Where the Titanic crashed. All versions of the sinking of the Titanic. Was the ship sunk by fire? The sinking of the Titanic scientific facts video

On April 10, 1912, the Titanic liner set off from the port of Southampton for its first and last voyages, which after 4 days collided with an iceberg. We know about the tragedy that took the lives of almost 1,496 people largely thanks to the film, but let's get acquainted with the real stories of the passengers of the Titanic.

On the passenger deck of the Titanic, the real cream of society gathered: millionaires, actors and writers. Not everyone could afford to buy a class I ticket - the price was $ 60,000 at current prices.

Passengers of the 3rd class bought tickets for only 35 dollars ($ 650 today), therefore they had no right to rise above the third deck. On the fateful night, the division into classes was more tangible than ever ...

Bruce Ismay was one of the first to jump into a lifeboat - general manager company "White Star Line", which also owned the "Titanic". The boat, designed for 40 people, departed from the side with only twelve.

After the catastrophe, Ismay was accused of getting into a lifeboat bypassing women and children, as well as the fact that it was he who instructed the captain of the Titanic to increase speed, which led to the tragedy. The court acquitted him.

William Ernest Carter boarded the Titanic in Sumphampton with his wife Lucy and two children Lucy and William, as well as 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 onto the deck, where the boats were already being prepared. At first, William put his daughter in boat number 4, but when it was his son's turn, they were in trouble.

Directly in front of them, 13-year-old John Ryson boarded the boat, after which the officer in charge of boarding ordered not to take the teenage boys on board. Lucy Carter resourcefully threw her hat on her 11-year-old son and sat down with him.

When the landing 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 Mayoney, 21, worked as the Countess's maid and sailed the Titanic with her mistress in first grade.

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, a steward rushed into Roberta's cabin, took 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 ship "Carpathia", on which she sailed to New York. It was only there, in the pocket of her coat, that she found a badge with a star, which, at the moment of parting, the steward put in her pocket as a souvenir of himself.

Emily Richards sailed with her two young sons, mom, 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 Richards miraculously managed to get into the descending boat # 4 through the window. When the Titanic sank completely, 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 Isidore Strauss traveled in the first class with his wife Ida. The Strauss have been married for 40 years and have never parted.

When the ship's officer invited the family to get into the boat, Isidore refused, deciding to make way for women and children, but Ida also followed him.

In their place the Strauss put their maid in the boat. Isidor's body was identified by the wedding ring; Ida's body was not found.

Two orchestras played on Titanic: a quintet led by 33-year-old British violinist Wallace Hartley and an additional trio of musicians hired to give Café Parisien a continental touch.

Usually two members of the "Titanic" orchestra worked in different parts of the ship and in different time, but on the night of the sinking of the ship, all of them united into one orchestra.

One of the rescued passengers of the Titanic would write later: “Many heroic deeds were committed that night, but none of them could compare with the feat of these few musicians, who played hour after hour, although the ship sank deeper and deeper, and the sea crept up to the place where they stood. The music they performed 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. There were no survivors among the other members of the orchestra ...

Michelle, 4, and Edmond, 2, 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, the last male survivor on the Titanic.

Winnie Coates was heading to New York with her two children. On the night of the disaster, she was awakened by a strange noise, but decided to wait for the orders of the crew members. Her patience ran out, she rushed for a long time along the endless corridors of the ship, getting lost.

Suddenly, a member of the crew met her and directed her towards the boats. She pounced on the broken closed gate, but at that very moment another officer appeared, who saved Vinnie and her children, giving them his life jacket.

As a result, Vinnie found herself on the deck, where she was boarding boat number 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 that her conception took place on the Titanic before the collision with the iceberg. "It means a lot to me," she admitted in an interview.

Her parents were 39-year-old Samuel Morley, a jewelry store owner in England, and 19-year-old Keith Phillips, one of his workers, 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 could not swim and drowned. "Mom spent 8 hours in the lifeboat," Helene said. "She was in one 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 believed that it would be a "wonderful experience".

Prior to that, on October 20, 1910, Violette became a stewardess of the transatlantic liner Olympic, which a year later collided with a cruiser due to unsuccessful maneuvering, but the girl managed to escape.

And from the "Titanic" Violett 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 Britannica, which ... also went down! 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 the 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). On account of Priest, there are 5 shipwrecks.

On April 21, 1912, the New York Times published the story of Edward and Ethel Beanov, who sailed the Titanic in second grade. After the crash, Edward helped his wife get 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 were the famous tennis player Karl Behr and his beloved Helen Newsom. After the disaster, the athlete ran into the cabin and took the women out onto the boat deck.

The lovers were already ready to say goodbye forever when the head of the White Star Line Bruce Ismay personally offered Ber a place in 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 the crew and passengers. At 2.13 at night, just 10 minutes before the final sinking of the ship under water, Smith returned to the captain's bridge, where he decided to meet his death.

Second Mate Charles Herbert Lightoller jumped off the ship one of the last, narrowly avoiding being sucked into the ventilation shaft. He swam to the folding boat B, which was floating upside down: the Titanic pipe that broke off and fell into the sea next to him drove the boat further away from the sinking ship and allowed it to stay afloat.

American businessman Benjamin Guggenheim helped women and children board 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 board the boats. He was last seen in the first class smoking room near the fireplace, looking at the painting Port of Plymouth. After the crash, his body was never found.

John Jacob and Madeleine Astor, a millionaire science fiction writer with his young wife, traveled first class. Madeleine escaped on boat # 4. John Jacob's body was recovered 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. Back in 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 contained in it a large number the names of stowaways and 1st class passengers remaining on the Titanic. Gracie's health was severely compromised 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 in lifeboats, but she herself refused to sit there.

