98 years since the sinking of the Titanic (46 photos)

Yesterday was a small date. 98 years ago in 1912, one of the largest shipwrecks in the world occurred. One of the most famous ships in the world was wrecked.

During its maiden voyage, the British White Star Line, the largest passenger liner in the world at the time of its construction, the second of three Olympic-class twin steamships, the Titanic, collided with an iceberg and sank 2 hours 40 minutes later. There were 1,316 passengers and 892 crew members on board the Titanic, for a total of 2,208 people. Of these, 706 people survived, over 1,500 died. The Titanic disaster has become more than legendary... On the eve of the 98th anniversary of the disaster, we decided to make a post about the history of the Titanic with photographs of this liner.

WHAT WAS HE LIKE

The Titanic was laid down on March 31, 1909 at the shipyards of the Harland and Wolf shipbuilding company, but two years later - on May 31, 1911, and almost a year later - on April 2, 1912 - it underwent sea trials... Until the fatal The trip was less than two weeks away...

A comparative outline drawing will help you imagine the dimensions of the Titanic:

Notice how another famous modern liner, Queen Mary 2, is larger than the Titanic. And how grandiose the Titanic is in comparison with other silhouettes... If you use numbers. we can say that the height of the ship from the keel to the tops of the pipes was 53 point 4 meters.

Why the Titanic was considered unsinkable... thanks to fifteen watertight bulkheads in the hold. In theory. they created sixteen watertight compartments. with the help of many more partitions, dividing into 46 waterproof compartments. In theory, the Titanic was built so that it could remain afloat if any two of its 16 watertight compartments, any three of the first five compartments, or all of the first four compartments were flooded... But... only in theory... .

Lifeboats

One of the remarkable moments in the Titanic disaster was that the people on board were sorely short of lifeboats... It turns out that this is because, in formal accordance with the current requirements of the British Merchant Shipping Code, the ship had 20 lifeboats, which were enough for landing 1178 people, that is, for 50% of the people on board at that moment and 30% of the planned load. This was taken into account with the expectation of increasing the walking space on the deck for the ship's passengers.

Celebrities aboard the Titanic

Many celebrities of the time took part in the first and last voyage of the liner, including millionaire and major industrialist John Jacob Astor IV and his wife Madeline Astor, businessman Benjamin Guggenheim, owner of the Macy's department store Isidor Strauss and his wife Ida, eccentric millionaire Margaret Molly Brown, who received the nickname “Unsinkable” after the death of the ship, Sir Cosma Duff Gordon and his wife, fashion designer Lady Lucy Duff Gordon, popular at the beginning of the century, businessman and cricketer John Thayer, British journalist William Thomas Steed, Countess of Rotskaya, military assistant to US President Richbald Butt , film actress Dorothy Gibson and many others...

Accepting passengers on board... Who knows, maybe the same “unsinkable” Molly Brown is now in the boat!

One of the most famous photographs of the ship - the Titanic setting sail...

"

Titanic" on the way to New York... To the right of it is another giant of shipbuilding - "Oceanic"

Towing the Titanic into the ocean

"Titanic" from the coast of Ireland. The last two photos of the airliner BEFORE the crash

HOW HE DROWNED

Many works, both in cinema and in painting, are devoted to the moment of the collision of the liner with an iceberg. But we focus on the facts and give a chronology from... to...:

The path of the Titanic...

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

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

Sunday, April 14, 1912
09:00 - Caronia reports ice in the area of 42° north latitude, 49-51° west longitude.
13:42 — Baltic reports the presence of ice in the area of 41°51′ north latitude, 49°52′ west longitude.
13:45 - "America" reports ice in the area of 41°27′ north latitude, 50°8′ west longitude.
19:00 - air temperature 43° Fahrenheit (6 ° C).
7:30 p.m. - Temperature 39° Fahrenheit (3.9°C).
19:30 - Californian reports ice in the area of 42°3′ north latitude, 49°9′ west longitude.
21:00 - air temperature 33° Fahrenheit (0.6 ° C).
21:30 - Second Mate Lightoller warns the ship's carpenter and those on watch in the engine room that it is necessary to monitor the fresh water system - the water in the pipelines may freeze; he tells the lookout to watch for the appearance of ice.
21:40 - "Mesaba" reports ice in the area of 42°-41°25′ north latitude, 49°-50°30′ west longitude.
22:00 - air temperature 32° Fahrenheit (0 ° C).
22:30 - Sea water temperature dropped to 31° Fahrenheit (−0.56 °C).
23:00 - The Californian warns of the presence of ice, but the Titanic's radio operator interrupts the radio exchange before the Californian manages to report the coordinates of the area.
23:40 - At a point with coordinates 41°46′ north latitude, 50°14′ west longitude (later it turned out that these coordinates were calculated incorrectly), an iceberg was spotted at a distance of about 450 meters straight ahead. Despite the maneuver, after 39 seconds the underwater part of the vessel touched down, and the hull of the vessel received numerous small holes over a length of about 100 meters. Of the ship's 16 watertight compartments, 6 were cut through (the leak in the sixth was extremely insignificant).

