The sinking of the Titanic was not a disaster, it was an execution! How many people died on the Titanic? The true story of the disaster.

Crash passenger airliner The Titanic, which killed 1,517 of its 2,229 passengers and crew (official figures vary slightly), was one of the worst peacetime maritime disasters.

The 712 surviving passengers of the Titanic were picked up by the rescue ship Carpathia.

Few disasters have caused such a resonance and had such a strong impact on public consciousness. The disaster changed attitudes towards social injustice, influenced the rules for passenger transportation in the Atlantic Ocean, and contributed to stricter requirements for the presence of a sufficient number of lifeboats on board passenger ships and led to the creation of the International Ice Service.

April 14, 2016 marked the 104th anniversary of the disaster of the Titanic, which became one of the most famous ships in history. Many books and films, exhibitions and memorials are devoted to the theme of the Titanic sinking.

At 2:20 am, the Titanic broke into two parts and sank. At that time there were about a thousand people on board. People who found themselves in the icy water soon died from hypothermia. (Frank O. Brainard Collection)

The British passenger liner Titanic sets sail from Southampton, England on her first and last voyage on April 10, 1912. Before heading to New York, the Titanic stopped at Cherbourg (France) and Queenstown (Ireland). Four days later, on April 14, 1912, at 23:40 local time, the liner collided with an iceberg 603 kilometers south of Newfoundland.

The disaster shocked the whole world. The investigation into the cause of the Titanic's sinking, which began a few days after the disaster, contributed to significant improvements in the safety of navigation. (United Press International)

The passenger liner Titanic departs on her first and last voyage to New York from Queenstown, Ireland, 1912. On board the liner were the richest people of the time: millionaires John Jacob Astor IV, Benjamin Guggenheim and Isidore Strauss, as well as more than a thousand emigrants from Ireland, Scandinavia and other countries who were about to start new life in America.

Workers leave the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, where the Titanic was built between 1909 and 1911. At the time of its launch, the Titanic was the largest passenger liner in the world. In this 1911 photo, the Titanic is in the background.

Dining room on the Titanic, 1912. The liner was designed and built according to last word technology and served as the embodiment of luxury and comfort. On board there was a gym, a swimming pool, libraries, high-end restaurants and luxurious cabins.

Second class room on board the Titanic, 1912. More than 90% of the second class passengers were men, who remained on board the sinking liner, as women and children were the first to board the lifeboats.

The Titanic sails from Southampton, England, on April 10, 1912. Some experts believe that the cause of the Titanic disaster was the poor quality of the hull rivets that were used in the construction of the liner.

The height of the liner from the keel to the top of the chimneys was 53.3 meters, 10.5 of which were below the waterline. The Titanic was taller than most city buildings at the time.

Captain of the Titanic Edward John Smith largest airliner of its time. The length of the Titanic was 269.1 meters, width - 28.19 meters, displacement - more than 52 thousand tons.

An undated photograph of Titanic's first mate William McMaster Murdoch, who is revered as a hero in his homeland of Dalbeattie, Scotland. However, in the film Titanic, which received many Oscar awards, Murdoch's character is portrayed as a coward and a murderer.

At a ceremony marking the 86th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, 20th Century Fox executive vice president Scott Neeson presented a check for $8,000 to Dalbeattie School to apologize to the officer's relatives.

Presumably, the iceberg that the Titanic passenger liner collided with on April 14, 1912. The photograph was taken from the cable-laying vessel Mackay Bennett, captained by Captain Descarteret.

The Mackay Bennett was one of the first to arrive at the site of the Titanic disaster. According to Captain DeCarteret, it was the only iceberg near the site of the ocean liner wreck.

Passengers and some crew members were evacuated in lifeboats, many of which sailed only partially full. This photograph of lifeboats approaching the Carpathia was taken by Carpathia passenger Louis M. Ogden.

The photograph was presented at an exhibition of documents related to the Titanic disaster that Walter Lord bequeathed to the National maritime museum in Greenwich, England.

The rescue ship Carpathia picked up the 712 surviving passengers of the Titanic. A photograph taken by Carpathia passenger Louis M. Ogden shows lifeboats approaching the Carpathia.

This photograph was also exhibited in an exhibition of documents that Walter Lord bequeathed to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.

Although the Titanic had advanced safety measures such as watertight compartments and remote-controlled watertight doors, the ship did not have enough lifeboats for all passengers.

There were only enough boats for 1,178 people - that's only a third of all passengers and crew. In this photo you see the rescue of passengers from the Titanic.

Reporters interview passengers of the sunken Titanic who disembarked from the rescue ship Carpathia on May 17, 1912.

Seven-year-old Eva Hart with her father Benjamin and mother Esther, 1912. Eve and her mother escaped the sinking Titanic, but her father died when the British liner sank on the night of April 15, 1912.

People stand on the street waiting for the arrival of the Carpathia ship.

A huge crowd of people gathered outside the offices of the White Star Line on Broadway in New York to hear the latest news about the sinking of the Titanic on April 14, 1912.

People read reports outside the offices of The Sun newspaper in New York after the sinking of the Titanic.

Two messages sent from America to Lloyds of London insurers in London erroneously claimed that other ships, including the Virginia, were nearby providing assistance during the Titanic disaster.

These lots will be auctioned at Christie's in London in May 2012.

Titanic survivors Laura Francatelli and her employers Lady Lucy Duff-Gordon and Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon stand aboard the rescue ship Carpathia. Francatelli said she heard a terrible crash and then cries for help as her boat sailed away from the sinking ocean liner Titanic on that tragic night in 1912.

The passenger liner Titanic shortly before departure on its first and last voyage, 1912.

The photo released by the auction house Henry Aldridge & Son/Ho in Wiltshire, UK, on ​​April 18, 2008, shows an extremely rare artifact - passenger ticket on the Titanic.

An exhibit bequeathed to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England by Walter Lord is a Marconi telegram. Miss Edith Russell (journalist and Titanic survivor) wrote in Women's Wear Daily: "Saved on the Carpathia, tell mother." "Carpathia", April 18, 1912.

Lunch menu from the restaurant on board the Titanic, signed by the surviving passengers. Walter Lord bequeathed this document to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England.

