The sinking of the Titanic passenger liner, in which 1,517 of the 2,229 passengers and crew died (official figures vary slightly), was one of the worst peacetime maritime disasters.
The 712 surviving passengers of the Titanic were picked up by the rescue ship Carpathia.Only a few disasters have caused such a resonance and had such a strong impact on public consciousness. The disaster changed attitudes towards social injustice, influenced the rules of passenger transport in the Atlantic Ocean, contributed to stricter requirements for the presence of a sufficient number of lifeboats on board passenger ships and led to the creation of the International Ice Service.
April 14, 2016 marked the 104th anniversary of the disaster of the Titanic, which became one of the most famous ships in history. Many books and films, exhibitions and memorials are devoted to the theme of the Titanic sinking.
At 2:20 am, the Titanic broke into two parts and sank. At that time there were about a thousand people on board. People who found themselves in the icy water soon died from hypothermia. (Frank O. Brainard Collection)
The British passenger liner Titanic sets sail from Southampton, England on her first and last voyage on April 10, 1912. Before heading to New York, the Titanic stopped at Cherbourg (France) and Queenstown (Ireland). Four days later, on April 14, 1912, at 23:40 local time, the liner collided with an iceberg 603 kilometers south of Newfoundland.
The disaster shocked the whole world. The investigation into the cause of the Titanic's sinking, which began a few days after the disaster, contributed to significant improvements in the safety of navigation. (United Press International)
The passenger liner Titanic departs on her first and last voyage to New York from Queenstown, Ireland, 1912. On board the liner were the richest people of the time: millionaires John Jacob Astor IV, Benjamin Guggenheim and Isidore Strauss, as well as more than a thousand emigrants from Ireland, Scandinavia and other countries who were about to start new life in America.
Workers leave the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, where the Titanic was built between 1909 and 1911. At the time of its launch, the Titanic was the largest passenger liner in the world. In this 1911 photo, the Titanic is in the background.
Dining room on the Titanic, 1912. The liner was designed and built with the latest technology and served as the embodiment of luxury and comfort. On board there was a gym, a swimming pool, libraries, high-end restaurants and luxurious cabins.
Second class room on board the Titanic, 1912. More than 90% of the second class passengers were men, who remained on board the sinking liner, as women and children were the first to board the lifeboats. 
The Titanic sails from Southampton, England, on April 10, 1912. Some experts believe that the cause of the Titanic disaster was the poor quality of the hull rivets that were used in the construction of the liner.
Height of the liner from keel to top chimneys was 53.3 meters, 10.5 of which were below the waterline. The Titanic was taller than most city buildings at the time.
Captain of the Titanic, Edward John Smith, captained the largest liner of his time. The length of the Titanic was 269.1 meters, width - 28.19 meters, displacement - more than 52 thousand tons.
An undated photograph of Titanic's first mate William McMaster Murdoch, who is revered as a hero in his homeland of Dalbeattie, Scotland. However, in the film Titanic, which received many Oscar awards, Murdoch's character is portrayed as a coward and a murderer.
At a ceremony marking the 86th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, 20th Century Fox executive vice president Scott Neeson presented a check for $8,000 to Dalbeattie School to apologize to the officer's relatives.
Presumably, the iceberg that the Titanic passenger liner collided with on April 14, 1912. The photograph was taken from the cable-laying vessel Mackay Bennett, captained by Captain Descarteret.
The Mackay Bennett was one of the first to arrive at the site of the Titanic disaster. According to Captain DeCarteret, it was the only iceberg near the site of the ocean liner wreck.
Passengers and some crew members were evacuated in lifeboats, many of which sailed only partially full. This photograph of lifeboats approaching the Carpathia was taken by Carpathia passenger Louis M. Ogden.
The photograph was featured in an exhibition of documents related to the Titanic disaster that Walter Lord bequeathed to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England.
The rescue ship Carpathia picked up the 712 surviving passengers of the Titanic. A photograph taken by Carpathia passenger Louis M. Ogden shows lifeboats approaching the Carpathia.
This photograph was also exhibited in an exhibition of documents that Walter Lord bequeathed to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.
Although the Titanic had advanced safety measures such as watertight compartments and watertight doors with remote control, the ship did not have enough lifeboats for all passengers.
There were only enough boats for 1,178 people - that's only a third of all passengers and crew. In this photo you see the rescue of passengers from the Titanic.
Reporters interview passengers of the sunken Titanic who disembarked from the rescue ship Carpathia on May 17, 1912.
Seven-year-old Eva Hart with her father Benjamin and mother Esther, 1912. Eve and her mother escaped the sinking Titanic, but her father died when the British liner sank on the night of April 15, 1912.
People stand on the street waiting for the arrival of the Carpathia ship.
A huge crowd of people gathered outside the offices of the White Star Line shipping company on Broadway in New York to find out last news about the sinking of the Titanic, April 14, 1912.
People read reports outside the offices of The Sun newspaper in New York after the sinking of the Titanic.
Two messages sent from America to Lloyds of London insurers in London erroneously claimed that other ships, including the Virginia, were nearby providing assistance during the Titanic disaster.
These lots will be auctioned at Christie's in London in May 2012.