“If the worst happens, I’ll swim out,” she said, until finally someone forcefully pushed her into boat number 6, which made her famous.

After Molly organized the Titanic Survivors Relief Fund.

Millwina Dean was the last surviving passenger on 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 ship's launch. ...

Her ashes were scattered on October 24, 2009 in the port of Southampton, from where the Titanic began its maiden and last voyage. At the time of the sinking of the liner, she was two and a half months old.

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 liner sank, with more than 2,200 people on board.

The Titanic is the largest passenger ship of the early 20th century, the second of three twin steamers produced by the British White Star Line.

The length of the "Titanic" was 260 meters, width - 28 meters, displacement - 52 thousand tons, height from the waterline to 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-storey 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 divided by 16 watertight compartments. Watertight bulkheads rose from the second bottom to the deck. The ship's chief designer, Thomas Andrews, said that even if four of the 16 compartments were filled with water, the liner could continue on its way.

The interiors of the cabins on decks B and C were made in 11 styles. The third class passengers on decks E and F were separated from the first and second class by gates located in different parts of the ship.

Before the departure of the Titanic on its maiden and last voyages, it was emphasized that 10 millionaires would be on board the ship on the maiden voyage, and gold and jewelry worth hundreds of millions of dollars would be in its safes. American industrialist, heir to the mining magnate Benjamin Guggenheim, millionaire with a young wife, Assistant to US Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft Major Archibald Willingham Butt, member of the US Congress Isidore Strauss, actress Dorothy Gibson, wealthy public figure British model Margaret Brown and many other famous and wealthy people of that time.

On April 10, 1912, at noon, the Titanic superliner 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 voyage, several ships sent messages about icebergs in the area of ​​the ship's route. Most the day the radio was broken, and many messages were not noticed by the radio operators, and the captain did not pay due attention to others.

By the 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 Titanic radio operator cut off the radio exchange before the Californian had time to report the coordinates of the area: the telegraph operator was busy sending personal messages from passengers.

At 23:39, two lookouts noticed an iceberg in front of the liner and reported it by phone to the bridge. The oldest of the officers, William Murdock, gave the command to the helmsman: "Left rudder."

At 23:40 "Titanic" is in the underwater part of the ship. Of the 16 watertight compartments of the vessel, 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 the incident and inspecting the ship, Andrews informed everyone present that the ship would inevitably sink.

On the ship, the bow began to be felt. Captain Smith ordered the lifeboats to be uncovered and the crew and passengers called for evacuation.

On the orders of the captain, the radio operators began sending out distress signals, which they transmitted for two hours, until the captain relieved the telegraph operators from duty a few minutes before the ship sank.

Distress signals, but they were too far from the Titanic.

At 00:25 the coordinates of the "Titanic" were taken by the ship "Karpatia", located from the crash site at a distance of 58 nautical miles, which was 93 kilometers. ordered to immediately head to the site of the Titanic disaster. Rushing to the rescue, the ship was able to reach a record speed of 17.5 knots - at the maximum speed possible for a vessel of 14 knots. For this Rostron ordered to turn off all appliances that consume electricity and heating.

At 01:30 the Titanic operator 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 in the boats. The men, according to the captain, were to remain on deck until all the women got into the boats. First Mate William Murdock on the starboard side for men, if there were no women and children in the line of passengers gathered on deck.

At about 02:15, the Titanic's bow sank sharply, the ship moved significantly forward, and rolled across the decks huge wave that swept many passengers overboard.

The Titanic sank at about 02:20 minutes.

At about 04:00 am, about three and a half hours after receiving the distress call, the Carpathia arrived at the Titanic crash site. The vessel took on board 712 passengers and crew members of the Titanic, after which it safely arrived 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 crash, 60% of passengers are first-class cabins, 44% are second-class cabins, and 25% are third-class.

The last surviving passenger of the Titanic, who traveled aboard the ship at the age of nine weeks, died on May 31, 2009 at 97 years old. The woman's ashes were scattered over the sea from the pier in the port of Southampton, from where the Titanic set sail in 1912.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources

You have read and heard about the Titanic many times. The history of the creation and wreck of the liner is overgrown with rumors and myths. For more than 100 years, the British steamer has been stirring the minds of people trying to find the answer - why did the Titanic sink?

The history of the legendary liner is interesting for three reasons:

• it was the largest ship in 1912;
• the number of victims turned the catastrophe into a global failure;
• finally, James Cameron with his film singled out the history of the liner from the general list of maritime disasters, and there were quite a few of them.

We will tell you everything about the Titanic, as it was in reality. About how long the Titanic is in meters, how much the Titanic sank, and who was actually behind the massive disaster.

Where and where the Titanic sailed from

We know from Cameron's film that the liner was heading for New York. An American developing city was to be the final stop. But where the Titanic sailed from, not everyone knows for sure, considering that London was the starting point. The capital of Great Britain was not in the ranks of seaports, and therefore the steamer could not leave from there.

The fateful voyage began from Southampton, a major English port from which transatlantic flights took place. The path of the Titanic on the map clearly shows the movement. Southampton is both a port and a city located in the southern part of England (Hampshire).

See how the Titanic route ran on the map:

Dimensions of the Titanic in meters

To understand more about the Titanic, the causes of the disaster need to be disclosed, starting with the dimensions of the steamer.

How many meters is the Titanic in length and in other dimensions:

exact length - 299.1 m;

width - 28.19 m;

height from the keel - 53.3 m.

