100 years ago, on the night of April 15, 1912, after a collision with an iceberg in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, the Titanic sank with more than 2,200 people on board.
"Titanic" (Titanic) - the largest passenger ship of the early XX century, the second of three twin steamers produced by the British company "White Star Line" (White Star Line).
The length of the Titanic was 260 meters, width - 28 meters, displacement - 52 thousand tons, height from the waterline to the boat deck - 19 meters, distance from the keel to the top of the pipe - 55 meters, top speed - 23 knots. Journalists compared it in length with three city blocks, and in height with an 11-story building.
The Titanic had eight steel decks located one above the other at a distance of 2.5-3.2 meters. To ensure safety, the ship had a double bottom, and its hull was separated by 16 watertight compartments. Watertight bulkheads rose from the second bottom to the deck. The chief designer of the ship, Thomas Andrews, stated that even if four of the 16 compartments were filled with water, the liner would be able to continue its journey.
The interiors of the cabins on decks B and C were made in 11 styles. Third class passengers on decks E and F were separated from first and second class by gates located in different parts of the ship.
Prior to the release of the Titanic on its first and last voyage, it was emphasized that 10 millionaires would be on board the ship on its first voyage, and hundreds of millions of dollars worth of gold and jewelry would be in its safes. American industrialist, heir to mining magnate Benjamin Guggenheim, millionaire with a young wife, assistant to US Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft, Major Archibald Willingham Butt, US Congressman Isidor Strauss, actress Dorothy Gibson, wealthy social activist Margaret Brown, British fashion designer Lucy Christiane Duff Gordon and many other famous and wealthy people of that time.
On April 10, 1912, at noon, the Titanic set off on its only journey from Southampton (UK) to New York (USA) with stops in Cherbourg (France) and Queenstown (Ireland).
During the four days of the journey the weather was clear and the sea calm.
On April 14, 1912, on the fifth day of the journey, several ships sent messages about icebergs in the area of the ship's route. For most of the day, the radio was broken, and many messages were not noticed by radio operators, and the captain did not pay due attention to others.
By evening, the temperature began to drop, reaching zero Celsius by 22:00.
At 23:00, a message was received from the Californian about the presence of ice, but the radio operator of the Titanic cut off the radio traffic before the Californian had time to report the coordinates of the area: the telegraph operator was busy sending personal messages to passengers.
At 23:39, two lookouts noticed an iceberg in front of the liner and reported this by telephone to the bridge. The most senior of the officers, William Murdoch, gave the command to the helmsman: "Left rudder."
At 23:40 "Titanic" in the underwater part of the ship. Of the 16 watertight compartments of the ship, six were cut through.
At 00:00 on April 15, the designer of the Titanic, Thomas Andrews, was called to the captain's bridge in order to assess the severity of the damage. After reporting on the incident and inspecting the ship, Andrews informed everyone present that the liner would inevitably sink.
The ship began to feel a roll on the bow. Captain Smith ordered the lifeboats to be uncovered and the crew and passengers called for evacuation.
By order of the captain, the radio operators began to send out distress signals, which they transmitted for two hours, until the captain released the telegraph operators from duty a few minutes before the sinking of the ship.
Distress signals, but they were too far from the Titanic.
At 00:25, the coordinates of the Titanic were taken by the ship Carpathia, which was 58 nautical miles from the wreck, which was 93 kilometers. ordered to immediately go to the disaster site of the Titanic. Rushing to the rescue, the ship was able to reach a record speed of 17.5 knots - with the maximum possible speed for a vessel of 14 knots. To do this, Rostron ordered to turn off all appliances that consume electricity and heating.
At 01:30, the operator of the Titanic telegraphed: "We are in small boats." By order of Captain Smith, his assistant, Charles Lightoller, who led the rescue of people on the port side of the liner, put only women and children into the boats. The men, according to the captain, were to remain on deck until all the women had boarded the boats. First mate William Murdoch on the starboard side to the men, if there were no women and children in the line of passengers gathering on deck.
Around 02:15, the Titanic's bow dropped sharply, the ship moved forward significantly, and a huge wave swept across the decks, which washed many passengers overboard.