Titanic survivors Laura Francatelli and her employers Lady Lucy Duff-Gordon and Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon stand aboard the rescue ship Carpathia. Francatelli said she heard a terrible crash and then cries for help as her boat sailed away from the sinking ocean liner Titanic on that tragic night in 1912.
The passenger liner Titanic shortly before departure on its first and last voyage, 1912.
The photo, released by Henry Aldridge & Son/Ho auction house in Wiltshire, UK, on April 18, 2008, shows an extremely rare artifact - a passenger ticket for the Titanic.
An exhibit bequeathed to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England by Walter Lord is a Marconi telegram. Miss Edith Russell (journalist and Titanic survivor) wrote in Women's Wear Daily: "Saved on the Carpathia, tell mother." "Carpathia", April 18, 1912.
Lunch menu from the restaurant on board the Titanic, signed by the surviving passengers. Walter Lord bequeathed this document to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England.
The bow of the sunken Titanic, 1999.
One of the propellers of the Titanic passenger liner. The photo was taken during an expedition to the shipwreck on September 12, 2008. Five thousand artifacts will be sold at auction on April 11, 2012, almost 100 years after the Titanic disaster.
The starboard side of the Titanic's bow. This image was released by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on August 28, 2010.
Part of the Titanic's side, chains and an additional anchor buoy. Dr Robert Bollard, who discovered the wreck of the Titanic almost 20 years ago, returned to the site of the tragedy to look at the damage caused to the ship and its treasure by looters and seekers of easy enrichment.
The huge propeller of the sunken Titanic lies at the bottom Atlantic Ocean. The photo is undated. The first tourists to visit the shipwreck in September 1998 saw the propeller and other parts of the famous liner.
This 17-ton fragment of the Titanic's hull was recovered during an expedition to the shipwreck in 1998.
A 17-ton fragment of the Titanic passenger liner, which was recovered from the ocean floor during an expedition to the shipwreck, July 22, 2009. On April 11, 2012, this exhibit will be sold at auction along with 5 thousand other artifacts.
A gold Waltham American pocket watch - a personal item of Karl Asplund - is seen in front of a painting of the Titanic painted by C.J. Ashford. The watch was found on the body of Karl Asplund, who sank with the Titanic.
Money from the Titanic. The owner of one of the richest collections of things found on the Titanic put it up for auction in 2012, the year of the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the famous liner.
Photographs of Felix Asplund, Selma and Karl Asplund and Lillian Asplund in Devizes, Wiltshire, England. These photos are part of Lillian Asplund's collection of Titanic-related items.
Lillian was 5 years old in April 1912 when the Titanic struck an iceberg and sank on its maiden voyage. The girl survived, but her father and three siblings were among the 1,514 people who died.
Artifacts recovered from the Titanic wreck are on display at the TITANIC The Artifact Exhibit in California. scientific center: binoculars, comb, dishes and a cracked incandescent lamp. February 6, 2003.
Glasses found among the wreckage of the Titanic. The full collection of artifacts found at the Titanic wreck site will be auctioned in April 2012 - 100 years after the tragedy.
Golden spoon from the Titanic.
The chronometer from the captain's bridge of the Titanic is on display at the Science Museum in London. It is one of more than 200 objects recovered from the ocean floor where the Titanic sank.
Visitors to the exhibition at the museum can go through the entire history of the famous liner in chronological order- from the drawings for its construction to the moment of death after a collision with an iceberg.
The Titanic's speed measuring instrument and Gimbal lamp are among the artifacts on display at the museum in New York.
Objects from the sunken Titanic on display at the New York Museum.
A cup and pocket watch are among many items found on the Titanic, as well as a White Star Line flag button and a small porthole.
These spoons from the Titanic are part of an exhibit at the South Norwalk, Connecticut Museum.
The gold-plated handbag is one of the items from the Titanic.
The Titanic's stern, with two propellers sticking out of the mud and sand, rests on the ocean floor 600 meters south of the ship's bow.
The first complete image of the legendary wreckage. The photo mosaic consists of 1500 images high resolution made using sonar studies.
The starboard side of the ship. The bow of the Titanic was the first to sink to the bottom of the ocean, so that its front part was buried in the sand, forever closing the mortal wounds left by the iceberg.
The mutilated stern in profile.
The stern of the Titanic, top view. This interweaving of metal is a mystery to scientists. As one of them said: “If you decipher this, you will love Picasso.”
Two Titanic engines are visible through a crack in the stern. These huge structures, covered in rust, once powered the largest liner in the world at that time.
April 9, 1912. Titanic in the port of Southampton the day before sailing to America.
April 14 marked 105 years since the legendary disaster. Titanic is a British steamship of the White Star Line, the second of three twin ships of the Olympic class. The largest passenger airliner in the world at the time of its construction. During her maiden voyage on April 14, 1912, she collided with an iceberg and sank 2 hours and 40 minutes later.
There were 1,316 passengers and 908 crew members on board, for a total of 2,224 people. Of these, 711 people were saved, 1513 died.
Here's how Ogonyok magazine and Novaya Illustration magazine talked about this tragedy:
Dining room on the Titanic, 1912.
Second class room on board the Titanic, 1912.
The main staircase of the Titanic, 1912.
Passengers on the deck of the Titanic. April, 1912.
