Titanic crash time. Nitrogen and ping pong balls. Alleged versions of the tragic death

The reason for the collapse of the largest ocean liner of its time, the Titanic, could be 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 started even before the ship left Southampton, and they unsuccessfully tried to extinguish it for several weeks. During this time, the lining of the liner heated up, which is why the collision with the iceberg ended so badly.

According to The Independent newspaper, the journalist succeeded in making before the start of the Titanic's journey. Moloney found traces of soot in the area of ​​the skin, which was subsequently damaged due to 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 storage facilities.

According to the researcher, the owners of the ship knew about the fire, but hid this fact from the passengers. The team was also ordered to keep quiet about the fire. According to Shannon Moloney, as a result of exposure to fire, the ship's skin heated up 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, a huge hole appeared in the board. Therefore, the iceberg cannot be considered the only culprit of the disaster that claimed the lives of more than 1500 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 considered unsinkable. May 31, 1911 the liner was launched. "The Lord himself cannot sink this ship!" - said about the ship its captain Edward John Smith.

A little over a year later, the Titanic set off on its maiden voyage. There were 2224 people on board: 1316 passengers and 908 crew members. On April 14, 1912, the ship collided with an iceberg and sank 2 hours and 40 minutes later. 711 people were saved, 1513 died ...

With icebergs, too, everything is not so simple. Typically, Greenland icebergs get stuck in shallow waters off the coast of Labrador and Newfoundland and only swim further south after they have melted thoroughly, often under the influence of the tides. However, in the case of the Titanic, several large icebergs managed to swim far south at once.

Physicist Donald Olson of the University of Texas (USA) and his colleagues investigated the hypothesis of oceanographer Fergus Wood, who claimed that the icebergs were lifted ashore 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 approached the Earth at its most close quarters over the last 1400 years. On the eve of the Earth as close as possible to the Sun. The Moon and the Sun found themselves in such a position when their mutual gravitational influence on the Earth increased. Obeying the force of the tide, the killer iceberg broke off from Greenland and set off.

At the same time, one of the biggest mysteries associated with the death of the Titanic is the more than frivolous behavior of the liner's captain, Edward Smith. An experienced sea wolf, who 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 it could be something else. The hypothesis, which radically changes the history of the catastrophe, belongs to two researchers - amateur Robin Gardner (a plasterer by profession) and historian Dan Van der Wat. Having studied the archives navy for 50 years, they came to the conclusion that it was not the Titanic that actually died, but another 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 haunted by 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 Pirrie, were forced to pay a considerable amount for repairs and damages, which almost ruined them.

While sailing, "Olympic" repeatedly got into accidents. After that, not a single insurance company undertook to insure the "damned ship." And then Ismay and Pirrie conceived the "scam of the century" - to send the Olympic under the name "Titanic" to sail across the Atlantic and, when it crashed, get insurance for it - 52 million pounds sterling!

The owners had no doubt that their plan would succeed. To protect the passengers, they intended to send another ship along the same route, which, supposedly 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 navigation. Alas, I had to wait only three days ...

The captain of the imaginary "Titanic" Edward John Smith was ready to fulfill any order from his superiors. So, a few hours before the tragedy, binoculars were confiscated from the on-duty observers. And a few minutes before the crash, Smith allegedly ordered the liner to be turned sideways towards the iceberg. It seemed like he was trying to ensure disaster!

The further history of the Titanic (or the pseudo-Titanic) is known to us. What happened to the real Titanic? According to Gardner and van der Wat, under a different name, he sailed safely at first as part of the Royal naval forces, then acquired by the White Star Line. The ship was taken ashore in 1935.

Is it "his" death (or the ship that everyone took for the "Titanic")? Or was he "helped" to crash? This we will most likely never know. Of course, both the "conspiracy theory" and the "moon hypothesis" are nothing more than versions. But the fact remains: the Titanic sank. And whatever led to his demise, change tragic fate We are no longer able to use this vessel...

Did the "Titanic" (or the ship that everyone took for the "Titanic") die by "his" death? Or was he "helped" to crash? This we will most likely never know. Of course, both the "conspiracy theory" and the "moon hypothesis" are nothing more than versions. But the fact remains: the Titanic sank. And, no matter what led to its death, we are no longer able to change the tragic fate of this ship ...

The tragic legend of the Titanic

April 9, 1912. "Titanic" in the port of Southampton the day before sailing for America.

April 14 marks the 105th anniversary of the legendary catastrophe. The Titanic is a British steamer of the White Star Line, the second of three Olympic-class twin steamships. The largest passenger liner in the world at the time of its construction. During the first voyage on April 14, 1912, she collided with an iceberg and sank after 2 hours and 40 minutes.

There were 1,316 passengers and 908 crew members on board, for a total of 2,224 people. Of these, 711 people were saved, 1513 died.