Around 02:20, the Titanic sank.
Around 04:00 am, about three and a half hours after receiving the distress signal, the Carpathia arrived at the wreck of the Titanic. The ship took on board 712 passengers and crew members of the Titanic, after which it arrived safely in New York. Among those rescued were 189 crew members, 129 male passengers and 394 women and children.
The death toll, according to various sources, ranged from 1400 to 1517 people. According to official figures, after the disaster, 60% of passengers are in first class cabins, 44% in second class cabins, and 25% in third class.
The last surviving passenger of the Titanic, who traveled on board the liner at the age of nine weeks, died on May 31, 2009 at the age of 97. The ashes of the woman were scattered over the sea from the pier in the port of Southampton, from where the Titanic set off on its last voyage in 1912.
The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources
On April 10, 1912, the Titanic liner set off from Southampton Port on its first and last voyage, which collided with an iceberg 4 days later. We know about the tragedy that claimed the lives of almost 1496 people largely thanks to the film, but let's get acquainted with the real stories of the passengers of the Titanic.
The real cream of society gathered on the passenger deck of the Titanic: millionaires, actors and writers. Not everyone could afford to buy a class I ticket - the price was $60,000 at current prices.
3rd class passengers bought tickets for only $35 ($650 these days), so they were not allowed to go above the third deck. On the fateful night, the division into classes turned out to be more tangible than ever...
One of the first to jump into a lifeboat was Bruce Ismay, CEO of the White Star Line company, which owned the Titanic. The boat, designed for 40 people, sailed from the side with only twelve.
After the disaster, Ismay was accused of boarding a lifeboat, avoiding women and children, and of instructing the captain of the Titanic to increase speed, which led to the tragedy. The court acquitted him.
William Ernest Carter boarded the Titanic at Southampton with his wife, Lucy, and their two children, Lucy and William, and two dogs.
On the night of the disaster, he was at a party in the restaurant of the first class ship, and after the collision, together with his comrades, he went on deck, where the boats were already being prepared. First, William put his daughter in boat number 4, but when it was his son's turn, they were in trouble.
Right in front of them, 13-year-old John Rison boarded the boat, after which the boarding officer ordered that teenage boys not be taken on board. Lucy Carter resourcefully threw her hat on her 11-year-old son and sat down with him.
When the boarding process was completed and the boat began to descend into the water, Carter himself quickly got into it, along with another passenger. It turned out to be the already mentioned Bruce Ismay.
Roberta Mahoney, 21, worked as a servant to the countess and sailed on the Titanic with her mistress in first class.
On board, she met a brave young steward from the ship's crew, and soon the young people fell in love with each other. When the Titanic began to sink, the steward rushed to Roberta's cabin, brought her to the boat deck and put her in the boat, giving her his life jacket.
He himself died, like many other crew members, and Robert was picked up by the Carpathia ship, on which she sailed to New York. Only there, in her coat pocket, did she find a badge with a star, which, at the moment of parting, the steward put in her pocket as a memory of himself.
Emily Richards sailed along with her two young sons, mother, brother and sister to her husband. At the time of the disaster, the woman was sleeping in the cabin with her children. They were awakened by the screams of their mother, who ran into the cabin after the collision.
The Richardses were miraculously able to climb through the window into the descending lifeboat No. 4. When the Titanic completely sank, the passengers of her boat managed to pull seven more people out of the icy water, two of whom, unfortunately, soon died of frostbite.
The famous American businessman Isidor Strauss and his wife Ida traveled in first class. The Strauss have been married for 40 years and have never parted.
When the ship's officer invited the family to board the boat, Isidore refused, deciding to give way to women and children, but Ida also followed him.
Instead of themselves, the Strauss put their maid in the boat. Isidore's body was identified by a wedding ring, Ida's body was not found.
Two orchestras played on the Titanic: a quintet led by 33-year-old British violinist Wallace Hartley and an additional trio of musicians who were hired to give Café Parisien a continental touch.
Usually, the two members of the Titanic orchestra worked in different parts of the liner and at different times, but on the night of the ship's death, all of them united into one orchestra.
