The sinking of the Titanic was not a disaster, it was an execution! The real stories of passengers "Titanic" (51 photos)

The crash of the passenger liner Titanic, during which 1517 out of 2229 passengers and crew died (official data varies slightly), was one of the largest maritime disasters in peacetime.

712 survivors of the Titanic were picked up by the rescue ship Carpathia.

Only a few catastrophes caused such a resonance and had such a strong impact on public consciousness. The disaster changed attitudes towards social injustice, affected the rules for the implementation of passenger transportation in the Atlantic Ocean, contributed to the tightening of the 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 marks the 104th anniversary of the Titanic disaster, which has become one of the most famous ships in history. The theme of the sinking of the Titanic is devoted to many books and films, exhibitions and memorials.

At 2:20 a.m., the Titanic broke in two and sank. At that time, about a thousand people were on board. The people who ended up in the icy water soon died of hypothermia. (Frank O. Braynard Collection)

The British passenger liner Titanic leaves Southampton, England on her first and last voyage on April 10, 1912. Before leaving for New York, the Titanic called 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 causes of the sinking of the Titanic, which began a few days after the disaster, contributed to a significant improvement in the safety of shipping. (United Press International)

The passenger liner Titanic departs on its first and last voyage to New York from Queenstown, Ireland, 1912. On board the liner were the richest people of that 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 photograph, the Titanic is in the background.

Dining room on the Titanic, 1912 The liner was designed and built according to last word technology and served as the epitome of luxury and comfort. On board was a gym, swimming pool, libraries, high-class restaurants and luxurious cabins.

Room for second class passengers aboard the Titanic, 1912. More than 90% of 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 leaves Southampton, England, April 10, 1912. Some experts believe that the reason for the Titanic disaster was the poor quality of the hull rivets that were used in the construction of the liner.

Liner height from keel to tip chimneys was 53.3 meters, 10.5 of which were below the waterline. The Titanic was taller than most city buildings of the time.

Captain of the Titanic, Edward John Smith, who ran 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 the Titanic's first mate, William McMaster Murdoch, who is revered as a hero in his homeland of Dalbitty, Scotland. However, in the film "Titanic", which received many "Oscar" awards, Murdoch's character appears 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 $8,000 check to Dolbitty School to apologize to the officer's family.

Presumably, the iceberg that the Titanic passenger liner collided with on April 14, 1912. The photo was taken from the cable-laying vessel Mackay Bennett, which was piloted by Captain Descarteret.

The ship Mackay Bennett was one of the first to arrive at the site of the Titanic disaster. According to Captain Descarteret, it was the only iceberg near the crash site of the ocean liner.

Passengers and some crew members were evacuated in lifeboats, many of which sailed only partially filled. This photograph of lifeboats approaching the Carpathia was taken by Carpathia passenger Louis M. Ogden.

The photograph was featured in an exhibition of documents relating to the Titanic disaster that Walter Lord bequeathed to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England.

The rescue ship Carpathia picked up 712 survivors of the Titanic. A photo taken by Carpathia passenger Louis M. Ogden shows lifeboats approaching the Carpathia.

This photograph was also on display in an exhibition of documents that Walter Lord bequeathed to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.

Although the Titanic had advanced security measures such as watertight compartments and watertight remote controlled doors, the ship lacked lifeboats for all passengers.

There were only enough boats for 1178 people - this is only a third of all passengers and crew. In this photo you see the rescue of passengers from the Titanic.

Reporters interview the 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 Eva and her mother escaped from the sinking Titanic, but her father died during the crash of a British liner on the night of April 15, 1912.

People are standing on the street, waiting for the arrival of the ship "Carpathia".

A huge crowd of people gathered outside the offices of the White Star Line steamship company on Broadway in New York to get the latest news about the wreck of the Titanic liner, April 14, 1912.

People read reports outside the offices of The Sun newspaper in New York after the sinking of the Titanic.

Two messages that were sent from America to insurers Lloyds of London in London erroneously claimed that other ships, including the Virginia, were nearby and assisted during the Titanic disaster.

These lots will be auctioned off 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 pulled away from the sinking ocean liner Titanic on that tragic night in 1912.

The passenger liner Titanic shortly before departure for its first and last voyage, 1912.

A photo released by auction house Henry Aldridge & Son/Ho 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 telegram from Marconi. Miss Edith Russell (journalist and Titanic survivor) wrote in Women's Wear Daily: "Saved on Carpathia, tell mother." "Carpathia", April 18, 1912.

The lunch menu of the restaurant aboard the Titanic, signed by the surviving passengers. Walter Lord bequeathed this document to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England.

Prow of the sunken Titanic, 1999.

One of the propellers of the Titanic passenger liner. The picture was taken during an expedition to the shipwreck on September 12, 2008. Five thousand artifacts will be sold at an auction on April 11, 2012, almost 100 years after the Titanic disaster.

The starboard side of the bow of the Titanic. This image was released by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on August 28, 2010.

Part of the side of the Titanic, chains and an additional anchor buoy. Dr. Robert Bollard, who found the wreck of the Titanic almost 20 years ago, returned to the scene of the tragedy to look at the damage caused to the ship and its treasures by marauders and seekers of easy enrichment.

The huge propeller of the sunken Titanic lies at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. The picture is not dated. The first tourists who visited 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 brought to the surface during an expedition to the shipwreck in 1998.

A 17-ton fragment of the Titanic passenger liner, which was raised from the bottom of the ocean during an expedition to the shipwreck, July 22, 2009. On April 11, 2012, this exhibit will be sold at auction along with 5,000 other artifacts.

A Waltham American gold pocket watch - personal item of Karl Asplund - against the backdrop of a painting of the Titanic by CJ Ashford. The clock was found on the body of Karl Asplund, who sank along 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 collapse of the famous liner.

Photographs by Felix Asplund, Selma and Carl 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 hit an iceberg and sank on its maiden voyage. The girl escaped, but her father and three siblings were among the 1,514 people who died.

Artifacts found at the wreck of the Titanic 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 complete collection of artifacts found at the Titanic wreck 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 items recovered from the ocean floor at the site 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 drawings for its construction to the moment of death after a collision with an iceberg.

The Titanic's speed gauge and Gimbal lamp are among the artifacts on display at the museum in New York.

Items from the sunken Titanic on display at the New York Museum.

A cup and pocket watch are among the 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 exhibition at the Museum of South Norwalk, Connecticut.

The gilded handbag is one of the items from the Titanic.

