You have read and heard about the Titanic many times. The history of the creation and wreck of the liner was 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 sea 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 really was 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 the starting point was London. The capital of Great Britain was not in the ranks of seaports, and therefore the steamer could not leave from there.
The fatal 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. It 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 its 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 for the 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 was slow and uncoordinated - 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 tell 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 un-embalmed 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 delivery.
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. Of the 1,500 people killed, only 333 bodies were found.
How deep does the Titanic lie
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 learned 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, 17 expeditions have been carried out, during which they raised 5,000 objects and large hulls 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 been 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, Britannic 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 blown up on a German mine, Britannica quickly 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 reason for the collapse of the largest ocean liner of its time, the Titanic, could have been a fire in the fuel storage.
According to British journalist Shannon Moloney, who studied the history of the ship for thirty years, the fire on board began even before the ship left Southampton, and for several weeks it was unsuccessfully tried to extinguish it. During this time, the liner skin warmed up, which is why the collision with the iceberg ended so badly.
According to the newspaper The Independent, the journalist succeeded, made before the start of the Titanic trip. Moloney found traces of soot in the skin, which was subsequently damaged by a collision with an iceberg. According to experts, with a high probability they arose due to a fire in one of the liner's fuel storages.
According to the researcher, the ship's owners knew about the fire, but hid this fact from passengers. The team was also ordered to remain silent about the fire. According to Shannon Moloney, as a result of the fire, the ship's skin was heated to a temperature of about 1000 degrees Celsius, which made the steel, which had lost up to 75 percent of its strength, extremely brittle.
According to the journalist, when, on the fifth day of the trip, the Titanic collided with an iceberg, the skin could not stand it, and a huge hole appeared in the side. Therefore, the iceberg cannot be considered the only culprit in the catastrophe, which claimed the lives of more than 1,500 people on April 15, 1912.
Note, "" belonged to the British company "White Star Line". At the time of construction, it was considered the largest passenger liner in the world, and, in addition, it was listed as unsinkable. On May 31, 1911, the liner was launched. "The Lord Himself cannot sink this ship!" - said its captain Edward John Smith about the ship.
A little over a year later, the Titanic embarked on its maiden voyage. Onboard there were 2,224 people: 1,316 passengers and 908 crew members. On April 14, 1912, the steamer collided with an iceberg and sank after 2 hours and 40 minutes. 711 people were saved, 1513 died ...
Icebergs are also not so simple. Greenlandic icebergs usually get stuck in shallow waters off the coast of Labrador and Newfoundland and only swim further south after they have thawed thoroughly, often under the influence of tides. However, in the case of the Titanic, several large icebergs managed to swim far to the south.
Physicist Donald Olson of the University of Texas (USA) and his colleagues investigated the hypothesis of the oceanographer Fergus Wood, who argued that the icebergs were floated by the tide in January 1912, when the Moon was unusually close to the Earth. By mid-April, the fatal ice mountain had reached the collision site.
Indeed, says Olson, on January 4, 1912, the Moon came closest to Earth in 1400 years. On the eve of the same, the Earth approached the Sun as close as possible. The Moon and the Sun were in such a position when their mutual gravitational influence on the Earth intensified. Obeying the force of the tide, the killer iceberg broke away from Greenland and set off.
At the same time, one of the biggest mysteries associated with the sinking of the Titanic is the more than frivolous behavior of the liner captain Edward Smith. An experienced sea wolf, who has repeatedly plowed the waters of the North Atlantic, for some reason did not pay attention to the warning about approaching icebergs. Perhaps he simply did not believe the information about them.