One of the rescued passengers of the Titanic wrote later: “Many heroic deeds were committed that night, but none of them could compare with the feat of these few musicians, playing hour after hour, although the ship sank deeper and deeper, and the sea to the place where they stood. The music they played gave them the right to be included in the list of heroes of eternal glory."
Hartley's body was found two weeks after the sinking of the Titanic and sent to England. A violin was tied to his chest - a gift from the bride. Among the other members of the orchestra, there were no survivors ...
Four-year-old Michel and two-year-old Edmond traveled with their father, who died in the crash, and were considered "orphans of the Titanic" until their mother was found in France.
Michel died in 2001, he was the last male survivor on the Titanic.
Winnie Coates was on her way to New York with her two children. On the night of the disaster, she woke up from a strange noise, but decided to wait for the orders of the crew members. Her patience snapped, she rushed about the endless corridors of the ship for a long time, getting lost.
Suddenly met by a member of the crew directed her to the boats. She stumbled on a broken closed gate, but just at that moment another officer appeared, who saved Winnie and her children by giving them his life jacket.
As a result, Vinnie ended up on the deck, where she was boarding boat No. 2, on which, literally by a miracle, she managed to dive ..
Seven-year-old Eva Hart escaped the sinking Titanic with her mother, but her father died in the crash.
Ellen Walker believes she was conceived on the Titanic before it hit the iceberg. “It means a lot to me,” she admitted in an interview.
Her parents were 39-year-old Samuel Morley, the owner of a jewelry store in England, and 19-year-old Kate Phillips, one of his employees, fled to America from the man's first wife, seeking to start a new life.
Kate got into a lifeboat, Samuel jumped into the water after her, but did not know how to swim and drowned. "Mom spent 8 hours in a lifeboat," Helen said. "She was wearing only a nightgown, but one of the sailors gave her his jumper."
Violet Constance Jessop. Until the last moment, the stewardess did not want to be hired on the Titanic, but her friends convinced her because they thought it would be a "wonderful experience."
Prior to that, on October 20, 1910, Violet became a stewardess of the transatlantic liner Olympic, which a year later collided with the cruiser due to unsuccessful maneuvering, but the girl managed to escape.
And from the Titanic, Violet escaped on a boat. During the First World War, the girl went to work as a nurse, and in 1916 she got on board the Britannic, which ... also went to the bottom! Two boats with a crew were pulled under the propeller of a sinking ship. 21 people died.
Among them could be Violet, who was sailing in one of the broken boats, but again luck was on her side: she managed to jump out of the boat and survived.
Fireman Arthur John Priest also survived a shipwreck not only on the Titanic, but also on the Olympic and Britannic (by the way, all three ships were the brainchild of the same company). Priest has 5 shipwrecks on his account.
On April 21, 1912, the New York Times published the story of Edward and Ethel Bean, who were on the Titanic in second class. After the crash, Edward helped his wife into the boat. But when the boat had already sailed, he saw that it was half empty, and threw himself into the water. Ethel dragged her husband into the boat.
Among the passengers of the Titanic was the famous tennis player Carl Behr and his lover Helen Newsom. After the disaster, the athlete ran to the cabin and brought the women to the boat deck.
The lovers were ready to say goodbye forever when the head of the White Star Line, Bruce Ismay, personally offered Beer a place on the boat. A year later, Karl and Helen got married, and later became the parents of three children.
Edward John Smith is the captain of the Titanic, who was very popular with both crew and passengers. At 2:13 am, just 10 minutes before the ship was completely submerged, Smith returned to the captain's bridge, where he decided to meet his death.
Second mate Charles Herbert Lightoller was one of the last to jump off the ship, narrowly avoiding being sucked into the ventilation shaft. He swam to the collapsible boat B, which was floating upside down: the Titanic's pipe that broke off and fell into the sea next to him drove the boat away from the sinking ship and allowed it to stay afloat.
American businessman Benjamin Guggenheim helped women and children into lifeboats during the crash. When asked to save himself, he replied: "We are dressed in our best clothes and are ready to die like gentlemen."
Benjamin died at the age of 46, his body was not found.
