How did the Titanic sink? The sinking of the Titanic: a history. Titanic

The Titanic is a British steamship operated by the White Star Line, one of three Olympic-class twin ships. The largest passenger liner in the world at the time of its construction. During the first voyage on April 14, 1912, she collided with an iceberg and sank after 2 hours and 40 minutes. There were 1,316 passengers and 892 crew members on board, for a total of 2,208 people. Of these, 704 people survived, more than 1,500 died. The Titanic disaster became legendary and was one of the largest shipwrecks in history. Several feature films have been shot on its plot.

Statistics

General information:

Port of registry - Liverpool.
Board number - 401.
The call sign is MGY.
Ship dimensions:
Length - 259.83 meters.
Width - 28.19 meters.
Weight - 46328 tons.
Displacement - 52310 tons.
The height from the waterline to the boat deck is 19 meters.
From the keel to the top of the pipe - 55 meters.
Draft - 10.54 meters.

Technical data:

Steam boilers - 29.
Waterproof compartments - 16.
Maximum speed - 23 knots.

Rescue equipment:

Standard boats - 14 (65 places).
Collapsible boats - 4 (47 seats).

Passengers:

I class: 180 men and 145 women (including 6 children).
II class: 179 men and 106 women (including 24 children).
III class: 510 men and 196 women (including 79 children).

Team members:

Officers - 8 people (including the captain).
Deck crew - 66 people.
Engine room - 325 people.
Service staff - 494 people (including 23 women).
In total, there were 2201 people on board.

officers

Captain - Edward J. Smith
Chief Officer – Henry F. Wild
First Mate – William M. Murdoch
Second Officer – Charles G. Lightoller
Third Mate - Herbert J. Pitman
Fourth Mate - Joseph G. Boxhall
Fifth Mate – Harold P. Lowe
6th Mate – James P. Moody

Building
It was laid down on March 31, 1909 at the shipyards of the Harland and Wolf shipbuilding company in Queens Island (Belfast, Northern Ireland), launched on May 31, 1911, and passed sea trials on April 2, 1912.

Specifications
height from the keel to the tops of the pipes - 53.3 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.

Bulkheads
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 two and the last five reached deck "D", eight 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 two of its 16 watertight compartments, any three of the first five compartments, or all of the first four compartments were flooded.
The first two 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 to which it reached bulkhead. To batten down such doors on the passenger decks, a special key was required, which only the senior stewards had. 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, electromagnets released the latches on a signal from the bridge and all 12 doors fell under 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.

boats
In formal accordance with the current requirements of the British Merchant Shipping Code, the ship had 20 lifeboats, which were enough to board 1178 people, that is, for 50% of the people on board at that moment and 30% of the planned load. This was taken into account with the expectation of increasing the walking space on the deck of the passengers of the ship.

Decks
On the Titanic there were 8 steel decks located one above the other at a distance of 2.5-3.2 m. The uppermost one was a boat deck, under it there were seven others, indicated from top to bottom with letters from “A” to “G”. Only decks "C", "D", "E" and "F" stretched along 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" with a length of 150 m was almost entirely intended for first-class passengers. Deck "B" was interrupted at the bow, forming an open space above deck "C", and then continued in the form of a 37-meter bow superstructure with anchor handling equipment and a mooring device. In front of deck "C" there were anchor winches for the two 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 second-class cabins and the main living quarters of third-class passengers, stretching for 45 m and occupying the entire width of the liner.
There were two large salons, a dining room for third-class passengers, ship's laundries, a swimming pool and Turkish baths. 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 the 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.

Size comparison of the Titanic with the modern cruise ship Queen Mary 2, A-380 aircraft, bus, car and person

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
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, producing a current of 100 volts. Next to them were two more 30-kilowatt generators.

Pipes
The liner had 4 tubes. The diameter of each was 7.3 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. There is an opinion that when designing the vessel, the widespread opinion of the public was taken into account that the solidity and reliability of the vessel directly depends on the number of its pipes. It also follows from the literature that in the last moments of the ship leaving the water almost vertically, its fake pipe fell off its place and, falling into the water, killed a large number of passengers and crew members in the water.

Electrical supply
10 thousand 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, and lots of phones. In addition, electricity was consumed by fans in the boiler and engine rooms, apparatus in the gym, dozens of machines and appliances in the kitchens, including refrigerators.