Although the point may be different. The hypothesis, which fundamentally changes the history of the disaster, belongs to two researchers - an amateur Robin Gardner (his main profession is a plasterer) and a historian Dan Van der Wat. Having studied the archives of the navy for 50 years, they came to the conclusion that it was not the Titanic that actually died, but the other ship - the Olympic! The latter was built almost simultaneously with the Titanic and at the same shipyards. But from the very first days, this ship was in trouble. When it was launched on October 20, 1910, it crashed into a dam. The owner of the ship, Bruce Ismay, and the owner of the Harland and Wolf shipyards, Lord Pirri, had to pay a considerable sum for repairs and damages, which almost ruined them.
While sailing, the Olympic had several accidents. Since then, no insurance company has undertaken to insure the "damned ship". And then Ismay and Pirri conceived the "scam of the century" - to send the "Olympic" under the name of "Titanic" sailing across the Atlantic and, when it crashes, get insurance for it - 52 million pounds!
The owners had no doubts that their plan would succeed. To protect passengers, they intended to send another ship along the same route, which, allegedly by accident, would pick up passengers and crew. But, in order not to arouse any suspicion, the shipowners decided that the "rescue" ship would leave the pier no earlier than a week after the start of the voyage. Alas, I had to wait only three days ...
Captain of the imaginary "Titanic" Edward John Smith was ready to carry out any order from his superiors. So, a few hours before the tragedy, binoculars were seized from the observers on duty. And a few minutes before the crash, Smith allegedly ordered to turn the liner sideways in the direction of the iceberg. He seemed to be trying to secure a disaster!
The further history of the "Titanic" (or false "Titanic") is known to us. What happened to the real Titanic? According to Gardner and van der Wath, he sailed safely under a different name first in the Royal Naval Forces, then it was acquired by the White Star Line. The ship was written off ashore in 1935.
Whether "his" death (or the ship, which everyone took for the "Titanic")? Or was he "helped" to crash? This we, most likely, will never know. Of course, both the "conspiracy theory" and the "lunar hypothesis" are nothing more than versions. But the fact remains that the Titanic sank. And, whatever led to his death, we are no longer able to change the tragic fate of this ship ...
Did the Titanic (or the ship that everyone took for the Titanic) died "by his own" death? Or was he "helped" to crash? This we, most likely, will never know. Of course, both the "conspiracy theory" and the "lunar hypothesis" are nothing more than versions. But the fact remains that the Titanic sank. And no matter what led to his death, we are no longer able to change the tragic fate of this ship ...
The tragic legend of the Titanic
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 to create new films and books for a long time to come!
But I wonder if James Cameron will ever agree to reshoot the romantic story of Jack and Rose, knowing that it was not an iceberg at all, but a fire that separated them?
Yes, this is exactly the message that the new 2017 brought! British journalist Chenan Moloney, who has more than 30 years of experience in researching the Titanic shipwreck, confirmed an earlier version of experts that the cause of the ship's death was a fire in the fuel storage! Moloney cites photographs taken by the electrical engineers of the Titanic before it left the Harland & Wolfe shipyard in Belfast as irrefutable proof!
Construction of the Titanic
So, the journalist reports that the fuel in the three-story storage began to burn even before the solemn departure of the liner from Southampton in April 1912. And even more, a team of 12 people tried to eliminate the fire for several weeks, but, alas, to no avail. The owners of the ship were informed about the incident, but they considered the cancellation of the first voyage "unsinkable" to be a greater disaster for their reputation than the possible consequences. The officers were ordered not to disclose this information to passengers, and before leaving, turn the liner to the other side to the shore!
Titanic Ticket
According to Moloney's version, the hull of the ship at the site of the fire warmed up to over 1000 degrees Celsius, which 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 was formed on board!
Rescue of passengers of "Titanic"
Let's be honest, it would be unfair to blame the iceberg as the only reason for the massive loss of life and the sinking of the ship. The negligent criminality of the owners and the fire on the eve of sailing played a much larger role in the disaster.
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 of the North Atlantic, and artifacts found by adventurers and researchers from time to time excite the memory and excitement of all who are not indifferent to this story.