Thomas Andrews - first class passenger, Irish businessman and shipbuilder, was the designer of the Titanic ...
During the evacuation, Thomas helped the passengers into the boats. He was last seen in the first class smoking room near the fireplace, looking at a painting of Port Plymouth. His body was never found after the crash.
John Jacob and Madeleine Astor, the millionaire science fiction writer, were traveling first class with their young wife. Madeleine escaped on lifeboat number 4. The body of John Jacob was raised from the depths of the ocean 22 days after his death.
Colonel Archibald Gracie IV is an American writer and amateur historian who survived the sinking of the Titanic. Returning to New York, Gracie immediately began writing a book about his voyage.
It was she who became a real encyclopedia for historians and researchers of the disaster, thanks to the large number of names of stowaways and 1st class passengers who remained on the Titanic contained in it. Gracie's health was badly damaged by hypothermia and injuries, and he died in late 1912.
Margaret (Molly) Brown is an American socialite, philanthropist, and activist. Survived. When panic arose on the Titanic, Molly put people into lifeboats, but she herself refused to sit there.
"If the worst happens, I'll swim out," she said, until eventually someone pushed her into the number 6 lifeboat that made her famous.
After Molly organized the Titanic Survivors Relief Fund.
Millvina Dean was the last of the surviving passengers of the Titanic: she died on May 31, 2009 at the age of 97 in a nursing home in Ashurst, Hampshire, on the 98th anniversary of the liner's launch. .
Her ashes were scattered on October 24, 2009 in the port of Southampton, from where the Titanic began its first and last voyage. At the time of the death of the liner, she was two and a half months old.
a ”Frederick Fleet noticed an iceberg right on the course about 650 m from the liner. Striking the bell three times, he reported to the bridge. The first assistant commanded the helmsman: "Left aboard!" - and moved the handles of the machine telegraphs to the "Full back" position. A little later, so that the liner did not hit the iceberg with the stern, he commanded: “Right on board!”. However, the Titanic was too large for a quick maneuver, and continued to move by inertia for another 25-30 seconds, until her nose began to slowly deviate to the left.
At 23:40, the Titanic tangentially collided with an iceberg. On the upper decks, people felt a slight push and a slight trembling of the hull; on the lower decks, the blow was more noticeable. As a result of the collision, six holes were formed in the starboard plating with a total length of about 90 meters. At 00:05, Captain Smith ordered the crew to prepare the lifeboats for launch, then went into the radio room and ordered the radio operators to broadcast a distress signal.
Around 0:20 children and women were put into the boats. At 1:20 the water began to flood the forecastle. At this time, the first signs of panic appeared. The evacuation went faster. After 1:30 a.m., panic broke out on board. At about 2:00 the last boat was lowered, at 2:05 the water began to flood the boat deck and the captain's bridge. The remaining 1,500 people on board rushed towards the stern. The trim began to grow before our eyes, at 2:15 the first chimney collapsed. At 2:16 the power went out. At 02:18, with a bow trim of about 23°, the liner broke. The bow, falling off, immediately went to the bottom, and the stern filled with water and sank two minutes later.
At 2:20, the Titanic completely disappeared under the water. Hundreds of people swam to the surface, but almost all of them died from hypothermia. On two collapsible boats that did not have time to launch from the liner, about 45 people were saved. Eight more were rescued by two boats returning to the crash site (No. 4 and No. 14). An hour and a half after the Titanic was completely submerged, the steamer Carpathia arrived at the disaster site and picked up 712 survivors of the crash.
Reasons for the crash
After the tragedy, commissions were held to investigate the causes of this incident, and, according to official documents, the collision with the iceberg was the cause, and not the presence of defects in the ship's structure. The commission based its conclusion on how the ship sank. As noted by some survivors, the ship went to the bottom as a whole, and not in parts.
As the commission concluded, all the blame for the tragic catastrophe was placed on the captain of the ship. In 1985, oceanographer Robert Ballard, who had been searching for a sunken ship for many years, was lucky. It was this happy event that helped shed light on the causes of the disaster. Scientists have determined that the Titanic broke in half on the surface of the ocean before it sank. This fact again drew media attention to the reasons for the sinking of the Titanic. New hypotheses arose, and one of the assumptions was based on the fact that low-grade steel was used in the construction of the ship, since it is a well-known fact that the Titanic was built on a tight schedule.