The Titanic orchestra had two members. The quintet was led by 33-year-old British violinist Wallace Hartley and included another violinist, a double bassist and two cellists. An additional trio of musicians of a Belgian violinist, a French cellist and a pianist were hired for Titanic to give Caf? Parisien with a continental twist. The trio also played in the lounge of the ship's restaurant. Many passengers considered the Titanic's ship's band to be the best they had ever heard on a ship. Typically, the two members of the Titanic orchestra worked independently of each other - in different parts liner and at different times, but on the night of the ship's sinking, all eight musicians played together for the first time. They played the best and most cheerful music until the last minutes of the ship's life. In the photo: Musicians of the Titanic ship's orchestra.
Hartley's body was found two weeks after the sinking of the Titanic and sent to England. A violin was tied to his chest - a gift from the bride.
There were no survivors among the other members of the orchestra... One of the rescued passengers of the Titanic would write later: “Many heroic deeds were performed that night, but none of them could compare with the feat of these few musicians, who played hour after hour, although the ship sank deeper and deeper, and the sea approached the place where they stood. The music they performed entitled them to be included in the list of heroes of eternal glory." In the photo: The funeral of the conductor and violinist of the Titanic ship's orchestra, Wallace Hartley. April 1912.
The iceberg that the Titanic is believed to have collided with. The photo was taken from the cable ship Mackay Bennett, captained by Captain DeCarteret. The Mackay Bennett was one of the first ships to arrive at the site of the Titanic disaster. According to Captain DeCarteret, it was the only iceberg near the ocean liner wreck.
The lifeboat of the Titanic, photographed by one of the passengers of the Carpathia steamship. April, 1912.
The rescue ship Carpathia picked up the 712 surviving passengers of the Titanic. A photograph taken by Carpathia passenger Louis M. Ogden shows lifeboats approaching the Carpathia.
April 22, 1912. Brothers Michel (4 years old) and Edmond (2 years old). They were considered “orphans of the Titanic” until their mother was found in France. The father died during the plane crash.
Michel died in 2001, the last male survivor of the Titanic.
A group of rescued Titanic passengers aboard the Carpathia.
Another group of rescued Titanic passengers.
Captain Edward John Smith (second from right) with the ship's crew.
Drawing of the sinking Titanic after the disaster.
Passenger ticket for the Titanic. April 1912.
On April 10, 1912, the Titanic liner set off from the port of Southampton on its first and last voyage, but 4 days later it collided with an iceberg. We know about the tragedy that claimed the lives of almost 1,496 people largely thanks to the film, but let's get acquainted with the real stories of the Titanic passengers.
The real cream of society gathered on the passenger deck of the Titanic: millionaires, actors and writers. Not everyone could afford to buy a first class ticket - the price was $60,000 at current prices.
3rd class passengers bought tickets for only $35 ($650 today), so they were not allowed to go above the third deck. On the fateful night, the division into classes turned out to be more noticeable than ever...
Bruce Ismay was one of the first to jump into the lifeboat - CEO the White Star Line company, which owned the Titanic. The boat, designed for 40 people, set sail with only twelve.
After the disaster, Ismay was accused of boarding a rescue boat, bypassing women and children, and also 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 two children Lucy and William, as well as two dogs.
On the night of the disaster, he was at a party in the restaurant of a first-class ship, and after the collision, he and his comrades went out onto the deck, where the boats were already being prepared. William first put his daughter on boat No. 4, but when it was his son's turn, problems awaited them.
13-year-old John Rison boarded the boat directly in front of them, after which the officer in charge of boarding ordered that no teenage boys be taken on board. Lucy Carter resourcefully threw her hat on her 11-year-old son and sat down with him.
When the landing process was completed and the boat began to descend into the water, Carter himself quickly boarded it along with another passenger. It was he who turned out to be the already mentioned Bruce Ismay.
21-year-old Roberta Maoney worked as a maid 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, took her to the boat deck and put her on the boat, giving her his life jacket.
He himself died, like many other crew members, and Roberta was picked up by the ship Carpathia, 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 souvenir of himself.
Emily Richards was sailing 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 Richards were miraculously able to climb into the descending lifeboat No. 4 through the window. When the Titanic completely sank, the passengers of her boat managed to be pulled out of ice water seven more people, two of whom, unfortunately, soon died of frostbite.
The famous American businessman Isidor Strauss and his wife Ida traveled in first class. The Strauss had been married for 40 years and had never been separated.
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 wedding ring, Ida's body was not found.
The Titanic featured two orchestras: a quintet led by 33-year-old British violinist Wallace Hartley and an additional trio of musicians hired to give Café Parisien a continental flair.
Usually, 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 sinking, all of them united into one orchestra.
One of the rescued passengers of the Titanic would later write: “Many heroic deeds were performed that night, but none of them could compare with the feat of these few musicians, who played hour after hour, although the ship sank deeper and deeper and the sea got closer. to the place where they stood. The music they performed entitled them 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. There were no survivors among the other orchestra members...
Four-year-old Michel and two-year-old Edmond traveled with their father, who died in the sinking, and were considered "orphans of the Titanic" until their mother was found in France.
Michel died in 2001, the last male survivor of the Titanic.
Winnie Coates was heading 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 orders from the crew. Her patience ran out, she rushed for a long time along the endless corridors of the ship, getting lost.