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 high. 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 came on board on April 2 from Marconi, 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, 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 its location and the country of home of the vessel on which it was installed.

clash

The iceberg believed to have hit the Titanic

Recognizing an iceberg in a light haze, the forward looking Fleet warned “there is ice in front of us” and struck the bell three times, which meant an obstacle straight ahead, 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 immediately and heard a cry of "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 "rudder right", at the same time transmitting the order "full back" to the engine room. According to the terminology of 1912, "rudder right" meant turning the ship's stern to the right, and the bow to the left. The steersman, Robert Hitchens, leaned on the handle of the steering wheel and quickly turned it counterclockwise to the stop, after which Murdoch was told "rudder to the right, 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". Murdoch pulled the lever, which included the closing of watertight doors in the bulkheads of the boiler rooms and the engine room, and immediately gave the order "left rudder!"

lifeboats
There were 2,208 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 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 the 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 the men to go down if there were no women and children. So, in boat number 1, only 12 seats out of 40 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 47 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.
As a result of the analysis of the operation to rescue people from the Titanic, it is concluded that with adequate actions by the team of victims, there would have been at least 553 fewer people. The reason for the low survival rate of passengers on the ship is the installation given by the captain to save, first of all, women and children, and not all passengers; the interest of the crew in this order of boarding the boats. By preventing male passengers from accessing the boats, the men from the crew got the opportunity to take places in the half-empty boats themselves, covering their interests with the “noble motives” of caring for women and children. In the event that all passengers, men and women, took their places in the boats, the men from the crew would not get into them and their chances of salvation would be equal to zero, and the crew could not help but understand this. The men from the crew occupied part of the seats in almost all boats during the evacuation from the ship, on average 10 people from the crew per 1 boat. 24% of the crew were saved, about the same as 3rd class passengers were saved (25%). The team had no reason to consider their duty fulfilled - most of the passengers remained on the ship with no hope of salvation, even the order to save women and children in the first place was not fulfilled (several dozen children, and more than a hundred women never got into the boats).
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 the obstacles placed by the crew for the passage of passengers to the deck, the closing of the passage doors. Comparison of the results of the evacuation from the Titanic with the results of the evacuation from the Lusitania (1915) shows that the evacuation operation on ships like the Titanic and Lusitania can be organized without a disproportion in the percentage of survivors depending on the sex or class of passengers.
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.

Official data on the number of dead and rescued

Category	Percentage rescued	Percentage of dead	Number of rescued	Number of dead	How much was
Children, first grade	100.0	00.0	6	0	6
Children, second grade	100.0	00.0	24	0	24
Women, first class	97.22	02.78	140	4	144
Women, crew	86.96	13.04	20	3	23
Women, second class	86.02	13.98	80	13	93
Women third grade	46.06	53.94	76	89	165
Children, third grade	34.18	65.82	27	52	79
Men, first class	32.57	67.43	57	118	175
men, crew	21.69	78.31	192	693	885
Men, third grade	16.23	83.77	75	387	462
Men, second class	8.33	91.67	14	154	168
Total	31.97	68.03	711	1513	2224

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

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

April 10, 1912
- 12:00 - "Titanic" departs from the quay wall of the Southampton port and narrowly avoids a collision with the American liner "New York".
-19:00 stop in Cherbourg (France) to pick up passengers and mail.
-21:00 - The Titanic left Cherbourg and headed for Queenstown (Ireland).

April 11, 1912
-12:30 - stop in Queenstown to pick up passengers and mail; one member of the crew deserts from the Titanic.
-14:00 - The Titanic departs Queenstown with 1,316 passengers and 891 crew members on board.