“There’s ice in front of us!” Flit shouted and immediately struck the bell hanging in the crow’s nest. Three strikes were a signal, meaning that some object was directly ahead. At the same time, he rushed to the telephone connecting the crow’s nest " with the bridge. Sixth Mate J.P. Moody responded almost instantly.
“Ice is straight ahead,” Flit shouted.
“Thank you,” Moody replied (his polite answer later became part of the legend).”

Monday, April 15, 1912
00:05 - the order was given to uncover the lifeboats and call the crew members and passengers to the assembly points.
00:15 - the first radiotelegraph signal for help was transmitted from the Titanic.
00:45 - the first flare is fired and the first lifeboat (No. 7) is launched.
01:15 - 3rd class passengers are allowed on deck.
01:40 - the last flare is fired.
02:05 - the last lifeboat (collapsible lifeboat D) is lowered.
02:10 - the last radiotelegraph signals were transmitted.
02:17 — the electric lights go out.
02:18 — The Titanic, rapidly sinking, breaks into three parts (this became known in 1996 after the Narjolet expedition) [source not specified 30 days].
02:20 - Titanic sank.
03:30 - the lifeboats notice flares fired from the Carpathia.
04:10 - Carpathia picked up the first boat from the Titanic (boat No. 2).
08:30 - Carpathia picked up the last (No. 12) boat from the Titanic.
08:50 - Carpathia, taking on board 704 people who escaped from the Titanic, heads for New York.

Thursday 18 April 1912
Carpathia arrives in New York

The first news about the sinking of the Titanic. By the way, in the early days the newspapers reported incorrect information about the number of victims, based on contradictory

luhaha

Dead and survivors of the disaster

Almost all the women and children from the 1st and 2nd class cabins were saved. More than half of the women and children from the 3rd class cabins died because they had difficulty finding their way up through the labyrinth of narrow corridors. Almost all the men also died. The tragedy of the Paulson family claimed the lives of Alma's mother and all her four young children, for whom father Nils waited in vain in New York.

323 men (20% of all adult men) and 331 women (75% of all adult women) survived, including Violet Jessop, Dorothy Gibson, Molly Brown, Lucy Duff Gordon and others.

In May 2006, the last American eyewitness to survive the sinking of the Titanic died at the age of 99. The Boston funeral home made the announcement. She died the day before at her home. Swedish-born Lillian Gertrud Asplund, who was five years old at the time of the disaster, lost her father and three brothers. Her mother and brother, who was three years old at the time, survived. They were third class passengers and escaped in lifeboat No. 15. Asplund was the last person to remember how the tragedy occurred, but she avoided publicity and rarely spoke about the event.

The last of the Titanic passengers, Millvina Dean, who was two and a half months old at the time of the sinking of the liner, died on May 31, 2009. Her ashes were scattered to the wind on October 24, 2009 in the port of Southampton, where the Titanic began its only voyage.

Sorry... A little "dark humor" about this wouldn't hurt either

AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA...

On September 1, 1985, an expedition led by the director of the Institute of Oceanology in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, Dr. Robert Ballard, discovered the Titanic's location at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean at a depth of 3,750 meters. Here are the first photos of the Titanic AFTER the tragedy:

I saw sharks astern
Sharks swallow saliva
Captain, all the sharks are aware,
That we will soon go down.

That, in fact, is all... Of course, one could say that Cameron is going to shoot his film in 3D - exactly for the centenary of the disaster, one could recall other works, from books to other films, but why... From the point of view of reflecting the Titanic disaster in art, I personally am more impressed by the song from Butusov. By the way, what’s funny is that nowadays tourists are offered to tickle their nerves on a voyage similar to the route of the Titanic:
“The new superliner Golden Princess, accommodating 3,800 passengers, will soon set sail for the shores of Antarctica, Vzglyad reports.

This is the largest ship in the history of Antarctic tourism. The huge cruise ship, like the infamous Titanic, has no ice protection and will sail in little-explored waters, making a voyage to Antarctica a very risky undertaking.”