The stern of the Titanic, 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 full shot of the legendary wreckage. The photo mosaic consists of 1,500 high resolution sonar images.

The right 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.

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 engines of the Titanic are visible through a crack in the stern. These huge structures, covered with rust, once set in motion the largest liner in the world at that time.

Exactly ninety-seven years ago, on a cold night from April 14 to 15, the most famous maritime disaster in the history of mankind occurred in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The ship of the company "White Star Line", bearing the proud name "Titanic", having died in the middle of its first voyage and taking with it one thousand five hundred and four human lives, was doomed to become the most famous ship in the world.

Why did the most perfect ship of that era sink - a ship that was considered completely unsinkable? For almost a hundred years, the active human mind has been building versions of the catastrophe, since there is no shortage of riddles here. I have been interested in this story since childhood - now, probably, I don’t even remember how it all began. Today I want to tell you about the most famous versions of the tragedy.

Version one. Conspiracy theory

"Olympic and Titanic: the largest steamships in the world"

Few people know that the Titanic had a twin brother - the Olympic ship, an exact copy of it, also owned by the White Star Line. How is it, the reader may wonder, because the Titanic was considered a unique ship, the largest ship of that era, and now it turns out that there was another ship that was not inferior to it in size? No, the Titanic was indeed longer than its twin. By two inches. Just imagine - the length of a matchbox! - but still longer. Another thing is that it was almost impossible to notice these inches with the naked eye (and armed, perhaps, too), so that an outsider, looking at standing board on the side of the twins, I couldn't tell which one was which.

The Olympic was a year older than its brother (so it would be more correct to call the Titanic a copy of it), and not much luckier. Probably, it was necessary to write something like “from the very beginning, evil fate hovered over each of the ships,” but more on that later: of course, the greatest maritime disaster could not but acquire mystical rumors. I'll talk about them later, but for now let's not get ahead of ourselves. Gemini: Titanic (right) and Olympic

Well, fate, not rock, but the fate of the "Olympic" was indeed full of trouble. His career began with the fact that during the launching the ship crashed into a dam. After that, minor and major accidents rained down on him one after another, and the ship did not even seem to have been insured. Rumor has it that after a series of accidents, the owners would be happy to insure their ship, but the insurance companies refused to deal with the failed liner. The most serious accident was a collision with the British military cruiser Hawk, which led the White Star Line company to tangible financial problems: expensive repairs were needed, and the company's financial situation was very sad. So the Olympic was put in the Belfast docks to await a decision on its future fate. And now - attention! Take a look at the photo on the left - this is almost the only photo in existence that shows the Titanic and the Olympic, standing side by side. It was made in Belfast. The final rig of the Titanic
at the shipyard in Belfast

Why not assume, some researchers said, that the White Star Line decided to pull off a grand scheme. To patch up the old "Olympic" in a hurry and ... pass it off as the new "Titanic"! Technically, it would not be difficult at all: to swap the plates with the names of the ships, and even the interior items on which the monogram of the ships is applied - for example, cutlery (Olympic and Titanic, of course, had some design differences - well, yes who knows about them?). Then the Olympic, under the guise of a new, prestigious, widely advertised (and, of course, honor by honor insured) Titanic, will set off on a journey across the Atlantic, where it will collide (quite by accident, of course) with an iceberg (fortunately, the lack of them at that time there was no year). Of course, no one was going to sink the liner - and no one believed that some kind of iceberg could send the most reliable ship in the world to the bottom. It was planned to arrange a small collision, after which the ship will slowly reach New York, and its owners will receive a tidy sum insured, which will come in handy for the company.

In favor of this version speaks strange behavior ship's captain, Edward Smith. Why is such a seasoned, experienced seabass so careless about the safety of his vessel? Why did he stubbornly ignore reports of drifting icebergs coming from other ships, and even himself, it seems, steered the liner on a course where it is easiest to meet an icy mountain? What was he doing this for, if not to carry out the White Star plan? Personally, it seems to me that it was for this, that's just ... the plan was completely different. But more on that later. Screw "Titanic". In this photo, however, the numbers can not be seen.

It turned out to be quite difficult to refute the conspiracy theory, especially since White Star went out of its way to save its reputation: it distorted information about the disaster in every possible way, bribed witnesses, and so on. Actually, convincing arguments were found only after the sunken liner itself was discovered (and this happened only seventy-three years later - the remains of the ship were discovered by the expedition of Robert Ballard in September 1985). So, the participants of one of the expeditions, descending to the wreck, took photographs of the propeller, on which the minted serial number"Titanic" - 401 (his older brother had a number exactly 400). Conspiracy theorists claim, however, that the Olympic damaged its propeller after colliding with the Hawk, and White Star replaced it with a propeller from the then unfinished Titanic. But the number 401 is also found on other parts of the sunken ship, so the charge of a planned disaster with the White Star Line can be dropped. The following theory looks much more plausible - we will talk about it now.

John Pierpont Morgan And did you know that...

One of the arguments in favor of the conspiracy theory was the fact that the industrialist John Morgan, one of the owners of the Titanic, was supposed to sail aboard his ship, but canceled the ticket a day before the ship left the port.

And they also say (here the mysticism began) that the tycoon was dissuaded from going by Nikola Tesla, endowed with the gift of foresight, the development of which was financed by Morgan.

Second version. Blue Ribbon Chase

It all started a long time ago, when regular sea traffic was established between England and America, and, therefore, competition between ship-owning companies began to flare up. The faster the ship crossed the Atlantic, the more popular it was. In 1840, the Cunard company came up with a prize for ships that set a speed record: now the ship crossing the Atlantic Ocean faster than all its predecessors received the Blue Ribbon of the Atlantic as an award.

Actually, there was no material prize. The winner did not receive a cash prize, the captain was not presented with a commemorative cup that can be put in a prominent place in the wardroom. But the ship acquired something more - an invaluable prestige that cannot be obtained by other means. In addition to honor in maritime circles (and, therefore, fame and popularity), the winner of the award received a contract for the transportation of mail (including diplomatic mail) between America and Europe, and this is a very profitable shipping item. And in general - see for yourself: if you are a rich businessman, maybe even a millionaire, on which ship would you prefer to travel? Isn't it on the most prestigious and fastest?

At the time of the Titanic's departure from Southampton, Blue Ribbon was owned by the Mauritania, a ship owned by White Star's archrival. Naturally, it was impossible to put up with this, and White Star decided to bet on its favorite. The conquest of the Blue Ribbon by the Titanic would be a triumph for this corporation, allowing it to correct its precarious position: the Cavalier of the All-Atlantic Ribbon usually had four times as many passengers as other similar ships.

