades, the place where lost ship, remained unknown.

The main difficulty was that the place of death was known with very low accuracy - it was about an area 100 kilometers in diameter. Given the fact that the Titanic sank in an area where the depth of the Atlantic is several kilometers deep, the search for the ship was very problematic.

Titanic. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

The bodies of the dead were going to be raised with dynamite

Immediately after the shipwreck, the relatives of wealthy passengers who died in the disaster proposed to organize an expedition to raise the ship. The initiators of the search wanted to bury their loved ones and, to be honest, to return the valuables that had gone to the bottom along with their owners.

The decisive attitude of the relatives stumbled upon a categorical verdict of experts: technologies for searching and lifting the Titanic from great depth at that time it simply did not exist.

Then a new proposal was received - to drop dynamite charges to the bottom at the alleged site of the disaster, which, according to the authors of the project, were supposed to provoke the ascent from the bottom of the corpses of the dead. This dubious idea also did not find support.

Started in 1914, the First World War postponed the search for the Titanic for many years.

The interior of the veranda for first-class passengers on the Titanic. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Nitrogen and ping pong balls

Again, the search for a liner was discussed only in the 1950s. At the same time, proposals for possible ways lifting it from freezing the hull with nitrogen to filling it with millions of ping-pong balls.

In the 1960s and 1970s, several expeditions were sent to the Titanic sinking area, but all of them were not successful due to insufficient technical training.

In 1980 Texas oil tycoon John Grimm financed the preparation and conduct of the first large expedition to search for the Titanic. But, despite the availability of the most modern equipment for underwater searches, his expedition ended in failure.

Played a major role in the discovery of the Titanic ocean explorer and part-time US Navy officer Robert Ballard. Ballard, who was involved in the improvement of small unmanned underwater vehicles, back in the 1970s became interested in underwater archeology and, in particular, the secret place of the sinking of the Titanic. In 1977, he organized the first expedition to search for the Titanic, but it ended in failure.

Ballard was convinced that it was possible to find the ship only with the help of the latest deep-sea submersibles. But it was very difficult to get such at your disposal.

Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Dr. Ballard's Secret Mission

In 1985, having failed during an expedition on the French research vessel Le Suroît, Ballard moved to the American ship R / V Knorr, with which he continued the search for the Titanic.

As Ballard himself told many years later, the expedition, which became historic, began with a secret deal concluded between him and the command of the Navy. The researcher really wanted to get the Argo deep-sea research apparatus for his work, but the American admirals did not want to pay for the work of the equipment to search for some kind of historical rarity. The ship R / V Knorr and the apparatus "Argo" were supposed to carry out a mission to survey the sites of the death of two American nuclear submarines "Scorpion" and "Thresher", which sank back in the 1960s. This task was secret, and the US Navy needed a person who would not only be able to perform the necessary work, but also be able to keep it secret.

Ballard's candidacy was ideal - he was famous enough, and everyone knew about his passion for finding the Titanic.

The explorer was offered: he could get the Argo and use it to search for the Titanic if he first found and explored the submarines. Ballard agreed.

Only the leadership of the US Navy knew about the Scorpion and Thresher, for the rest, Robert Ballard simply explored the Atlantic and searched for the Titanic.

Robert Ballard. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

"Comet tail" at the bottom

He coped with the secret mission brilliantly, and on August 22, 1985 he was able to start searching for the liner that died in 1912 again.

None of the most advanced technology would have ensured his success if it were not for the experience accumulated earlier. Ballard, when examining the places where the submarines died, noticed that they left a kind of “comet tail” of thousands of debris at the bottom. This was due to the fact that the hulls of the boats were destroyed when sinking to the bottom due to the enormous pressure.

The scientist knew that when diving on the Titanic, they exploded steam boilers, which meant that the liner had to leave a similar "comet tail".

It was this trail, and not the Titanic itself, that was easier to detect.

On the night of September 1, 1985, the Argo apparatus found small debris at the bottom, and at 0:48 the camera recorded the Titanic's boiler. Then it was possible to find the bow of the ship.

It was found that the bow and stern of the broken liner are located at a distance from each other, at a distance of about 600 meters. At the same time, both the stern and the bow were seriously deformed when diving to the bottom, but the bow was still better preserved.

Ship layout. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Home for underwater inhabitants

The news of the discovery of the Titanic became a sensation, although many experts were quick to question it. But in the summer of 1986, Ballard implemented new expedition, during which he not only described in detail the ship at the bottom, but also made the first dive to the Titanic on a manned deep-sea vehicle. After that, the last doubts dissipated - the Titanic was discovered.

The last shelter of the liner is located at a depth of 3750 meters. In addition to the two main parts of the liner, tens of thousands of smaller fragments are scattered along the bottom in an area of 4.8 × 8 km: parts of the ship's hull, remains of furniture and interior decoration, dishes, personal belongings of people.

The wreckage of the ship was covered with multi-layered rust, the thickness of which is constantly growing. In addition to multi-layered rust, 24 species of invertebrates and 4 species of fish live on and near the hull. Of these, 12 species of invertebrates clearly gravitate towards the wreckage, eating metal and wooden structures. The interiors of the Titanic are almost completely destroyed. Wooden elements were swallowed by deep sea worms. The deck decks are covered in a layer of clam shells, and rust stalactites hang from many of the metalwork.

Wallet recovered from the Titanic. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

All that's left of the people is shoes?