The bow of the sunken Titanic, 1999.

One of the propellers of the Titanic passenger liner. The photo was taken during an expedition to the shipwreck on September 12, 2008. Five thousand artifacts will be sold at auction on April 11, 2012, almost 100 years after the Titanic disaster.

The starboard side of the Titanic's bow. This image was released by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on August 28, 2010.

Part of the Titanic's side, chains and an additional anchor buoy. Dr Robert Bollard, who discovered the wreck of the Titanic almost 20 years ago, returned to the site of the tragedy to look at the damage caused to the ship and its treasure by looters and seekers of easy enrichment.

The huge propeller of the sunken Titanic lies at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. The photo is undated. The first tourists to visit the shipwreck in September 1998 saw the propeller and other parts of the famous liner.

This 17-ton fragment of the Titanic's hull was recovered during an expedition to the shipwreck in 1998.

A 17-ton fragment of the Titanic passenger liner, which was recovered from the ocean floor during an expedition to the shipwreck, July 22, 2009. On April 11, 2012, this exhibit will be sold at auction along with 5 thousand other artifacts.

A gold Waltham American pocket watch - a personal item of Karl Asplund - is seen in front of a painting of the Titanic painted by C.J. Ashford. The watch was found on the body of Karl Asplund, who sank with the Titanic.

Money from the Titanic. The owner of one of the richest collections of things found on the Titanic put it up for auction in 2012, the year of the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the famous liner.

Photographs of Felix Asplund, Selma and Karl Asplund and Lillian Asplund in Devizes, Wiltshire, England. These photos are part of Lillian Asplund's collection of Titanic-related items.

Lillian was 5 years old in April 1912 when the Titanic struck an iceberg and sank on its maiden voyage. The girl survived, but her father and three siblings were among the 1,514 people who died.

Artifacts recovered from the Titanic wreck are on display at the TITANIC The Artifact Exhibit in California. scientific center: binoculars, comb, dishes and a cracked incandescent lamp. February 6, 2003.

Glasses found among the wreckage of the Titanic. The full collection of artifacts found at the Titanic wreck site will be auctioned in April 2012 - 100 years after the tragedy.

Golden spoon from the Titanic.

The chronometer from the captain's bridge of the Titanic is on display at the Science Museum in London. It is one of more than 200 objects recovered from the ocean floor where the Titanic sank.

Visitors to the exhibition at the museum can go through the entire history of the famous liner in chronological order - from the drawings for its construction to the moment of destruction after a collision with an iceberg.

The Titanic's speed measuring instrument and Gimbal lamp are among the artifacts on display at the museum in New York.

Objects from the sunken Titanic on display at the New York Museum.

A cup and pocket watch are among many items found on the Titanic, as well as a White Star Line flag button and a small porthole.

These spoons from the Titanic are part of an exhibit at the South Norwalk, Connecticut Museum.

The gold-plated handbag is one of the items from the Titanic.

The Titanic's stern, with two propellers sticking out of the mud and sand, rests on the ocean floor 600 meters south of the ship's bow.

The first complete image of the legendary wreckage. The photo mosaic consists of 1500 images high resolution made using sonar studies.

The starboard side of the ship. The bow of the Titanic was the first to sink to the bottom of the ocean, so that its front part was buried in the sand, forever closing the mortal wounds left by the iceberg.

The mutilated stern in profile.

The stern of the Titanic, top view. This interweaving of metal is a mystery to scientists. As one of them said: “If you decipher this, you will love Picasso.”

Two Titanic engines are visible through a crack in the stern. These huge structures, covered in rust, once powered the largest liner in the world at that time.

Hello, my dear readers! Today I would like to talk about serious, even more tragic, things. On April 15, the whole world celebrates a sad event... This is the date of the death of the Titanic, which contemporaries considered an unsinkable liner.

It is surprising that to this day, despite the official version of the disaster, there are different opinions and versions of what happened on that ill-fated night.

The place where the Titanic sank

The Titanic was rightfully considered the most luxurious ship of the early last century, so the news of its death shocked the entire world community. According to official figures, about 1,500 people died, including passengers and crew members. Despite the fact that the twentieth century brought many disasters, catastrophes and wars, the tragedy of the Titanic remains an equally tragic event, the interest in which continues to this day. The event that occurred near the island of Newfoundland on the night of April 14-15 was overgrown with many rumors and speculations that have a sufficient number of followers.

The place where the Titanic sank on the map has the following coordinates - 41046′ north latitude and 50014′ west longitude.

However, it was subsequently found that the stated data was incorrect, so even now there is no accurate information regarding the exact coordinates of the crash site. This is not the only oddity that accompanied this whole story, so let's try to understand some versions of what happened, because the tragedy itself is not limited to just a collision with an iceberg, it is more extensive and complex.

Versions of the tragedy

Perhaps we will not know until the end the whole truth of that night, despite the investigations carried out. Of course, they brought some clarity to what happened, but there are still a lot of “blank spots” that still remain a mystery. Some evidence contradicted others, some evidence, if checked and studied in more detail, became more than doubtful - all this gave rise to many speculations and legends on this topic, which have their followers even today.

Some of these versions may seem incredible, but history shows us that a rational explanation for what happens may not always be possible. Be that as it may, we need to talk about it, seek the truth, and then the truth will make us stronger. Another question is that the truth can hardly be known to you and me - ordinary inhabitants who get information from the Internet. In any case, we can study different versions and reasons for what happened, and everyone will decide for themselves which of them is close to them personally.

The first version is a conspiracy of the powers that be

We all love conspiracy theories, some of which smack a little of schizophrenia and paranoia. However, some facts seem so indisputable that you inevitably move from the category of skeptics to the group of doubters, at least. In the story of the Titanic, everything is also very mysterious and controversial. But let's start from the beginning.

Many people agree that the Titanic disaster was planned in advance. No matter how crazy it may sound, several interesting facts indicate this. For example, John Morgan, a famous American billionaire and part-time owner of the company that owned the liner, canceled his ticket exactly one day before the expected departure.

