Real stories of Titanic passengers (51 photos). The death of the Titanic: a chronicle of the disaster, versions

30.09.2019

The auction house put up for sale a photo that, according to experts, Captured the iceberg that caused the sinking of the Titanic.

A black and white photograph of a floating block of ice was taken by the SS Etonian on April 12, 1912, two days before the sinking of the Titanic.

Experts believe that the unusual shape corresponds to the sketches and descriptions by eyewitnesses of the iceberg that the famous steamship, which was considered unsinkable, collided with.

Photo caption indicates the coordinates of an iceberg near the location of the shipwreck.

The inscription reads: "A blue iceberg, photographed by Captain Wood of the SS Etonian on 12/04/1912 at 41°50 W, 49°50 N. The Titanic collided on 14/4/12 and sank 3 hours later."

Frederick Fleet, who was on the observation post, who first noticed the iceberg and Joseph Scarrot, a sailor on the Titanic, both made sketches of an iceberg, which is very similar to the photo.

The experts found that Captain Wood, who took the photo, was surprised by the unusual shape of the iceberg, which has the shape of an oval in the upper right part.

The photo will be one of 400 Titanic memorabilia included in the US RR Auction next month.

The story of the sinking of the Titanic: 10 interesting facts

1. The cost of building the Titanic was $7.5 million. The price of one first class ticket was $4,700

2. On the day of the collision on the Titanic received at least 6 ice warnings. All of them were ignored by the radio operator, who was busy sending out passenger messages.

3. The iceberg that the Titanic collided with was not very big. It was no higher than the height of the ship's bridge.

5. Officer Murdoch on the bridge of the Titanic gave the order "Full back", which decided the fate of the Titanic. Like other ships, the Titanic turned faster as it moved forward. If it had continued forward and turned around, it would likely have avoided the iceberg.

6. To save people, 2208 places were needed in lifeboats, while the total capacity on the boats available on the ship was 1178 people.

7. A total of 1503 people died, 705 survived.

8. The temperature of the water in the Atlantic Ocean at the time of the crash was -0.56 ° Celsius. This temperature has become the main cause of death.

9. Charles Jufin became the only person who survived ice water Atlantic Ocean. According to reports, he was heavily drunk.

10. Millvina Dean, who died on May 31, 2009, was the last surviving passenger on the Titanic.. She was only 9 weeks old when the crash happened.

More than a century has passed since the huge Southampton-New York liner sank in the waters of the North Atlantic. The circumstances of this terrible tragedy, which claimed the lives of more than one and a half thousand people, have been studied up and down. But research continues to this day. British journalist Shenan Meloni studied the history of the Titanic for 30 years and came to a sensational conclusion: the main cause of the crash was a fire in the fuel storage, which lasted about two weeks.

According to the official story, the Titanic was wrecked because it was moving at too high a speed in icy waters, and when the lookout spotted an iceberg directly ahead, there was no way to avoid a collision. The ship hit the ice block on a tangent, but received such serious damage that after three hours it sank to the bottom. Shenan Meloni, however, believes that the iceberg is only one of the factors that killed the steamer.

In the process of carefully studying photographs taken ten days before the Titanic left Southampton, the journalist discovered on inside plating traces of soot. It was in the place that was subsequently damaged in the collision. The fire in the fuel storage, according to experts, started during high-speed tests at the 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 flight. In order for the passengers not to suspect anything, the ship was turned around in the port of Southampton on the other side. The officers were ordered to keep their mouths shut.

The liner set sail, but a team of 12 people could not cope with the fire. Gradually, the skin heated up to a thousand degrees Celsius. Metallurgical experts consulted by Meloni stated that steel becomes brittle at this temperature, losing up to 75% of its strength.

For this reason, when hitting an iceberg, six holes with a total length of about 90 meters formed at once 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 combination of three factors: ice, fire and criminal negligence.