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' north latitude, 49°52' west longitude.
-13:45 - "America" reports ice in the region of 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 - Californian reports ice at 42°3'N, 49°9'W.
-21:00 - air temperature 33 ° Fahrenheit (0.6 ° C).
-21:30 - the second officer Lightoller warns the ship's carpenter and watchmen in the engine room that it is necessary to monitor the fresh water system - the water in the pipelines may freeze; he tells the lookout to watch the appearance of ice.
-21:40 - "Mesaba" reports ice in the region of 42°-41°25' north latitude, 49°-50°30' west longitude.
-22:00 - Air temperature 32° Fahrenheit (0 °C).
-22:30 - the sea water temperature dropped to 31 ° Fahrenheit (-0.56 ° C).
-23:00 - The Californian warns of the presence of ice, but the Titanic's radio operator cuts off the radio traffic before the Californian manages to report the coordinates of the area.
-23:40 - 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 noticed at a distance of about 450 meters straight ahead. Despite the maneuver, after 39 seconds, the underwater part of the ship touched, and the ship's 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).
April 15, 1912
-00:05 - an order was given to uncover the lifeboats and convene crew members and passengers to the muster points.
-00:15 - the first radiotelegraph signal for help was transmitted from the Titanic.
-00:45 - the first flare was fired, and the first lifeboat (No. 7) was launched.
-01:15 - Class 3 passengers are allowed on deck.
-01:40 - the last flare was fired.
-02:05 - the last lifeboat is launched.
-02:10 - the last radiotelegraph signals were transmitted.
-02:17 - Electric lighting goes out.
-02:18 - "Titanic" breaks into three parts
-02:20 - Titanic sank.
-03:30 - flares fired from the Carpathia are noticed in lifeboats.
-04:10 - "Carpathia" picked up the first lifeboat from the "Titanic" (boat number 2).

Lifeboat "Titanic", filmed by one of the passengers of the "Carpathia"

-08:30 - Carpathia picked up the last (No. 12) lifeboat from the Titanic.
-08:50 - Carpathia, taking on board 704 people who escaped from the Titanic, heads for New York.

On April 10, 1912, the Titanic liner set off from Southampton Port on its first and last voyage, which collided with an iceberg 4 days later. We know about the tragedy that claimed the lives of almost 1496 people largely thanks to the film, but let's get acquainted with the real stories of the passengers of the Titanic.

The real cream of society gathered on the passenger deck of the Titanic: millionaires, actors and writers. Not everyone could afford to buy a class I ticket - the price was $60,000 at current prices.

3rd class passengers bought tickets for only $35 ($650 these days), so they were not allowed to go above the third deck. On the fateful night, the division into classes turned out to be more tangible than ever...

One of the first to jump into a lifeboat was Bruce Ismay, CEO of the White Star Line company, which owned the Titanic. The boat, designed for 40 people, set sail from the side with only twelve.

After the disaster, Ismay was accused of boarding a lifeboat, avoiding women and children, and of instructing the captain of the Titanic to increase speed, which led to the tragedy. The court acquitted him.

William Ernest Carter boarded the Titanic at Southampton with his wife, Lucy, and their two children, Lucy and William, and two dogs.

On the night of the disaster, he was at a party in the restaurant of the first class ship, and after the collision, together with his comrades, he went on deck, where the boats were already being prepared. First, William put his daughter in boat number 4, but when it was his son's turn, they were in trouble.

Right in front of them, 13-year-old John Rison boarded the boat, after which the boarding officer ordered that teenage boys not be taken on board. Lucy Carter resourcefully threw her hat on her 11-year-old son and sat down with him.

When the boarding process was completed and the boat began to descend into the water, Carter himself quickly got into it, along with another passenger. It turned out to be the already mentioned Bruce Ismay.

Roberta Mahoney, 21, worked as a servant to the countess and sailed on the Titanic with her mistress in first class.

On board, she met a brave young steward from the ship's crew, and soon the young people fell in love with each other. When the Titanic began to sink, the steward rushed to Roberta's cabin, brought her to the boat deck and put her in the boat, giving her his life jacket.

He himself died, like many other crew members, and Robert was picked up by the Carpathia ship, on which she sailed to New York. Only there, in her coat pocket, did she find a badge with a star, which, at the moment of parting, the steward put in her pocket as a memory of himself.

Emily Richards sailed along with her two young sons, mother, brother and sister to her husband. At the time of the disaster, the woman was sleeping in the cabin with her children. They were awakened by the screams of their mother, who ran into the cabin after the collision.

The Richardses were miraculously able to climb through the window into the descending lifeboat No. 4. When the Titanic completely sank, the passengers of her boat managed to pull seven more people out of the icy water, two of whom, unfortunately, soon died of frostbite.

The famous American businessman Isidor Strauss and his wife Ida traveled in first class. The Strauss have been married for 40 years and have never parted.

When the ship's officer invited the family to board the boat, Isidore refused, deciding to give way to women and children, but Ida also followed him.

Instead of themselves, the Strauss put their maid in the boat. Isidore's body was identified by a wedding ring, Ida's body was not found.