You will probably say that this is nothing more than an ordinary coincidence? Maybe, but Morgan's example was followed by 55 more people who were supposed to sail in first class. I think there is no need to remind you that only rich people travel in first class, and if you consider that among these 55 there are people such as John Rockefeller, Henry Frick and Alfred Vandelfeld, who were close friends of Morgan himself, then this suggests certain reflections.

I understand that the cancellation of the cruise cannot be considered the only evidence of this version

But there are several other points that indirectly confirm this interpretation of events or, at least, force us to take a fresh look at them.

Thus, in 1907, an agreement was signed on the creation of a new cruise ship, which had no analogues in the world. Two parties - Bruce Ismay (by the way, a close confidant of Rockefeller and Morgan) and Lord Pirrie started a truly large-scale production, the result of which should be that same unsinkable ship. Then they said that the liner had a super-strong bottom, and the Titanic itself could remain afloat even if four of its compartments were flooded.

However, in the 90s of the last century, Russian experts took samples of Titanic metal at depth to conduct research. The results shocked many. It turned out that it was not just ordinary metal, but also with a large addition of sulfur, which made it very fragile at subzero temperatures. Many are perplexed why such low quality steel was used in the production of the Titanic, an advanced liner at that time, the advertising campaign for which was in full swing. The explanation that a design error was made does not stand up to criticism.

There is a version that in this way the company saved its money, but they could not help but know that such steel would not withstand even the slightest collision in icy water, so such negligence also raises doubts. It also remains unclear why there were no spotlights on the Titanic, because this liner was considered the most modern and advanced. Also a miscalculation of the designers?

Indeed, there are a lot of strange things

By the way, one of the first to escape that tragic night was our old friend Bruce Ismay. It was he who was among the first to board the lifeboat, after which he waited for the arrival of the RMS Carpathia, which also belonged to the White Star Line, which manufactured the Titanic. An order was even given to rescue the first class passengers first, and the lower deck was ordered to be locked. It was there that there were 1,500 people, among whom were many women and children who died on that fateful night.

The second version is a substitution

The next version, which can also be classified as a conspiracy theory, is the story of Olympic. Few people know, but this is an exact copy of the Titanic, which was only two inches shorter than it, i.e. the length of a regular matchbox. Do you feel what I'm getting at?

The fact is that it was visually impossible to distinguish one ship from another. In addition, a separate book could be written about the misadventures of Olympus. So, immediately after launching, he collided with a dam. Then it happened to him a large number of minor and major accidents, so we can confidently call it an “unlucky ship.”

That is why many insurance companies did not want to deal with such an unlucky liner, not wanting to insure it, which the owners of the ship so zealously sought. It was decided to dock Olympic until a decision was made on its future fate.

We have a plan

Here a version began to emerge, according to which the White Star Line company wanted to get rid of the Olympic in a very original way, passing it off as the Titanic, which, by the way, was insured. Considering that they are very similar structurally and externally, this was not at all difficult to do.

It is enough just to replace the sign with the name of the liner, change some interior items, etc. The plan really looks logical, because no one will even suspect a substitution, quite reasonably believing that in front of him is the same “unsinkable” Titanic, and not the “eternal loser” Olympic.

Naturally, no one intended to intentionally sink the liner, because it is unlikely that anyone was convinced by the version that modern Titanic could drown from a simple collision with an iceberg. It is reasonable to believe that

The plan was as follows: to provoke a collision of the ship, after which it would sail safely to New York, and the owners of the company, in turn, would receive an impressive amount that was due to them under insurance.

If we consider that Edward Smith, the captain of the ship, literally deliberately drove at high speed along a dangerous route, ignoring all sorts of warnings about icebergs nearby, then this version becomes quite plausible.

But in 1985, when the hull of a sunken ship was discovered at depth, this version was officially refuted. The fact is that the number 401 was clearly visible on the propeller of the liner, i.e. the serial number of the Titanic, while the Olympic number was 400. One could also question this fact, suggesting that the company replaced the propeller after a collision with another ship (and there were many of them in the history of the Olympic), but the Titanic serial number is found on others parts of the ship, so this moment can be closed. Although I agree, the version is interesting.

The third version is the fight for the Blue Ribbon

If you are a pragmatic person, then you will probably be interested in the Blue Ribbon version. This award was given to those ships that crossed the fastest Atlantic Ocean. Naturally, serious competition immediately flared up between the companies, because winning this award promised quite big advantages.

No, the winner did not receive a cash prize, but the ship itself received something more - this is worldwide honor in the maritime industry, as well as authority, which can hardly be achieved in other ways. Such prestige inevitably led to material gain, because the ship that received this award received a contract for the delivery of all kinds of mail - a very profitable business at that time. And judge for yourself, if you were a millionaire, what kind of liner would you sail on? Of course, on the one that has received a prestigious award.

At that time, the ship that held the Blue Riband was the Mauretania, company-owned, a longtime competitor of the White Star Line. It is clear that the owners of the company were asleep and saw how they would wipe the enemy’s nose, so they bet on the Titanic, hoping that it would cross the Atlantic Ocean faster than the Mauritania. That is why the captain of the Titanic walked along a dangerous section, deliberately taking a shortcut.

Initially, the route included a small detour to avoid collisions with icebergs, which are abundant in that stretch of water. But Smith deliberately ignored the danger, racing at all speeds in a straight line, wanting to beat. This may seem crazy, but Smith naively assumed that even if a collision occurred, it would not lead to tragic consequences, and the record itself could only be postponed to a later date.

Such carelessness was very costly

By coincidence, after the collision with the iceberg, five compartments were flooded, i.e. one more than the Titanic could carry. In addition, the captain hoped that the iceberg would not break through the strong steel of the liner, because, in his opinion, this should not happen. Here we again return to the issue of the quality of the metal used in the production of the Titanic.

In addition, many supporters of this version overlook one important point. The fact is that the speed of the Mauritania, the last owner of the Blue Ribbon before the Titanic, was 26 knots. The maximum speed of the Titanic itself was no more than 24 knots, so it is not clear how it could get ahead of the Mauritania. Again, many will say that the captain knew this, so he deliberately did not slow down, moving along the shortest route, so there is no consensus. Riddles, riddles, riddles.....