There is also such a question - how many decks did the Titanic have? There were 8 boats in total, so the upper deck was called the boat deck. The rest were distributed according to the letter designation.

A - class I deck. Its peculiarity is its limited size - it did not fit the entire length of the vessel;

B - anchors were located in the front part of the deck and its dimensions were also shorter - by 37 meters of deck C;

C - deck with galley, crew dining room and promenade for III class.

D - walking area;

E - cabins of I, II classes;

F - cabins of II and III classes;

G - deck with boilers in the middle.

Finally, how much does the Titanic weigh? The displacement of the largest ship of the early 20th century is 52 310 tons.

Titanic Wreck Story

What year did the Titanic sink? The famous catastrophe occurred on the night of April 14, 1912. This was the fifth day of the trip. Chronicles indicate that at 23:40 the liner survived a collision with an iceberg and after 2 hours 40 minutes (2:20 am) went under water.

Things from the Titanic: photos

Further investigations showed that the crew received 7 weather warnings, but this did not prevent the vessel from reducing the top speed. The iceberg was spotted right ahead too late to take precautions. As a result, there are holes in the starboard side. Ice damaged 90 m of the skin and 5 bow compartments. This was enough to sink the liner.

Tickets to new liner were more expensive than other ships. If a person is used to traveling in first class, then on the Titanic he would have to transfer to second class.

Edward Smith, the ship's captain, began the evacuation after midnight: a distress signal was sent, the attention of other ships was attracted by signal flares, the lifeboats were sent to the water. But the rescue took place slowly and incoherently - there was empty space in the boats until the Titanic sank, the water temperature did not rise above two degrees below zero, and the first steamer arrived only half an hour after the disaster.

Titanic: how many people died and survived

How many people survived on the Titanic? No one will say the exact data, just as they could not have said this on the fateful night. The list of passengers on the Titanic initially changed in practice, but not on paper: some canceled the trip at the time of departure and were not deleted, others traveled anonymously under assumed names, and still others were included in the list of those who died on the Titanic several times.

Photos of the sinking of the Titanic

Only approximately can we say how many people drowned on the Titanic - about 1500 (minimum 1490 - maximum 1635). Among them was Edward Smith with some assistants, 8 musicians from the famous orchestra, large investors and businessmen.

Classism was felt even after death - the bodies of the dead from the first class were embalmed and placed in coffins, the second and third classes were given bags and boxes. When the embalming substances ran out, the bodies of unknown passengers from the third class were simply thrown into the water (according to the rules, it was impossible to bring unabalmed corpses to the port).

The bodies were found within a radius of 80 km from the crash site, and due to the current of the Gulf Stream, many were dispersed even further.

Photos of dead people

Initially, it was known how many passengers were on the Titanic, although not thoroughly:

crew of 900 people;

195 people of the first class;

255 people of the second class;

493 people of the third class.

Some of the passengers disembarked at intermediate ports, and some entered. It is believed that the liner went to the fatal route with a train of 1317 people, of which 124 are children.

Titanic: flooding depth - 3750 m

The English steamer could accommodate 2,566 people, of which 1,034 were for first class passengers. The half-load of the liner is explained by the fact that in April, transatlantic flights were not popular. In those days, a coal strike broke out, which disrupted coal supplies, schedules and changes in plans.

It was difficult to answer the question of how many people survived from the Titanic, because the rescue operations took place from different ships, and the slow connection did not provide fast data.

After the crash, only 2/3 of the bodies delivered were identified. Some were buried in the field, the rest were sent home. In the area of ​​the disaster, bodies in white vests were found for a long time. Out of 1500 dead people only 333 bodies were found.

How deep is the Titanic

Answering the question about the depth at which the Titanic sank, you need to remember about the pieces separated by the currents (by the way, they found out about this only in the 80s, before that it was believed that the liner sank to the bottom entirely). The wreckage of the liner on the night of the crash went to a depth of 3750 m. The bow was thrown 600 m from the stern.

The place where the Titanic sank, on the map:

In which ocean did the Titanic sink? - in the Atlantic.

Titanic was lifted from the bottom of the ocean

They wanted to lift the steamer from the moment of the crash. Initiative plans were put forward by the relatives of the victims from the first class. But 1912 did not yet know the necessary technologies. The war, lack of knowledge and funds delayed the search for the sunken ship for a hundred years. Since 1985, they have conducted 17 expeditions, during which they raised 5,000 objects and large skin to the surface, but the ship itself remained at the bottom of the ocean.

What does the Titanic look like now

Since the time of the wreck, the ship has become covered with marine life. Rust, painstaking work of invertebrates and natural decomposition processes have changed designs beyond recognition. By this time, the bodies had already decomposed completely, and by the 22nd century, only anchors and boilers - the most massive metal structures - will remain from the Titanic.

Already, the interiors of the decks have been destroyed, the cabins and halls have fallen apart.

Titanic, Britannica and Olympic

All three ships were manufactured by the Harland & Wolf shipbuilding company. Before the Titanic, the world saw Olympic. It is not difficult to see a fatal predisposition in the fate of the three ships. The first liner crashed as a result of a collision with a cruiser. Not such a large-scale disaster, but still an impressive setback.

Then the story of the Titanic, which received wide resonance in the world, and, finally, the Giant. They tried to make this ship especially durable, taking into account the mistakes of previous liners. He was even launched, but the First World War broke the plans. The giant turned into a hospital ship called the Britannic.

He just managed to carry out 5 quiet flights, and on the sixth there was a disaster. Having been blown up by a German mine, Britannica swiftly went to the bottom. The mistakes of the past and the preparedness of the captain made it possible to save the maximum number of people - 1036 out of 1066.