The message in the newspaper about the sinking of the "Titanic"
But it turns out that not only the fire was the obvious reason not to sail ... When the magazine "Shipbuilder" called "Titanic" "virtually unsinkable ship", its owners seized on this phrase and in every possible way began to demonstrate its greatness and reliability.
Staircase under the dome in 1st grade
First of all, they broke the tradition of the fleet and did not smash 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 the troubles did not keep themselves waiting long - 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 three Titanic screws
Everything is known about the luxury of the interior and service on the Titanic down to the smallest detail. But passengers paid tens of thousands of dollars for just one first-class ticket in terms of modern money! And it is not surprising that greedy divers dream of a big jackpot - on the first (and last) flight of the Titanic, 10 millionaires set off on a journey with gold and jewelry in safes worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Class 1 smoking room
It is impressive that for such VIPs there were also "special cabins" made in eleven different interior styles - from the Dutch and Adam's to the interiors in the style of the French and Italian Renaissance! Interestingly, and in how many hours did the richest passengers of the ship manage to pass all 7 km of its promenade decks?
Class 1 sleeping room (B-64)
But how boring is it to reread for the hundredth time about 40 tons of potatoes, 27 thousand bottles of mineral water and beer, 35 thousand eggs and 44 tons of meat, oysters from Baltimore and cheeses from Europe on board the Titanic. Whether it be to find out the most impressive facts!
Captain Smith on deck
It is sad to admit that the cost of a liner ticket determined the chances of salvation. It is known that only 4 out of 143 first-class passengers died, and only because they did not get into the lifeboat.
One of them was Ida Strauss. The woman did not want to part with her husband Isidor Strauss, the co-owner of the largest supermarket chain Macy's.
Ida and Isidore Strauss
“I will not leave my husband. We have always been together, together and will die ",
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 sinking of the ship, the Strauss spouses were calm. They sat in chairs on the deck, holding each other with one hand, and with their free hand they waved goodbye to the saved. By the way, the maid not only survived, but even outlived her owners by 40 years!
Orchestra musicians
I went to the bottom of the "Titanic" 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 presented to the musician by his bride Maria Robinson. Yes, the girl was found, but Maria decided to say goodbye to the memorial 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 took away forever the body of Captain Edward John Smith. A naval officer with 30 years of experience never completed his first transatlantic voyage, tragically sinking to the bottom along with the entire crew without trying 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 the 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 with Rose according to the script, but with his friend's sister.
But this is not all mysticism. Get ready for the fun part - 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 "Titanic", which was received by the passenger steamer "Karpatia"
Not impressive yet? But he received the signal for help from the Titanic! Then the poor man thought that he "moved his mind" and hurried to the military archive, where he found that the 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 in April 1996 was received by the Canadian ship Quebec.
The Titanic is the largest and most luxurious liner of its time. He was unashamedly called unsinkable, and he really seemed like that. He set out on his maiden voyage at noon on April 10 from the English port of Southampton. The final destination was to be the American city of New York. But the Titanic, as you know, did not make it to the shores of the United States ...
The collision of the "Titanic" with an iceberg
On April 14, 1912, the liner at full speed (at a speed of 22.5 knots, it was almost the maximum speed) was rushing across the North Atlantic. Nothing foreshadowed the tragedy, there was a complete calm. An orchestra played on the upper deck in a beautifully decorated restaurant. The rich first grade people drank champagne, walked in the open air and enjoyed the wonderful weather.
In the late evening of April 14, at 23:39, two lookouts (this is the official name of the sailors observing the situation during the voyage from a comfortable position) noticed an iceberg right along the course and reported this by telephone to the bridge. Officer William Murdock immediately commanded "Left rudder." Thus, he tried to prevent a collision.
But the multi-ton ship could not turn instantly, although in this case every second was worth its weight in gold - the block of ice was getting closer and closer. And only after about half a minute the Titanic's nose began to tilt to the left. Ultimately, the visible part of the iceberg "missed" the ship without touching the starboard side.