As a result of lengthy studies of the wreckage raised from the bottom, experts came to the conclusion that the cause of the disaster was low-quality rivets - the most important metal pins that tied together the steel plates of the ship's hull. Also, the studied wreckage showed that there were miscalculations in the design of the ship, and this is evidenced by the nature of the sinking of the ship. It was finally established that the stern of the ship did not rise high into the air, as previously believed, and the ship broke into pieces and sank. This indicates clear miscalculations in the design of the ship. However, after the disaster, this data was hidden. And only with the help of modern technology it was found that it was these circumstances that led to one of the most terrible tragedies of mankind.
The Titanic is the largest and most luxurious liner of its time. He was not embarrassed to be called unsinkable, and he really seemed like that. She set out on her maiden voyage at noon on the tenth of April from the English port of Southampton. The final destination was to be the American city of New York. But the Titanic, as you know, did not reach the shores of the United States ...
Collision of the Titanic with an iceberg
On April 14, 1912, the liner at full steam (at a speed of 22.5 knots, it was almost the maximum speed) was rushing across the North Atlantic. Nothing foreshadowed the tragedy, there was complete calm. An orchestra was playing on the upper deck in a restaurant with a beautiful interior. Rich people from the first class drank champagne, walked in the open air and enjoyed the wonderful weather.
Late in the evening on April 14, at 23:39, two lookouts (as the sailors who observe the situation from a comfortable position during the voyage are officially called) noticed an iceberg right on the course and reported this by phone to the bridge. Officer William Murdoch immediately commanded "Left rudder." Thus he tried to prevent a collision.
But the multi-ton ship could not turn instantly, although in this case every second was worth its weight in gold - a block of ice was getting closer. And only after about half a minute the nose of the Titanic began to tilt to the left. Ultimately, the visible part of the iceberg "missed" the ship without hitting the starboard side.
The Titanic managed to turn two points, which was enough to prevent a head-on collision, but the liner still could not completely get away from the ice block - it ran into its hidden part, which was under water. This contact lasted approximately nine seconds. As a result, six holes were formed - all of them were below the waterline.
Contrary to popular misconception, the iceberg did not "cut" the bottom of the liner. Everything was a little different: from the strong pressure, the rivets on the skin burst, the steel sheets arched and gaps appeared between them. Through them, water began to penetrate into the compartments. And the penetration rate, of course, was huge - more than seven tons per second.
The iceberg bent the ship's hull, resulting in a leak
Further chronology of the tragedy
Most of the passengers on the upper deck did not feel any threat at first. The stewards, who served appetizers in the restaurant, noted only a slight clinking of spoons and forks on the tables. Some of the passengers felt a slight jolt and rattle, which ended quickly. Some people thought that the propeller blade just fell off the ship.
On the lower decks, the first consequences were more tangible: the local passengers heard an unpleasant rattle and rumble.
Exactly at midnight, Thomas Andrews, the man who designed the Titanic, came to the bridge. He had to assess the nature and severity of the resulting damage. After reporting on the incident and inspecting the ship, Andrews told everyone in the audience that the Titanic would definitely sink.
Soon the ship began to list noticeably. The 62-year-old captain of the ship, Edward Smith, gave the order to prepare the boats and start calling passengers for evacuation.
And the radio operators, in turn, were ordered to send SOS signals to all nearby ships. They did this for the next two hours, and only a few minutes before the complete sinking, Smith freed the telegraphers from work.
Distress signals were received by several ships, but almost all of them were too far from the Titanic. At 00:25 a message about the tragedy on the Titanic was received by the Carpathia ship. It was located at a distance of 93 kilometers from the crash site. Immediately, the captain of the Carpathia, Arthur Rostron, sent his ship to the area. The Carpathia, hurrying to help people, managed to reach a record speed of 17.5 knots that night - for this, all electrical appliances and heating were turned off on the ship.