Due to the threat of collision with floating ice, the prescribed route of the Titanic (and any other vessel following the same course) did not run in a straight line, but made a small detour, skirting the dangerous ocean area where most icebergs drift. Of course, this maneuver lengthens the road. That's why it might seem that Captain Smith was sailing his ship right into a bunch of icebergs - he just needed to take a short cut and get the Blue Ribbon by all means. That is why the Titanic went at full steam and did not slow down even after receiving several radiograms warning of ice danger from other ships. Let other ships worry - and the Titanic has nothing to fear. In the "crow's nest" - a special observation platform on the front mast - there are two lookouts who, in case of danger, will be able to report it to the captain's bridge in the blink of an eye using telephone communication: the Titanic is equipped with the latest technology. And if a collision does occur, well, it only means that the record will be set another time. Icebergs do not pose a danger to the ship - after all, it is known that the Titanic is completely unsinkable. Its hold is divided into sixteen watertight compartments, so that if suddenly it gets a hole (which, of course, cannot be), then only one of the compartments will be filled with water, and the ship will calmly continue its journey. That one - the liner will not sink, even if four compartments are filled! And a ship can only receive such damage in a war.

Well, it’s not for nothing that pride is one of the deadly sins. She played a cruel joke with the Titanic: the iceberg damaged five compartments - one more than was permissible. A piece of the Titanic skin lifted from the bottom

But how could the ice break through the steel of the ship's plating? In the mid-nineties, a piece of the Titanic's skin was lifted to the surface and subjected to a fragility test: a sheet of metal, fixed in clamps, had to withstand the impact of a thirty-kilogram pendulum. For comparison, a piece of steel used in shipbuilding today was also tested. Before the experiment, both samples were placed in an alcohol bath with a temperature of just over a degree - this is exactly what the ocean water was on that fateful night. Modern metal came out of the test with honor: under the blow of a hammer, it bent, but remained intact. Raised from the bottom, it split into two parts. Maybe he became so fragile after lying eighty years at the bottom of the ocean? The researchers managed to get at the Belfast shipyard, where the Titanic was built, a steel sample of those years. He endured the strength test no better than his brother. The experts' conclusion was that the steel used in the construction of the Titanic was very Low quality, with a large admixture of sulfur, which made it brittle at low temperatures Oh. Alas, at the beginning of the twentieth century, the level of development of metallurgy was far from today. If the lining of the liner were made of high-quality steel, the hull would simply bend inward from the impact, and the tragedy could have been avoided.

American press about the sinking of the Titanic And did you know that...

On the Internet you can find not only Western newspapers of that time (see photo on the right), but also pre-revolutionary Russian publications, which reported on the crash in the Atlantic Ocean. A strange feeling arises when you read these dry lines - for the people of that time, the Titanic had not yet become a legend ...

To the death of the Titanic.

LONDON. The sessions of the commission to investigate the circumstances of the sinking of the Titanic were opened by the representative of the Department of Commerce, Isaacs, who indicated that from the moment her entry into the sea, the Titanic had been moving at a speed of 21 knots per hour, and this speed was not reduced until the very moment of the collision with ice mountain despite receiving warnings of moving ice. The investigation will pay special attention to the insufficient number of lifeboats on the ship and to the installation of watertight bulkheads.

* * * * *

But the publication of Iskra, as it should be for an "artistic and literary magazine", describes the situation in the best traditions of the yellow press:

The death of the Titanic.

Russian press about the sinking of the Titanic April 1, at 10:25 pm, a real floating city - the greatest in the world, a luxurious nine-story steamer "Titanic" (length ¼ verst (126 sazhens), displacement 66,000 tons, cost at 20,000,000 rubles, with machines of 55,000 horsepower, reaching speeds of up to 38 miles per hour) on the way to New York, having 2,700 people on board, ran into floating ice at full speed. At midnight, from the Titanic, by wireless telegraph, they reported: "We perish."

Stunning scenes played out on the deck of the sinking steamer. Millionaire passengers (there were 7 of them, with a total fortune of 3 billion) offered fabulous sums for seats in lifeboats. Because of these places, people fought, pushed each other into the water, smashed their heads with oars ...

1,410 people died.

William Stead died aboard the Titanic. A convinced journalist, with boundless faith in the power of the printed word, Stead exposed the horrors of the depravity of aristocratic London, its brothels, the sale of children, vigorously advocated an end to the Anglo-Boer War, for rapprochement with Russia. In 1905, Stead came to Russia with the aim of reconciling Russian society with the government.

Third version. Fire in the hold

On September 20, 1987, French television told the world sensational news: the cause of the death of the Titanic, it turns out, was a fire that broke out in the hold of the ill-fated liner, and not a collision with an iceberg at all. Apparently, the supporters of the new hypothesis assured, spontaneous combustion of coal occurred in one of the ship’s coal storage facilities (well, this is actually possible), the fire spread to the entire hold, reached the steam boilers, which exploded from this, which is why the ship went to the bottom. As for the iceberg, it just happened to be nearby, so it was accused of crashing the liner. One of the watertight bulkheads of the Titanic

Yes, indeed, there was a fire on the Titanic - and this is no longer guesswork, but an established fact. However, could he cause a disaster? Oh, hardly. How do you imagine a fire in a coal bunker? A roaring flame throwing at metal sheathing ominous crimson reflections on the walls, bare-chested sailors rushing about, someone pumps, and a stream of water disappears into a raging wall of fire? I must disappoint you - in fact, everything is much more prosaic. In general, a fire in the coal bunker of steamships of that time was a fairly common thing. Coal in such a fire does not burn, does not burn, but quietly and peacefully smolders, sometimes for several days. They fought such fires in the simplest way - out of turn they burned smoldering coal in steamship furnaces. So a fire in a coal hold is, of course, an unpleasant phenomenon, but, as a rule, it does not promise any serious troubles to the ship. And certainly not under any circumstances not capable of producing such monstrous destruction, which supporters of the version of the death of the Titanic from the flames attribute to him. Moreover, the fire on the ship was extinguished even before it went on its last voyage. The bunker was emptied and inspected by specialists from the shipyard where the Titanic was docked. It seems that the most serious consequence of the fire was a slight deformation of one of the watertight bulkheads, which could not affect the fate of the liner.

And did you know that...