Schizoteric causes of the sinking of the Titanic

In a word, there are quite a lot of versions on the theme of the tragic death of the Titanic. I haven’t yet talked about the German torpedo that allegedly sank the Titanic, and the curse of the Egyptian mummy! This is where the real schizophrenia is, which I spoke about at the beginning. So that you can appreciate the full scale of the rumors that are still circulating around this tragedy

on the story about the mummy - I’ll dwell in more detail

In general, it happened a very long time ago (we are talking about a mummy); there lived in Egypt a certain person who had the gift of foresight. I will not undertake to say whether this was actually the case or not, and this is not relevant to the matter. So, our soothsayer died, after which they made a mummy from her according to a long-standing tradition. It was found during excavations that were carried out near Cairo at the end of the nineteenth century.

The mummy was buried with big amount various treasures, among which was an image of Osiris. There was an inscription there and its meaning was literally the following: you will crush with your gaze anyone who dares to stand in your way. This therefore applied to the mummy and those likely offenders who would encroach on it.

The mummy was bought first by one collector, then by another, and so on, down the chain. They all died from a terrible curse that circled around the mummy, but who will understand true reasons their deaths? If a person dies at 90, it is unlikely that the mummy could be the cause. In the end, the mummy is bought by an unnamed American millionaire who wanted to transport it from England to the United States.

I think there is no need to explain which ship he chose for this

According to legend, the mummy was kept in an ordinary wooden box in the immediate vicinity of the captain's bridge. Naturally, the rascal Smith, being a curious fellow by nature, looked into this treasured box. Having met the eyes of the mummy, the captain immediately lost his mind. This forced him to drive through a dangerous section of water where icebergs were drifting, without slowing down.

Surprisingly, this theory also has supporters.

However, they miss one point. The meaning of mummies is the ability to preserve the shell of the body so that the soul of the deceased can return. Return to the place from which she actually fluttered out. It would be logical to assume that the main task of a mummy would be to get rid of all risks and situations where her precious body could suffer.

It is clear that after she was in icy water, the mummy would have survived for no more than a couple of days. A rather dubious approach to self-preservation, frankly speaking... In general, this kind of version is the prerogative of the yellow press, so let’s not judge them about it.

A thinking person simply will not pick up such a newspaper, but let the rest of us entertain themselves at their leisure with such fables.

By the way, I would like to apologize to Edward Smith, whose image I portrayed somewhat frivolously. Even though he took the Titanic along a dangerous route, he was a man of honor to the end. He remained on the already dying ship, making no attempt to escape. This is a long-standing maritime tradition when the captain does not abandon a sinking ship, and it literally takes your breath away every time.

In general, you and I are unlikely to learn everything about the events that took place on the night of April 15th. Therefore, our best action will be to honor the memory of all the lost passengers and crew members by remembering them once again.

In contact with

On the night of April 14, 1912, the largest and most luxurious liner in the history of mankind was rushing towards the shores at full speed. North America. Nothing foreshadowed the sinking of the Titanic. An orchestra was playing on the upper deck in a gourmet restaurant. The richest and most successful people drank champagne and enjoyed the beautiful weather.

According to official version, the Titanic sank because it was moving too fast in icy waters, and when the lookout spotted an iceberg directly ahead, there was no way to avoid a collision. The ship hit a tangential block of ice, but was so seriously damaged that it sank to the bottom three hours later. Shenan Meloni, however, believes that the iceberg is only one of the factors that destroyed the ship.

In the process of meticulously studying photographs taken ten days before the Titanic left Southampton, the journalist discovered traces of soot on the inside of the hull. Exactly in the place that was subsequently damaged in the collision. A fire in a fuel storage facility is believed to have started during high-speed testing at a dock in Belfast.

The owners of the ship knew that a fire was raging in the bowels of the Titanic, but they turned out to be so greedy that they decided not to cancel the voyage. To prevent passengers from suspecting anything, the ship was turned around in the port of Southampton. The officers were ordered to keep their mouths shut.

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

For this reason, when it hit the iceberg, six holes with a total length of about 90 meters were immediately formed in the bow compartments of the vessel. The ship's unsinkability system could not cope with such serious damage.

The death of the Titanic, the journalist concludes, was due to a nightmarish confluence of three factors: ice, fire and criminal negligence.

There were no signs of trouble

A few minutes later the lookout spotted an iceberg. And a little later, the Titanic, a gigantic ship, will collide with a drifting iceberg, and after some time it will all be over. This is how it begins great secret big ship. The next day, the sinking of the Titanic would become a legend, and its story would be the greatest mystery of the 20th century.

International sensation

The very next morning, the office of the Titanic owner's company was stormed by dozens of newspaper reporters. They wanted to know where the Titanic sank and demanded clarification. Relatives of passengers on the ocean liner were outraged. A short telegram from Cape Reis reported: “At 23 o’clock local time the most big ship"Titanic sent a distress signal." Company President Luster Whites reassured reporters: “The liner is unsinkable!” But the very next day, all the world's newspapers were full of sensational messages: “The safest Titanic (ship) in the world sank in the icy depths of the Atlantic Ocean. On the fifth day of its tragic voyage, the liner claimed 1,513 human lives.”

Disaster investigation

The sinking of the Titanic shocked both sides of the Atlantic. The question of why the Titanic ended up at the bottom haunts us to this day. From the very beginning, people wanted to know in detail what the cause of the sinking of the Titanic was. But the court’s decision read: “The liner hit an iceberg and sank.” The Titanic (the size of the ship, by the way, was very impressive) died from a banal collision with an ice floating block. It seemed incredible.

Alleged versions of the tragic death

The end to the history of this disaster has not yet been set. Fresh versions of the death of the Titanic arise even today, a century later. There are several plausible assumptions. Each of them deserves close attention. The first version says that another sunken liner lies on the Atlantic bottom. It sounds like science fiction, but this version of the death of the Titanic has real grounds. Some researchers argue that it is not the sunken ship Titanic that lies on the ocean floor, but its double, the Olympic liner. The version seems fantastic, but it is not without evidence.