Two orchestras played on the Titanic: a quintet led by 33-year-old British violinist Wallace Hartley and an additional trio of musicians who were hired to give Café Parisien a continental touch.

Usually, the two members of the Titanic orchestra worked in different parts of the liner and at different times, but on the night of the ship's death, all of them united into one orchestra.

One of the rescued passengers of the Titanic wrote later: “Many heroic deeds were committed that night, but none of them could compare with the feat of these few musicians, playing hour after hour, although the ship sank deeper and deeper, and the sea to the place where they stood. The music they played gave them the right to be included in the list of heroes of eternal glory."

Hartley's body was found two weeks after the sinking of the Titanic and sent to England. A violin was tied to his chest - a gift from the bride. Among the other members of the orchestra, there were no survivors ...

Four-year-old Michel and two-year-old Edmond traveled with their father, who died in the crash, and were considered "orphans of the Titanic" until their mother was found in France.

Michel died in 2001, he was the last male survivor on the Titanic.

Winnie Coates was on her way to New York with her two children. On the night of the disaster, she woke up from a strange noise, but decided to wait for the orders of the crew members. Her patience snapped, she rushed about the endless corridors of the ship for a long time, getting lost.

Suddenly met by a member of the crew directed her to the boats. She stumbled on a broken closed gate, but just at that moment another officer appeared, who saved Winnie and her children by giving them his life jacket.

As a result, Vinnie ended up on the deck, where she was boarding boat No. 2, on which, literally by a miracle, she managed to dive ..

Seven-year-old Eva Hart escaped the sinking Titanic with her mother, but her father died in the crash.

Ellen Walker believes she was conceived on the Titanic before it hit the iceberg. “It means a lot to me,” she admitted in an interview.

Her parents were 39-year-old Samuel Morley, the owner of a jewelry store in England, and 19-year-old Kate Phillips, one of his employees, fled to America from the man's first wife, seeking to start a new life.

Kate got into a lifeboat, Samuel jumped into the water after her, but did not know how to swim and drowned. "Mom spent 8 hours in a lifeboat," Helen said. "She was wearing only a nightgown, but one of the sailors gave her his jumper."

Violet Constance Jessop. Until the last moment, the stewardess did not want to be hired on the Titanic, but her friends convinced her because they thought it would be a "wonderful experience."

Prior to that, on October 20, 1910, Violet became a stewardess of the transatlantic liner Olympic, which a year later collided with the cruiser due to unsuccessful maneuvering, but the girl managed to escape.

And from the Titanic, Violet escaped on a boat. During the First World War, the girl went to work as a nurse, and in 1916 she got on board the Britannic, which ... also went to the bottom! Two boats with a crew were pulled under the propeller of a sinking ship. 21 people died.

Among them could be Violet, who was sailing in one of the broken boats, but again luck was on her side: she managed to jump out of the boat and survived.

Fireman Arthur John Priest also survived a shipwreck not only on the Titanic, but also on the Olympic and Britannic (by the way, all three ships were the brainchild of the same company). Priest has 5 shipwrecks on his account.

On April 21, 1912, the New York Times published the story of Edward and Ethel Bean, who were on the Titanic in second class. After the crash, Edward helped his wife into the boat. But when the boat had already sailed, he saw that it was half empty, and threw himself into the water. Ethel dragged her husband into the boat.

Among the passengers of the Titanic was the famous tennis player Carl Behr and his lover Helen Newsom. After the disaster, the athlete ran to the cabin and brought the women to the boat deck.

The lovers were ready to say goodbye forever when the head of the White Star Line, Bruce Ismay, personally offered Beer a place on the boat. A year later, Karl and Helen got married, and later became the parents of three children.

Edward John Smith is the captain of the Titanic, who was very popular with both crew and passengers. At 2:13 am, just 10 minutes before the ship was completely submerged, Smith returned to the captain's bridge, where he decided to meet his death.

Second mate Charles Herbert Lightoller was one of the last to jump off the ship, narrowly avoiding being sucked into the ventilation shaft. He swam to the collapsible boat B, which was floating upside down: the Titanic's pipe that broke off and fell into the sea next to him drove the boat away from the sinking ship and allowed it to stay afloat.

American businessman Benjamin Guggenheim helped women and children into lifeboats during the crash. When asked to save himself, he replied: "We are dressed in our best clothes and are ready to die like gentlemen."

Benjamin died at the age of 46, his body was not found.