The Titanic is one of the first, if not the first ship in history to send an SOS signal.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the letters "CQD" were adopted as a distress signal - short for "Come Quick, Danger" ("Hurry here, danger"). But this signal was inconvenient in that it was also used to warn on land of railway wrecks. In 1906, at the International Radiotelegraph Conference, it was proposed to introduce a special signal for maritime disasters. Then the letters known to the whole world today were chosen - SOS. Contrary to popular belief, this is not an acronym for a phrase like "Save Our Souls". Such letters were chosen simply because their combination is very easy to recognize in ethereal Morse code: three dots, three dashes, three dots.

However, habit is second nature, and the CQD signal was still used in water crashes. The radio operator of the Titanic, twenty-five-year-old John Philips, also sent him: “CQD, here are our coordinates: 41.46 north 50.14 west. We require immediate assistance. Tonem. You can't hear anything over the roar of the steam pipes." He repeated this message for the next quarter of an hour, until his partner suggested sending a new distress signal over the air, joking cynically: "Man, try tapping out an SOS signal - we will not have such an opportunity again in our lives." Philips smiled sadly at the joke, and at 00:45 on April 15, 1912, one of the first SOS signals in history was sent from the Titanic.

Fourth version. German torpedo

German submarine during World War I

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

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

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

First, there was a collision with an iceberg - this is beyond doubt. The deck of the ship was even covered with snow and ice chips. Cheerful passengers started playing football with ice cubes - that the ship is doomed, it will become clear later. The collision itself was surprisingly quiet - almost none of the passengers felt it. A torpedo, you see, could hardly have exploded completely silently (especially since some claim that the submarine fired as many as six torpedoes at the ship!). Supporters of the theory of the German attack claim, however, that people in the boats heard a terrible roar just before the Titanic sank - well, that was two and a half hours later, when only the stern lifted up into the sky remained above the water and the death of the ship did not raise any doubts. It is unlikely that the Germans would have fired a torpedo at an almost sunken ship, would they? And the roar that the survivors heard was due to the fact that the stern of the Titanic rose almost vertically and huge steam boilers fell from their places. Also, do not forget that at about the same minutes the Titanic broke in half - the keel could not withstand the weight of the rising stern (although they only find out about this after finding the liner at the bottom: the break occurred below the water level), and this is also unlikely to have happened silently . And why would the Germans suddenly begin to sink a passenger liner two years before the start of the war? This seems, to put it mildly, doubtful. And to put it bluntly, it's absurd.

And did you know that...

Before filming Titanic, director James Cameron worked closely with the crew of the Russian scientific vessel Akademik Mstislav Keldysh and personally made twelve dives with a movie camera to the wreckage of the ship on the submersibles Mir-1 and Mir-2 - they can be seen in documentaries movie fragments. During each dive, Cameron could shoot only fifteen minutes due to the fact that only so much film could fit in the camera.

Five years later, the Mir-1 and Mir-2 submersibles will be used to dive to the sunken submarine Kursk.

Fifth version. Curse of the Egyptian Mummy

The very first horror movie about a mummy

Yes, yes, imagine, there is such a version! I purposely saved it for the end.

So, in the eighties of the nineteenth century, a perfectly preserved mummy from the time of Amenhotep IV was discovered near Cairo, named either Amen-Otu, or Amen-Ra, or Amennofis (lovers of mysticism, as you know, do not bother with such trifles. Mummy, and mummy). During her lifetime, the mummy worked as a famous soothsayer, and therefore, after her death, she was awarded a magnificent burial: with jewelry, figurines of gods, and, of course, magical amulets. Among them was the image of Osiris, adorned with the inscription: "Wake up from your swoon, and your look will crush everyone who gets in your way." Others, however, insisted that it was written "Arise from the dust, and only the look of your eyes will triumph over any intrigues against you", but what, in essence, is the difference? That's when the third timidly suggested that nothing of the kind was written on the mummy, then it was certainly clear that this was nonsense.

The mummy was acquired by some collector, then by another, by a third, and all the previous owners, of course, died under the most mysterious and mysterious circumstances. That is, maybe, in fact, each of them lived to be ninety-nine years old and rested in the arms of a young beauty, but who will check this? The owners of mummies, as everyone knows, are supposed to die, and, preferably, a terrible death.

Ticket for the Titanic

Finally, our mummy was acquired in british museum some American millionaire and sent to his American residence on board the ship. Well, guess which liner was chosen for this purpose?

An ordinary box served as a sarcophagus on the way, either glass or wooden (not tin, at least, for sure), and it was kept just near the captain's bridge. Mystics of all stripes avidly assure that Captain Edward Smith, of course, could not resist the temptation and looked into this box with a mummy: their eyes met and ... no, they did not fall in love with each other; quite the contrary: a monstrous curse came true. Otherwise, judge for yourself, how to explain what went wrong in the captain’s head, and with his own intrepid hand he sent the Titanic straight to certain death?

And, in fact, why is it believed that the captain's head became clouded, and he own hand sent the Titanic to certain death? Well, how could he not get confused in his head if he met the eyes of a mummy? As you can see, there is nothing to object.

It's a shame that the mummy died a thousand years before the birth of Aristotle, so she had a hard time with logic. Otherwise, she would have realized that the immediate consequence of the fact that the ship rammed the iceberg would be the death of her, mummy, precious body - in ocean water it is unlikely to survive more than a few days. And the destruction of the body is the worst thing that can happen to a mummy: her soul will have nowhere to return to. So if the mummy really had magical powers, it would be in her interest to protect the Titanic like the apple of her magical eye. Or maybe she, too, bought into the advertising rhetoric about the unsinkable ship and did not pay attention to the dangerous icebergs?

Be that as it may, but the mummy died in the deep ocean, disappeared without a trace, and cannot stand up for its honest name; this is shamelessly used by the yellow press, which regularly publishes accusations against her under the monotonous headlines: “Sensation! The Titanic was destroyed by the curse of the pharaohs! Let's leave it to the conscience of journalists.

The mummy, by the way, was not the only historical relic that died aboard the Titanic. For art, the death of the original manuscript of Omar Khayyam "Rubaiyat" in the Atlantic Ocean is much more tragic - a relic that truly had no price.

And did you know that...

Immediately after the death of the Titanic, various projects for raising the ship to the surface began to be proposed. One of them was a proposal to fill the hull of the liner with ping-pong balls.

Oh yes, there is another version

She is all in the picture, and there is nothing more to say about her:

Ex-"Giant". What would you name the ship... And did you know that...