Ocean Monster of Great Britain

On December 16, 1908, the firstborn was laid down in Belfast - the steamship Olympic, later the Titanic (the size of the ship reached almost 270 meters in length) with a displacement of 66 thousand tons. Until now, representatives of the shipyard consider it the most perfect project that has ever been implemented. The ship was as tall as an eleven-story building and spanned four small city blocks. This ocean monster was equipped with two 4-cylinder steam engines and a steam turbine. Its power was 50,000 horsepower, 10,000 light bulbs, 153 electric motors, four elevators, each designed for 12 people, and a large number of telephones were connected to the liner’s electrical network. The ship was truly innovative for its time. Silent elevators, steam heating, winter Garden, several darkrooms and even a hospital with an operating room.

Comfort and respectability

The interior was more reminiscent of a fashionable palace than a ship. Passengers dined at luxury restaurant in the style of Louis XVI, and they drank coffee on the sun-drenched veranda with climbing plants. Bridge games were played in spacious hallways, and high-end cigars were smoked in soft smoking rooms. The Titanic had a rich library, a gym and even a swimming pool. These days, a business class ticket on the Titanic would cost $55,000. The liner became the flagship of the White Star Line company. Almost the same in terms of comfort and technical specifications The Olympic liner lost the championship without a fight. It was he who was to become the star of transatlantic flights. But frequent accidents made him an outsider, and endless fines, lawsuits and repair costs only added to the managers' headaches.

Unsolved version

The decision was obvious: to send instead of the battered Olympic, which did not have an insurance policy, a new insured Titanic. The history of the ship "Olympic" was very unrepresentable. However, just by changing the signs on the liners, which were as similar as two peas in a pod, several problems could be solved at once. The main thing is the payment of insurance in the amount of one million pounds, which could improve the financial affairs of the company. Small accident, big money, job done. People shouldn't have been hurt, because the liner is unsinkable. In the event of an accident, the ship will drift, and ships passing by on the busy ocean route will pick up all the passengers.

Strange behavior of passengers

Versions of the sinking of the TitanicMain real proof This unprecedented scam is believed to be the refusal of 55 first class passengers to travel. Among those who remained ashore were: John Morgan, the owner of the liner. Henry Frick, steel magnate and partner. Robert Breccon, US Ambassador to France. Famous rich man George Vanderbilt. The mystery of the death of the Titanic has indirect confirmation of the insurance scam version, namely the strange behavior of Captain Edward Smith, who, by the way, was the captain of the Olympic during its first voyages.

The Last Captain

Edward Smith was considered one of the best commanders of his time. Working for the White Star Line, he earned around £1,200 a year. Other captains did not earn even half of this money. However, Smith's career was far from cloudless. Many times the ships he managed got into all sorts of accidents, ran aground or burned. It was Edward Smith who commanded the Olympic in 1911, when the uninsured ocean liner I got into serious accidents several times. But Smith managed not only to avoid punishment, but even get a promotion. He became the captain of the Titanic. Could the company's management, knowing about the captain's previous mistakes, assign him to the Titanic, and even just for one voyage? Could she use incriminating evidence on the captain in order to fire a man who brought huge losses to the company in case of disobedience with a scandal? Perhaps the captain was choosing between a shameful write-off just before retirement and participation in a scam invented by his superiors. This was the last flight for Edward Smith.

What was the first mate thinking?

Another inexplicable mystery about the sinking of the Titanic is the strange behavior of William Murdoch, the first mate. Murdock was on watch the night of the accident. When he received a message about an approaching iceberg, he gave the order to turn the ship to the left and engage reverse, which is strictly prohibited. Is it possible that the first mate made a mistake and this is the reason for the death of the Titanic? But Murdoch had already encountered a similar situation and always did the right thing, pointing the ship's nose at the obstacle. In all navigation textbooks, this maneuver is described as the only correct one in this situation. On that last voyage for the Titanic, the chief mate acted differently. As a result, the main blow fell not on the bow, where the strongest part of the ship was, but on its side. Almost a hundred meters of the starboard side opened up like a tin can. The Titanic, whose sinking story is told in less than ten seconds, was practically dead. This is exactly how long it took to pronounce the death sentence on the largest and most beautiful ship in the world. Why did Murdoch make a fatal mistake? If we assume that he, too, was in collusion, then the answer to the death of the Titanic is found by itself.

What were the ship's owners hiding?

Today it is impossible to prove the version of the insurance scam, the White Star Line company was closed, the Olympic ship was scrapped, and all documentation was destroyed. But even if we assume that the sinking of the Titanic was not rigged, then there was probably some human error involved.

Key to the Mystery Box

Many years have passed since the Titanic sank. The ship's story, however, continued in 1997, when the key was sold at a London auction for one hundred thousand pounds sterling. He opened only one box on the Titanic, but it was this key that was not on board the liner that fateful night. A chain of strange circumstances, a series of fatal coincidences and simply human negligence accompanied the superliner from the very beginning to the end of its first and last voyage. Well, the item sold for fabulous money at a London auction was an ordinary key to an ordinary box. It contained the only equipment with which it was possible to recognize the danger threatening the ship - binoculars.

Forgetful first mate

The thing is that locators appeared only in the 30s of the last century. And at that time its functions were performed by the human eye. From the very high point on the ship, the sailor continuously looked forward as the ship progressed. An airliner weighing 66 thousand tons, traveling at a speed of 45 km/h, has very low controllability, and the sooner the lookout notices the danger, the greater the chances of avoiding it. Ordinary binoculars were the only help. For unknown reasons, Chief Mate Blair was removed from the ship at the last moment. Frustrated, he simply forgot to give his replacement the key to the box where the binoculars were kept.

Meeting with an unusual iceberg

Titanic history of the ship The lookouts had to rely only on their own vigilance. They noticed the iceberg too late, when it was almost impossible to change the situation. In addition, this iceberg was different from the others; it was black. During the drift, a huge block of ice melted and turned over. The iceberg, which had absorbed tons of water, became dark. It was incredibly difficult to notice him. If that fatal iceberg for the Titanic had been white, perhaps the watchmen would have seen it much earlier. Especially if they had binoculars.