About the terrible death of a luxury liner Titanic in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean everyone knows. Hundreds of people distraught with fear, heart-rending female cries and children's crying. 3rd class passengers buried alive at the bottom of the ocean are on the lower deck and millionaires choosing best places in half-empty lifeboats - on the upper, prestigious deck of the ship. But only a select few knew that the sinking of the Titanic was planned, and the death of hundreds of women and children was another fact in a cynical political game.

April 10, 1912 Port of Southampton, England. Thousands of people in the port of Southampton gathered to see the liner Titanic, on board of which 2000 lucky people went on a romantic trip across the Atlantic. The cream of society gathered on the passenger deck - mining magnate Benjamin Guggenheim, millionaire John Astor, actress Dorothy Gibson. Not everyone could afford to buy a first class ticket for $3,300 at the prices of that time, or $60,000 at the prices of today. Passengers of the 3rd class paid only 35 dollars (650 dollars in terms of our money), therefore they lived on the third deck, not having the right to go upstairs, where the millionaires were accommodated.

Tragedy Titanic still remains the largest peacetime maritime disaster. The circumstances of the death of 1,500 people are still shrouded in mystery.

The archives of the British Navy confirm that for some reason there were half as many boats on the Titanic as needed, and the captain knew even before the collision that there would not be enough seats for all the passengers.

The crew of the ship ordered first to rescue passengers of the 1st class. Bruce Ismay was one of the first people to board a lifeboat. general manager company " White Star Line", which belonged Titanic. The boat in which Ismay sat was designed for 40 people, but she left the side with only twelve.

The lower deck, where there were 1,500 people, was ordered to be locked so that third-class passengers would not burst upstairs to the boats. Panic broke out below. People saw how water began to flow into the cabins, but the captain had an order to save rich passengers. The order - only women and children, was made much later, and according to experts, the sailors were primarily interested in this, since in this case they became rowers on boats and they had a chance of salvation.

Many passengers of the second and third classes, without waiting for the boats, threw themselves overboard in life jackets. In a panic, few people understood that it is almost impossible to survive in icy water.

sinking of the titanic

In the list of passengers of the third class, which only recently became public, the name of Winni Goutts (Winnie Couts), a modest Englishwoman with two sons, appears. In New York, the woman was waiting for her husband, who a few months earlier got a job in America. It will seem incredible, but 88 years later, on February 3, 1990, Icelandic fishermen picked up a woman with that name on the shore. Wet, frozen in tattered clothes, she cried and screamed that she was a passenger Titanic and her name is Winnie Couts. The woman was taken to a psychiatric hospital and for a long time was mistaken for a madwoman, until one of the journalists found her name in the handwritten lists of Titanic passengers. She described the chronology of events in detail and never got confused. The mystics immediately put forward their version - they fell into the so-called space-time trap.

After the declassification of the archives Investigation into the death of 1,500 passengers on the Titanic» On July 20, 2008, the Senate Commission of Inquiry learned that on the night of the disaster, almost 200 passengers managed to board boats and sail away from the sinking ship. Some of them describe strange phenomenon. At about one in the morning, passengers saw a large luminous object near the liner. The men thought that these were the lights of another ship. R.M.S. Carpathia", which can save them. About 10 boats sailed to this light, but after half an hour the lights went out. It turned out that there was no ship nearby, and the liner " R.M.S. Carpathia Came only after 1 hour. Many eyewitnesses described strange lights observed near the site. wreck of the titanic. These testimonies were classified.

Anomalous events around sinking of the Titanic have been carefully hidden for a long time. It is known that no one could officially confirm the identity of Winnie Couts.

In the ranking of the largest maritime disasters of the XX century published by the popular Internet publication Titanic occupies by no means the last place. However, in the column "Cause of death - a collision with an iceberg", it appears in this list only once. The first and last case in the history of navigation when a ship sank due to a collision with an iceberg. Moreover, the consequences of the collision are comparable to the results of a major military operation. What is this?