The Titanic managed to turn two points, this was enough to prevent a head-on collision, but the liner still could not get away from the ice block - it ran into its hidden part, which was under water. This contact lasted approximately nine seconds. As a result, six holes were formed - all of them were below the waterline.
Contrary to popular misconception, the iceberg did not "cut" the bottom of the liner. Everything was a little different: from strong pressure the rivets on the casing shattered, the steel sheets were bent and gaps appeared between them. Water began to enter the compartments through them. And the penetration rate, of course, was enormous - more than seven tons per second.
The iceberg bent the hull of the ship, as a result of which the tightness was broken
Further chronology of the tragedy
Most of the passengers on the upper deck felt no threat at first. The stewards who served the snack on the tables in the restaurant noticed only a slight clink of spoons and forks on the tables. Some of the passengers felt a slight jolt and rattling, which quickly ended. Some people thought that the propeller blade had simply fallen off from the ship.
On the lower decks, the first consequences were more tangible: the local passengers heard an unpleasant grinding and rumble.
Exactly at midnight, Thomas Andrews, the man who designed the Titanic, came to the bridge. He had to assess the nature and severity of the damage that occurred. After reporting what had happened and inspecting the ship, Andrews told everyone in the audience that the Titanic would definitely sink.
Soon the ship began to lurch noticeably. The 62-year-old captain of the vessel, Edward Smith, gave the order to prepare boats and begin calling passengers for evacuation.
And the radio operators, in turn, were ordered to send SOS signals to all nearby ships. They did this for the next two hours, and only a few minutes before the complete drowning, Smith relieved the telegraph operators from work.
Several ships received distress signals, but almost all of them were too far from the Titanic. At 00:25, the message about the tragedy on the Titanic was received by the Carpathia ship. It was at a distance of 93 kilometers from the crash site. Immediately the captain of the "Carpathia" Arthur Rostron sent his ship to the area. “Carpathia”, hurrying to help people, managed to develop that night a record speed for itself of 17.5 knots - for this, all the devices working on electricity and heating were turned off on the ship.
There was another ship, which was even closer to the Titanic than the Carpathia - only 10 nautical miles (which is equal to 18.5 kilometers). In theory, he could be of help. We are talking about the "Californian" liner. The Californian was surrounded by ice, and therefore its captain decided to stop the ship - it was not planned to start again until the next morning.
At 11:30 pm, Titanic radio operator Phillips and Californian radio operator Evans talked to each other. Moreover, Phillips at the very end of this dialogue rather rudely asked Evans not to litter the air, since at that moment he was transmitting a signal to Cape Reis (this is a cape on the island of Newfoundland). After that, Evans simply turned off the power in the radio room and went to bed. And after 10 minutes, the Titanic collided with an iceberg. Some time later, the Titanic sent the first distress signal, but the Californian could no longer receive it.
On top of that, the Titanic had no red flares. The confidence in the unsinkability of the ship was so high that no one bothered to take the red rockets with them. Then it was decided to fire volleys of ordinary whites. The calculation was that the crew of a nearby ship would guess that trouble had happened to the Titanic. The Californian officers did see the white rockets, but they thought it was just some kind of festive fireworks. A fantastic series of misunderstandings!
At half past one in the morning, the passengers began to be seated in the boats. It immediately became clear that there were not enough places for everyone. In total, there were twenty boats on board and their total capacity was 1178 people.
By order of Captain Smith and his assistant Charles Lightoller, who supervised the evacuation process on the left side of the liner, only children and women were taken into the boats. Men, according to the captain, were obliged to be on the ship to the last. But William Murdock, another assistant to Smith, who led the evacuation on the starboard side, gave places in boats and men when there were no women and children in the line.
At about 02:15, the bow of the liner suddenly sank down and the rest of the ship moved forward. A large cold wave swept across the decks, many people were simply carried overboard.