Thomas Andrews - first class passenger, Irish businessman and shipbuilder, was the designer of the Titanic ...

During the evacuation, Thomas helped the passengers into the boats. He was last seen in the first class smoking room near the fireplace, looking at a painting of Port Plymouth. His body was never found after the crash.

John Jacob and Madeleine Astor, the millionaire science fiction writer, were traveling first class with their young wife. Madeleine escaped on lifeboat number 4. The body of John Jacob was raised from the depths of the ocean 22 days after his death.

Colonel Archibald Gracie IV is an American writer and amateur historian who survived the sinking of the Titanic. Returning to New York, Gracie immediately began writing a book about his voyage.

It was she who became a real encyclopedia for historians and researchers of the disaster, thanks to the large number of names of stowaways and 1st class passengers who remained on the Titanic contained in it. Gracie's health was badly damaged by hypothermia and injuries, and he died in late 1912.

Margaret (Molly) Brown is an American socialite, philanthropist, and activist. Survived. When panic arose on the Titanic, Molly put people into lifeboats, but she herself refused to sit there.

"If the worst happens, I'll swim out," she said, until eventually someone pushed her into the number 6 lifeboat that made her famous.

After Molly organized the Titanic Survivors Relief Fund.

Millvina Dean was the last of the surviving passengers of the Titanic: she died on May 31, 2009 at the age of 97 in a nursing home in Ashurst, Hampshire, on the 98th anniversary of the liner's launch. .

Her ashes were scattered on October 24, 2009 in the port of Southampton, from where the Titanic began its first and last voyage. At the time of the death of the liner, she was two and a half months old.

You have already read and heard about the Titanic many times. The history of the creation and crash of the liner is overgrown with rumors and myths. For more than 100 years, the British steamship has been haunting the minds of people trying to find the answer - why did the Titanic sink?

The history of the legendary liner is interesting for three reasons:

it was the largest ship for 1912;
the number of victims turned the catastrophe into a global failure;
finally, James Cameron, with his film, singled out the history of the liner from the general list of maritime disasters, and there were quite a few of them.

We will tell you everything about the Titanic, as it was in reality. About how long the Titanic is in meters, how much the Titanic sank, and who was really behind the massive disaster.

Where did the Titanic sail from and to?

We know from Cameron's film that the liner was bound for New York. The American up-and-coming city was to be the final stop. But far from everyone knows for sure where the Titanic sailed from, considering that London was the starting point. The capital of Great Britain was not in the ranks of seaports, and therefore the steamer could not leave from there.

The fateful flight began from Southampton, a major English port, from where transatlantic flights ran. The path of the Titanic on the map clearly shows the movement. Southampton is both a port and a city located in the southern part of England (Hampshire).

See how the route of the Titanic ran on the map:

Dimensions of the Titanic in meters

To understand more about the Titanic, the causes of the disaster must be disclosed, starting with the dimensions of the ship.

How many meters is the Titanic in length and in other dimensions:

exact length - 299.1 m;

width - 28.19 m;

height from the keel - 53.3 m.

There is also such a question - how many decks did the Titanic have? Only 8. Boats were located on the top, therefore the upper deck was called the boat deck. The rest were distributed according to the letter designation.

A - deck I class. Its peculiarity is limited in size - it did not lie down the entire length of the vessel;

B - anchors were located in the front of the deck and its dimensions were also shorter - by 37 meters of deck C;

C - deck with a galley, a mess for the crew and a promenade for class III.

D - walking area;

E - cabins I, II classes;

F - cabins II and III classes;

G - deck with boiler rooms in the middle.

Finally, how much does the Titanic weigh? The displacement of the largest ship of the early 20th century is 52,310 tons.

Titanic: the story of the crash

What year did the Titanic sink? The famous disaster occurred on the night of April 14, 1912. It was the fifth day of the trip. Chronicles indicate that at 23:40 the liner survived a collision with an iceberg and after 2 hours 40 minutes (2:20 a.m.) it went under water.

Things from the Titanic: photo

Further investigations showed that the crew received 7 weather warnings, but this did not prevent the ship from reducing its speed limit. The iceberg was sighted directly ahead of us too late to take precautions. As a result - holes in the starboard side. Ice damaged 90 m of hull and 5 bow compartments. This was enough to sink the liner.

Tickets for the new liner were more expensive than for other ships. If a person was used to traveling in first class, then on the Titanic he would have to transfer to second class.