She was suddenly directed by a crew member towards the lifeboats. She ran into a broken closed gate, but it was at that moment that another officer appeared, who saved Winnie and her children by giving them his life jacket.
As a result, Vinny ended up on the deck, where she was boarding boat No. 2, which, literally by miracle, she managed to board..
Seven-year-old Eve Hart escaped the sinking Titanic with her mother, but her father died during the crash.
Helen Walker believes that she was conceived on the Titanic before it hit an iceberg. “This 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 workers, who fled to America from the man's first wife, seeking to start a new life.
Kate got into the lifeboat, Samuel jumped into the water after her, but did not know how to swim and drowned. “Mom spent 8 hours in the lifeboat,” said Helen. “She was in 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 believed that it would be " wonderful experience".
Before this, on October 20, 1910, Violette became a stewardess of the transatlantic liner Olympic, which a year later collided with a cruiser due to unsuccessful maneuvering, but the girl managed to escape.
And Violet escaped from the Titanic on a lifeboat. During the First World War, the girl went to work as a nurse, and in 1916 she got on board the Britannic, which... also sank! Two boats with a crew were pulled under the propeller of a sinking ship. 21 people died.
Among them could have been 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 to his name.
On April 21, 1912, the New York Times published the story of Edward and Ethel Bean, who sailed in second class on the Titanic. 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 rushed into the water. Ethel pulled her husband into the boat.
Among the Titanic's passengers were the famous tennis player Carl Behr and his lover Helen Newsom. After the disaster, the athlete ran into the cabin and took 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 Behr a place on the boat. A year later, Carl and Helen got married and later became the parents of three children.
Edward John Smith - captain of the Titanic, who was very popular among both crew members and passengers. At 2.13 a.m., just 10 minutes before the ship's final dive, 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 from the ship, miraculously avoiding being sucked into the ventilation shaft. He swam to collapsible boat B, which was floating upside down: the Titanic's pipe, which came off and fell into the sea next to him, drove the boat further from the sinking ship and allowed it to remain 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 never found.
Thomas Andrews - first class passenger, Irish businessman and shipbuilder, was the designer of the Titanic...
During the evacuation, Thomas helped passengers board lifeboats. Last time he was seen in the first class smoking room near the fireplace, where he was looking at a painting of Port Plymouth. His body was never found after the crash.
John Jacob and Madeleine Astor, a millionaire science fiction writer, and his young wife traveled first class. Madeleine escaped on lifeboat No. 4. John Jacob's body was recovered 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 is she who has become a real encyclopedia for historians and researchers of the disaster, thanks to the large number of names it contains of stowaways and 1st class passengers remaining on the Titanic. Gracie's health was severely compromised by hypothermia and injuries, and he died at the end of 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 board them.
“If the worst happens, I’ll swim out,” she said, until eventually someone forced her into lifeboat number 6, which made her famous.
After Molly organized the Titanic Survivors Fund.
Millvina Dean was the last surviving passenger of the Titanic: she died on May 31, 2009, aged 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 at the port of Southampton, 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
On the night of April 14, 1912, the largest and most luxurious liner in the history of mankind was rushing towards the shores at full speed. North America. Nothing foreshadowed the sinking of the Titanic. An orchestra was playing on the upper deck in a gourmet restaurant. The richest and most successful people drank champagne and enjoyed the beautiful weather.
According to the official version, the Titanic crashed due to the fact that it was moving too fast high speed in icy waters, and when the lookout noticed an iceberg directly ahead, there was no longer any possibility of avoiding a collision. The ship hit a tangential block of ice, but was so seriously damaged that it sank to the bottom three hours later. Shenan Meloni, however, believes that the iceberg is only one of the factors that destroyed the ship.
In the process of meticulously studying photographs taken ten days before the Titanic left Southampton, the journalist discovered inside casing traces of soot. Exactly in the place that was subsequently damaged in the collision. A fire in a fuel storage facility is believed to have started during high-speed testing at a dock in Belfast.
The owners of the ship knew that a fire was raging in the bowels of the Titanic, but they turned out to be so greedy that they decided not to cancel the voyage. To prevent passengers from suspecting anything, the ship was turned around in the port of Southampton. The officers were ordered to keep their mouths shut.
The liner set sail, but the crew of 12 people could not cope with the fire. Gradually the casing heated up to a thousand degrees Celsius. Metallurgy experts consulted by Meloni said steel becomes brittle at this temperature, losing up to 75% of its strength.
For this reason, when it hit the iceberg, six holes with a total length of about 90 meters were immediately formed in the bow compartments of the vessel. The ship's unsinkability system could not cope with such serious damage.
The death of the Titanic, the journalist concludes, was due to a nightmarish confluence of three factors: ice, fire and criminal negligence.
There were no signs of trouble
A few minutes later the lookout spotted an iceberg. And a little later, the Titanic, the ship gigantic size, will collide with a drifting iceberg, and after some time it will all be over. Thus begins the great mystery of the big ship. The next day, the sinking of the Titanic would become a legend, and its story would be the greatest mystery of the 20th century.