"Titanic": the story of the sinking, the beginning of events

But the strangest thing is that the ship’s command could have learned about the possibility of a collision with an iceberg much earlier than the lookouts reported it. Radio operators, the voice and ear of the Titanic, repeatedly received messages about ice floes drifting in the area. An hour before the lookout noticed the iceberg, the radio operator of the steamer California warned of possible danger. But on the Titanic the connection was rudely cut off. Even earlier, a few hours before the collision, Captain Edward Smith personally read three telegrams warning about ice floes. But they were all ignored. Officer Murdoch could have broken the chain of human miscalculations by giving the fatal order: “Full back! Left hand drive." In the event of a head-on collision of the Titanic with an iceberg, there would have been much more time to evacuate passengers. Perhaps the ship could have stayed afloat.

Human negligence

Then the mistakes followed one after another. The evacuation order was given only 45 minutes after the collision. Passengers were asked to put on life belts and gather on the upper deck near the lifeboats. And then it suddenly became clear that the Titanic had only twenty lifeboats that could accommodate no more than 1,300 people, 48 lifebuoys and pith vests for each passenger and crew members. However, the vests were useless for the northern regions of the Atlantic. A man caught in cold water, died half an hour later from hypothermia.

Prophetic predictions of a science fiction writer

Immediately after the disaster, the whole world was shocked by an incredible coincidence. The date of sinking of the Titanic is April 15, 1912. And fourteen years before the tragedy, the unknown London journalist Morgan Robertson finished his new novel. The science fiction writer spoke about the voyage and death of the huge transatlantic liner Titan: “On a cold April night, at full speed, the ship ran into an iceberg and sank.” Moreover, the science fiction writer pinpointed the exact location of the sinking of the Titanic. The novel turned out to be prophetic, and the science fiction writer was dubbed the Nostradamus of the 20th century. There really were a lot of coincidences in the book: the displacement of the ship, its maximum speed, and even the number of propellers and lifeboats. Moreover, a few years later, the writer published his new novel, in which he predicted war in the USA and Japan. Another coincidence: a copy of the book about the ship “Titan” was on the ship with one of the firemen. The sailor read it during the first days of the voyage, and he was so impressed by the plot that in one of the ports he simply ran away. And this was not the only crew member to escape from the Titanic. It remains a mystery: either everyone who escaped had read the book before, or they had more compelling reasons.

Testimonies of eyewitnesses to the tragedy

Immediately after the sinking of the Titanic, special commissions were created in England and the United States to investigate its causes. Surviving passengers spoke of a loud bang that they heard after the collision with the iceberg. It was like an explosion. According to one version, a fire was raging in the liner's coal bunker. Some researchers believe that it started even before the Titanic left port, while others are confident that the fire broke out during the voyage.

A little bit of history

Britain was being transformed by the technological revolution. Beginning in the 30s of the 19th century, steam-powered merchant ships began to cross the Atlantic. The technology proved promising, and the kingdom's admiralty concluded that steam would make the sailing fleet obsolete. When reports appeared in London that tests of a steam engine were already underway in France, which had also entered the struggle for naval supremacy, the British had no choice but to accept the challenge. At first, large paddle wheels were used, which were installed on opposite sides of the sides. The first replacement for the paddle wheel appeared about ten years later, in the 40s of the 19th century. Shipbuilders have come to the conclusion that a propeller is much more efficient than a wheel. It was only after its invention and placement under the bottom of the ship that steam propulsion became a decisive advantage. But in most cases it remained experimental developments; sometimes the innovation was used on warships. Steam engines became widespread only in the 20th century, and coal was the only fuel for a long time. In the future, the transition from coal to fuel oil will be a step to the next level of development. But in the days of the Olympic class superliners, ships with internal combustion engines were as rare as steam engine first half of the 19th century century. Be that as it may, the fire on board should not have affected the life of the ship and its passengers. There could be no emergency incidents on the liner, this is the Titanic.

Further developments

Captain Smith ordered the bunker in which the fire was raging to be localized. Due to the lack of oxygen, the fire should have died out, the problem would have resolved itself. A fire on board is a good enough reason to drive the liner with all your might to the nearest port. But when the Titanic hit an iceberg, it ripped open the ship's hull, and oxygen entered the bunker. There was a powerful explosion. Many years later, after an underwater study of the remains of the ship, this version gained additional arguments. A huge fault runs exactly where the coal compartments were located. For the first time, a version of the fire appeared on the pages of American newspapers even before the surviving passengers and crew members of the Titanic were delivered to New York. Without factual material, but using only rumors, newspapermen invented the most incredible stories about the tragedy. In any case, when the stokers were interrogated, they denied that there was a fire, although it would seem that after the disaster they had nothing to hide. On the other hand, according to some accounts, Captain Smith went down to the boiler room and ordered everyone to remain silent about the burning coal. We don’t yet know what actually happened to the giant liner. The Titanic, the story of whose sinking has become the subject of documentaries and feature films, will always be of interest to future generations.

New version about the death of the liner

The nature of the Titanic's fault not only fuels the theory of a fire in the hold, but also allows some researchers to make an unexpected assumption. The liner sank another ship. At the beginning of the 20th century, a new secret weapon was tested in the seas. Perhaps the Titanic was hit by a torpedo. The version seems unusual, but the facts of the fracture and torn edges that could result torpedo attack, make you take her seriously. If the Titanic was nevertheless torpedoed, one can only hope that someday researchers will get to that part of the ship, the study of which will help shed light on this version.

Almost 105 years have passed since the most famous shipwreck of the 20th century - the sinking of the passenger liner Titanic, but it seems that this story will give us reasons for conversation, investigation and inspire the creation of new films and books for a long time!

But I wonder if James Cameron will ever agree to remake the romantic story about Jack and Rose, knowing that it was not an iceberg that separated them, but a fire?

Yes, this is exactly the news brought by the new year 2017! British journalist Shanan Moloney, who has more than 30 years of experience in researching the Titanic shipwreck, confirmed the earlier version of experts that the cause of the death of the ship was a fire in the fuel storage! As indisputable evidence, Moloney cites the results of studying photographs taken by electrical engineers of the Titanic before it left the Harland and Wolfe shipyard in Belfast!