Edward Smith, the captain of the ship, began the evacuation after midnight: a distress call was sent, the attention of other ships was attracted by flares, lifeboats went to the water. But the rescue was slow and uncoordinated - there was an empty place in the boats while the Titanic was sinking, the water temperature did not rise above two degrees below zero, and the first steamer arrived in time only half an hour after the disaster.

Titanic: how many people died and survived

How many people survived on the Titanic? No one will say the exact data, as they could not say this on the fateful night. The list of Titanic passengers initially changed in practice, but not on paper: some canceled the trip at the time of departure and were not crossed out, others traveled anonymously under assumed names, and others were listed as dead on the Titanic several times.

Photos of the sinking of the Titanic

It is only approximately possible to say how many people drowned on the Titanic - about 1500 (minimum 1490 - maximum 1635). Among them was Edward Smith with some assistants, 8 musicians from the famous orchestra, large investors and businessmen.

Classiness was felt even after death - the bodies of the dead from the first class were embalmed and placed in coffins, the second and third classes were given bags and boxes. When the embalming agents ran out, the bodies of unknown third-class passengers were simply thrown into the water (according to the rules, unembalmed corpses could not be brought to the port).

The bodies were found within a radius of 80 km from the crash site, and due to the current of the Gulf Stream, many were dispersed even further.

Photos of dead people

Initially, it was known how many passengers were on the Titanic, although not completely:

crew of 900 people;

195 first class;

255 second class;

493 people of the third class.

Some passengers left at intermediate ports, some called. It is believed that the liner went to the fatal route with a staff of 1317 people, of which 124 are children.

Titanic: scuttling depth - 3750 m

The English steamer could accommodate 2,566 people, of which 1,034 seats were for first-class passengers. The half-load of the liner is due to the fact that transatlantic flights were not popular in April. At that time, a coal strike broke out, this disrupted coal supplies, schedules and changes in plans.

The question of how many people escaped from the Titanic was difficult to answer because the rescue operations took place from different ships, and the slow connection did not provide fast data.

After the crash, only 2/3 of the delivered bodies were identified. Some were buried locally, the rest were sent home. In the disaster area, bodies in white vests were found for a long time. Of the 1,500 people who died, only 333 bodies were found.

How deep is the Titanic

When answering the question about the depth at which the Titanic sank, one must remember about the pieces carried by the currents (by the way, they learned about this only in the 80s, before that it was believed that the liner sank to the bottom entirely). The wreckage of the liner on the night of the crash went at a depth of 3750 m. The bow was thrown 600 m from the stern.

The place where the Titanic sank, on the map:

In which ocean did the Titanic sink? - in the Atlantic.

Titanic lifted from the bottom of the ocean

They wanted to raise the ship from the moment of the crash. Initiative plans were put forward by relatives of the dead from the first class. But 1912 did not yet know the necessary technologies. The war, lack of knowledge and funds delayed the search for the sunken ship for a hundred years. Since 1985, 17 expeditions have been carried out, during which 5,000 items and large plating have been raised to the surface, but the ship itself has remained at the bottom of the ocean.

What does the Titanic look like now?

In the time since the crash, the ship has become covered in marine life. Rust, painstaking work of invertebrates and natural decomposition processes have changed the structures beyond recognition. By this time, the bodies had already completely decomposed, and by the 22nd century, only anchors and boilers, the most massive metal structures, would remain from the Titanic.

Even now the interiors of the decks have been destroyed, the cabins and halls have collapsed.

Titanic, Britannic and Olympic

All three ships were manufactured by the Harland and Wolf shipbuilding company. Before the Titanic, the Olympic saw the world. It is easy to see a fatal predisposition in the fate of the three ships. The first liner was wrecked as a result of a collision with a cruiser. Not such a large-scale disaster, but still an impressive failure.

Then the story of the Titanic, which received a wide response in the world, and, finally, the Gigantic. They tried to make this ship especially durable, given the mistakes of previous liners. He was even launched into the water, but the First World War disrupted the plans. The giant became a hospital ship called the Britannic.

He then just managed to carry out 5 quiet flights, and on the sixth there was a disaster. Having been blown up by a German mine, the Britannic rapidly sank. The mistakes of the past and the preparedness of the captain made it possible to save the maximum number of people - 1036 out of 1066.