International sensation
The very next morning, the office of the Titanic owner's company was stormed by dozens of newspaper reporters. They wanted to know where the Titanic sank and demanded clarification. Relatives of passengers on the ocean liner were outraged. A short telegram from Cape Race reported: “At 11 p.m. local time, the largest ship, the Titanic, transmitted a distress signal.” Company President Luster Whites reassured reporters: “The liner is unsinkable!” But the very next day, all the world's newspapers were full of sensational messages: “The safest Titanic (ship) in the world sank in the icy depths of the Atlantic Ocean. On the fifth day of its tragic voyage, the liner claimed 1,513 human lives.”
Disaster investigation
The sinking of the Titanic shocked both sides of the Atlantic. The question of why the Titanic ended up at the bottom haunts us to this day. From the very beginning, people wanted to know in detail what the cause of the sinking of the Titanic was. But the court’s decision read: “The liner hit an iceberg and sank.” The Titanic (the size of the ship, by the way, was very impressive) died from a banal collision with an ice floating block. It seemed incredible.
Alleged versions of the tragic death
The end to the history of this disaster has not yet been set. Fresh versions of the death of the Titanic arise even today, a century later. There are several plausible assumptions. Each of them deserves close attention. The first version says that another sunken liner lies on the Atlantic bottom. It sounds like science fiction, but this version of the death of the Titanic has real grounds. Some researchers argue that it is not the sunken ship Titanic that lies on the ocean floor, but its double, the Olympic liner. The version seems fantastic, but it is not without evidence.
Ocean Monster of Great Britain
On December 16, 1908, the firstborn was laid down in Belfast - the steamship Olympic, later the Titanic (the size of the ship reached almost 270 meters in length) with a displacement of 66 thousand tons. Until now, representatives of the shipyard consider it the most perfect project that has ever been implemented. The ship was as tall as an eleven-story building and spanned four small city blocks. This ocean monster was equipped with two 4-cylinder steam engines and steam turbine. Its power was 50,000 horsepower, 10,000 light bulbs, 153 electric motors, four elevators, each designed for 12 people, were connected to the liner’s electrical network. a large number of phones. The ship was truly innovative for its time. Silent elevators, steam heating, winter Garden, several darkrooms and even a hospital with an operating room.
Comfort and respectability
The interior was more reminiscent of a fashionable palace than a ship. Passengers dined in a luxurious Louis XVI style restaurant and drank coffee on a sun-drenched veranda with climbing plants. Bridge games were played in spacious hallways, and high-end cigars were smoked in soft smoking rooms. The Titanic had a rich library, gym and even a swimming pool. These days, a business class ticket on the Titanic would cost $55,000. The liner became the flagship of the White Star Line company. Almost the same in terms of comfort and technical specifications The Olympic liner lost the championship without a fight. It was he who was to become the star of transatlantic flights. But frequent accidents made him an outsider, and endless fines, lawsuits and repair costs only added to the managers' headaches.
Unsolved version
The decision was obvious: to send instead of the battered Olympic, which did not have an insurance policy, a new insured Titanic. The history of the ship "Olympic" was very unrepresentable. However, just by changing the signs on the liners, which were as similar as two peas in a pod, several problems could be solved at once. The main thing is the payment of insurance in the amount of one million pounds, which could improve the financial affairs of the company. Small accident, big money, job done. People shouldn't have been hurt, because the liner is unsinkable. In the event of an accident, the ship will drift, and ships passing by on the busy ocean route will pick up all the passengers.
Strange behavior of passengers
Versions of the sinking of the TitanicThe main real evidence of this unprecedented scam is the refusal of 55 first class passengers to travel. Among those who remained ashore were: John Morgan, the owner of the liner. Henry Frick, steel magnate and partner. Robert Breccon, US Ambassador to France. Famous rich man George Vanderbilt. The mystery of the death of the Titanic has indirect confirmation of the insurance scam version, namely the strange behavior of Captain Edward Smith, who, by the way, was the captain of the Olympic during its first voyages.
The Last Captain
Edward Smith was considered one of the best commanders of his time. Working for the White Star Line, he earned around £1,200 a year. Other captains did not earn even half of this money. However, Smith's career was far from cloudless. Many times the ships he managed got into all sorts of accidents, ran aground or burned. It was Edward Smith who commanded the Olympic in 1911, when the uninsured ocean liner suffered several serious accidents. But Smith managed not only to avoid punishment, but even get a promotion. He became the captain of the Titanic. Could the company's management, knowing about the captain's previous mistakes, assign him to the Titanic, and even just for one voyage? Could she use incriminating evidence on the captain in order to fire a man who brought huge losses to the company in case of disobedience with a scandal? Perhaps the captain was choosing between a shameful write-off just before retirement and participation in a scam invented by his superiors. This was the last flight for Edward Smith.
What was the first mate thinking?
Another inexplicable mystery about the sinking of the Titanic is the strange behavior of William Murdoch, the first mate. Murdock was on watch the night of the accident. When he received a message about an approaching iceberg, he gave the order to turn the ship to the left and engage reverse, which is strictly prohibited. Is it possible that the first mate made a mistake and this is the reason for the death of the Titanic? But Murdoch had already encountered a similar situation and always did the right thing, pointing the ship's nose at the obstacle. In all navigation textbooks, this maneuver is described as the only correct one in this situation. On that last voyage for the Titanic, the chief mate acted differently. As a result, the main blow fell not on the bow, where the strongest part of the ship was, but on its side. Almost a hundred meters of the starboard side opened up like a tin can. The Titanic, whose sinking story is told in less than ten seconds, was practically dead. This is exactly how long it took to pronounce the death sentence on the largest and most beautiful ship in the world. Why did Murdoch allow fatal error? If we assume that he, too, was in collusion, then the answer to the death of the Titanic is found by itself.