In the 30 years that have passed since the discovery of the ship, the Titanic has been rapidly collapsing. His state of the art such that there can be no talk of any lifting of the vessel. The ship will forever remain at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

There is still no consensus on whether human remains have been preserved on and around the Titanic. According to the prevailing version, all human bodies have completely decomposed. However, periodically there is information that some researchers still stumbled upon the remains of the dead.

But James Cameron, director of the famous movie "Titanic", on personal account who has more than 30 dives to the liner on Russian deep-sea submersibles "Mir", I am sure of the opposite: "We saw shoes, boots and other shoes at the site of the sunken ship, but our team has never encountered human remains."

Things from the "Titanic" - a profitable product

Since the discovery of the Titanic by Robert Ballard, about two dozen expeditions have been carried out to the ship, during which several thousand items have been raised to the surface, ranging from personal belongings of passengers to a piece of plating weighing 17 tons.

It is impossible to establish the exact number of items raised from the Titanic today, since with the improvement of underwater technology, the ship has become a favorite target of "black archaeologists" who are trying to get rarities from the Titanic by any means.

Robert Ballard, lamenting this, remarked: “The ship is still a noble old lady, but not the lady I saw in 1985."

Things from the Titanic have been sold at auction for many years and are in great demand. So, in the year of the 100th anniversary of the disaster, in 2012, hundreds of items went under the hammer, including a cigar box that belonged to the captain of the Titanic (40 thousand dollars), a life jacket from the ship (55 thousand dollars), a master key first class steward ($138,000). As for the jewelry from the Titanic, their value is measured in millions of dollars.

At one time, having discovered the Titanic, Robert Ballard intended to keep this place a secret so as not to disturb the resting place of one and a half thousand people. Perhaps he didn't do it in vain.

On the night of September 1, 1985, an American-French expedition led by oceanologist Robert Ballard discovered the Titanic steam boiler at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Soon the remains of the ship itself were discovered. Thus ended the long epic search for the sunken ship, which was carried out by several independent researchers, but for a long time was unsuccessful due to incorrect coordinates of the death of the ship, broadcast on the fateful night of 1912. The discovery of the remains of the Titanic opened a new page in its history: the answers to many controversial issues; a number of facts that were considered proven and irrefutable turned out to be erroneous.

The first intentions to find and raise the Titanic appeared immediately after the disaster. The families of several millionaires wanted to find the bodies of their dead relatives in order to properly bury them, and discussed the issue of raising the Titanic with one of the companies that specialized in underwater rescue work. But at that time there was no technical possibility to carry out such an operation. A plan was also discussed to drop charges of dynamite on the ocean floor so that some bodies would rise from the explosions to the surface, but these intentions were eventually abandoned.

Later, a number of crazy projects were developed to raise the Titanic. For example, it was proposed to fill the ship's hull with ping-pong balls or attach helium tanks to it, which would lift it to the surface. There were many other projects, mostly fantastic. In addition, before trying to raise the Titanic, it had to be found first, and this was not so simple.

One of the controversial issues in the history of the Titanic for a long time remained the coordinates broadcast along with the distress signal. They were determined by the fourth assistant captain, Joseph Boxhall, based on the coordinates that were calculated a few hours before the collision, the speed and course of the vessel. There was no time to check them in detail in that situation, and Carpathia, who came to the rescue a few hours later, successfully reached the boats, however, the first doubts about the correctness of the coordinates arose already during the investigation of 1912. At that time, the question remained open and When the first serious attempts to search for the Titanic began in the 80s, the researchers faced a problem: the Titanic was neither at the indicated coordinates, nor near them. The situation was also complicated by the local conditions of the disaster - after all, the Titanic was at a depth of almost 4 km and the search required appropriate equipment.

In the end, luck smiled at Robert Ballard, who, step by step, was preparing for the expedition for almost 13 years. After almost two months of searching, when only 5 days remained until the end of the expedition and Ballard had already begun to doubt the success of the event, some strange shadows appeared on the monitor connected to the video camera on the descent vehicle. This happened at almost one in the morning on September 1, 1985. It soon became clear that this was nothing more than the wreckage of a ship. After some time, one of the steam boilers was discovered and there was no doubt that the wreckage belonged to the Titanic. The next day, the front of the ship's hull was discovered. The lack of a stern turned out to be a big surprise: after an investigation in 1912, it was officially considered that the ship sank entirely.

Ballard's first expedition gave answers to many questions and gave the world a number of modern photographs of the Titanic, but much remained unexplained. A year later, Ballard again went to the Titanic, and this expedition already used a deep-sea descent vehicle that could deliver three people to the ocean floor. There was also a small robot that allowed research inside the vessel. This expedition clarified many questions that had remained open since 1912, and after it Ballard no longer planned to return to the Titanic. But what Ballard did not do, others did, and new expeditions soon reached the Titanic. Some of them were purely research in nature, some pursued the goal of lifting various objects from the bottom, incl. and for sale at auctions, which caused many scandals about the moral and ethical side of the issue. James Cameron also descended to the Titanic several times; not only for the filming of his 1997 film, but also for research using robotics inside the ship (see below). documentary"Ghosts of the Abyss: Titanic"), which revealed a lot of new facts about the condition of the ship and its once magnificent finish.

As for the issue of raising the Titanic, it became clear after Ballard's expeditions that this operation would not only be daunting and expensive; the ship's hull has long been in such a state that it will simply crumble into pieces, if not during lifting, then on the surface.