Is it possible to talk about evil fate, remembering the Titanic? The history of the creation and the crash of the liner was studied in detail, the facts were revealed, even through time. Yet the truth is only now being revealed. The reason the Titanic attracts attention is to hide the true motive - to create a monetary system and destroy opponents.

The remains of the ship rest in silence and darkness - a giant puzzle of pieces of rusty steel scattered along the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. It is readily eaten by bacteria and fungi, for them there is expanse. Bizarre colorless creatures prowl around. Since the discovery of the sunken liner in 1985 by the researcher of the National Geographic Society Robert Ballard and the French oceanographer Jean-Louis Michel, deep-sea robots and manned vehicles have periodically visited it. They directed the sonar beam to the Titanic, took a couple of photographs - and sailed away.

In recent years, American filmmaker James Cameron, French submariner Paul-Henri Narjollet and other researchers have brought ever clearer and more detailed photographs from the crash site. And yet we looked at the Titanic as if through a keyhole - all that was visible was what was illuminated by the floodlights of the underwater vehicle. Never before have we been able to look at thousands of scattered debris as a whole. Finally, the opportunity presented itself.

In the parking lot of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, a trailer equipped with last word technology. In the trailer, William Lang bent over a sonar map of the Titanic wreck. It took months of painstaking work to assemble this mosaic. The ghostly landscape resembles the surface of the moon - the bottom is dotted with crater-like depressions. These are traces of large fragments of melting icebergs that have been falling to the bottom for thousands of years.

“Never before have we been able to look at thousands of scattered debris as a whole. Finally, such an opportunity presented itself.

The owner of this 925 sterling silver men's pocket watch has New York time set on it, pending a safe arrival.

The porthole on the page to the right is one of 5,000 items recovered from the Titanic crash site. Upon hitting the bottom, the steel sheets of the hull were bent, and the windows remained intact, jumping out of their "eye sockets".

Most likely, this felt hat belonged to a businessman. In an era when "greeted by clothes", the bowler hat was a sign of belonging to the class of doctors, lawyers or entrepreneurs.

But if you look closely, you begin to distinguish between the creations of human hands. On the computer screen, Lang hovers over a fragment of a map created by overlaying photographs on acoustic images - sonar data. He enlarges the picture until the nose of the Titanic appears in all its "glory" on the screen: where the first chimney once towered, now there is a gaping black hole. A hundred meters to the northeast, a manhole cover that had been torn off buried itself in the muddy mud. All this can be seen in the smallest detail - in one fragment you can even see how a white crab scratches its claws on a railing.

So, moving the mouse across the screen, you can see everything that remains of the Titanic - every mooring bollard, every davit, every steam boiler. “Now we know exactly where what lies,” says Lang. "A hundred years have passed, and finally the lights came on."

Bill Lange runs the Imaging and Imaging Lab at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. This is something like a state-of-the-art photography studio specializing in underwater photography. The interior is lined with soundproof panels, and the room is jam-packed with computers and high-definition TV monitors. Lang was a member of Ballard's famous expedition to discover the remains of the Titanic, and since then he has been testing all the latest deep-sea photography technologies in this underwater cemetery.

Next to the giant propellers of the Olympic liner - an almost exact replica of the Titanic - the workers at the Belfast shipyard look like Lilliputians. Both twin ships were built in Belfast. The Titanic was not photographed much, but we can judge the grandeur of its design by the Olympic. National museums Northern Ireland, Harland & Wolff Collection, Ulster Folk Art and Transport Museum

The Sunken Wreck Guide is the result of an expedition that sank to the bottom in August-September 2010. Millions of dollars have been invested in this ambitious project. The survey was conducted by three underwater robots, which moved at different distances from the bottom surface along programmed trajectories. Crammed with side-scan sonars, multi-beam sonars, and optical cameras that took hundreds of pictures per second, the robots swept the bottom over a 5x8 kilometer stretch. The data obtained was subjected to careful computer processing, and here is the result: on a huge high-resolution map, sunken objects and features of the bottom relief are reflected in their relative position, indicating the exact geographic coordinates.

“This is a breakthrough,” said expedition leader, archaeologist James Delgado of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “In the past, examining the remains of the Titanic was like examining downtown New York at night in the pouring rain with a flashlight. We now have a defined area with clear boundaries where everything can be viewed and measured. Perhaps, over time, thanks to this map, people who, as it seemed to us, fell silent forever, when the icy waters of the ocean closed over them, will acquire a voice. "

What magnet is pulling us to the remains of the Titanic? Why, even 100 years later, this pile of metal at a depth of four kilometers does not give people rest? Some are fascinated by the scale of the disaster. Others do not let go of the thought of those who could not leave the ship. The Titanic sank for 2 hours and 40 minutes, and this time was enough for 2208 epic tragedies to unfold on its stage. Cowardice (they talked about a gentleman who tried to get into a boat, dressed in a woman's dress) coexisted with courage and self-sacrifice. Many turned out to be real heroes. The captain remained on the bridge, the band continued to play, the radio operators gave distress signals to the very end. And the passengers - almost everyone - behaved in strict accordance with the hierarchy of Edwardian society: social barriers were stronger than waterproof partitions.