What were the ship's owners hiding?
Today it is impossible to prove the version of the insurance scam, the White Star Line company was closed, the Olympic ship was scrapped, and all documentation was destroyed. But even if we assume that the sinking of the Titanic was not rigged, then there was probably some human error involved.
Key to the Mystery Box
Many years have passed since the Titanic sank. The ship's story, however, continued in 1997, when the key was sold at a London auction for one hundred thousand pounds sterling. He opened only one box on the Titanic, but it was this key that was not on board the liner that fateful night. Chain strange circumstances, a series of fatal coincidences and simply human negligence accompanied the superliner from the very beginning to the end of its first and last voyage. Well, the item sold for fabulous money at a London auction was an ordinary key to an ordinary box. It contained the only equipment with which it was possible to recognize the danger threatening the ship - binoculars.
Forgetful first mate
The thing is that locators appeared only in the 30s of the last century. And at that time its functions were performed by the human eye. From the highest point on the ship, the sailor continuously looked forward as the ship progressed. An airliner weighing 66 thousand tons, traveling at a speed of 45 km/h, has very low controllability, and the sooner the lookout notices the danger, the greater the chances of avoiding it. Ordinary binoculars were the only help. For unknown reasons, Chief Mate Blair was removed from the ship at the last moment. Frustrated, he simply forgot to give his replacement the key to the box where the binoculars were kept.
Meeting with an unusual iceberg
Titanic history of the ship The lookouts had to rely only on their own vigilance. They noticed the iceberg too late, when it was almost impossible to change the situation. In addition, this iceberg was different from the others; it was black. During the drift, a huge block of ice melted and turned over. The iceberg, which had absorbed tons of water, became dark. It was incredibly difficult to notice him. If that fatal iceberg for the Titanic had been white, perhaps the watchmen would have seen it much earlier. Especially if they had binoculars.
"Titanic": the story of the sinking, the beginning of events
But the strangest thing is that the ship’s command could have learned about the possibility of a collision with an iceberg much earlier than the lookouts reported it. Radio operators, the voice and ear of the Titanic, repeatedly received messages about ice floes drifting in the area. An hour before the lookout noticed the iceberg, the radio operator of the steamer California warned of possible danger. But on the Titanic the connection was rudely cut off. Even earlier, a few hours before the collision, Captain Edward Smith personally read three telegrams warning about ice floes. But they were all ignored. Officer Murdoch could have broken the chain of human miscalculations by giving the fatal order: “Full back! Left hand drive." In the event of a head-on collision of the Titanic with an iceberg, there would have been much more time to evacuate passengers. Perhaps the ship could have stayed afloat.
Human negligence
Then the mistakes followed one after another. The evacuation order was given only 45 minutes after the collision. Passengers were asked to put on life belts and gather on the upper deck near the lifeboats. And then it suddenly became clear that there were only twenty boats on the Titanic, which could accommodate no more than 1,300 people, 48 lifebuoys and cork vests for each passenger and crew. However, the vests were useless for northern regions Atlantic. A person who fell into cold water died from hypothermia within half an hour.
Prophetic predictions of a science fiction writer
Immediately after the disaster, the whole world was shocked by an incredible coincidence. The date of sinking of the Titanic is April 15, 1912. And fourteen years before the tragedy, the unknown London journalist Morgan Robertson finished his new novel. The science fiction writer spoke about the voyage and death of the huge transatlantic liner Titan: “On a cold April night, at full speed, the ship ran into an iceberg and sank.” Moreover, the science fiction writer pinpointed the exact location of the sinking of the Titanic. The novel turned out to be prophetic, and the science fiction writer was dubbed the Nostradamus of the 20th century. There really were a lot of coincidences in the book: the displacement of the ship, its maximum speed, and even the number of propellers and lifeboats. Moreover, a few years later, the writer published his new novel, in which he predicted war in the USA and Japan. Another coincidence: a copy of the book about the ship “Titan” was on the ship with one of the firemen. The sailor read it during the first days of the voyage, and he was so impressed by the plot that in one of the ports he simply ran away. And this was not the only crew member to escape from the Titanic. It remains a mystery: either everyone who escaped had read the book before, or they had more compelling reasons.
Testimonies of eyewitnesses to the tragedy
Immediately after the sinking of the Titanic, special commissions were created in England and the United States to investigate its causes. Surviving passengers spoke of a loud bang that they heard after the collision with the iceberg. It was like an explosion. According to one version, a fire was raging in the liner's coal bunker. Some researchers believe that it started even before the Titanic left port, while others are confident that the fire broke out during the voyage.