1. Let's see how the Titanic looks now and how it looked before. The Titanic sank in the Atlantic at a depth of almost 4 km. During the dive, the ship broke into two parts, which now lie on the bottom about six hundred meters apart. A lot of debris and objects are scattered around them, incl. and a pretty big piece of the Titanic's hull.

2. Model of the bow. When the ship fell to the bottom, the nose was very well buried in the silt, which greatly disappointed the first researchers, because it was impossible to inspect the place of impact on the iceberg without special equipment. The ragged hole in the body, which is visible on the layout, was formed from hitting the bottom.

3. Panorama of the bow, assembled from several hundred photographs. From right to left: the winch of the spare anchor sticks out directly above the edge of the bow, behind it there is a mooring device, immediately behind it is an open hatch into hold No. 1, from which the breakwater lines diverge to the sides. A fallen mast lies on the deck between the superstructure, under it there are two more hatches into the holds and winches for handling cargo. In front of the main superstructure, there used to be a captain's bridge, which collapsed during the fall to the bottom and is now guessed now only in separate details. Behind the bridge, a superstructure with cabins for officers, a captain, a radio room, etc., has been preserved, which is crossed by a crack formed at the site of the expansion joint. A gaping hole in the superstructure - a place for the first chimney. Immediately behind the superstructure, another hole is visible - this is the well in which the main staircase. To the left is something very torn - there was a second pipe.

4. The nose of the Titanic. The most button accordion object of underwater photographs of the ship. At the end, you can see a loop on which a cable was put on that held the mast.

5. The photo on the left shows the winch of the spare anchor towering over the bow.

6. The main anchor of the port side. It's amazing how he didn't fly down when he hit the bottom.

7. Spare anchor:

8. Behind the spare anchor is a mooring device:

9. Open hatch to hold No. 1. The lid flew off to the side, apparently when it hit the bottom.

10. On the mast there used to be the remains of a "crow's nest", where the lookouts were, but ten or twenty years ago they fell off down and now only the hole in the mast, through which the lookouts got to the spiral staircase, reminds of the "crow's nest". The protruding tail behind the hole is the fastening of the ship's bell.

11. Board of the ship:

12. Only one of the steering wheels remained from the captain's bridge.

13. Boat deck. The superstructure on it in some places is either uprooted or torn.

14. The preserved part of the superstructure in front of the deck. Below on the right is the entrance to the front staircase of the 1st class.

15. Surviving davits, a bath in Captain Smith's cabin and the remains of a steamship whistle that was installed on one of the pipes.

16. A huge well now gapes in place of the front staircase. There are no traces of the stairs.

17. Staircase in 1912:

18. And the same perspective in our time. Looking at the previous photo, it's hard to believe that this is the same place.

19. Behind the stairs there were several elevators for 1st class passengers. Separate elements have been preserved from them. The inscription, depicted at the bottom right, was placed opposite the elevators and denoted the deck. This inscription belonged to deck A; the bronze letter A has already fallen off, but traces of it remain.

20. 1st class lounge on deck D. This is the bottom of the main staircase.

21. Although almost all the wooden trim of the ship has long been eaten away by microorganisms, some elements are still preserved here.

22. The restaurant and the 1st class lounge on deck D were separated from the outside world by large stained glass windows that have survived to this day.

23. Remains of former beauty:

24. From the outside, the windows are guessed by the characteristic double portholes.

25. Chic chandeliers have been hanging in their places for over 100 years.

26. The once-splendid interiors of 1st class cabins are now littered with debris and debris. In some places you can find preserved elements of furniture and objects.

29. Some more details. The door to the restaurant on deck D and a sign indicating service doors:

30. The stokers had their own "front staircase". In order not to meet passengers, a separate staircase led from the boiler rooms to the cabins of the stokers.

31. Hundreds of items are scattered across the ocean floor, ranging from ship parts to personal belongings of passengers.

The Titanic is a British transatlantic steamship, the second Olympic-class liner. Built in Belfast at the shipyard "Harland and Wolf" from 1909 to 1912 by order of the shipping company "White Star Line".

At the time of commissioning, it was the largest ship in the world.

On the night of April 14-15, 1912, during the first flight, it crashed in the North Atlantic, colliding with an iceberg.

Vessel information

The Titanic was equipped with two four-cylinder steam engines and a steam turbine.

All power point had a capacity of 55,000 liters. With.
The ship could reach speeds of up to 23 knots (42 km/h).
Its displacement, which exceeded the twin steamer Olympic by 243 tons, was 52,310 tons.
The ship's hull was made of steel.
The hold and lower decks were divided into 16 compartments by bulkheads with sealed doors.
If the bottom was damaged, the double bottom prevented water from entering the compartments.

Shipbuilder magazine called the Titanic virtually unsinkable, a statement widely circulated in the press and among the public.

In accordance with outdated regulations, the Titanic was equipped with 20 lifeboats, with a total capacity of 1,178 people, which was only a third of the ship's maximum load.

The cabins and public areas of the Titanic were divided into three classes.

First class passengers were offered a swimming pool, a squash court, an A la carte restaurant, two cafes, and a gym. All classes had dining and smoking lounges, open and closed promenades. The most luxurious and refined were the first-class interiors, made in various artistic styles using expensive materials such as mahogany, gilding, stained glass, silk and others. Cabins and salons of the third class were decorated as simply as possible: steel walls were painted white or sheathed with wooden panels.