The Titanic had not only an older brother (Olympic), but also a younger brother, the Gigantic. At the time of the death of the middle brother in the abyss of the Atlantic, the younger one was still being built on the ropes. To prevent a similar tragedy from happening to him, improvements began to be made to his design on the go - for example, the number of lifeboats was increased (you can see them in the photo - on the upper deck, one above the other). And the most unexpected of the security measures taken was - what would you think? Change of vessel name. Remembering from ancient Greek myths that the fate of both titans and giants was very deplorable, the owners of the ship decided not to step on the same rake again and abandoned the name "Gigantic". What, in fact, the devil is not joking?

They called the new ship patriotically: "Britannick". Tellingly, this did not help: in World War I, the youngest of the ships was sunk by a German submarine.

But how was it really?

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

Perhaps the first link was the successful start of the journey - yes, yes, that's right. On the morning of April 10, as the Titanic sailed from the docking wall in Southampton Port, the superliner passed too close to American ship New York, and a phenomenon known in navigation as the suction of ships arose: the New York began to be attracted to the Titanic moving nearby. However, thanks to the skill of Captain Edward Smith, a collision was avoided. Ironically, if an accident had happened, it would have saved one and a half thousand lives: if the Titanic had been delayed in the port, the ill-fated encounter with the iceberg would not have happened. This time. Captain of the Titanic Edward Smith

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

However, this message was not the only one, and the captain knew about the ice danger. Why didn't he slow down the ship? Chasing the Blue Ribbon is, of course, a matter of honor (and, more importantly, of big business), but why did he risk the lives of passengers? Not that much of a risk, really. In those years, the captains of ocean liners often passed dangerous ice districts without slowing down: it was like crossing the road at a red light: sort of, and you can’t do that, but it always works out. Almost always. To the credit of Captain Smith, it must be said that he remained true to maritime traditions and remained on the dying ship to the very end.

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

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

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

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

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

It should be said that Thomas Andrews himself traveled on the Titanic, a talented designer who built this liner. Of course, after the tragedy, there were people who accused him of the unsuccessful design of the vessel. These accusations are groundless - Andrews actually built the most perfect ship of his time. It is to him that the survivors of the crash owe the fact that they had almost three hours to leave the ship and move to a safe distance.

After the accident, Captain Smith woke Mr. Andrews and invited him to inspect the hold in order to obtain an authoritative opinion on the fate of the ship. The designer's verdict was disappointing: it was impossible to save the Titanic. We urgently need to start evacuating passengers.

And here we come to one of the most dramatic circumstances. There were 2,208 people on board the ship (fortunately, not the 3,500 for which it was designed), but there were places in the boats for only 1,178 people. Looking ahead, we can say that only seven hundred and four managed to escape: the next link in the chain of failures was that some sailors took the captain's order to put women and children into the boats too literally, and did not let men go there, even if there were empty seats. However, at first no one was particularly eager to get into the boats. The passengers did not understand what was the matter, and did not want to leave the huge, comfortably lit, such a reliable liner and it was not clear why they would go down in a small unstable boat down to the icy water. However, pretty soon, anyone could notice that the deck was tilting forward more and more, and panic began. Boat deck. Walk to your health.

But why was there such a monstrous discrepancy in the places on the lifeboats? Initially, there were more boats - as many as thirty-five, but it was decided to abandon fifteen of them. Firstly, they “could cause a feeling of insecurity,” but most importantly, they prevented first-class passengers from walking on deck, and this was quickly corrected: the motto of the Titanic was “comfort above all else.” But how could such a poorly equipped ship be set afloat? It's all about the outdated rules of the British Code of Navigation, adopted back in 1894. In accordance with it, a certain number of boats was assigned to a ship of a certain size. And since the displacement of the largest passenger ships of that time rarely exceeded 10,000 tons, all such giant ships were combined into a single category with an order for them to have on board the number of boats sufficient to save 962 people. In 1894, they could not even imagine a ship like the Titanic - with a tonnage of as much as 52,310 tons!

The owners of the Titanic, praising the merits of the new ship, stated that they even overfulfilled the instructions of the code: instead of the prescribed 962 rescue places, there were 1178 on the ship. Unfortunately, they did not attach any importance to the discrepancy between this number and the number of passengers on board. Photo of the radio operator of the Titanic, taken by a crooked photographer

It is especially bitter that not far from the sinking Titanic, another passenger steamer, the Californian, stood, waiting out the danger of ice. A few hours ago, he notified neighboring ships that he was locked in ice and forced to stop so as not to accidentally run into an ice block. The radio operator from the Titanic, who was almost stunned by the Morse code from the Californian (the ships were very close, and the signal of one was too loud in the headphones of the other), impolitely interrupted the warning: “Go to hell, you are preventing me from working!”. What was the radio operator of the Titanic so busy with? The fact is that in those years, radio communication on a ship was more of a luxury than an urgent need, and this miracle of technology aroused great interest among the wealthy public. From the very beginning of the voyage, radio operators were literally inundated with messages of a private nature - and no one saw anything reprehensible in the fact that Titanic radio operators paid such attention to wealthy passengers who wished to send a telegram to the ground directly from the ship. And at that moment, when colleagues from other courts reported about floating ice, the radio operator was transmitting another message to the continent. Radio communication was more like expensive toy than for a serious instrument: the ships of that time did not even have a round-the-clock watch at the radio station. So the radio operator from the Californian, having finished his shift, went to bed in the evening and could not receive a desperate distress signal - SOS. If it were possible to inform the Californian about the collision, then he could come to the rescue in less than an hour, and the Titanic sank for two and a half hours! They say that from the Californian they even saw signal flares sent by the sinking liner into the night sky, but did not attach any importance to this. Well, missiles, and missiles. Celebrating, probably, something moneybags from the Titanic. Wow, fireworks have arranged for themselves ...

But, fortunately for the passengers, several ships still responded to the distress signal. Among them was the Olympic, the twin of the Titanic, but it was too far away - as much as five hundred miles. Apart from the Californian, the closest ship to the sinking ship was the Carpathia, less than sixty miles away. Having received an SOS signal, he changed his course and rushed to the rescue at maximum speed. About two o'clock in the morning the radio operator of the Carpathia received last message from the liner in distress: "Go as quickly as possible, the engine room is flooded to the boilers." There were no more radio signals from the superliner ... Survivors of the Titanic aboard the Carpathia

There were about seven hundred people in the boats in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The agonizing hours of waiting for help dragged on. Some of the lifeboats searched and picked up drowning people all night, and some, on the contrary, sailed away from the scene of the tragedy, fearing that people overboard, trying to escape, could capsize the boat.