At about 02:20 the Titanic completely disappeared under the ocean water. The liner was so huge that it sank for 160 minutes.
After the food was completely submerged, hundreds of people swam to the surface. They swam in the icy water among all sorts of things from the ship: wooden beams, pieces of furniture, doors, etc. Many tried to use all this as a floating craft.
The temperature of the ocean water that night was −2 ° C (sea water does not freeze at this temperature due to the concentration of salt in it). A man here was dying of severe hypothermia within half an hour on average. And many of those moving away from the sunken ship on boats heard the heartbreaking cries of those who did not have enough space in the boats ...
At about 04:00, the Carpathia appeared in the area of the sinking Titanic. This ship carried 712 people on board, after which it headed for New York. Among the rescued, 394 people are women and children, 129 people are men, another 189 people are members of the ship's crew.
The death toll in this shipwreck was, according to various sources, from 1400 to 1517 people (it is difficult to give an exact figure, because there were many free riders on the Titanic). Thus, 60% of passengers from first class cabins managed to escape, 44% from second class cabins, 25% from those who bought third class tickets.
Titanic characteristics
When commissioned, the Titanic was 269 meters long and about 30 meters wide. The height of the liner was also impressive: from the waterline to the uppermost boat deck here it was 18.5 meters (and if you count from the keel to the top of the first pipe , it would be 53 meters in general). The draft of this liner was 10.5 meters, and the displacement was 52310 tons.
"Titanic" in 1912 in the port of Belfast (this is where it was built)
The liner was driven by several four-cylinder steam engines and a steam turbine. At the same time, steam for them, as well as for all kinds of auxiliary mechanisms, was produced in 29 boilers. It should be specially noted that none of the thirty ship mechanics survived. They stayed in the engine room and kept the steam units running until the very end.
The role of propulsion on the Titanic was performed by three propellers. The diameter of the central rotor was 5.2 meters, it had four blades. The propellers located at the edges had a larger diameter - 7.2 meters, but they had three blades. Propellers with three blades could rotate up to 80 rpm, and the central one - up to 180 rpm.
There were also four chimneys above the upper deck, each 19 meters high. The Titanic had a double bottom and had sixteen pressurized compartments. They were separated by watertight bulkheads. It is estimated that the ship would remain afloat even if any two compartments or four contiguous compartments on the bow or stern were flooded. But on the night of the tragedy, the iceberg damaged five compartments - one more than allowed.
Crew and passenger composition
It is known that on a tragic voyage in the ship's crew there were many people who had not undergone special training: stewards, stokers, shtivschikov (this was the name of people whose task was to bring coal to the furnaces and throw ash overboard), coca. There were very few qualified sailors - only 39 sailors and seven officers, captain's mates. Moreover, some of the sailors have not even had time to get to know the Titanic well, since they were hired just a few days before sailing.
It is worth telling a little about the passengers. The passenger composition was extremely motley - from mendicant emigrants from Sweden, Italy, Ireland, who sailed for a better life in the New World, to hereditary millionaires such as John Jacob Astor IV and Benjamin Guggenheim (both died).
Benjamin Guggenheim put on his best tailcoat and began to drink whiskey in the hall - so he spent the last hours of his life
In accordance with the cost of the purchased ticket, there was a division into three classes. For those who swam in the first class, a swimming pool, a gym, a sauna, a squash court, an electric bath (a kind of "ancestor" of the solarium) and a special compartment for pets were provided. There was also a restaurant, elegantly furnished dining rooms, smoking rooms.
By the way, the service in the third class was also decent, better than on some other transatlantic steamers of that time. The cabins were bright and comfortable, not cold and clean enough. The dining room served not very sophisticated, but quite acceptable dishes, there were special decks for walking.
The premises and spaces of the ship were strictly divided according to classes. And passengers of, say, third class were forbidden to be on the first class deck.
"Titanic" in books and films
The terrible events that happened on the Titanic in April 1912 served as the basis for many literary works, paintings, songs and films.