Here is how the Ogonyok magazine and the New Illustration magazine talked about this tragedy:

Dining room on the Titanic, 1912

Room for second class passengers aboard the Titanic, 1912.

The main staircase of the Titanic, 1912.

Passengers on the deck of the Titanic. April, 1912

The Titanic orchestra had two members. The quintet was led by the 33-year-old British violinist Wallace Hartley, it included another violinist, double bass player and two cellists. An additional trio of musicians from a Belgian violinist, a French cellist and a pianist were hired for Titanic to give Caf? Parisien continental touch. The trio also played in the lobby of the ship's restaurant. Many passengers considered the Titanic's ship's orchestra to be the best they had ever heard on a ship. Usually, the two members of the Titanic orchestra worked independently of each other - in different parts liner and in different time, but on the night of the sinking of the ship, all eight musicians played together for the first time. They played the best and most cheerful music until the last minutes of the liner's life. In the photo: Musicians of the ship's orchestra "Titanic".

Hartley's body was found two weeks after the sinking of the Titanic and sent to England. A violin was tied to his chest - a gift from the bride.
There were no survivors among the other members of the orchestra ... One of the rescued passengers of the Titanic would write later: “A lot was done that night. heroic deeds, but none of them could compare to the feat of these few musicians, playing hour after hour, although the ship sank deeper and deeper, and the sea crept up to the place where they stood. The music they played gave them the right to be listed as heroes. eternal glory". In the photo: The funeral of the conductor and violinist of the ship's orchestra "Titanic" Wallace Hartley. April 1912.

The iceberg that the Titanic is believed to have collided with. The photo was taken from the Mackay Bennett, a cable ship operated by Captain DeCarteret. The ship "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 crash site of the ocean liner.

Lifeboat "Titanic", filmed by one of the passengers of the ship "Carpathia". April, 1912

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

April 22, 1912. Brothers Michel (4 years old) and Edmond (2 years old). They were considered "orphans of the Titanic" until their mother was found in France. My father died in a plane crash.

Michel died in 2001, the last male survivor on the Titanic.

A group of rescued Titanic passengers aboard the Carpathia.

Another group of rescued passengers of the Titanic.

Captain Edward John Smith (second from right) with the ship's crew.

Drawing of the sinking Titanic after the disaster.

Passenger ticket for the Titanic. April 1912.

The Titanic (RMS Titanic) is a British steamer of the White Star Line, the second of three Olympic-class twin steamers. The largest passenger liner in the world at the time of its construction. During the first voyage on April 14, 1912, she collided with an iceberg and sank after 2 hours and 40 minutes. There were 1,316 passengers and 908 crew members on board, for a total of 2,224 people. Of these, 711 people were saved, 1513 died. The Titanic disaster became legendary, several feature films were shot based on its plot.

The British passenger liner Titanic left Southampton, England, on her maiden voyage on April 10, 1912. The Titanic visited Cherbourg, France and Queenstown, Ireland before heading west towards New York. Four days later, it hit an iceberg at 11:40 pm, 375 miles south of Newfoundland. Around 2:20 am, the Titanic broke up and sank. More than a thousand people were overboard.

The luxury liner Titanic, pictured here from 1912, after it sailed from Queenstown in New York for its ill-fated final voyage.

Workers go to the Harland and Wolf shipyards in Belfast, where the Titanic was built between 1909 and 1911. He is visible in the background.

Dining on the Titanic. The ship has been designed to be the last word in comfort and luxury, with an onboard gym, swimming pool, library, upscale restaurants and luxurious cabins.

Dining room second class on the Titanic. 1912

April 10, 1912 Titanic leaves Southampton, England

Captain Edward John Smith, captain of the Titanic. He commanded largest ship during the first flight.

First Mate William McMaster Murdoch, who is considered a hero in his hometown of Dalbeattie, Scotland but has been portrayed as a coward and murderer in several Titanic films.

The iceberg that sank the Titanic on April 14-15, 1912. The picture was taken aboard the Western Cable Union ship, Mackay Bennett, under the command of Capt. DeCarteret.

Passengers and some crew members were evacuated to lifeboats, many of which were only partially filled.

Seven hundred and twelve survivors were brought from lifeboats aboard the RMS Carpathia.

Members of the press interview Titanic survivors from the salvage ship, Carpathia, April 17, 1912.

Eva Hart was seven years old in this photograph taken in 1912 with her father, Benjamin, and mother, Esther. Eva and her mother survived the sinking of the British liner Titanic on April 14, 1912 off Newfoundland, but her father died in the crash.

People stand on the street waiting for the arrival of Carpathia, where survivors from the Titanic will arrive.

