Forgotten facts about the sinking of the Titanic (16 photos)

The tragedy of the Titanic, which claimed many hundreds of human lives, became one of the biggest disasters of the twentieth century. Numerous books and articles have been written about the Titanic, films have been made, one of which, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, became the main blockbuster of the 1990s. However, despite the abundance of materials, we do not know everything about the Titanic and its tragic fate.

The Titanic's lifeboats could only carry half of its passengers.

Many researchers say that if the Titanic's lifeboats had been fully loaded, many casualties could have been avoided. Alas, the fact is that the lack of space in the boats was initially built into the design of the ship. There were only 1,178 seats in the 20 boats on board, and the number of passengers was 2,224 people. That is, about half of them were, one way or another, doomed.

The helmsman did not have 30 seconds

The story of the sinking of the Titanic is written literally in seconds. The observer reported the appearance of an iceberg in front of the ship to the ship's officers 37 seconds before the collision. If the command to change course had come immediately, the tragedy would not have happened. But first mate William Murdoch thought for about 30 seconds before giving the command - and those half a minute became fatal.

The false pipe caused the death of many passengers

Preparing the Titanic for sailing, the designers tried their best to show off everyone's eyes. The ship, where a first class ticket cost $4,350 (about $70,000 in today's money), must have looked impressive! Therefore, in addition to three working pipes, another one was placed on the deck - a fake one. The ship with four funnels looked like a real giant of the seas! This show turned into tragedy during the accident: when the Titanic's hull began to break apart, a falling false pipe killed several people.

The orchestra playing on the deck was not an invention of the filmmakers!

The string quartet, which delighted the ears of the Titanic's passengers in the dining rooms, actually played on deck to the last. Not being members of the crew, the musicians, led by quartet leader Wallace Hartley, had every right to board the boats. But they chose to continue playing, supporting people until the Titanic sank. None of the quartet survived.

The captain of the Titanic canceled training exercises for passengers

According to the plan, soon after the Titanic went to sea, passengers were to undergo disaster drills, during which they were to learn how to quickly and safely take their places in lifeboats. However, Captain Edward Smith decided that the respectable first class passengers on the unsinkable Titanic should not be annoyed by such nonsense. If the exercise had taken place, it could have saved many lives by avoiding deadly crushes at lifeboats and promoting more efficient use of them.

The Titanic disaster was predicted 14 years earlier

The Titanic sank on April 12, 1912. And 14 years earlier, in 1898, the fantastic disaster novel by writer Morgan Roberts, “The Crash of the Titan,” was published in the United States. The novel tells the story of the sinking of the huge cruise ship Titan, which collided with an iceberg on its maiden voyage. This coincidence makes me shiver.

British newspapermen initially reported that there were no victims of the crash

The first notes about the sinking of the Titanic appeared in the British media on April 15, three days after the tragedy. Then only fragmentary information about what happened reached the mainland. British newspapermen, knowing about the fame of the Titanic as an unsinkable ship and hearing that the survivors of the disaster were picked up by the Carpathia ship, joyfully reported: The Titanic collided with an iceberg, there were no casualties! Only a few days later it became clear that less than half of the passengers of the lost ship had boarded the Carpathia, and the rest had perished in the ocean depths.

The first boat was launched only an hour after the disaster

Only an hour after the collision with the iceberg, the team managed to launch the first boat. At that time, there were less than two hours left before the ship was completely flooded. The delay was due to the fact that, as it turned out, the ship's crew was not very good at handling lifeboats. Probably, if Captain Smith had not canceled the exercise, not only the passengers, but also the crew would have acquired skills that could have saved dozens of lives.

Only 238 bodies were found

Only a small number of the bodies of those killed on the Titanic were subsequently brought to the surface. Of the 1,503 dead, only 328 were found. The search and recovery of the bodies was carried out by the crew of the Mackay-Bennett rescue ship, which went to sea with 100 coffins on board. Alas, the number of corpses found was much greater. However, 119 of them were so damaged that it was almost impossible to bring them to land. They had to be buried at sea.

A radio operator who fell asleep could have saved hundreds of lives

The Titanic disaster occurred in the dead of night, otherwise it could have cost the lives of fewer people. The ship's radio operator tried to contact the nearest radio point in order to distribute the distress signal as widely as possible. However, at 2:20 a.m. the radio operator on duty was fast asleep and did not hear cries for help. But what is much more shocking is the fact that the Californian ship passing nearby, having caught a distress signal from the Titanic, decided not to stop and follow its course, losing the chance to save dozens of human lives.

After the death, passengers of different classes faced different fates

The Titanic's passengers were forever tied to their 1st, 2nd or 3rd class seats - this time, thanks to the efforts of rescuers. They tried to preserve the identified bodies of first-class passengers at all costs: they were embalmed and placed in coffins to be sent to land. And the bodies of passengers of 2nd and, especially, 3rd class were simply wrapped in canvas in order to later bury them at sea.

The Japanese survivor was ostracized by his compatriots

The only Japanese on board the Titanic, Masabumi Hosono, fortunately, was among the survivors. But the happiness turned out to be short-lived: in his homeland he was branded a coward and even fired from his job. The logic of the selfless Japanese was simple: if only women and children were put on the Titanic, but Hosono still saved his life, does that mean he pretended to be a woman? The rumor that a Japanese survivor had escaped wearing women's clothing spread across local newspapers. And although this theory was never proven, Masabumi Hosono's life went downhill.

The Titanic's baker survived because he was drunk

33-year-old Englishman Charles Joughin, the chief baker of the Titanic, found himself in icy water after the crash. But he did not die from hypothermia, like dozens of passengers whose life left in 20 minutes - and all because he was drunk to the point of death. Despite his intoxication - or perhaps because of it - Jogin survived in the icy water from half past two in the morning until dawn, when he was picked up by a lifeboat.

The wreckage of the Titanic was found only 73 years later

Since the Titanic sank in a deep place in the open ocean, searches for it for many years yielded no results. Only in 1985, the wreckage of the ship was discovered more than 500 kilometers off the coast of the Canadian island of Newfoundland, at a depth of 3800 meters.

The passengers of the Titanic did not notice the tragedy

All the survivors of the Titanic unanimously stated: at the very moment of the collision, none of them understood what had happened. Those who were in the cabins heard only a “light rustle,” and those who went out for a walk on the deck enjoyed playing with pieces of ice that had fallen onto the ship from the killer iceberg. At least an hour and a half passed before the team raised the alarm. As it turned out later, this time was critical for saving passengers and crew.