The first book about "Titanic" was written, paradoxically, long before its crash. The little-known American writer Morgan Robertson released the story "Futility, or the Death of a Titan" back in 1898. It described the seemingly unsinkable ship "Titan", which crashed on an April night, colliding with a kind of iceberg. There weren't enough boats on the Titan, and so many of the passengers died.
The story did not sell well at first, but after the incident of 1912, interest in the book increased sharply - there were quite a lot of coincidences between the events described in the story and the real crash of the Titanic. And the key technical characteristics of the fictional Titan were similar to those of the real Titanic - a truly amazing fact!
Morgan Robertson and his story, where the death of the Titanic was predicted to some extent
And the first feature film about the tragedy was released in May of the same 1912 - it was called "She Escaped from the Titanic". Its duration was 10 minutes, it was dumb and black and white. The main role here was played by Dorothy Gibson, an actress who herself on that unfortunate night was on the Titanic and found her salvation in boat number seven.
In 1953, director Jean Negulesco turned to the topic of the tragic journey of "Titanic". According to the plot, on "Titanic" the husband, wife and their two children sort out the relationship between themselves. And everything seems to be getting better, but then the liner stumbles upon an iceberg and begins to go to the bottom. The family has to go through separation, the wife and daughter sail away in the boat, the son and father remain on the sinking ship. The film, by the way, received one Oscar in the same 1953.
But the most famous film about the sinking of the liner is James Cameron's Titanic, which appeared in theaters (and then on DVD) in 1997. It won as many as eleven Academy Awards and has long been considered the highest grossing film in history.
Authoritative experts on the wreck of the Titanic (for example, historian Don Lynch and marine painter Ken Marshall) took part in preparing the script and creating the scenery for Cameron's film. Cooperation with respected experts made it possible to reliably convey some episodes of the crash. Cameron's "Titanic" has caused a new wave of interest in the history of the liner. In particular, after the release of the film, the demand for books and exhibitions related to this topic increased.
Discovery of the Titanic at the bottom of the Atlantic
The legendary ship lay at the bottom for 73 years before it was discovered. More specifically, it was found in 1985 by a group of divers led by oceanographer Robert Ballard. As a result, it turned out that under the tremendous pressure of water, the "Titanic" (the depth here was about 4000 meters) fell apart into three parts. The wreckage of the liner was scattered over an area with a radius of 1.6 kilometers. Ballard and his associates first of all found the bow of the ship, which, apparently, due to its large mass, went deep into the ground. Poop was found 800 meters away. Remains of the middle part were also seen nearby.
Between the large elements of the liner at the bottom one could also see small objects testifying to that era: a set of copper cutlery, unopened wine bottles, coffee cups, doorknobs, candelabra and ceramic baby dolls ...
Later, several expeditions to the remains of the Titanic were conducted by RMS Titanic, which legally had the rights to the fragments of the liner and other related artifacts. During these expeditions, more than 6,000 items were raised from the bottom. They were subsequently valued at $ 110 million. These items were exhibited in thematic expositions or sold at auctions.
But why wasn't the Titanic fully lifted up? Alas, this is impossible. Experts have established that any attempt to lift the ship's hull will lead to its destruction, and therefore it will most likely remain at the bottom forever.
The documentary "Titanic": The Death of a Dream "
The crash of the passenger liner "Titanic", during which 1,517 of the 2,229 passengers and crew members died (official figures differ slightly), was one of the largest maritime disasters in peacetime.
712 surviving passengers of the Titanic were picked up by the rescue ship Karpatia.Only a few disasters 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 traffic in the Atlantic Ocean, helped to tighten the requirements for having enough lifeboats on board passenger ships and led to the creation of the International Ice Service.
April 14, 2016 marked the 104th anniversary of the Titanic disaster, which became one of the most famous ships in history. Many books and films, exhibitions and memorials are devoted to the subject of the sinking of the Titanic.