1 On April 0, 1912, the Titanic left Southampton on her first and only voyage. Having made stops in French Cherbourg and Irish Queenstown, the ship went to Atlantic Ocean with 1,317 passengers and 908 crew on board. Captain Edward Smith commanded the ship. On April 14, the Titanic radio station received seven ice warnings, but the liner continued to move almost at top speed. To avoid meeting with floating ice, the captain ordered to go a little south of the usual route.

At 23:39 on April 14, the lookout reported to the captain's bridge about the iceberg directly ahead. Less than a minute later there was a collision. Having received several holes, the ship began to sink. First of all, women and children were put on the boats.
At 2:20 am on April 15, the Titanic sank, breaking in two, killing 1,496 people. 712 survivors were picked up by the steamer "Carpathia".

The wreckage of the Titanic rests at a depth of 3750 m. They were first discovered by the expedition of Robert Ballard in 1985. Subsequent expeditions recovered thousands of artifacts from the bottom. The bow and stern parts have sunk deep into the bottom silt and are in a deplorable state; it is not possible to bring them to the surface intact.

The wreck of the Titanic

The disaster claimed the lives of, according to various sources, from 1495 to 1635 people. Until December 20, 1987, when the Philippine ferry Dona Paz crashed, killing more than 4,000 people, the sinking of the Titanic remained the largest in terms of number those who died in the disaster at sea in peacetime. Informally, it is the most famous disaster of the 20th century.

Alternative versions of the death of the ship

And now - alternative versions, each of which has its adherents in the world club of mystery lovers.

Fire

A fire in the coal compartment that arose even before sailing and provoked an explosion first, and then a collision with an iceberg. The owners of the ship knew about the fire and tried to hide it from the passengers. This version was put forward by the British journalist Shenan Moloney, writes The Independent. Moloney has been investigating the causes of the sinking of the Titanic for over 30 years.

In particular, he studied photographs taken before the ship left the shipyard in Belfast. The journalist saw black marks along the right side of the ship's hull - just where the iceberg had pierced it. Subsequently, experts confirmed that the traces were probably caused by the fire that had started in the fuel storage. “We looked at exactly where the iceberg got stuck, and it seems that this part of the hull was very vulnerable in this place, and this happened even before it left the shipyard in Belfast,” says Moloney. A team of 12 tried to put out the flames, but they were too big to quickly bring under control. It could reach temperatures up to 1000 degrees Celsius, which made the Titanic's hull very vulnerable in this place. And when he hit the ice, experts say, he immediately broke. The publication also added that the management of the liner forbade passengers to talk about the fire. “This is a perfect match of unusual factors: fire, ice and malpractice. No one has investigated these marks before. It completely changes history,” says Moloney.

CONSPIRACY

Conspiracy theory: this is not the Titanic at all! This version was put forward by Robin Gardiner and Dan Van Der Watt, experts in the study of the reasons for the death of the ship, published in the book “The Titanic Mystery”. According to this theory, the wreck is not the Titanic at all, but its twin brother, the Olympic. These boats were virtually indistinguishable from each other. On September 20, 1911, the Olympic collided with the British Navy cruiser Hawke, resulting in severe damage to both ships. The owners of Olimpik suffered heavy losses, since the damage that was inflicted on Olimpik was not enough to cover the insurance payment.

The theory is based on the assumption of a possible fraud in order to obtain insurance payments by the owners of the Titanic. According to this version, the owners of the Titanic intended to send the Olympic to the area of possible ice formation and at the same time convinced the captain not to slow down so that the ship would be seriously damaged when it collided with an ice block. This version was initially supported by the fact that a sufficiently large number of objects were raised from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, where the Titanic lies, but nothing was found that would carry the name Titanic. This theory was refuted after parts were raised to the surface, on which the Titanic's tail (building) number was stamped - 401. The Olympic had a tail number of 400. In addition, the Titanic's minted tail number was discovered and on the propeller of a sunken ship. And even despite this, the conspiracy theory still has a number of followers.

German attack

1912 The First World War is two years away, and the prospect of an armed conflict between Germany and Great Britain is becoming more and more likely. Germany is the owner of several dozen submarines, which during the war will unleash a ruthless hunt for enemy ships trying to cross the ocean. For example, the reason for America's entry into the war will be that the U-20 submarine will sink the Lusitania in 1915 - the twin of the same Mauritania that set the speed record and won the Blue Ribbon of the Atlantic - remember?

Based on these facts, in the mid-nineties, some Western publications offered their own version of the death of the Titanic: a torpedo attack by a German submarine that secretly accompanied the liner. The purpose of the attack was to discredit the British fleet, famous for its power throughout the world. In accordance with this theory, the Titanic either did not collide with the iceberg at all, or received very minor damage in the collision and would have remained afloat if the Germans had not finished off the ship with a torpedo.

What speaks in favor of this version? Honestly, nothing.

There was a collision with an iceberg - this is beyond doubt. The deck of the ship was even covered with snow and ice chips. Cheerful passengers started playing football with ice cubes - that the ship is doomed, it will become clear later. The collision itself was surprisingly quiet - almost none of the passengers felt it. A torpedo, you see, could hardly have exploded completely silently (especially since some claim that the submarine fired as many as six torpedoes at the ship!).