Is it possible to talk about evil fate, remembering the Titanic? The history of the creation and crash of the liner were studied in detail, the facts were revealed, even through time. And yet the truth is only now being revealed. The reason the Titanic is attracting attention is to hide its true motive - to create a currency system and destroy opponents.

On April 10, 1912, the huge ship Titanic set off on its first and last voyage, the sad story of which still sounds incredible. A few days later, he suffered a large-scale shipwreck, and on April 15 we will celebrate the 104th anniversary of this tragedy.

Many people know about the cruise ship "Titanic" only what director James Cameron showed in his film of the same name.

Namely, that it was the largest ship built at that time, that it cost a lot of money to get on it, and that on its very first voyage it was wrecked, colliding with a drifting iceberg.

The Titanic is about the same length as the Empire State Building.

For reference: the New York skyscraper has 103 floors. Take a moment to realize the scale of a cruise ship. Realized?

The total length of the Titanic is 269.1 m, and the roof of the Empire State Building starts at 381. That is, another hundred meters and the ship would be as huge as the largest skyscraper in New York.

Today such liners exist. For example, "Queen Mary 2", "Independence of the Seas" and cruise ships of the "Oasis" class.

The launch of the Titanic was not accompanied by traditional rituals "for good luck"

That's where the trouble is. When the ship set off on its first and last voyage, a bottle of champagne was not broken on its side.

It was also customary in the early 20th century to have cats on board because they helped keep rodents out. And it was also believed that they bring good luck and protect the ship from trouble.

As you may have guessed, there were no cats on the Titanic. But there were nine dogs, two of which survived the shipwreck.

A novel describing similar events was published 14 years before the tragedy.

The trouble that befell the Titanic on the night of April 14-15, 1912, was described by Morgan Robertson in his novel The Futility, or the Death of the Titan, back in 1898.

There are so many coincidences with a real catastrophe in this literary work that it is hard to believe. Starting with the similar name of the ship (in the novel it was called "Titan") and ending with the details that prevented all passengers and crew members from escaping.

The fictional ship also had a similar design to the real Titanic, and it sank under the same circumstances - colliding with an iceberg on a cold April night. And even the crash area is the same - 740 km from Newfoundland in the northern waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

In addition, both in the novel and in real life, more than half of the people died due to the fact that there were not enough lifeboats on the ship.

Titanic watchmen didn't have binoculars

It is not surprising that the watchmen could not notice the huge iceberg floating in their direction beforehand. They didn't even have binoculars.

And given the size of the ship, they could hardly see anything at least a kilometer beyond its bow or stern.

It is strange that with such a scale of construction and the desire to make the ship unsinkable, they forgot about such a small but very important detail.

So it turned out that after the iceberg was seen, only 37 seconds passed before the collision with it.

Titanic sank for 2 hours and 40 minutes

After a collision with an iceberg, the ship began to go to the bottom of the ocean, at first very slowly, until the water only flooded the decks, and then picking up speed faster and faster.

In total, the whole process lasted almost three hours, but the final stage of the death of this titan took very little time - the ship reached the bottom approximately 15 minutes after the start of the dive.

The Titanic sank to the bottom at a speed of 16 km/h. Now he rests at a depth of 3750 m.

Many Titanic passengers had to sail on other ships

Not everyone boarded the ship of their own free will. The fact is that during the launch of the Titanic, workers staged a strike, which led to interruptions in the supply of coal.

Because of this, transport companies had to cancel flights of other ships in order to transport coal from them for the Titanic so that it could launch.

Along with coal, the passengers of ships whose flights were canceled also went to the liner. Here is the bad luck.

The ship's chief baker survived because he was drunk.

Charles Joughin miraculously escaped from the icy water, the temperature of which was about -2 ° C, because he was damn drunk.

In such cold water, few could survive more than 15 minutes, and one in five deaths from cold shock overtakes in two minutes.

The baker managed the incredible - he drifted in the cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean for about two hours, and, according to him, he managed not to freeze only because he had drunk whiskey before that.

Jowyn said he didn't feel the cold. So the next time you're on a cruise, take a couple of bottles of liquor with you. Just in case.

105 years ago, on April 15, 1912, the "unsinkable ship", "the largest and most luxurious ocean liner" crashed into an iceberg on its very first flight and carried more than 1,500 passengers to the bottom of the ocean. It would seem that for many decades there are no more secrets and secrets about this terrible catastrophe. And yet let's remember how it was.