There was another ship that was even closer to the Titanic than the Carpathia - only 10 nautical miles (this is equal to 18.5 kilometers). Theoretically, he could help. We are talking about the ship "Californian". The Californian was surrounded by ice, and therefore its captain decided to stop the ship - it was planned to start moving again only the next morning.
At 11:30 p.m., Titanic radio operator Phillips and Californian radio operator Evans were talking to each other. Moreover, Phillips at the very end of this dialogue rather rudely asked Evans not to clog the air, since at that moment he was transmitting a signal to Cape Race (this is a cape on the island of Newfoundland). After that, Evans simply turned off the power in the radio room and went to sleep. And 10 minutes later, the Titanic collided with an iceberg. Some time later, the Titanic sent the first distress call, but the Californian could no longer receive it.
On top of that, there were no red emergency flares on the Titanic. Confidence in the unsinkability of the ship was so high that no one bothered to take the red rockets with them. Then it was decided to fire volleys with ordinary whites. The calculation was that the crew of a nearby ship would guess that the Titanic was in trouble. The Californian officers did see white rockets, but they thought it was just some kind of festive fireworks. A fantastic series of misunderstandings!
At half past one in the night, passengers began to be seated in boats. It immediately became clear that there were not enough places for everyone. In total, there were twenty boats on board and their total capacity was 1178 people.
By order of Captain Smith, his assistant Charles Lightoller, who supervised the evacuation process on the port side of the liner, only children and women were taken into the boats. Men, according to the captain, were obliged to be on the ship to the last. But William Murdoch, another assistant to Smith, who led the evacuation on the starboard side, gave places in the boats and men when there were no women and children in the line of those gathered.
At about 02:15, the nose of the liner suddenly dropped down and the rest of the ship moved forward. A large cold wave swept across the decks, many people were simply blown overboard.
Around 02:20, the Titanic completely disappeared under the ocean water. The liner was so huge that it took 160 minutes to sink.
After the stern was completely submerged, hundreds of people swam to the surface. They swam in icy water among all sorts of things from the ship: wooden beams, pieces of furniture, doors, etc. Many tried to use all this as a watercraft.
The temperature of the ocean water that night was −2°C (seawater does not freeze at this temperature due to the concentration of salt in it). A person here died from severe hypothermia on average within half an hour. And many of those moving away from the sunken ship on boats heard the heartbreaking cries of those who did not have enough space in the boats ...
At about 04:00, the Carpathia appeared in the area of the sinking Titanic. This ship took 712 people on board, after which it headed for New York. Among the rescued, 394 people are women and children, 129 people are men, and another 189 people are members of the ship's crew.
The number of those who died in this shipwreck was, according to various sources, from 1400 to 1517 people (it is difficult to give an exact figure, because there were many stowaways on the Titanic). Thus, 60% of passengers from first class cabins managed to escape, 44% from second class cabins, 25% from those who bought third class tickets.
Characteristics of the Titanic
When commissioned, the Titanic was 269 meters long and about 30 meters wide. The height of the liner was also impressive: from the waterline to the uppermost boat deck, it was 18.5 meters here (and if you count from the keel to the top of the first tube , it would have turned out to be 53 meters in general). The draft of this liner was 10.5 meters, and the displacement was 52,310 tons.
"Titanic" in 1912 in the port of Belfast (this is where it was built)
The liner was driven by several four-cylinder steam engines and a steam turbine. At the same time, steam for them, as well as for all kinds of auxiliary mechanisms, was produced in 29 boilers. It is worth noting specifically that none of the ship's thirty mechanics survived. They remained in the engine room and supported the operation of the steam units to the last.
The role of movers on the Titanic was performed by three propellers. The diameter of the central screw was 5.2 meters, it had four blades. The screws located along the edges had a larger diameter - 7.2 meters, but they had three blades. Propellers with three blades could make up to 80 revolutions per minute, and the central one - up to 180 revolutions per minute.
Above the upper deck, there were also four pipes, each 19 meters high. The Titanic had a double bottom and had sixteen airtight compartments. They were separated by watertight bulkheads. According to calculations, the ship would have remained afloat even if any two compartments or four consecutive compartments at the bow or stern were flooded. But on the night of the tragedy, the iceberg damaged five compartments - one more than allowed.