Supporters of the theory of the German attack claim, however, that people in the boats heard a terrible roar just before the Titanic sank - well, that was two and a half hours later, when only the stern lifted into the sky remained above the water and the death of the ship did not raise any doubts. It is unlikely that the Germans would have fired a torpedo at an almost sunken ship, would they? And the roar that the survivors heard was due to the fact that the stern of the Titanic rose almost vertically and huge steam boilers fell from their places. Also, do not forget that at about the same minutes the Titanic broke in half - the keel could not withstand the weight of the rising stern (although they only find out about this after finding the liner at the bottom: the break occurred below the water level), and this is also unlikely to have happened silently . And why would the Germans suddenly begin to sink a passenger liner two years before the start of the war? This seems, to put it mildly, doubtful. And to put it bluntly, it's absurd.

A curse

Mystical version: the curse of the pharaohs. It is known for certain that one of the historians, Lord Canterville, transported on the Titanic in a wooden box a perfectly preserved Egyptian mummy priestesses are soothsayers. Since the mummy had a fairly high historical and cultural value, it was not placed in the hold, but placed directly next to the captain's bridge. The essence of the theory is that the mummy influenced the mind of Captain Smith, who, despite numerous warnings about ice in the area where the Titanic sailed, did not slow down and thereby doomed the ship to certain death. In favor of this version they say famous cases mysterious death people who disturbed the peace of ancient burials, especially mummified Egyptian rulers. Moreover, the deaths were associated precisely with a clouding of the mind, as a result of which people committed inappropriate actions, there were often cases of suicide. Pharaohs had a hand in the sinking of the Titanic?

Steering error

One of latest versions The sinking of the Titanic deserves special attention. It appeared after the novel by the granddaughter of the second mate of the captain of the Titanic, Ch. Lightoller, Lady Patten, “Worth its weight in gold”, was published. According to the version put forward by Patten in his book, the ship had enough time to dodge the obstacle, but the helmsman, Robert Hitchens, panicked and turned the helm in the wrong direction.

A catastrophic error caused the iceberg to inflict fatal damage on the ship. The truth about what really happened on that fateful night was kept secret in the family of Lightoller, the oldest surviving officer of the Titanic and the only survivor who knew exactly what caused the sinking of the ship. Lightoller withheld this information for fear that the White Star Line, which owned the ship, would go bankrupt and his colleagues would lose their jobs. The only person to whom Lightoller told the truth was his wife Sylvia, who passed on her husband's words to her granddaughter. In addition, according to Patten, such a large and reliable liner as the Titanic sank so quickly because, after a collision with an ice block, it was not immediately stopped, and the rate of water entering the holds increased hundreds of times. The liner was not immediately stopped because the manager of the White Star Line, Bruce Ismay, persuaded the captain to continue sailing. He feared that the incident could cause considerable material damage to the company he leads.

Chasing the Blue Ribbon of the Atlantic

There were and still are many supporters of this theory, especially among writers, since it appeared precisely in writers' circles. “ blue ribbon Atlantic” is a prestigious shipping award given to ocean liners for the fastest crossing of the North Atlantic.

At the time of the Titanic, this prize was given to the Mauritania ship of the Cunard company, which, by the way, was the founder of this award, as well as the main competitor of the White Star Line. In defense of this theory, the opinion is put forward that the president of the company that owned the Titanic, Ismay, encouraged the captain of the Titanic, Smith, to arrive in New York a day ahead of schedule and receive an honorary prize. This allegedly explains the high speed of the ship in the dangerous area of the Atlantic. But this theory can easily be refuted, because the Titanic simply physically could not reach the speed of 26 knots at which the Mauritania of the Cunard company set a record, which, by the way, lasted more than 10 years after the disaster in the Atlantic.

But how was it really?

Regrettably, but, studying the history of the most famous maritime disaster, one has to admit that the Titanic owes its death to a long chain of fatal accidents. If at least one link of the sinister chain had been destroyed, the tragedy could have been avoided.

Perhaps the first link was the successful start of the journey - yes, yes, that's right. On the morning of April 10, during the departure of the Titanic from the quay wall of Southampton port, the superliner passed too close to the American ship New York, and a phenomenon known in navigation as the suction of ships arose: the New York began to be attracted to the moving nearby "Titanic". However, thanks to the skill of Captain Edward Smith, a collision was avoided.

Ironically, if an accident had happened, it would have saved one and a half thousand lives: if the Titanic had lingered in the port, the ill-fated encounter with the iceberg would not have happened.

This time. It should also be mentioned that the radio operators who received the message from the ship "Mesaba" about the ice fields of icebergs did not pass it on to Edward Smith: the telegram was not marked with a special prefix "personally to the captain", and was lost in a pile of papers. This is two.

However, this message was not the only one, and the captain knew about the ice danger. Why didn't he slow down the ship? Chasing the Blue Ribbon is, of course, a matter of honor (and, more importantly, of big business), but why did he risk the lives of passengers? Not that much of a risk, really. At that time the captains ocean liners often passed dangerous ice districts without slowing down: it was like crossing the road at a red light: sort of, and you can’t do that, but it always works out. Almost always.

To the credit of Captain Smith, it must be said that he remained true to maritime traditions and remained on the dying ship to the very end.

But why was the bulk of the iceberg not seen? Here everything turned out one to one: a moonless, dark night, windless weather. If there were at least small waves on the water surface, the lookouts could see white lambs at the foot of the iceberg. Calm and moonless night are two more links in the fatal chain.