Construction of the Titanic

So, the journalist reports that the fuel in the three-story storage facility began to burn even before the ceremonial departure of the liner from Southampton in April 1912. And even more, a team of 12 people tried to put out the fire for several weeks, but, alas, to no avail. The owners of the ship were informed about what had happened, but they considered the cancellation of the first voyage of the “unsinkable” to be a greater disaster for their reputation than the possible consequences. The officers were ordered not to disclose this information to passengers, but before leaving, to turn the liner the other side towards the shore!

Ticket to the Titanic

According to Moloney's version, the hull of the ship at the site of the fire heated to more than 1000 degrees Celsius, and this made it 75% more fragile. And when, on the fifth day of the voyage, the Titanic collided with an iceberg, she could not withstand the load, and a huge hole appeared on board!

Rescue of Titanic Passengers

Let's be honest, blaming the iceberg as the only reason for the large-scale loss of life and the sinking of the ship would be unfair. A much larger role in the disaster was played by the negligent crime of the owners and the fire on the eve of sailing.

Titanic at the bottom

It is known that out of 2229 crew members and passengers of the Titanic, only 713 people were saved. Today, the wreckage of the liner rests at a depth of 3,750 meters in the waters North Atlantic, and artifacts found by adventurers and researchers from time to time excite the memory and excitement of everyone who is not indifferent to this story.

Newspaper report about the sinking of the Titanic

But it turns out that not only the fire was an obvious reason not to set sail... When Shipbuilder magazine called the Titanic a “practically unsinkable ship,” its owners seized on this phrase and everyone possible ways began to demonstrate his greatness and reliability.

Staircase under the dome in 1st grade

First of all, they broke the tradition of the fleet and did not break a bottle of champagne on the side of the ship during the first voyage - the Titanic is unsinkable, which means that subsequent voyages will be just as successful!

And troubles did not take long to arrive - before sailing far from Southampton, the Titanic almost collided with the American liner New York. The first disaster was avoided almost at the last minute!

Two of the Titanic's three propellers

Everything about the luxury of the interior and service on the Titanic is known down to the smallest detail. But for just one first class ticket, in modern terms, passengers paid several tens of thousands of dollars! And it is not surprising that greedy divers dream of a big jackpot - on the first (and last) voyage of the Titanic, 10 millionaires went on a trip with gold and jewelry in safes worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Smoking room 1st class

It is impressive that “special cabins” were intended for such important people, made in eleven different interior styles - from Dutch and Adam style to interiors in the style of the French and Italian Renaissance! I wonder how many hours did it take for the richest passengers of the ship to walk all 7 km of its promenade decks?

Bedroom 1st class (B-64)

But how boring it is to re-read for the hundredth time about 40 tons of potatoes, 27 thousand bottles mineral water and beer, 35 thousand eggs and 44 tons of meat, oysters from Baltimore and cheeses from Europe on board the Titanic. It's a matter of finding out the most impressive facts!

Captain Smith on deck

It is sad to admit that the cost of a ticket on the liner determined the chances of salvation. It is known that out of 143 first class passengers, only 4 died. And only because they did not board the lifeboat.

One of them was Ida Strauss. The woman did not want to part with her husband Isidor Strauss, co-owner largest network Macy's supermarkets.

Ida and Isidore Strauss

“I will not leave my husband. We have always been together, we will die together."

Ida declared, giving up her place in lifeboat No. 8 to the maid and giving her a fur coat, adding that she no longer needed it...

Eyewitnesses claim that at the time of the death of the ship, the Strauss spouses were calm. They sat in chairs on the deck, holding each other with one hand and waving goodbye to the rescued with their free hand. By the way, the maid not only survived, but even outlived her owners by 40 years!

Orchestra musicians

The Titanic sank to the music. Until the last minutes, the orchestra stood on the deck and played the church hymn “Closer, Lord, to You.” None of the musicians survived. Well, the body of the orchestra leader, 33-year-old violinist Wallace Hartley, was found 10 days later with a violin tied to his chest!

Thanks to the inscription on the instrument, it was established that the violin was given to the musician by his fiancée, Maria Robinson. Yes, the girl was found, but Maria still decided to say goodbye to the memorable instrument and handed it over to the British Salvation Army. In 2013, the violin was sold at auction for $1.5 million!

The icy waters of the Atlantic forever took with them the body of Captain Edward John Smith. A naval officer with 30 years of experience never completed his first transatlantic voyage, tragically sank to the bottom along with the entire crew without attempting to escape...

Captain Edward John Smith

Did you know that the last passenger of the Titanic, Elizabeth Gladys Milvina Dean, died just 8 years ago at the age of 97? At the time of the sad event, she was only 2 months and 13 days old.

The last passenger of the Titanic

But even Jack Dawson, played by our favorite Leonardo DiCaprio, is a real person! And let director Cameron prove as much as he wants that this character is a figment of his imagination, on the Titanic there was actually a coal miner named Jack Dawson, who, however, was not in love according to the script with Rose, but with a friend’s sister.

But this is not all mysticism. Get ready for the most interesting thing - it is known that on April 15, 1972 (do you remember that the Titanic sank on the night of April 14-15?) the radio operator of the battleship Theodore Roosevelt received an SOS signal.

Signal from the Titanic, which was received by the passenger ship Carpathia

Not impressive yet? But he received a signal for help from the Titanic! Then the poor fellow thought that he had “moved with his mind” and hurried to the military archive, where he found that radiograms from the sunken ship had already been received in 1924, 1930, 1936 and 1942. But that’s not all - the last signal from the Titanic was received by the Canadian ship Quebec in April 1996.

Hi all! Today I am with you again, Vladimir Raichev, and today I would like to discuss with you some interesting and mystical facts related to the transatlantic liner Titanic, which sank in 1912.

The Titanic was positioned as the most reliable liner of its time, it had the following characteristics:

Owner: British shipping company White Star Line

Date of construction: 1911

Construction cost: £3 million

Number of decks - 8

Length - 269 m

Width - 30 m

Displacement - 52310 t

Maximum speed— 42 km/h

Capacity - 3547 passengers + crew

Design features - double bottom, hull material - steel, hold and lower decks were divided into 16 compartments by bulkheads with hermetic doors.