But the Titanic took more than human lives with it. Together with giant ship the illusion of order, faith in scientific and technological progress, the desire to live, to meet the future have sunk to the bottom. “Imagine that you inflated a soap bubble, and it burst - here's the wreck of the Titanic, - says James Cameron. - In the first decade of the 20th century, it seemed that an era of prosperity had come on Earth. Elevators! Cars! Airplanes! Radio! People believed that nothing is impossible, that progress is endless, and life is like a fairy tale. But everything collapsed in an instant. "

It is difficult to imagine a more surreal picture: on the Las Vegas Strip, on one of the upper floors of the Luxor Hotel, next to the strip show, an exhibition of relics from the Titanic has settled for a long time. They were recovered from the depths of the sea by the RMS Titanic, Inc., which since 1994 has had the exclusive right to lift objects from the sunken giant. Similar exhibitions were held in 20 more countries around the world, and in total they have already been visited by more than 25 million people.

In mid-October last year, I spent a whole day at Luxor, wandering among artifacts: a chef's hat, a shaving razor, lumps of coal, several perfectly preserved dishes from the service, countless shoes and shoes, perfume bottles, a leather bag, a bottle of champagne with so and untouched by the cork. These ordinary objects have become unique, having made a long and terrible journey to the sparkling glass display cases. I walked through a dark, cold room - there is an "iceberg" with a freon cooling system that you can touch. The screeching sound of broken metal is heard from the speakers, heightening a sense of anxiety. And here is the pearl of the collection - a huge, 15 tons, fragment of the Titanic case. In 1998, he was lifted from the bottom of the ocean using a crane.

The rudder of the Titanic is buried in the sand, propeller blades visible on the sides. The heavily mutilated stern rests on the ocean floor 600 meters south of the bow, which has been photographed more frequently. This image is a mosaic photo collage of 300 high-resolution images taken during the 2010 expedition.

The exhibition in Las Vegas has been done with dignity, but over the past years, archaeologists-submariners have more than once unpleasantly spoke about the RMS Titanic and its leaders. Robbers, desecrators of graves, treasure hunters - what kind of nicknames were found for them! “You won't go to the Louvre and point your finger at the Mona Lisa,” Robert Ballard, an implacable fighter for the integrity of the Titanic, told me. - These people are driven by greed - look how much they have done!

The open stern reveals the Titanic's two engines. They are covered with orange growths - a product of the vital activity of bacteria that eat rusty iron. Once these giants, the size of a four-story building, set in motion the most grandiose creation of human hands.

However, in recent years, RMS Titanic has undergone changes in management - and in the approach to business. The new leaders do not seek to raise as many objects as possible from the bottom - on the contrary, in the future it is planned to conduct archaeological research at the crash site. The corporation began to cooperate with research and government organizations. The very same expedition of 2010, during which scientists for the first time surveyed the entire complex of sunken wrecks, organized, led and funded the RMS Titanic. The company has sided with those calling for the conversion of the Titanic crash site into a naval memorial. In late 2011, RMC Titanic announced plans to auction its entire collection and associated intellectual property worth $ 189 million - but only if there is a buyer who agrees to comply with strict conditions set by federal courts. One of these conditions: the collection cannot be sold in parts.

RMS Titanic President Chris Davino invited me to the exhibit storage. This treasure hides next door to a dog barber in an unremarkable neighborhood in Atlanta. The brick building is equipped with a climate control system; a forklift maneuvers between long rows of racks - just like in a regular warehouse. The racks are stacked from top to bottom with boxes and crates, with detailed descriptions of the contents. There is so much here: dishes, clothes, letters, bottles, fragments of water pipes, portholes - everything that has been raised from the bottom of the ocean in three decades. Davino became the head of RMS Titanic in 2009, undertaking a difficult mission - to help the ill-fated enterprise start a new life. “There are many stakeholders in the Titanic case, and there are many disagreements between them, but for many years they were all united by contempt for us. The time has come for a reassessment of values. We realized that you can't just pick up artifacts and do nothing else. It is not necessary to fight with scientists, but to cooperate, ”says Davino.

Titanic: crash site

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And it's not just words. Not so long ago, government agencies like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration did nothing but sue the RMS Titanic. Now yesterday's opponents are working together on long-term research projects, the goal of which is to create a protected conservation area at the crash site. “Finding a compromise between protecting a memorial and making a profit is not easy,” admits marine archaeologist Dave Conlin. - These businessmen had something to blame. But now they are worthy of respect. "

Scientists also liked the decision of the corporation to engage one of the world's leading experts to analyze the 2010 images. Bill Sauder is the walking encyclopedia of Titanic-class ocean liners. Bill's position is the project manager, but he himself prefers to call himself "the keeper of knowledge about all sorts of things."

When we met in Atlanta, he sat staring at a computer in thick glasses, looking like a dwarf with a shaggy beard half-full of his face. On the screen were the wreckage of the stern of the Titanic. On previous expeditions, the focus has almost always been on the more photogenic bow, which lies north of the bulk of the remains. But Sauder suspects research will shift to the stern in the future. “The nose looks cool, no doubt about it, but we've been there a hundred times already,” the scientist admits. "I'm much more interested in this junk from the south side."

Bill is trying to identify anything in the scrap heap. “Many people think that the wreckage is like the picturesque ruins of an ancient temple on a hill,” he says. - No matter how it is! They are much more like an industrial dump: mountains of sheet metal, all kinds of rivets, spacers. Who will figure it out? Perhaps a Picasso fan. "

Sauder zooms in on the first image he sees, and within minutes one of a thousand mysteries has been solved. At the very top of the wreckage is the twisted copper frame of a revolving door, apparently from the first-class passenger compartment. In general, you can sit over the puzzle "what is what" for more than one year. This is an incredibly time-consuming job that only those who know every inch of the ship can handle.