The official version of the disaster says that Titanic collided with a black iceberg that had recently capsized in the water and was therefore invisible against the night sky. No one has ever wondered why the iceberg was black. Forward looking officer Frederick Fleet, a few seconds before the collision, saw some huge dark mass and heard a strange, very loud rattle coming from under the water, not like the sound of contact with an iceberg.

After 80 years, Russian researchers descended to the Titanic for the first time and confirmed that the ship's hull had indeed been cut. Why did the lookouts not notice anything in advance. This is surprising, but they did not have binoculars, that is, formally they were in the safe, but the key to it mysteriously disappeared. And one more strange detail - Titanic the most perfect of the beginning of the 20th century was not equipped with searchlights. Such carelessness looks, at least, strange, because on Titanic telegrams came in all day warning of icebergs plying in the area.

After weighing all the events and facts, it seems that the Titanic disaster was prepared on purpose, but who benefited from the death Titanic and why hundreds of innocent people were drowned. It was clear to the people behind the largest catastrophe of the century that not everyone would believe in a collision with an iceberg. Until now, we are offered many versions to choose from, whoever likes what.

For example, in order to receive an insurance payment, they flooded not Titanic, and the same type of passenger ship Olympic, which was operated for a long time and by 1912 was pretty dilapidated. But in 1995, Russian scientists refuted this assumption with the help of remote-controlled modules introduced inside the sunken ship. It has been proven that it is not the Olympic that lies at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

Then a version was thrown into print that Titanic sank in pursuit of the prestigious Blue Ribbon of the Atlantic award. Allegedly, the captain wanted to arrive at the port of New York a day earlier due date to receive a prize. Because of this, the ship was moving in a dangerous area at maximum speed. The authors of this version completely overlooked the fact that Titanic just technically could not reach the speed of 26 knots, at which the previous record was set.

They also talked about the mistake of the helmsman, who misunderstood the captain's order, and being in a stressful situation, put the steering wheel in the wrong direction.

Maybe Titanic was hit by a torpedo from a German submarine and this disaster actually became the first episode of the First World War. Numerous underwater studies subsequently did not find even indirect signs of a possible torpedo hit, so the fire became the most plausible version of the death of the Titanic.

On the eve of departure, a fire broke out in the hold of the liner, where coal was stored. They tried to put it out, but not successfully. Already gathered at the pier the richest people of that time, movie stars, the press, an orchestra played. The flight could not be cancelled. The owner of the ship, Bruce Ismay, decided to go to New York and try to put out the fire along the way. That is why the captain drove at full speed, fearing with all his might that the ship was about to explode and ignored the message about icebergs.

Another oddity is the owner of the company " White Star Line", which belonged Titanic multimillionaire John Pierpont Morgan, Jr., canceled his ticket 24 hours before departure and removed the famous collection of paintings from the flight, which he was going to take to New York. In addition to Morgan, another 55 first-class passengers refused to travel on the Titanic in just one day, mostly partners and acquaintances of the millionaire - John Rockefeller, Henry Frick, US Ambassador to France Alfred Vandelfield. Previously, this fact was not given almost any importance, but only recently scientists compared certain facts and came to the conclusion that the Titanic was the first major disaster aimed at establishing world domination.

Billionaires rule the world, whose goal is unlimited power. accident on Chernobyl nuclear power plant, collapse Soviet Union, attack on the Twin Towers of the World shopping center- links of one chain. The sinking of the Titanic not the first and not the last planned disaster. But why world government decided to flood Titanic. The answer is to be found in the events of the early 20th century. It was during these years that the sharp growth of industry began - the gasoline engine, the incredible development of aviation, industrialization, the use of electricity in all industries, the experiments of Nikola Tesla, and so on. World financial leaders understood scientific and technological progress, which could soon blow up the world order on planet Earth. John Rockefeller, John Pierpont Morgan, Karl Mayer Rothschild, Henry Ford, who are the world government, understood that following the rapid growth of industry, countries would begin to develop, which in their world concept were assigned the role of only raw material appendages, and then the redistribution of property on the planet would begin, and control over the processes taking place in the world will be lost.