These are just some of the characteristics of the ship; among other things, there were 20 boats on board with a total capacity of 1,178 people. The Titanic was the standard of reliability, wealth, and nothing foreshadowed its collapse. On April 12, 1912, the Titanic set sail on its maiden voyage from Southampton.

History of the disaster

On April 14, the captain and his crew received 7 messages from other ships that they encountered floating ice. For some reason, the team completely ignored these warnings and flew their liner at full speed towards New York.

Closer to midnight, the one looking ahead reported approaching an iceberg, this message was transmitted to the first mate, who was on duty on the bridge that night. William Murdoch, contrary to all instructions, tried to go around the iceberg.

Any inexperienced captain knows that under no circumstances should the ship be turned or put into reverse. As a result of the collision with the iceberg, the Titanic received a large hole on the starboard side below the waterline.

Captain Edward Smith climbed onto the bridge a little later; he felt the collision while in his cabin. Having assessed the damage to the liner, he consulted with the chief designer of the ship and decided to prepare for the evacuation of people.

The radio operators were given the command to transmit distress signals. The sailors knew very little about the procedure for their actions in an emergency, although the plan for these actions was posted in several places, but the sailors did not bother to study this plan.

The fact is that each boat had its own sailor. And it took a lot of work for the officers to organize the preparation of life-saving equipment. No one could even imagine the sinking of the Titanic, so there is nothing strange in the fact that such self-confidence reigned around.

Passengers who were directed to lifeboats, were in no hurry at all, since they did not assume that a disaster had occurred: the people on the upper deck did not even feel the collision.

Untrained sailors lowered the first boats not completely filled. And if you remember, at the very beginning of the article I mentioned the capacity of the ship and the number of seats in life-saving equipment. There were 3 times fewer seats in the boats than there were passengers.

The ensuing panic also complicated the evacuation of passengers. The Titanic had it all: manifestations of cowardice and cowardice, and courage and perseverance, the inept actions of the crew bordered on the help of women in the boats, who told some men how to handle the oars.

Contrary to engineering calculations, the liner stayed on the water for more than 3 hours. Desperate people, who did not have enough space on the boats, jumped into the icy water. The water temperature reached -2 ​​degrees - borderline freezing temperature.

Ultimately, only 705 passengers managed to escape, and over 1,500 died in this disaster. This disaster was one of the largest in the last century.

Causes of the disaster

A collision with an iceberg was the main reason for the death of the liner. But why did this happen? Why did the captain and his crew so neglect reports of drifting ice? Why did the first officer act so unprofessionally? Why did the person looking ahead report the approach to the iceberg so late? Why was the evacuation so disorganized?

There are many more questions related to this incident than answers. After a long time, a lot began to appear alternative versions crashes. For example, one of them says that the White Star Line company sent another ship, the Olympic, instead of the Titanic, as if the plan was simple: to initiate a disaster, sink the ships and receive insurance compensation for a cheaper ship.

Captain Edward Smith, before he was appointed captain of the Titanic, managed to take part in some disasters with his other ships, for example, the Republic and Adriatic ran aground, the Majestic and Baltic caught fire, and the liner " Olympic collided with the British war cruiser Hawk in 1911.

However, some members of the crew were also flawed, such as First Officer Murdoch, who was unable to avoid a collision with a block of ice, or Chief Radio Operator Jack Phillips, who responded very harshly to warnings about drifting ice.

It is noteworthy that just before leaving for the flight, Smith's team was replaced by the one looking forward. And the sailor removed from the ship forgot to give his colleague only one key, which opened the doors of the box where the binoculars were located.

Mystical consequences of the tragedy

But it is interesting that now other explanations for the disaster have begun to appear - mystical ones. Over the course of a century, this story has acquired details and guesses. More than once artistic and documentaries shed light on this story from different angles.

In 1994, right at the site of the sinking of the liner, fishermen caught a 10-month-old baby alive, tied to a life preserver with the words “Titanic” written on it. Also, information has repeatedly surfaced about a girl who appeared in our time and claimed that she was a passenger on this ship.

Surprisingly, both the baby and the girl were documented to exist at the beginning of the century, and the girl was declared sane by psychiatrists. There is nothing left but to connect the mysterious events taking place with the emergence of a certain “time portal” at the site of the sinking of the Titanic.

The stories of eyewitnesses about luminous circles under water, shortly before the disaster, are also suggestive.

The appearance of the captain

There was another one interesting case. On August 9, 1991, near Iceland, a Norwegian research vessel picked up a man adrift on a boat. Imagine the surprise of the crew when it turned out that this was the captain of the Titanic, Edward John Smith.

This man was somewhat dazed, but overall he was healthy, and what was most striking was that he looked as if the year on the calendar was still 1912. For 80 years he was considered dead, but he looked great, smoked a pipe and was dressed in a clean White Star Shipping Company uniform.

Of course, they didn’t take this man’s word for it. He was taken to Sweden, and there, in the city of Oslo, he was sent to a psychiatric clinic. They also took his fingerprints there. The results of the fingerprint examination shocked the researchers. It was confirmed that the man from the boat was indeed Captain Edward John Smith.

Of course, both the girl who “rescued” from the Titanic and the captain of the ship remained within the walls of specialized institutions, isolated from the world.

It is shocking that all these people at the time of discovery looked the age they were at the time of the disaster, as if these 80 years did not exist for them. Scientists explain the phenomena occurring in the Atlantic by formation in this anomalous zone space-time holes.

There is documented evidence from a Norwegian ship that on the day of the disaster, a giant funnel, in other words, a whirlpool, was seen in the Atlantic. A few hours later, the Titanic shipwrecked in this area. Perhaps the crater and the crash are somehow connected.

Scientists are working to study the mechanisms of the appearance of “space-time portals,” and in the meantime we can only guess what other mysteries the Atlantic Ocean holds, and how many secrets the famous superliner Titanic took with it.

This is where I want to end my article today. Share this with your friends interesting story, subscribe to updates, we still have a lot of interesting things ahead. See you soon, take care of yourself.