Composition of the crew and passengers
It is known that in the tragic voyage in the ship's crew there were many people who did not undergo special training: stewards, stokers, stitchers (the so-called people whose task was to bring coal to the fireboxes and throw ash overboard), coca. There were very few qualified sailors - only 39 sailors and seven officers, assistants to the captain. Moreover, some of the sailors did not even have time to get to know the Titanic's device well, as they were accepted into the service just a few days before sailing.
It is worth talking a little about the passengers. The passenger composition was extremely diverse - from mendicant emigrants from Sweden, Italy, Ireland, sailing for a better life in the New World, to hereditary millionaires such as John Jacob Astor IV and Benjamin Guggenheim (both died).
Benjamin Guggenheim put on his best tailcoat and began to drink whiskey in the hall - this is how he spent the last hours of his life
In accordance with the cost of the purchased ticket, there was a division into three classes. For those who swam in the first class, a swimming pool, a gym for physical education, a bathhouse, a squash court, an electric bath (a kind of "ancestor" of a solarium) and a special section for pets were provided. There was also a restaurant, elegant dining rooms, and smoking rooms.
By the way, the service in the third class was also worthy, better than on some other transatlantic steamers of that time. The cabins were bright and comfortable, they were not cold and clean enough. The dining room served not too refined, but quite acceptable dishes, there were special decks for walking.
The premises and spaces of the ship were strictly divided according to classes. And passengers, say, third class were forbidden to be on the deck of the first class.
Titanic in books and films
The terrible events that happened on the Titanic in April 1912 served as the basis for many literary works, paintings, songs and films.
The first book about the Titanic was written, paradoxically, long before it sank. The little-known American writer Morgan Robertson published the story "Futility, or the Death of the Titan" back in 1898. It described the allegedly unsinkable ship "Titan", which crashed on an April night, colliding with a certain iceberg. There were not enough boats on the Titan, and so many of the passengers died.
The story did not sell well at first, but after the incident of 1912, interest in the book increased sharply - there were quite a few coincidences between the events described in the story and the real wreck of the Titanic. And the key technical characteristics of the fictional Titan were similar to those of the real Titanic - a truly amazing fact!
Morgan Robertson and his story, where the death of the Titanic was predicted to some extent
And the first feature film about the tragedy was released in May of the same 1912 - it was called "The Escaped from the Titanic". It was 10 minutes long, silent and black and white. The main role here was played by Dorothy Gibson, an actress who herself found herself on the Titanic that ill-fated night and found her salvation in boat number seven.
In 1953, director Jean Negulesco turned to the theme of the tragic journey of the Titanic. According to the plot, a husband, wife and their two children sort things out on the Titanic. And everything seems to be getting better, but then the liner stumbles upon an iceberg and begins to go to the bottom. The family has to endure separation, the wife and daughter sail away on a boat, the son and father remain on the sinking ship. The film, by the way, received one "Oscar" in the same 1953.
But the most famous film about the sinking of the liner is James Cameron's Titanic, which appeared in theaters (and then on DVD) in 1997. He won as many as eleven Oscars and for a long time was considered the highest grossing film in general in history.
Authoritative experts on the sinking of the Titanic (for example, historian Don Lynch and marine painter Ken Marshall) took part in preparing the script and creating the scenery for Cameron's film. Collaboration with respected experts made it possible to accurately convey some episodes of the crash. Cameron's "Titanic" caused a new wave of interest in the history of the liner. In particular, after the release of the film, the demand for books and exhibitions related to this topic increased.
Discovery of the Titanic at the bottom of the Atlantic
The legendary ship lay at the bottom for 73 years before it was discovered. More specifically, it was found in 1985 by a group of divers led by oceanographer Robert Ballard. As a result, it turned out that under the enormous pressure of the water, the Titanic (the depth here was about 4000 meters) fell apart into three parts. The wreckage of the liner was scattered over an area with a radius of 1.6 kilometers. Ballard and his associates first of all found the bow of the vessel, which, apparently, due to its large mass, had sunk heavily into the ground. Food was found 800 meters away. Nearby were seen and the remains of the middle part.