As it turned out later, the chain was continued by the fact that the iceberg, shortly before the collision with the Titanic, turned its underwater dark part upside down, saturated with water, due to which it was practically invisible from afar at night (an ordinary, white iceberg would be distinguishable for a mile ). The sentinel saw him only 450 meters away, and there was almost no time for maneuver. Perhaps the iceberg would have been seen earlier, but another link in the fatal chain played a role here - there were no binoculars in the "crow's nest". The box where they were stored turned out to be locked, and the second assistant to the captain, taken from the ship just before departure, hastily took the key to it with him.

After the lookout nevertheless saw the danger and reported the iceberg to the captain's bridge, a little more than half a minute remained before the collision. The officer of the watch, Murdoch, who was on watch, gave the helmsman the order to turn left, at the same time transmitting the command "full astern" to the engine room. Thus, he made a gross mistake by adding another link in the chain that led the liner to death: even if the Titanic had crashed into the iceberg head-on, the tragedy would have been less. The bow of the ship would have been crushed, part of the crew and those passengers whose cabins were located in front would have died. But only two watertight compartments would be flooded. With such damage, the liner would have remained afloat and could wait for the help of other ships.

And if Murdoch, turning the ship to the left, ordered to increase, and not decrease the speed, the collision might not have happened at all. However, frankly speaking, the order to change the speed is unlikely to play a significant role here: in thirty seconds it was hardly possible to execute it in the engine room.

So the collision happened. The iceberg damaged the ship's fragile hull along the six starboard compartments.

Looking ahead, we can say that only seven hundred and four managed to escape: the next link in the chain of failures was that some sailors took the captain's order to put women and children into the boats too literally, and did not let men go there, even if there were empty seats. However, at first no one was particularly eager to get into the boats. The passengers did not understand what was the matter, and did not want to leave the huge, comfortably lit, such a reliable liner and it was not clear why they would go down in a small unstable boat down to the icy water. However, pretty soon, anyone could notice that the deck was tilting forward more and more, and panic began.

But why was there such a monstrous discrepancy in the places on the lifeboats? The owners of the Titanic, praising the merits of the new ship, stated that they even overfulfilled the instructions of the code: instead of the prescribed 962 rescue places, there were 1178 on the ship. Unfortunately, they did not attach any importance to the discrepancy between this number and the number of passengers on board.

It is especially bitter that not far from the sinking Titanic, another passenger steamer, the Californian, stood, waiting out the danger of ice. A few hours ago, he notified neighboring ships that he was locked in ice and forced to stop so as not to accidentally run into ice block. The radio operator from the Titanic, who was almost stunned by the Morse code from the Californian (the ships were very close, and the signal of one was too loud in the headphones of the other), impolitely interrupted the warning: “Go to hell, you are preventing me from working!”. What was the radio operator of the Titanic so busy with?

The fact is that in those years, radio communication on a ship was more of a luxury than an urgent need, and this miracle of technology aroused great interest among the wealthy public. From the very beginning of the voyage, radio operators were literally inundated with messages of a private nature - and no one saw anything reprehensible in the fact that the radio operators of the Titanic paid such attention to wealthy passengers who wished to send a telegram to the ground directly from the ship. So at that moment, when colleagues from other ships reported on floating ice, the radio operator transmitted another message to the continent. Radio communication was more like expensive toy than for a serious instrument: the ships of that time did not even have a round-the-clock watch at the radio station.

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.

Prior to the release of the Titanic on its first and last voyage, it was emphasized that 10 millionaires would be on board the ship on the first voyage, and gold and jewelry worth hundreds of millions of dollars 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 by 22:00 zero mark Celsius.

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 record speed at 17.5 knots - at 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

The sinking of the Titanic claimed the lives of 1,517 of the 2,229 passengers and crew (official figures vary slightly) in one of the worst maritime disasters in world history. 712 survivors were brought aboard the RMS Carpathia. After this disaster, a great resonance swept through the public affecting attitudes towards social injustice, radically changed the way passengers were transported on the North Atlantic route, the rules for the number of lifeboats carried out on board passenger ships and the International Ice Reconnaissance was established (where merchant ships crossing the North Atlantic continue to transmit accurate information about the location and concentration of ice using radio signals). In 1985, a major discovery was made, the Titanic was discovered at the bottom of the ocean and became a turning point for the public and for the development of new areas of science and technology. April 15, 2012 marks the 100th anniversary of the Titanic. It has become one of the most famous ships in history, her image has remained in numerous books, films, exhibitions and monuments.

Crash of the Titanic in real time

duration - 2 hours 40 minutes!

The British passenger liner Titanic leaves Southampton, England on her maiden voyage on April 10, 1912. The Titanic was called to Cherbourg, France and Queenstown, Ireland, before heading west towards New York. Four days in transit, she hit an iceberg at 11:40 pm, 375 miles south of Newfoundland. Shortly before 2:20 am, the Titanic broke up and sank. More than a thousand people were on board at the time of the accident. Some died in the water within minutes from hypothermia in the waters of the North Antaltic Ocean. (Frank O. Braynard Collection)

The luxury liner Titanic, pictured in this 1912 photograph, left Queenstown for New York on her ill-fated last voyage. The passengers of this ship were included in the list of the richest people in the world, such as millionaires John Jacob Astor IV, Benjamin Guggenheim and Isidor Strauss, as well as more than a thousand emigrants from Ireland, Scandinavia and other countries seeking new life in America. The disaster was greeted around the world with shock and outrage over the huge loss of life and violation of the regulatory and operational parameters that led to this disaster. The investigation into the sinking of the Titanic began a few days later and led to a significant improvement in maritime safety. (United Press International)