At four in the morning, four and a half hours after the Titanic collided with the ice mass, and two hours after the stern disappeared into the depths of the sea, the Carpathia approached the scene of the tragedy and took up rescuing the survivors. At eight-thirty, the passengers of the last boat were on board. There were 704 people alive. Searching the water for the rest was useless. At this temperature of the water, a life jacket does not save: a person dies from the cold in a few minutes.

At eight-fifty, the Carpathia, ironically owned by the same Cunard Line steamship company, whose laurels the Titanic wanted to take for itself, having won the Blue Ribbon, heads for New York.

P.S.

And finally: a few photos of the Titanic, the legendary ship. Each of them can be enlarged.

Before:

Titanic at the Harland and Wolf shipyard before being launched (colorized photograph) The Titanic leaves Belfast (colorized photograph) Here you can see the "crow's nest" for the lookout on the mast First class cabin First Class Cabin (colorized photo) Third class cabin (reconstruction) Cafe "Palm Yard" Cafe Parisien with Ocean View (colorized photo) Gym on the Titanic The famous front staircase with a clock (here DiCaprio was waiting for a date with Kate Winslet) Glass dome over the front staircase. Only a first-class passenger was allowed to admire this beauty.

You can find many more colorized photos of the Titanic at titanic-in-color.com

After:

3D model of the Titanic on the ocean floor The remains of the Titanic at the bottom Prow of the ship Fragment of the ship's hull Opened port side window Captain's helm Anchor Davit for launching lifeboats Once upon a time there lay a man Ceramic cup at the bottom The wooden crate is long gone, but the porcelain is still lying Glass in the windows of Captain Smith's cabin Captain Smith's bath hot water, salted or fresh as desired

Many have heard, many have read, but many still do not know the real and bitter truth about the death of the world's largest passenger liner with the mighty name Titanic. It belonged to the British company White Star Line. In just two years, shipbuilders managed to construct the impossible, and already on May 31, 1911, the Titanic was launched. His first cruise flight turned into a huge tragedy, the news of which swept over the course of two days around the world. What happened? How did the Titanic sink? How could the most unsinkable ship in the world be at a depth of 4 km? The owners of the company declared that God himself could not sink the Titanic. Maybe he got mad at people?

But let's move on to more real facts. So, on April 10, 1912, the greatest ship of all times and peoples, the Titanic, sailed from the port of Southampton, on board of which at that moment were the most famous people Great Britain. These were businessmen, actors and actresses, scientists and writers, etc. The Titanic set off on a 7-day voyage across the Atlantic Ocean to New York, stopping along the way at small ports to deliver and receive cargo, as well as disembark and disembark passengers. The fifth day of the exciting journey was fatal for all the passengers of the liner. Crossing the Atlantic, at about 3:00 am, the starboard side of the ship was cut by a small iceberg, which was not immediately noticed by the looking sailor. As many as five lower compartments were flooded in a matter of minutes.

After 2.5 hours, the Titanic disappeared into the depths of the sea. Of the 2,200 people, only 715 were able to escape. Almost 1,500 people tragically died. And now the most intriguing question arises, who is to blame for this tragedy? God? Shipbuilders? or not the professionalism of the captain of the ship? But nevertheless, after numerous investigations, objective and subjective reasons for the death of the Titanic were still collected, but we will talk about them a little later. To begin with, one should delve into these facts and analyze the broader reasons that influenced the outcome of events and the death of innocent people.

Responsible for the sinking of the Titanic

shipbuilders

Let's start, perhaps, with shipbuilders, namely with the ship's plating itself. In 1994, a study was carried out with a piece of the skin of the sunken Titanic. The results were very deplorable, because. the plating was so thin that even the smallest piece of ice floe could inflict enormous damage on it, and if we take into account the huge Iceberg, then the damage was still not very big, thanks to the actions of the captain of the ship. The impact caused by the iceberg was tragic because the ship's hull plating included phosphorus in its composition, which, at low temperatures, caused this hull to break. The inability of shipbuilders to create high-quality steel at that time, as well as ship designs, makes them also guilty of this tragedy. It was also known that the design of the Titanic included the use of necessary materials, but most of them were of poor quality, or even absent. This is proven by the fact that some people made a lot of money on this and shipbuilders may not be guilty of this.

radio operators

Now about no less important employees of the ship - radio operators. In 1912, radio communication on the high seas was new, and not every ship could establish it. The bottom line is that the radio operators, for some unknown reason, were not part of the ship's crew, but worked for the Marconi company, which was engaged in the transmission of paid messages in the form of Morse code. Currently, they can be compared with SMS messages on the phone.

Based on the surviving records, the radio operators managed to transmit more than 250 radiotelegrams on April 14, and the signals that came from other ships that also sailed across the Atlantic were simply ignored by the radio operators, because. they needed to make money. According to the records of the radio operators, which were not taken into account by them, it became known that the Titanic had been alerted of the danger with the exact coordinates since 20-00 on the evening of April 14. There were even messages for the captain personally, in which it was written about nearby icebergs, but the radio operators were too lazy to deliver this information to the captain, and continued to send paid messages. But the entire crew of the ship was instructed in advance about possible glaciers, because. route passed through them.

Iceberg

Video - Titanic. The mysteries of the death of the liner

As you can see, the Titanic still managed to sink, and not only for the above reasons, there are several more. Perhaps the most important of them is the lack of binoculars from the looking sailor, who was on the ship, but was locked in a safe, and the second mate had the key. It was David Blair, who was removed from the flight for unknown reasons. He simply forgot to give this key to his reliever, so the looking sailor could not see the danger. With binoculars, trouble could be foreseen for 6 km., And without binoculars, the sailor could notice just 400 meters away. It was calm and the night was moonless. Even the weather conditions that night were against the ship, because the light of the moon in any case was able to reflect on the iceberg and give it away in advance.

It was also known that the iceberg was black, which means that it had turned upside down shortly before. It is possible that even under the moon the shine of the iceberg could not be noticeable, because. its white side was under water.

The fact that the first assistant did not notice the iceberg first is not clear. it is always more visible on the bridge than from the "eagle's nest" of a sailor.

About maneuver

It should be clarified that the captain of the ship was not on the bridge at the time of the crash, he was replaced by first assistant Murdoch. The results of the studies carried out indicate that the first officer gave the order "Left rudder" and immediately after that gave the order "Reverse". But the second command was carried out late and the reverse was made after a collision with an iceberg. It is believed that if Murdoch ordered, on the contrary, to increase speed, then the turn of the ship would not be smooth, but sharp. Perhaps the experience of the team failed in this situation as well. they did not participate in the testing of the ship after launching, but to create a maneuver of such huge ship very difficult without preparation. Some believe that if the Titanic had not changed course, but had rammed an iceberg, it would have remained unscathed, because. the bow of the ship was protected and could only get a small dent at most.