At 2:20 am, the Titanic broke in two and sank. At that time, there were about a thousand people on board. People who found themselves in the icy water soon died of hypothermia. (Frank O. Braynard Collection)
The British passenger liner Titanic departs Southampton, England on its maiden and final voyage on April 10, 1912. Before heading to New York, the Titanic entered 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 catastrophe shocked the whole world. An investigation into the causes of the Titanic crash, which began a few days after the disaster, contributed to significant improvements in the safety of navigation. (United Press International)
Passenger liner Titanic departs on its maiden and final voyage to New York from Queenstown, Ireland, 1912. On board the liner were the richest people of that 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 going to start a new life in America.
Workers leave the Harland & Wolfe shipyard in Belfast, where the Titanic was built between 1909 and 1911. At the time of launch, the Titanic was the largest passenger liner in the world. In this 1911 image, the Titanic is in the background.
Dining room on the Titanic, 1912. The liner was designed and built with the latest technology and was the epitome of luxury and comfort. It contained a gymnasium, swimming pool, libraries, high-end restaurants and luxurious cabins.
A room for second class passengers aboard the Titanic, 1912. More than 90% of the passengers in the second class were men, who remained on board the sinking liner, as women and children were the first to board the lifeboats. 
The Titanic departs from Southampton, England on April 10, 1912. Some experts believe that the reason for 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 of the city's buildings at the time.
The captain of the Titanic, Edward John Smith, flew the largest liner of his time. The Titanic's length was 269.1 meters, width - 28.19 meters, displacement - more than 52 thousand tons.
An undated shot of the Titanic's first mate, William McMaster Murdoch, who is revered as a hero in his homeland of Dolbitty, Scotland. However, in the Oscar-winning movie Titanic, 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 handed the Dolbitty school a $ 8,000 check to apologize to the officer's relatives.
Presumably, the iceberg that the passenger liner Titanic collided with on April 14, 1912. The photo was taken from the cable-laying vessel Mackay Bennett, operated by Captain Descarteret.
The Mackay Bennett ship was one of the first to arrive at the Titanic disaster site. It was the only iceberg near the wreck of the ocean liner, according to Captain Descartereth.
Passengers and some crew members were evacuated in lifeboats, many of which sailed only partially filled. This photograph of lifeboats approaching the Carpathia was taken by Carpathia's passenger, Louis M. Ogden.
The photograph was presented at an exhibition of documents relating to the disaster of the "Titanic", which Walter Lord bequeathed to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England.
The rescue ship Carpathia picked up 712 surviving passengers on the Titanic. Photo taken by Carpathia passenger Louis M. Ogden shows lifeboats approaching Carpathia.
This photograph was also featured in an exhibition of documents that Walter Lord bequeathed to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.
Although the Titanic had advanced security measures such as watertight compartments and remote-controlled watertight doors, the ship lacked lifeboats for all passengers.
The boats were only enough for 1,178 people - this is 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 sinking Titanic who disembarked from the rescue ship Carpathia, May 17, 1912.
Seven-year-old Eva Hart with her father Benjamin and mother Esther, 1912. Eva and her mother escaped from the sinking Titanic, but her father was killed in the crash of a British liner on the night of April 15, 1912.
People stand in the street, waiting for the arrival of the Carpathia ship.
A huge crowd of people gathered outside the office of the White Star Line Steamship Company on Broadway in New York to receive the latest news on the sinking of the Titanic, April 14, 1912.
People read news reports outside The Sun's New York office after the Titanic crash.
Two letters sent from America to the Lloyds of London insurers in London mistakenly claimed that other ships, including the Virginia, were nearby and providing assistance during the Titanic disaster.
These lots will be auctioned off at Christie's in London in May 2012.
The surviving passengers of the Titanic 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.
Passenger liner "Titanic" shortly before departure on its maiden and last voyage, 1912.