A crowd of workers. Shipyard Harland and Wolf shipyard in Belfast, where the Titanic was built between 1909 and 1911. The ship was designed to be the last word in comfort and luxury and was the most big ship afloat on her first voyage. The ship is visible in the background of this 1911 photograph. (Photo Archive/Harland & Wolff/Cox Collection)

Photo taken in 1912. In the photo, a chic dining room aboard the Titanic. The ship has been designed to be the last word in comfort and luxury, with an onboard gym, swimming pool, libraries, upscale restaurants and luxurious cabins. (Photo archive of The New York Times / American Press Association)

1912 photograph. Second class canteen on the Titanic. A disproportionate number of people - over 90% of those in second class - remained on board because of the "women and children first" protocols followed by lifeboat loading officers. (Photo archive of The New York Times / American Press Association)

Photo April 10, 1912, it shows the Titanic leaving Southampton, England. Tragic death The Titanic happened a century ago, one of the causes of death, according to some, weak rivets used by the ship's builders in some parts of this ill-fated liner. (Associated Press)

Captain Edward John Smith, commander of the Titanic. He commanded the largest ship at that time making its first voyage. The Titanic was a massive ship - 269 meters long, 28 meters wide and weighing 52,310 tons. 53 meters separated from the keel to the top, almost 10 meters of which were below the waterline. The Titanic was higher above the water than most city buildings of the time. (The New York Times Archive)

First Mate William McMaster Murdoch, who is regarded as a local hero in his hometown Dalbeattie, Scotland, but in the film, the Titanic was portrayed as a coward and a murderer. At the ceremony, on the 86th anniversary of the ship's sinking, Scott Neeson, executive vice president of film producers 20th Century Fox, presented a check for five thousand pounds (US$8,000) to Dalbeattie School as an apology for the painting to an officer's relative. (Associated Press)

It is believed that it was this iceberg that caused the accident of the Titanic on April 14-15, 1912. The picture was taken aboard the Western Union ship, Mackay Bennett, commanded by Captain DeCarteret. McKay Bennet was one of the first ships to reach the site where the Titanic sank. According to Captain DeCarteret, it was the only iceberg at the site of the sinking when it arrived. It is assumed, therefore, that he was responsible for this tragedy. A glimpse of a collision with an iceberg caused the Titanic's hull plates to buckle inward in a number of places on her board and opened five of her sixteen watertight compartments into which water gushed in an instant. Over the next two and a half hours, the ship gradually filled with water and sank. (United States Coast Guard)

Passengers and some crew members were evacuated in lifeboats, many of which were launched only partially filled. This photograph of a lifeboat from the Titanic approaching the rescue ship Carpathia, was taken by Carpathia passenger Louis M. Ogden and was on display in 2003, an exhibition of photographs that relate to the Titanic (bequeathed by the National maritime museum in Greenwich, England, Walter Lord). (National Maritime Museum / London)

Seven hundred and twelve survivors were brought aboard from lifeboats on the RMS Carpathia. This photograph taken by Carpathia passenger Louis M. Ogden shows the Titanic lifeboat approaching the rescue ship, the Carpathians. The photograph was part of an exhibition in 2003 at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England named after Walter Lord. (National Maritime Museum / London)

Although the Titanic had advanced safety features such as watertight compartments and remotely activated watertight doors, she lacked enough lifeboats to hold all those on board. Due to outdated maritime safety regulations, she carried only enough lifeboats for 1,178 people - a third of her total passenger and crew capacity. This sepia photograph depicting the recovery of the passengers of the Titanic is one of the memorabilia about to go under the hammer at Christies in London, May 2012. (Paul Tracy / EPA / PA)

Members of the press interview Titanic survivors coming off the rescue ship, Carpathians, May 17, 1912. (American Press Association)

Eva Hart is portrayed as seven years old in this photograph taken in 1912 with her father, Benjamin, and mother Esther. Eva and her mother survived the sinking of the British liner Titanic on April 14, 1912, but her father died in the crash. (Associated Press)

People stand on the street waiting for the arrival of Carpathia after the sinking of the Titanic. (The New York Times / Wide World Photo Archive)

A huge crowd gathered in front of Star Line's White Office at Lower Broadway in New York to receive last news on the sinking of the Titanic on April 14, 1912. (Associated Press)

The editors of The New York Times at the time of the sinking of the Titanic, April 15, 1912. (Photo archive of The New York Times)

(Photo archive of The New York Times)

Two messages were sent from America by insurers to Lloyds in London in the mistaken belief that other ships, including Virginia, were coming to the rescue when the Titanic sank. These two commemorative messages are due to go under the hammer at Christies in London in May 2012. (AFP/EPA/Press Association)

Laura Francatelli, and her employers Lady Lucy Duff-Gordon and Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon, standing on the rescue ship, Carpathians (Associated Press / Henry Aldridge & Son / Ho)

This vintage seal shows the Titanic shortly before leaving for its maiden voyage in 1912. (New York Times Archive)

A photograph released by Henry Aldridge and Son/Ho auctioned in Wiltshire, England on April 18, 2008 shows an extremely rare Titanic passenger ticket. They were auction handling the complete collection of Miss Lilian Asplund's last American Titanic Survivor. The collection consists of a number of important objects including a pocket watch, one of the few remaining tickets for the Titanic's maiden voyage and the only example of a direct emigration order the Titanic thought to exist. Lillian Asplund was a very private person, and because of a terrible event, she became a witness that on a cold April night in 1912, she rarely spoke about the tragedy that claimed the lives of her father and three brothers. (Henry Aldridge)