Having considered the expanded picture of the circumstances of that night, we should return to the objective and subjective reasons for the sinking of the Titanic.

Subjective causes of the sinking of the Titanic

1. The rules of the British Merchant Shipping Code were outdated. They said that lifeboats were put on a ship depending on its tonnage, and not on the number of passengers. This means that there were not enough boats on the Titanic, so about 500 more people were not saved.

2. There is evidence that the helmsman, at the command "Take to the left", turned the steering wheel to the right.

3. The director of the company, J. Ismay, was sailing on board the ship, but he ordered the captain to sail on and not take any action so as not to incur losses. The captain followed his order, but water entered the compartments at a rate of 350 tons per minute.

4. To date, no one has survived after the crash. Those who escaped died a natural death. The last passenger on the Titanic died in 2009. It was a woman who was on the Titanic as a 5 year old child. Only she knew the true truth of the death of the ship, which her relatives told her, but the secret died with her.

Objective reasons for the sinking of the Titanic

1. Due to the fact that the iceberg turned over, because he was melting at that time, he was not visible from the ship.

2. The speed of the ship was very high. As a result, the blow was the most powerful. The fault here is solely the captain of the ship.

3. Radio operators, busy sending paid messages, did not convey important information about the danger to the captain. Considering that they were not part of the team, this does not relieve them of responsibility.

4. Steel Titanic at the time was not best quality. The pressure on her low temperatures led her to brittleness and brittleness. There is no fault of the shipbuilders here, because. they performed work with the raw materials that were purchased by the management of the shipbuilding company.

5. All compartments of the ship were protected by iron doors, but the pressure of the water was so strong that they simply shattered into small pieces. Thus, compartment after compartment was filled with water.

6. The lookout did not have binoculars, which reduced the radius of his view from the "eagle's nest".

7. The ship did not have red flares, the launch of which meant a signal of danger. As a result of this, white rockets were launched, which did not matter to neighboring ships.

This article did not consider the ships that came to the aid of the Titanic on that fateful night, but it is worth noting the fact that the closest ship that was near the Titanic was a ship with poachers who hunted seals that night, but saw the launch white rockets, they thought it was a signal that they needed to stop and the captain of this ship ordered his crew to sail as quickly as possible in the opposite direction. Perhaps, thanks to these poachers, if they had not swum away, much would have been saved. more people, but there was no radio communication on their ship.

Thus, having analyzed the most truthful facts about how the Titanic sank, one can only guess which reason is still the most truthful.

The sinking of the Titanic scientific facts video

More than 100 years have passed since the terrible disaster of one of the largest liners of its time. But until now, the world does not know all the secrets that the huge, and seemingly indestructible Titanic hides. How the ship sank, the material will tell.

Giants fight

The 20th century became the century technical progress. Skyscrapers, cars, movies - everything developed at an uncanny pace. The process also affected the ships.

There was a lot of competition in the market in the early 1900s due to customers between the two big companies. Cunard Line and White Star Line, two hostile transatlantic carriers, have been competing for the right to be the leader in their field for several years in a row. opened up interesting opportunities for companies, so over the years their ships became larger, faster and more magnificent.

Why and how the Titanic sank is still a mystery. There are many versions. The most daring of them is a scam. It was held by the aforementioned Star Line company.

But he opened the world of amazing liners "Cunard Line". By their order, two extraordinary steamships "Mauritania" and "Lusitania" were built. The audience was amazed by their grandeur. The length is about 240 m, the width is 25 m, the height from the waterline to the boat deck is 18 m. (But after a few years, the dimensions of the Titanic surpassed these parameters). Two twin giants were launched in 1906 and 1907. They won first places in prestigious competitions and beat all speed records.

For the competitors of "Kunard Line" it became a matter of honor to give a worthy answer.

The fate of the troika

The White Star Line was founded in 1845. During the years of the gold rush, she made money by flying from Britain to Australia. Throughout the years, the company competed with Cunard Line. Therefore, after the Lusitania and Mauritania were launched, the Star Line engineers were tasked with creating fantastic designs that would surpass the offspring of competitors. The final decision was made in 1909. This is how the idea of ​​three ships of the Olympic class was born. The order was carried out by Harland and Wolfe.

This maritime organization was famous throughout the world for the quality of its ships, comfort and luxury. Speed ​​was not a priority. Several times "Star Line" proved not by word but by deed that it cares about customers. So, in 1909, when two liners collided, their ship stood on the water for another two days, which proved its quality. However, the trio of “Olympic” misfortune befell. repeatedly got into accidents. So, in 1911, it collided with the Hawk cruiser, from which it received a 14-meter hole and went for repairs. Misfortune befell the Titanic. He found himself at the bottom of the ocean in 1912. "Britanic" found the First World War, where he played the role of a hospital, and in 1916 he was blown up by a German mine.

Miracle of the Seas

Now we can safely say that great ambitions were the reason why the Titanic crashed.

The construction of the second of three Olympic-class vessels was not without casualties. 1500 people worked on the project. The conditions were not easy. There was little concern for safety. Due to the fact that they had to work at a height, many builders broke down. About 250 people were seriously injured. The wounds of eight men were incompatible with life.

The dimensions of the Titanic were astounding. Its length was 269 m, width 28 m, height 18 m. It could reach speeds of up to 23 knots.

On the day the liner was launched, 10,000 spectators, including VIP guests and the press, gathered on the embankment to see the unusually large ship,

The date of the first flight was previously announced. The voyage was scheduled for March 20, 1912. But due to the collision of the first ship in September 1911 with the Hawk cruiser, some of the workers were transferred to the Olympic. The flight was automatically rescheduled for April 10. It is from this date that the fateful story of the Titanic begins.

fatal ticket

Its height was equal to an eleven-story building, and its length was four blocks of the city. Telephones, elevators, own electrical grid, garden, hospital, shops - all this was placed on the ship. chic halls, gourmet restaurants, a library, a swimming pool and a gym - everything was available to high society, first class passengers. Other clients lived more modestly. The most expensive tickets cost, in today's exchange rate, more than $50,000. Economical option from

The history of the Titanic is the history of different layers of the then society. Expensive cabins were occupied by successful, famous personalities. Tickets for the second class were bought by engineers, journalists, representatives of the clergy. The cheapest decks were for expats.