Between the large elements of the liner at the bottom, one could also see small items testifying to that era: a set of copper cutlery, unopened wine bottles, coffee cups, door handles, candelabra and ceramic baby dolls...
Later, several expeditions to the remains of the Titanic were conducted by RMS Titanic, which legally had the rights to fragments of the liner and other related artifacts. During these expeditions, more than 6,000 items were raised from the bottom. They were subsequently valued at $110 million. These items were exhibited in thematic expositions or sold at auctions.
But why wasn't the Titanic fully lifted up? Alas, this is not possible. Experts have found that any attempt to raise the hull of the liner will lead to its destruction, and therefore it is likely to remain at the bottom forever.
Documentary "Titanic": the death of a dream"
The Titanic (RMS Titanic) is a British steamer of the White Star Line, the second of three Olympic-class twin steamers. The largest passenger liner in the world at the time of its construction. During the first voyage on April 14, 1912, she collided with an iceberg and sank after 2 hours and 40 minutes. There were 1,316 passengers and 908 crew members on board, for a total of 2,224 people. Of these, 711 people were saved, 1513 died. The Titanic disaster became legendary, several feature films were shot based on its plot.
The British passenger liner Titanic left Southampton, England, on her maiden voyage on April 10, 1912. The Titanic visited Cherbourg, France and Queenstown, Ireland before heading west towards New York. Four days later, it hit an iceberg at 11:40 pm, 375 miles south of Newfoundland. Around 2:20 am, the Titanic broke up and sank. More than a thousand people were overboard.
The luxury liner Titanic, pictured here from 1912, after it sailed from Queenstown in New York for its ill-fated final voyage. 
Workers go to the Harland and Wolf shipyards in Belfast, where the Titanic was built between 1909 and 1911. He is visible in the background. 
Dining on the Titanic. The ship has been designed to be the last word in comfort and luxury, with an onboard gym, swimming pool, library, upscale restaurants and luxurious cabins. 
Dining room second class on the Titanic. 1912 
April 10, 1912 Titanic leaves Southampton, England 
Captain Edward John Smith, captain of the Titanic. He commanded the largest ship during the first voyage. 
First Mate William McMaster Murdoch, who is considered a hero in his hometown of Dalbeattie, Scotland but has been portrayed as a coward and murderer in several Titanic films. 
The iceberg that sank the Titanic on April 14-15, 1912. The picture was taken aboard the Western Cable Union ship, Mackay Bennett, under the command of Capt. DeCarteret. 
Passengers and some crew members were evacuated to lifeboats, many of which were only partially filled. 
Seven hundred and twelve survivors were brought from lifeboats aboard the RMS Carpathia. 
Members of the press interview Titanic survivors from the salvage ship, Carpathia, April 17, 1912. 
Eva Hart was seven years old in this photograph, taken in 1912, with her father, Benjamin, and mother, Esther. Eva and her mother survived the sinking of the British liner Titanic on April 14, 1912 off Newfoundland, but her father died in the crash. 
People stand on the street waiting for the arrival of Carpathia, where survivors from the Titanic will arrive. 
A huge crowd gathered in front of Star Line's offices on Lower Broadway in New York to get the latest news about the sinking of the luxury liner Titanic on April 14, 1912. 
The New York Times editorial at the time of the sinking of the Titanic, April 15, 1912 
After the sinking of the Titanic, crowds read bulletins in front of a building in New York 
Two messages were sent from America to Lloyds insurers in London in the mistaken belief that other ships, including the Virginia, came to the rescue when the Titanic sank. 
Photos of survivors 
This vintage photo shows the Titanic shortly before leaving for its maiden voyage in 1912. 
Passenger ticket from the Titanic. 
A form of telegram sent from Carpathia announcing a successful rescue. 
Breakfast menu on the Titanic. It bears the signatures of the survivors. 
The nose of the Titanic was filmed in 1999. 
Titanic screw 
The remains of the Titanic 
Items found from the Titanic. 
Wreck of the Titanic 
Top view of the legendary ship 
Side view 
Holes on the Titanic 
Two Titanic engines 