Every year the socialists declared themselves more and more, trade unions gained strength, crowds of protesters demanded freedom and independence. And then it was decided to remind humanity who is the boss in the world.

In the mid-90s, Russian scientists dived to the Titanic and took samples of the metal, which was then analyzed by specialists from the American Institute. The results were truly stunning - by the sulfur content, it was found that it was an ordinary metal. And later studies showed that the metal was not just the same as on other ships, it was of much worse quality, and in icy water it generally turned into a very fragile material. In the autumn of 1993, an event occurred that put an end to the study of the causes of death Titanic. At the New York conference American specialists in the field of shipbuilding, the results of an independent analysis of the causes of the disaster were announced. Experts say they don't understand why such poor quality steel was used for the hull of the world's most expensive ship. V cold water the hull of the Titanic cracked at the first impact on a minor obstacle, while quality steel it only deforms.

Experts believed that in this way the owners of the shipbuilding company were trying to save money, but it never occurred to anyone to ask why the billionaire owners of the ship cut costs, endangering their own safety. And everything is quite logical, it was a real diversion. Fragile metal, cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean and a dangerous route. It only remained to wait for the SOS signal from the crashed Titanic. During the investigation of the circumstances of the disaster, the US Judicial Commission proved that the northern route that the Titanic was on was chosen by order of Bruce Ismay. He was on board the ship, but was one of the first to be evacuated and safely waited for the arrival. R.M.S. Carpathia", which also belonged to the company" White Star Line” and was specially located nearby to save wealthy passengers. But " R.M.S. Carpathia"an order was given, is not too close, because the disaster was supposed to be a frightening action for the whole world.

Now we can say with certainty sinking of the titanic it was an elaborate propaganda move. Millions of people around the world were shocked by the fate of third-class passengers buried alive, they remained immured in their cabins.

In the eyes of the world government, third-class passengers are you and me - Russia, China, Ukraine and the Middle East, and in December 2012 they are preparing a new act of intimidation for us, but which one. It remains only to wait, and not for long.

Watch National Geographic's reconstruction of the sinking of the Titanic

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 was the century of technological 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" caught 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 an 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, its own electrical grid, a garden, a hospital, shops - all this was placed on the ship. Luxurious halls, exquisite 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. V total 2208 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, there appeared outward difference, 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. "Olympic" made redecorating, rebuilt the deck and pasted on 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 officer, William Murdoch, who ordered to turn to the left and turn on the reverse gear. The right decision in such a situation it would be to go straight and wrinkle the 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 people who died. 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.

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.

The entire power plant 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, gilding, stained glass, silk and others. Cabins and salons of the third class were designed as simply as possible: steel walls were painted in White color 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 experts in the study of the reasons for the sinking of the ship Robin Gardiner and Dan Van Der Watt, published in the book "The Mystery of the Titanic". 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 from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, where the Titanic lies, enough a large number of objects, but nothing was found that would carry the name "Titanic". This theory was refuted after parts were raised to the surface, on which the Titanic's tail (building) number was stamped - 401. The Olympic had a tail number of 400. In addition, the Titanic's minted tail number was discovered and on the propeller of a sunken ship. And even despite this, the conspiracy theory still has a number of followers.

German attack

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

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

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

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

Supporters of the theory of the German attack claim, however, that people in the boats heard a terrible roar just before the Titanic sank - well, that was two and a half hours later, when only the stern lifted 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.

Curse

Mystical version: the curse of the pharaohs. It is known for certain that one of the historians, Lord Canterville, transported on the Titanic to wooden box well-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. This version is supported by well-known cases of mysterious deaths 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 lingered in the port, the ill-fated encounter with the iceberg would not have happened.

This time. It should also be mentioned that the radio operators who received the message from the 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. Maybe 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, let's 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 is not clear why they should 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, was waiting out the danger of ice. A few hours ago, he notified neighboring ships that he was locked in ice and had 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 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.