Landing began at 9:30 am on 10 April in London. After several scheduled stops, the liner headed for New York. A total of 2,208 people boarded.

tragic meeting

Immediately after entering the ocean, the team realized that there were no binoculars on the ship. The key to the box they were kept in was missing. The ship followed the safest route. It was chosen according to the season. In the spring, the water was full of icebergs, but theoretically they could not seriously damage the liner. Nevertheless, the captain gave the order to drive the Titanic at full speed. How the ship sank, which, according to the owners, could not be sunk, was later told by passengers who were lucky enough to survive.

The first days of sailing were quiet. But already on April 14, radio operators received repeated warnings about icebergs, which were largely ignored. In addition, the temperature dropped significantly at night. As you know, the team did without binoculars, and such a grandiose ship was not equipped with searchlights. Therefore, the lookout noticed the iceberg only 650 meters away. The man signaled to the bridge, where First Officer Murdoch gave the order: "Turn left" and "Reverse." This was followed by the command: "To the right." But the clumsy ship was slow to maneuver. The board collided with an iceberg. That is why the Titanic crashed.

Distress signal not heard

The collision happened at 23:40, when people were almost all asleep. On the upper deck, the impact was invisible. But the bottom was pretty shocked. Ice perforated 5 sections, they instantly began to fill with water. In general, the length of the hole was 90 meters. The designer said that with such damage, the ship would last a little more than an hour. The crew was preparing for an emergency evacuation. The radio operators broadcast an SOS signal.

The captain gave the order to put women and children in the boats. The team itself also wanted to survive, so strong sailors took oars in their hands. The wealthy passengers of the Titanic were the first to escape. But there wasn't enough room for everyone.

From the very beginning, the liner was not sufficiently equipped with everything necessary. A maximum of 1,100 people could be saved. In the first minutes it was completely imperceptible that the ship began to sink, so the relaxed passengers did not understand what was happening and reluctantly climbed into the half-empty boats.

The last moments of the miracle ship

When the nose of the liner tilted heavily, mass panic increased among the passengers.

The third class was left closed in its unit. Riots began, and people in horror tried to escape, as best they could. The guards tried to restore order and frightened the crowd with pistol shots.

At that time, the steamship Californian was passing nearby, but she did not receive a signal for help from a neighboring vessel. Their radio operator overslept messages. How the Titanic sank, and with what speed it went to the bottom, only Carpathia knew, which headed towards them.

Despite the distress signals given, independent attempts to escape did not stop. Pumps pumped out water, there was still electricity. At 2:15 the pipe fell. Then the light went out. Experts believe that the liner was torn in half, because the bow took on water and sank. The stern first rose up, and then, under the pressure of its own weight, the ship broke.

Cold in the abyss

The nose sank quickly. Feed in a few minutes also went under water. But at the same time, its lining, body, furniture floated up. At 2:20 a.m., the great ship Titanic was completely submerged. How the ship sank, dozens of feature films and documentaries are shown today.

Some passengers tried hard to survive. Dozens jumped off in vests into the black abyss. But the ocean was merciless to man. Almost everyone froze to death. After some time, two boats returned, but only a few survived at the scene. An hour later, the Carpathia arrived and picked up those who remained.

The captain went down with the ship. 712 people were saved from all those who bought a ticket for the Titanic. Those who died in 1496 were mostly representatives of the third class, people who, on this journey, wanted to touch something unrealizable and desirable.

Scam of the century

Two vessels of the Olympic class were built according to the same project. After the first ship set sail, all its shortcomings came out. So, the management decided to add some details to the Titanic. They reduced the place for walking, completed the cabins. A café has been added to the restaurant. To protect passengers from bad weather, the deck was closed. As a result, an external difference appeared, although earlier it could not be distinguished from the Olympic liner.

The version that the Titanic was under water was not accidental, was published by Robin Rardiner, an expert in shipping matters. According to his theory, the older and battered Olympic was sent to sail.

Ship change

The first liner was launched without insurance. Having survived several accidents, he became an unpleasant burden for the company. Permanent repairs required enormous funds. After the damage inflicted on him by the cruiser, the ship was again sent on vacation. Then it was decided to replace the old ship with a new one, which was insured and very similar to the Titanic. How the liner sank is known, but few people know that after the tragedy, the White Star Line company received round compensation.

It wasn't hard to create a disaster. Both ships were in the same place. The Olympic received a cosmetic overhaul, rebuilt the deck and stuck a new name. The hole was patched with cheap steel, which weakens in icy water.

Confirmation of the theory

An important proof of the veracity of the version is indisputable facts. For example, the fact that the world's magnates and successful, rich people abruptly and for no reason abandoned the long-awaited trip the day before. Among them was the owner of the company, John Pierpont Morgan. A total of 55 first class customers canceled their tickets. Also, all expensive paintings, jewelry, gold reserves and treasures were removed from the liner. The idea arises that the privileged passengers of the Titanic knew some secret.

Interestingly, Edward John Smith, who still sailed on the Olympic, was appointed captain. He repeatedly noted that this was his last flight in his life. Those around him took the words literally, as the sailor was about to retire. Researchers believe that this was a punishment to the commander for past mistakes on the previous ship.

Many questions also arise because of the first assistant to the captain, William Murdoch, who ordered to turn to the left and turn on the reverse gear. The correct solution in such a situation would be to go straight and wrinkle your nose. In this case, the Titanic would not have ended up at the bottom.

mummy's curse

For years, stories have circulated that untold treasures were left on board. Among them is the mummy of the seer of Pharaoh Amenhotep. Even 3000 years ago, a woman predicted that her body would fall under water and this would happen under the screams of innocent dead people. But skeptics do not consider the prophecy to be true, although they do not exclude the possibility that the secrets of the Titanic have not yet been discovered.

There is also such a version: the catastrophe was planned to suspend the technical But this theory is even less plausible than the myth of the mummy.

The ruins lie at a depth of 3750 meters. Dozens of grandiose dives were carried out to the liner. James Cameron, the film director of the famous film, has repeatedly been in the research group.

A century has passed, and the secrets of the Titanic are still of interest and excite humanity.

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

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

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

Vessel information

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The wreck of the Titanic

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

Alternative versions of the death of the ship

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

Fire

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

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

CONSPIRACY

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

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

German attack

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

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

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

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

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

A curse

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

Steering error

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

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

Chasing the Blue Ribbon of the Atlantic

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

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

But how was it really?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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