At the end of October 2011, I attended a round table where James Cameron invited the most respected experts in the field of marine research. In Manhattan Beach, California, in a film studio the size of an airplane hangar, among the props preserved from the filming of Titanic, Bill Sauder, RMS Titanic researcher Paul-Henri Narjole, historian Don Lynch and marine painter Ken have gathered. Marshall, who has been on Titanic for 40 years. They were joined by a naval engineer, Woods Hole oceanographer and two US Navy architects.

First Time: Full Portrait of Legendary Wreckage

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Cameron, by his own admission, "is so obsessed with the Titanic that he knows every rivet there." The director has three expeditions to the crash site. He pioneered the development of a new class of small-sized remotely controlled robots that can survey by detaching from an underwater base and maneuvering among the wreckage. So for the first time it was possible to photograph the interior of the "Titanic" with its luxurious Turkish bath and magnificent apartments (see "Walking the Titanic")

10 years ago Cameron took off documentary about the remains of the German battleship Bismarck sunk in 1941, and at the time of our meeting he was preparing alone, armed with a 3D camera, to go down to the bottom Mariana Trench... But the Titanic's spell continues unabated. “Down there, we see a strange mixture of biology and architecture - I would call it a biomechanical environment,” says Cameron. - In my opinion, this is fantastic. It feels like a ship has plunged into Tartarus - into the kingdom of shadows. "

With two days at his disposal, Cameron decided to arrange something like a forensic examination. Why did the Titanic split in half? Where exactly did the case crack? At what angle did the debris fall to the bottom? “This is a crime scene,” Cameron says. - As soon as you realize this, you want to get to the bottom of the truth: how did it happen? Why was the knife here and the pistol there? "

As you might expect, experts immediately begin to speak the bird's language. Without being an engineer, of all these "angles of incidence", "shear forces" and "turbidity of the environment", one can understand one thing: the last moments of the life of the "Titanic" were a cruel painful agony. We often hear that the waves closed over the liner, and it “sank to the bottom of the ocean”, as if quietly and peacefully plunged into eternal sleep. Nothing like this! Based on the experience of many years of research, the experts performed computer simulations based on the finite element method. We now have a detailed understanding of the death throes of the Titanic.

Late in the evening, at 11:40 pm, the ship ripped the starboard side against the edge of the iceberg. As a result, a 90-meter "laceration" was formed on the hull, the six front watertight compartments received holes and began to fill with water. From that moment on, the Titanic was doomed. But it is quite possible that his death was accelerated by an unsuccessful attempt to put passengers in boats from a lower deck: the crew members opened the door to lower the ladder on the left side. As the ship began to lurch to the port side, it was no longer possible to overcome the force of gravity and close the massive door again. The bow gradually sank down, by 1:50 the water reached the open door and poured inside.

By 2:18 am, the Titanic's bow was filled with water, and the stern was so high that the propellers were exposed. Unable to withstand the monstrous pressure, the hull broke in half in the central part - just 13 minutes after the last boat left the Titanic.

Then Cameron gets up and demonstrates how it all looked. Taking a banana in his hands, the director begins to break it: "Watch how it bends and swells in the middle before breaking - see?" The last to give in was the peel below - the double bottom of the ship.

Tearing off the stern, the bow went to the bottom under a rather acute angle... As it descended, it picked up speed, losing various parts: chimneys fell off, the wheelhouse collapsed. Five minutes later, the nose hit the bottom with such force that lumps of silty mud scattered in all directions, traces of which are still visible today.

The stern lost to the bow in hydrodynamics. Going to the bottom, it tumbled and rotated in a spiral. Near the fault line, the hull gave another crack, and soon a large fragment of the hull broke off and completely collapsed from the stern, all of its contents poured out. The compartments were torn apart by air pressure. The decks collapsed on top of each other. The steel hull plating came apart at the seams. The deck is pooped bent by a screw. Heavier objects like steam boilers sank like a stone, and all the rest were scattered in different directions. Even before reaching the bottom, the feed turned into a heap of scrap.

Mark on history

Cameron sits down and slips a piece of banana into his mouth. “We are all sorry that the Titanic fell apart in such an unworthy way,” he sums up. "I would like him to rest at the bottom safe and sound, like a ghost ship."

"There could be hundreds of living people inside. It has been 100 years since then, but imagining this picture is still unbearable."

St. John's, Newfoundland Island. On June 8, 1912, a rescue ship returned here, picking up the last body of a passenger from the Titanic. For many months after the tragedy, the waves washed down the beach chairs, pieces of wood paneling and other items from the ship.

I was hoping that from here I would be able to fly to the crash site on the plane of the International Ice Patrol. This organization was created after the sinking of the Titanic to track icebergs on the routes of ships in Atlantic Ocean... But, alas, due to the storm, all flights were canceled, and instead I went to the pub, where they began to regale me with local vodka, which is made on water from a melted iceberg. To heighten the effect, the bartender threw a piece of ice into my glass, saying that it was from the same Greenland glacier that created the ice block that sank the Titanic.

South of St. John's, a desert rock cuts into the sea - Cape Race. A few years before the Titanic disaster, Guglielmo Marconi built a radio station here. According to local legend, the first to receive a distress signal from a sinking ship was Jim Mairik, a 14-year-old radio operator's assistant. At first, there was a generally accepted call for help - CQD. After some time, Cape Reis received a new signal, which was almost never used before - SOS.

I came to Cape Reis to talk to David Mairick, Jim's great-nephew, among the remains of old Marconi apparatus and detector radios. David is a marine radio operator, the last representative of a glorious dynasty. According to him, the grandfather did not like to talk about that tragic night, and only in extreme old age began to indulge in memories. By that time, Jim was deaf, so family members had to communicate with him using Morse code.