A photo released by Henry Aldridge & Son / Ho in Wiltshire, UK on April 18, 2008, shows an extremely rare artifact - a Titanic passenger ticket.
The exhibit bequeathed to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England, by Walter Lord, is a telegram to Marconi. Miss Edith Russell (journalist and Titanic survivor) wrote to Women’s Wear Daily: “Escaped on Carpathia, tell your mother.” Carpathia, April 18, 1912.
The dining menu of the restaurant aboard the Titanic, signed by the surviving passengers. Walter Lord bequeathed this document to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England.
The nose of the sunken "Titanic", 1999.
One of the propellers of the passenger liner "Titanic". The picture was taken during an expedition to the shipwreck site on September 12, 2008. Five thousand artifacts will be auctioned on April 11, 2012, almost 100 years after the Titanic disaster.
The starboard side of the bow of the Titanic. This image was released by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute on August 28, 2010.
Part of the Titanic's side, chains and an additional anchor buoy. Dr. Robert Bollard, who found the wreckage of the Titanic almost 20 years ago, returned to the scene of the tragedy to look at the damage caused to the ship and its treasures by looters and seekers of easy enrichment.
The huge propeller of the sunken Titanic lies at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Image is not dated. The first tourists who visited the shipwreck site in September 1998 saw the propeller and other parts of the famous liner.
This 17-ton fragment of the Titanic's hull was brought to the surface during an expedition to the site of the shipwreck in 1998.
A 17-ton fragment of the Titanic passenger liner, which was lifted from the bottom of the ocean during an expedition to the site of the shipwreck, July 22, 2009. On April 11, 2012, this exhibit will be auctioned along with 5,000 other artifacts.
A gold Waltham American pocket watch - a personal item of Karl Asplund - against the backdrop of the "Titanic" painting by CJ Ashford. The watch was found on the body of Karl Asplund, who sank along with the Titanic.
Money from the Titanic. The owner of one of the richest collections of items found on the Titanic put it up for auction in 2012, the year of the 100th anniversary of the famous ship's wreck.
Photographs by Felix Asplund, Selma and Karl Asplund and Lillian Asplund in Devises, Wiltshire, England. These photos are part of Lillian Asplund's collection of items related to the Titanic.
Lillian was 5 years old in April 1912 when the Titanic hit an iceberg and sank on her first voyage. The girl escaped, but her father and three siblings were among the 1,514 people who died.
Artifacts from the Titanic wreck are on display at the TITANIC The Artifact Exhibit at the California Science Center: binoculars, a hairbrush, crockery and a cracked incandescent lamp. February 6, 2003.
Spectacles found among the wreckage of the Titanic. The complete collection of artifacts found at the Titanic crash site will be auctioned in April 2012 - 100 years after the tragedy.
Golden spoon from the Titanic.
The chronometer from the Titanic's bridge is on display at the Science Museum in London. It is one of more than 200 objects recovered from the ocean floor at the site where the Titanic sank.
Visitors to the exhibition in the museum can go through the entire history of the famous liner in chronological order - from the blueprints for its construction to the moment of its death after a collision with an iceberg.
The Titanic's Velocity Meter and the Gimbal Lamp are some of the artifacts on display at a museum in New York.
Items from the sunken "Titanic" presented in the New York Museum.
A cup and pocket watch are among the many items found on the Titanic, as well as a button with a White Star Line flag and a small porthole.
These spoons from the Titanic are part of an exhibition at the South Norwalk Museum, Connecticut.
The gilded purse 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.
First full shot of the legendary wreck. The photo mosaic consists of 1,500 high-resolution sonar images.
The starboard side of the ship. The first to sink to the bottom of the ocean was the nose of the Titanic, so that the front of it buried itself in the sand, forever closing the fatal wounds left by the iceberg.
Disfigured poop in profile.
Feed "Titanic", top view. This tangled 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 with rust, once propelled the largest liner in the world at the time.