A little bit of history
Britain was being transformed by the technological revolution. Beginning in the 30s of the 19th century, steam-powered merchant ships began to cross the Atlantic. The technology proved promising, and the kingdom's admiralty concluded that steam would make the sailing fleet obsolete. When reports appeared in London that tests of a steam engine were already underway in France, which had also entered the struggle for naval supremacy, the British had no choice but to accept the challenge. At first, large paddle wheels were used, which were installed on opposite sides of the sides. The first replacement for the paddle wheel appeared about ten years later, in the 40s of the 19th century. Shipbuilders have come to the conclusion that a propeller is much more efficient than a wheel. It was only after its invention and placement under the bottom of the ship that steam propulsion became a decisive advantage. But in most cases it remained experimental developments; sometimes the innovation was used on warships. Steam engines became widespread only in the 20th century, and coal was the only fuel for a long time. In the future, the transition from coal to fuel oil will be a step to the next level of development. But in the days of the Olympic class superliners, ships with internal combustion engines were as rare as steam engine first half of the 19th century century. Be that as it may, the fire on board should not have affected the life of the ship and its passengers. There could be no emergency incidents on the liner, this is the Titanic.
Further developments
Captain Smith ordered the bunker in which the fire was raging to be localized. Due to the lack of oxygen, the fire should have died out, the problem would have resolved itself. Fire on board - enough good reason to drive the liner with all his might to the nearest port. But when the Titanic hit an iceberg, it ripped open the ship's hull, and oxygen entered the bunker. There was a powerful explosion. Many years later, after an underwater study of the remains of the ship, this version gained additional arguments. A huge fault runs exactly where the coal compartments were located. For the first time, a version of the fire appeared on the pages of American newspapers even before the surviving passengers and crew members of the Titanic were delivered to New York. Without factual material, but using only rumors, newspapermen invented the most incredible stories about the tragedy. In any case, when the stokers were interrogated, they denied that there was a fire, although it would seem that after the disaster they had nothing to hide. On the other hand, according to some accounts, Captain Smith went down to the boiler room and ordered everyone to remain silent about the burning coal. We don’t yet know what actually happened to the giant liner. The Titanic, the story of whose sinking has become the subject of documentaries and feature films, will always be of interest to future generations.
New version about the death of the liner
The nature of the Titanic's fault not only fuels the theory of a fire in the hold, but also allows some researchers to make an unexpected assumption. The liner sank another ship. At the beginning of the 20th century, a new secret weapon was tested in the seas. Perhaps the Titanic was hit by a torpedo. The version seems unusual, but the facts of the fracture and torn edges, which could have resulted from a torpedo attack, force us to take it seriously. If the Titanic was nevertheless torpedoed, one can only hope that someday researchers will get to that part of the ship, the study of which will help shed light on this version.
Many decades have passed since that terrible disaster, and no one doubted what exactly sent the magnificent Titanic to the bottom of the ocean. When the “unsinkable” ship, the largest, most luxurious ocean liner of its time, crashed into an iceberg on its maiden voyage in 1912, it took with it more than 1,500 of its 2,200 passengers. As the ship slid deep into the North Atlantic, the secrets of how and why it sank disappeared with it.
"Titanic" (eng. Titanic) is a British transatlantic steamship, the second liner of the Olympic class. Built in Belfast at the Harland and Wolfe shipyard from 1909 to 1912 for the White Star Line shipping company. At the time of commissioning it was the largest ship in the world. On the night of April 14-15, 1912, during her maiden voyage, she crashed in the North Atlantic, colliding with an iceberg.
The Titanic was equipped with two four-cylinder steam engines and a steam turbine. The entire power plant had a capacity of 55,000 hp. 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 that was widely circulated in the press and among the public. In accordance with outdated rules, 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.
Titanic (left in photo) in port 
Titanic in port
Two government investigations that followed the disaster agreed that it was the iceberg, and not the defects and weaknesses of the ship itself, that sank the Titanic. Both commissions of inquiry concluded that the ship sank entirely, and not in parts. That there were no major faults. The blame for the disaster, terrible in its scale, fell solely on the unfortunate captain of the ship, I. Smith, who also died along with the entire crew. Smith was blamed for the fact that the Titanic was rushing at a speed of 22 knots (41 km) across a dangerous ice field well known to sailors - in dark waters, not far from the coast of Newfoundland. The Titanic incident was settled – it seemed once and for all.
Titanic before leaving the ocean 
Tail section of the Titanic The answers lay at the bottom of the sea
However, doubts and questions about what could sink the seemingly indestructible ship remained. In 1985, when oceanographer Robert Ballard, after years of searching, finally found the remains of the ship at a depth of about 4 km on the ocean floor, he discovered that the Titanic had actually split in half on the surface of the ocean before sinking.
Why did it split in half? - the experts were perplexed. Was the invincible Titanic weak in design?
Oil painting “The sinking of the Titanic” Several years have passed since Ballard's discovery, and now the first wreckage of the ship has been raised from the ocean floor. A new hypothesis for the death of the Titanic is the low-grade steel used in the construction of the ship. However, a group of researchers came to the conclusion that it was not the steel that was used to sheath the ship, but low-grade steel. The rivets, the critical metal pins that held the steel plates of the ship's hull together, were of poor quality. Moreover, the recently discovered wreckage of the Titanic's bottom clearly indicates that the ship's stern was never raised high into the air, as many Titanic experts, including Cameron, originally believed. In fact, the ship broke into pieces and sank, remaining relatively level on the surface of the ocean - a clear sign of miscalculations in its design, which were hidden after the disaster.