"Titanic" outside and inside: virtual tour on the famous liner

We went out to wander near the lighthouse and, stopping at the edge of the cliff, looked down for a long time at the ice waves crashing against the rocks. A tanker could be seen in the distance. Further afield, new icebergs have appeared on the Greater Newfoundland Bank, according to ice reconnaissance data. And already very far, beyond the horizon, the remains of the most famous ship in history rested. I thought about the thousands of signals that have cut the aether far and wide over the past 100 years. In this silent ocean of radio waves, innumerable voices merged into one drawn-out cry. I imagined that I could hear the voice of the Titanic itself. The crown of the creation of human hands, bearing such a proud name, he rushed at full speed towards the brave new world. But the ancient element got in the way of the ship to inflict a fatal blow on it.

Most of the photos taken by father Frank Brown.

From 1911 to 1916, Frank brown studied theology at the Milltown Park Institute in Dublin. During this period, his uncle Robert (Bishop of Cloin) sent him an unusual gift: a ticket for a short trip on board. " Titanic"heading on his maiden voyage. Uncle gave Frank travel from Southampton to Cherbourg and then to Queenstown (Cob), County Cork, Ireland.

While sailing on " Titanic", father brown made friends with a couple of American millionaires who sat with him at the same table in the dining room of the first class liner. They suggested that he send a message to his abbot in Dublin (archbishop) to ask him for permission to stay on board until the end of the voyage to New York. An American couple offered to pay for his fare. The message was immediately telegraphed, and the answer awaited Frank upon arrival at Queenstown. It consisted of five words:

"Get off this ship! Archbishop".

The photograph was taken at Waterloo Station on Wednesday at 9:45 am on April 10, 1912. The photographer captured the first and last train that brought passengers to " Titanic"

For many years it was believed that the gentleman on the left was John Jacob Astor, who died during the death of "T itanica"(see below). In fact, this is his cousin, William Weldorf Astor, who moved to England from the USA in 1980

Two out of three screws " Titanic"(left and middle)

"Olympic" and " Titanic"(right) in Belfast. This is the only photograph of the two ships together. (Steamship Company White star line built three huge liners: " Titanic», « Olympic" and " Britannica»)

Crow's nest on " Titanic". Observation platform on the foremast for the lookout

"Titanic"in Southampton on April 5, 1912, when the" Great Flag of Glory "was raised on it for the first and last time

Before you board " Titanic", Frank Brown took this picture. In the distance, you can see the gangway for second class passengers, identical to those on which he stands.

April 10, 1912, at 12:00 noon. "Titanic"sets sail from Southampton

The photographer leaned over the side of the ship to take pictures of the tugboats below. In the distance you can see the bank of the Test River and several private yachts anchored. To the left of the photographer is lifeboat number seven. When " Titanic"will start to sink, this boat will be the first to be launched into the water

Moving along the deck of the ship, Frank Brown photographed the crowd, consisting mainly of local residents, seeing off " Titanic"

"Titanic"barely avoids collision with the American ship New York. The tug is trying to drag the stern of the New York from the side." Titanic".

"Titanic"has already rounded the end of the berth, where I passed the New York liner, which had already moored and began to turn towards" Titanic Passengers can be seen leaning out of the large promenade deck to see the alleged collision

Photo by F.H. Ernott shows the tugboat Volcano at the side Titanic The departure of the ship from Southampton was delayed by an hour after it nearly collided with the ship New York

The boy on the right is Jack Odell, family member with whom he is traveling Frank brown and in the distance is a major Archibald Butt, military adjutant to President William Howard Taft

Captain Smith on deck 187 yards long

This is obviously an American short story writer. Jacques Fotrell standing on the deck next to the gym " Titanic". The author of the popular detectives Thinking Machine, he took on board many unpublished stories that will be lost forever. Marking his 37th anniversary the day before sailing, he will die in a disaster.

A gentleman in a white flannel suit is T. W. McCawley, A 34-year-old physical education teacher from Aberdeen. A few years later, one of the passengers will remember McCawley as a very strict person in relations with passengers. But with the kids on board, he was softer.

Taken from the stern of the A-deck, this photograph shows the rear of the ship's superstructure. On the upper deck group of second class passengers

Frank brown bumped into an unfamiliar couple taking a morning walk. Upstairs, next to the second-class promenade deck railing, benches are assembled

Sexennial Robert Douglas Steedman from Tuxedo Park, New York, launches a spinning top, and his father Frederick looks. During the sinking of the ship, both father and son were saved, but the photographs taken by Frederick with the help of a camera hanging on his shoulder were not.

Vertically opening doors (closed in the photo) in one of the watertight bulkheads

Boilers " Titanic"

Junior radio operator " Titanic", Harold Bride, at his post. Since this is the only photograph ever taken in the ship's radio room, Frank brown kept it despite double exposure

Third-class passengers are crowded at the stern of the ship, from where a propeller hazard sign can be seen below. The small dot on the fourth chimney is the soot-covered face of a stoker who climbed up to get a bird's eye view of the Irish port. To some, he seemed like a black death ghost looking down. Superstitious passengers saw this as a bad omen

Class 1 sleeping room (B-57)

Coupe - 1st class luxury (D-19)

Class 1 sleeping room (B-38)

Class 1 sleeping room (B-64)

Hall with fireplace in the suite

Bedroom in the apartment Frank Brown number A-37 on board "Titanic "

Cafe on deck B to starboard

Deck " Titanic"

Staircase under the dome. 1 class

Ticket for " Titanic"Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Kimbell. Departure April 10, 1912. Cabin D-19

The lunch menu card for April 14, 1912, which Frank brown acquired as an illustration for his lectures

Class 1 recreation room

Class 1 common room

Class 1 smoking room

Cafe on the veranda. 1 class

Canteen for 1st class passengers

Reading room on the A-deck

Class 2 library

Class 3 dining room

Class 3 common room

Class 3 menu

The captain's bridge on " Olympique". "Titanic" and " Olympic"almost identical. This is the only photograph of the captain's bridge.