(National Maritime Museum / London)

Breakfast menu aboard the Titanic, signed by survivors of the disaster. (National Maritime Museum / London)

The nose of the Titanic at the bottom of the ocean, 1999 (Institute of Oceanology)

The image shows one of the Titanic's propellers at the bottom of the ocean during an expedition to the site of the tragedy. Five thousand exhibits planned to be auctioned as a single collection on April 11, 2012, 100 years after the sinking of the ship (RMS Titanic, Inc, via The Associated Press)

Photo August 28, 2010, released for the premiere of the exhibition, Inc-Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, shows the starboard side of the Titanic. (Premier Exhibitions, Inc. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute)

Dr. Robert Ballard, the man who found the remains of the Titanic almost two decades ago, returned to the site and calculated the damage from visitors and hunters for the "souvenir" of the ship. (Institute of Oceanography and Archaeological Research Center / University of Rhode Island Grad. Schools of Oceanography)

The giant propeller of the sunken Titanic lies on the floor in the North Atlantic in this undated photograph. Screw and other parts famous ship the first tourists were considered to visit the crash site in September 1998.

(Ralph White/Associated Press)

The 17-ton part of the Titanic's hull rises to the surface during an expedition to the site of the tragedy in 1998. (RMS Titanic, Inc., via The Associated Press)

July 22, 2009, photo of the 17-ton part of the Titanic, which was raised and restored during an expedition to the site of the tragedy. (RMS Titanic, Inc., via The Associated Press)

A gold-plated American Waltham pocket watch, owned by Carl Asplund, in front of a contemporary watercolor painting of the Titanic by CJ Ashford at the Henry Aldridge & Son Auctions in Devizes, Wiltshire, England, April 3, 2008. The clock was recovered from the body of Karl Asplund who drowned on the Titanic, and is part of Lillian Asplund, the last American survivor of the disaster. (Kirsty Wigglesworth Associated Press)

The currency, part of the Titanic Collection, is photographed at a warehouse in Atlanta, August 2008. The owner of the largest trove of artifacts from the Titanic is offering a huge collection for auction in a single lot in 2012, on the 100th anniversary of the most famous shipwreck in the world. (Stanley Leary/Associated Press)

Photographs by Felix Asplund, Selma and Carl Asplund and Lillian Asplund, by Henry Aldridge and Son Auctions at Devizes, Wiltshire, England, April 3, 2008. The photographs were part of Lillian Asplund's collection of Titanic-related items. Asplund was 5 years old in April 1912 when the Titanic hit an iceberg and sank on its maiden voyage from England to New York. Her father and three siblings were among the 1,514 dead. (Kirsty Wigglesworth/Associated Press)

Exhibits at the "Titanic Artifact Exhibition" at the California scientific center: binoculars, comb, dishes and a broken incandescent lamp, February 6, 2003. (Michel Boutefeu/Getty Images, Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times)

Glasses among the wreckage of the Titanic were among the choicest artifacts of the Titanic. (Bebeto Matthews/Associated Press)

Golden Spoon (Titanic Artifacts) (Bebeto Matthews/Associated Press)

A chronometer from the Titanic Bridge is on display at the Science Museum in London, May 15, 2003. The Chronometer, one of more than 200 items salvaged from the wreck of the Titanic, was on display at the launch of a new exhibit commemorating its ill-fated maiden voyage along with bottles of perfume. The exhibition took visitors on a chronological journey through the life of the Titanic, from its concept and construction, to life on board, and its plunge into the Atlantic Ocean in April 1912. (Alastair Grant/Associated Press)

Logo meter to measure the speed of the Titanic and a hinged lamp. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Artifacts of the Titanic displayed in the tools mass media preview only, to announce the historical sale is complete. a collection of artifacts recovered from the wreck of the Titanic and showcasing highlights from the collection at sea by Intrepid, Air & SpaceMuseum January 2012. (Chang W. Lee / The New York Times)

Cups and pocket watches from the Titanic are displayed during a Guernsey auction press conference, January 5, 2012. (Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images, Brendan McDermid/Reuters Michel Boutefeu/Getty Images-2)

Spoons. RMS Titanic, Inc. is the only company authorized to remove elements from the ocean floor where the Titanic sank. (Douglas Healey/Associated Press)

Gold mesh purse. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

The April 2012 edition of National Geographic magazine (on-line version available on iPad) sees new images and drawings from the Titanic wreck as it remains on the seafloor, gradually disintegrating at a depth of 12,415 feet (3,784 m). (National Geographic)

Two propeller blades peek out from the darkness of the sea. This optical mosaic is assembled from 300 s high resolution images. (COPYRIGHT © 2012 RMS Titanic, Inc; Produced by AIVL, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Making sense of this tangle of metal presents endless challenges to professionals. One says: "If you interpret this material, you must love Picasso." (COPYRIGHT © 2012 RMS Titanic, Inc; Produced by AIVL, WHOI)

The Titanic's two engines lie in a gaping hole in the stern. Wrapped in "rusticles" - orange stalactites made of iron - that eat the bacteria of these massive four-story structures, the largest moving man-made objects on Earth at the time. (COPYRIGHT © 2012 RMS Titanic, Inc; Produced by AIVL, WHOI)