The construction of the Titanic was rushed
The Titanic was created in a short time - in response to the production of a new generation of high-speed liners by a competing company. The Titanic and its smaller siblings, the Olympic and the Britannic, were the most grandiose ships in the history of shipbuilding. These were real colossi! — 275 meters from bow to stern! – even tall skyscrapers gave in to them. Specially equipped to withstand the threats of the North Atlantic, including huge waves and sudden collisions, these sister ships were also - naturally - the safest. The Titanic could stay afloat even if 4 of its 16 watertight compartments were flooded - a real miracle for a ship of such gigantic size!
Titanic at sea On the night of April 14, 1912, however, just a few days into the Titanic's maiden voyage, the Titanic's Achilles heel played its ominous role. The ship was not nimble enough to avoid colliding with the iceberg, which the lookouts shouted about (the only way to spot an iceberg at that time) at the last minute and in pitch darkness. The Titanic did not collide with the fatal iceberg directly, but drove over it on its right side. The ice punched holes in the ship's steel plates, flooding six "watertight" compartments.
Two hours later, the Titanic overflowed with water and sank.
Still from the film “The Sinking of the Titanic” Achilles' heel of the Titanic
Experts continued to search for explanations for the death of the ship, which was equipped according to all safety rules. And they came across a potential weak link: more than three million rivets holding the ship's hull together. Taking a sample of 48 of these metal rods raised from the ocean floor, scientists found in them a high concentration of “scale” - sediment from smelting. Because of this scale, the metal becomes brittle and can crack.
Not because of cheapness, but because time was running out, the builders of the Titanic began to use low-grade material. When the Titanic struck an iceberg, weak steel rods in its bow cracked, exposing seams in the hull and hastening the ship's demise. It is no coincidence that the water, having flooded six compartments held together by low-grade steel rods, stopped exactly where the high-grade steel rivets began.
Thus, one of the secrets carried away by the Titanic to the bottom of the ocean was revealed. If all the rivets holding the Titanic were made of high quality steel, the disaster could have been avoided. It is not without reason that immediately after the sinking of the Titanic, two other giant ships - the Olympic and the Britannic, built at the same shipyard and at the same time as the Titanic - were urgently and comprehensively strengthened: the steel plating of the hull was doubled and they were raised much higher than the bulkhead . The shipbuilding company clearly admitted the defects and unacceptable mistakes in the speed limit - just to keep up with the competitors! - the race to build the Titanic, tried as best she could to correct them and hide them from experts, insurance agents and all inquisitive humanity.
In 2005, a new expedition went to the site of a long-standing disaster. And very soon I found the answer to everyone’s questions. This time the divers looked at seabed not the main crash site, but took a little to the side, where they found two large fragments from the bottom of the ship. When they began to analyze the jagged edges of these bottom fragments, they came to a striking conclusion. It would have been impossible for the ship to break apart in the way that experts had believed for decades, with the stern rising out of the ocean at a 45-degree angle and before the ship's hull split in two. From these significant bottom fragments it can be judged that their split was interrupted in the middle - sure sign the fact that the ship then tilted at a small angle (about 11 degrees), that its stern still retained buoyancy when it cracked. If the rear of the ship had risen out of the water at a 45-degree angle, as stunningly depicted in Cameron's film, the stern would have quickly broken away from the ship's hull and the solid bottom fragments found at the bottom would have been torn in two.
James Cameron and a team of scientists tried to reconstruct the course of events from the Titanic's collision with an iceberg to its complete sinking:
The tilt of the ship is a matter of life and death
It would seem, what does it matter exactly how the ship split into pieces? For the passengers of the Titanic, it was a matter of life and death. In the movies, the stern of the ship rises up and then goes, along with the entire hull, to the bottom. This is a long dramatic action. In reality, the ship tilted quite a bit as water flooded the bow, giving passengers on board a false sense of security.
The passengers and many of the crew did not understand the seriousness of the situation. When the water sufficiently flooded the bow of the hull, the ship, while remaining afloat, split in two and sank in minutes.
Interestingly, most of the survivors confirm this unexpected course of events. Charlie Jugin, the Titanic's chef, was standing near the stern as the ship began to sink, but he saw no sign of the hull breaking. There was no suction funnel, no colossal splash. Dzhugin said that he calmly sailed away from the ship, without even getting his hair wet.
Farewell, cinematic romantic “Titanic”!
Unlike Cameron's film, it didn't go away from the scene of the disaster. giant wave- none of those sitting in the rescue boats noticed her when the stern of the ship disappeared under water. One of the former passengers of the Titanic told how he slipped into the water, turned around and did not see the ship.
So, goodbye to the heartbreaking image of the Titanic with its stern raised high, covered with doomed passengers, their common dying cry, and now the ship plunges into the water at a steep angle! Unfortunately or fortunately, nothing like that actually happened.
Although some in the lifeboats saw the ship's stern high in the air, this may have been an optical illusion. With a tilt of 11 degrees, with propellers sticking out in the air, the Titanic, already the height of a twenty-story building, seemed even taller, and its roll in the water was even steeper.
Could the Titanic have been stronger and more durable? Undoubtedly. High-quality steel rivets and a denser, double-skinned hull could have prevented the disaster, or certainly kept the ship afloat many times longer.