Swimming pool on " Olympique"completely identical to the pool on" Titanic"

On April 11, 1912, the Titanic made a stop at Queenstown to pick up passengers and mail

Queenstown... Pier "White Star". Crowd waiting to board the messenger ships

Passengers " Titanic"come ashore from the messenger ship" America "

Queenstown merchants were licensed to sell lace and other Irish mementos aboard transatlantic liners.

Movers awaiting work on the transfer of correspondence

Illegal trade takes place on board the liner

Loading mail

Messenger ships "Ireland" and "America" ​​with passengers and mail dock at " Titanic"

Giant right anchor " Titanic"lifted for the last time. It took several minutes for the anchor to reach the surface. The liner used a chain of 6 anchor chains wrought iron. Each of the chains was 15 fathoms (fathoms) long

One of their late shots Frank brown made it right after sailing " Titanic" from Queenstown with 1316 passengers and 891 crew on board,at 13:55 on April 11, 1912

Bruce Ismay(first class passenger, cabins No. B52, 54, 56, ticket No. 112058) Executive Director by White Star Line... Survived, but was stigmatized. I have never been able to forgive myself for being one of the first to take a seat in the boat. He soon left his post and spent the rest of his life as a hermit.

Edward John Smith- captain " Titanic".

Smith enjoyed great popularity among the crew and passengers.

Due to his rich experience, he was assigned to command by passenger liner "Titanic"on his maiden voyage, after which the captain was to retire.

At 2.13 am, just 10 minutes before the final submersion of the ship, Smith returned to the captain's bridge, where he met death.

William McMaster Murdoch ... First mate " Titanic". Killed

William Murdock honestly fulfilled his duty and did everything to save as many people as possible. Seventy-five percent of all those rescued from the Titanic were evacuated from the starboard side, where the rescue operation was commanded by William Murdock.

Second mate " Titanic» Charles Herbert Lightoller. Jumping off the ship one of the last and narrowly avoiding being sucked into the ventilation shaft, he swam to the folding boat B, which floated upside down. A pipe that broke off and fell into the sea next to him " Titanic"Drove the boat further away from the sinking ship and allowed it to stay afloat

In total, there were 30 people on the overturned boat, Lightoller tried to organize them somehow, but in vain. By dawn they were picked up by boats from the ship " Carpathia", By that time there were already 27 people on the boat. These were the last rescued passengers of the Titanic Lightoller helped lift passengers and was the last to board himself. (on the pictureLightoller on right)

Frederick Fleet - one of six lookouts aboard the Titanic.The first one to see the iceberg and raise the alarm. Killed.

Thomas Andrews -(first class passenger, cabin No. A 36, ticket No. 112050), Irish businessman and shipbuilder, executive director of the Harland & Wolff shipbuilding company in Belfast. Andrews was a designer " Titanic"And one of 1,517 dead. During the evacuation Thomas helped passengers board the boats, and was last seen in the first-class smoking room near the fireplace, looking at the painting Port of Plymouth. After the crash, his body was never found. In Cameron's film he was playedVictor Garber.

Benjamin Guggenheim - a wealthy American businessman... Killed.

John Jacob and Madeleine ASTOR - millionaire, science fiction writer with his young wife, who was a year younger than the son of John Jacob from his first marriage to Ava Willing. They say, John Jacob Like many other influential people, they were advised not to board this liner. However, the multimillionaire decided to try his luck and still set off on his last voyage on the doomed liner. Madeleine escaped on boat # 4. John Jacob's body was recovered from the depths of the ocean 22 days after his death. The writer and multimillionaire was found on a seal with the letters J.J.A.

Margaret (Molly) Brown - American socialite, philanthropist and activist. Survived. When on " Titanic"there was a panic, Molly she put people in lifeboats, she herself refused to get there: "If the worst happens, I will swim out" - but in the end, someone pushed her by force into boat number 6, which made her famous.

The boat could accommodate 65 passengers, but in reality there were only 26. As they sailed, boilers on the ship began to explode. "Suddenly the sea opened up, and like giant arms wrapped around the ship," she wrote Margaret... Sitting in a lifeboat in the company of 24 women and two men, she fiercely argued with the elder of the boat. Robert Hitchens, demanding to return to the crash site and pick up the drowning ones. When one of the passengers got cold Molly gave that her fur coat. And when the cold "finished" even her, she ordered the women to sit at the oars and row to keep warm

Molly hands over to the captain Carpathians"Artur Rostron a cup of love on behalf of the surviving passengers" Titanic»

On the " Carpathians» Margaret did what she did best: organization. She knew several languages ​​and could speak with passengers from different countries... She looked for blankets and food for them, made lists of survivors, collected money for those who lost along with “ Titanic»Everything: family and savings. By the time of arrival " Carpathians"She raised $ 10,000 to the port for the survivors. When the ship arrived in New York and the reporters asked Margaret than she owed her luck, she replied, “Common Brown luck. We are unsinkable! "

She was played in the filmKatie Bates

Lucy Christina, Lady Duff Gordon - one of the leading British fashion designers of the late XIX - early XX century, known in the professional arena as Lucille. Survived

Dorothy Gibson - American silent film actress, fashion model and singer. Survived. In 1912 she played her most famous role in the film “ Survivors from the Titanic»