Captain Edward Smith aboard the Titanic. Photo: New York Times

First official version

Two government investigations that were carried out in the wake of the disaster, decided that it was the iceberg, and not the defects of the ship, that caused the death of the liner. Both commissions of inquiry concluded that the Titanic sank not in parts, but in its entirety - there were no major faults.

The blame for this tragedy was completely shifted to the shoulders of the ship's captain, Edward Smith, who died along with his crew and passengers of the Atlantic liner. Experts reproached Smith for the fact that the ship was moving at a speed of 22 knots (41 km) through a dangerous ice field - in dark waters, not far from the coast of Newfoundland.

Discovery of Robert Ballard

In 1985, oceanographer Robert Ballard, after a long unsuccessful search, nevertheless managed to find the remains of a ship at a depth of about four kilometers at the bottom of the ocean. Then he discovered that in fact the Titanic had split in half before sinking.

A couple of years later, the wreckage of the ship was first brought to the surface and a new hypothesis immediately appeared - low-grade steel was used to build an "unsinkable ship". However, according to experts, it was not steel at all that turned out to be base, but rivets - the most important metal pins that bind together the steel plates of the hull of the liner. And the found wreckage of the Titanic does indicate that the stern of the ship did not rise high into the air, as many believed. It is believed that the "Titanic" was divided into parts, being relatively even on the surface of the ocean - this is a clear sign of miscalculations in the design of the ship, which were hidden after the disaster.

Design miscalculations

"Titanic" was built in a short time - in response to the production of a new generation of high-speed liners by competitors.

The Titanic could keep afloat even if 4 of its 16 watertight compartments were flooded - amazing for a ship of such gigantic size.

However, on the night of April 14-15, 1912, in just a few days of the debut flight of the liner, its Achilles heel was opened. The ship, due to its size, was not nimble enough to be able to avoid the iceberg that the sentinels were screaming about at the last minute. The Titanic did not collide head-on with the fatal iceberg, but drove over it on its right side - the ice punched holes in the steel plates, flooding six "watertight" compartments. And after a couple of hours the ship was completely filled with water and sank.

According to experts studying the Titanic's potential weak spot, the rivets, they found that due to the fact that time was running out, builders began to use low-grade material. When the liner hit the iceberg, the weak steel rods in the ship's bow could not stand it and cracked. It is believed that it is not by chance that the water, having flooded six compartments fastened with low-grade steel rods, stopped exactly where the high-grade steel rivets began.

In 2005, another expedition studying the crash site, using the wreckage of the bottom, managed to establish that during the crash the ship tilted only about 11 degrees, and not at all 45, as was long thought.

Memories of Passengers

Due to the fact that the ship listed quite a bit, the passengers and crew had a false sense of security - many of them did not understand the seriousness of the situation. When the water flooded the bow of the hull sufficiently, the ship, remaining afloat, broke in two and sank in minutes.

Charlie Jugin, the Titanic's chef, was standing close to the stern at the time of the ship's wreck and saw no sign of the hull breaking. neither did he notice the suction funnel or the colossal splash. According to his information, he calmly sailed away from the ship, without even getting his hair wet.

However, some passengers in the lifeboats claimed to have seen the Titanic's stern high in the air. However, this could only be an optical illusion. With an 11-degree tilt, propellers sticking out in the air, the 20-story building Titanic seemed even higher, and its roll into the water even more.

How the Titanic sank: a real-time model

In New York, they sold the menu of the last dinner on the wrecked liner Titanic in 1912. They got 88 thousand dollars (about 1.9 million hryvnias) for it.

The company "Blue Star Line" announced the construction of "Titanic-2". According to the designers, the ship will be an exact copy of the famous liner that sank in 1912. However, the liner will be equipped with modern security features. Australian mining magnate Clive Palmer came to finance the project.

Now this 105-year-old cracker is considered the most expensive in the world.

It turns out that a Spillers and Bakers cracker called "Pilot" was included in the survival kit that was placed on every lifeboat. Later, one of these products went to a man who kept it as a souvenir. It was James Fenwick, a passenger on the Carpathia, which was raising shipwrecked survivors.

REFERENCE

On the night of April 15, 1912, the Titanic collided with an iceberg and sank. He sailed in the Atlantic Ocean on his way from Southampton (England) to New York. Then about 1.5 thousand people died, mostly third-class passengers. In total, it was more than 2.2 thousand people.