A huge crowd gathered in front of Star Line's office at Lower Broadway in New York to receive latest news about the sinking of the luxury liner Titanic on April 14, 1912.

The New York Times editorial at the time of the sinking of the Titanic, April 15, 1912

After the sinking of the Titanic, crowds read bulletins in front of a building in New York

Two messages were sent from America to Lloyds insurers in London in the mistaken belief that other ships, including the Virginia, came to the rescue when the Titanic sank.

Photos of survivors

This is vintage photo shows the Titanic shortly before leaving for its maiden voyage in 1912

Passenger ticket from the Titanic.

A form of telegram sent from Carpathia announcing a successful rescue.

Breakfast menu on the Titanic. It bears the signatures of the survivors.

The nose of the Titanic was filmed in 1999.

Titanic screw

The remains of the Titanic

Items found from the Titanic.

Wreck of the Titanic


Top view of the legendary ship


Side view

Holes on the Titanic

Two Titanic engines

Exactly ninety-seven years ago, on a cold night from the fourteenth to the fifteenth of April, in the middle Atlantic Ocean the most famous maritime disaster in the history of mankind. The ship of the company "White Star Line", bearing the proud name "Titanic", perished in the middle of its first voyage and took with it one thousand five hundred and four human lives, was doomed to become the most famous ship in the world.

Why did the most perfect ship of that era sink - a ship that was considered completely unsinkable? For almost a hundred years, the active human mind has been building versions of the catastrophe, since there is no shortage of riddles here. I have been interested in this story since childhood - now, probably, I don’t even remember how it all began. Today I want to tell you about the most famous versions of the tragedy.

Version one. Conspiracy theory

"Olympic and Titanic: the largest steamships in the world"

Few people know that the Titanic had a twin brother - the Olympic ship, an exact copy of it, also owned by the White Star Line. How is it, the reader may wonder, because the Titanic was considered a unique ship, the largest ship of that era, and now it turns out that there was another ship that was not inferior to it in size? No, the Titanic was indeed longer than its twin. By two inches. Just imagine - the length of a matchbox! - but still longer. Another thing is that it was almost impossible to notice these inches with the naked eye (and the armed one, perhaps, too), so that an outsider, looking at the twins standing side by side, could not tell which of them was who.

The Olympic was a year older than its brother (so it would be more correct to call it a copy of the Titanic), and not much luckier. Probably, it was necessary to write something like “from the very beginning, evil fate hovered over each of the ships,” but more on that later: of course, the greatest maritime disaster could not but acquire mystical rumors. I'll talk about them later, but for now let's not get ahead of ourselves. Gemini: Titanic (right) and Olympic

Well, fate, not rock, but the fate of the "Olympic" was indeed full of trouble. His career began with the fact that during the launching the ship crashed into a dam. After that, minor and major accidents rained down on him one after another, and the ship did not even seem to have been insured. Rumor has it that after a series of accidents, the owners would be happy to insure their ship, yes Insurance companies refused to deal with the failed liner. The most serious accident was a collision with the British war cruiser Hawke, which left the White Star Line in tangible financial problems: expensive repairs were needed, and financial position the company was very sad. So the Olympic was put in the Belfast docks to await a decision on its future fate. And now - attention! Look at the photo on the left - this is almost the only existing picture that shows the Titanic and the Olympic, standing side by side. It was made in Belfast. The final rig of the Titanic
at the shipyard in Belfast

Why not assume, some researchers said, that the White Star Line decided to pull off a grand scheme. patch up on hastily the old "Olympic" and ... pass it off as the new "Titanic"! Technically, it would not be difficult at all: to swap the plates with the names of the ships, and even the interior items on which the monogram of the ships is applied - for example, cutlery (Olympic and Titanic, of course, had some design differences - well, yes who knows about them?). Then the Olympic, under the guise of a new, prestigious, widely advertised (and, of course, honor by honor insured) Titanic, will set off on a journey across the Atlantic, where it will collide (quite by accident, of course) with an iceberg (fortunately, the lack of them at that time there was no year). Of course, no one was going to sink the liner - and no one believed that some kind of iceberg could send the most reliable ship in the world to the bottom. It was planned to arrange a small collision, after which the ship will slowly reach New York, and its owners will receive a tidy sum insured, which will come in handy for the company.

This version is supported by the strange behavior of the ship's captain, Edward Smith. Why is such a seasoned, experienced sea dog so careless about the safety of his vessel? Why did he stubbornly ignore reports of drifting icebergs coming from other ships, and even himself, it seems, steered the liner on a course where it is easiest to meet an icy mountain? What was he doing this for, if not to carry out the White Star plan? Personally, it seems to me that it was for this, that's just ... the plan was completely different. But more on that later. Screw "Titanic". In this photo, however, the numbers can not be seen.

It turned out to be quite difficult to refute the conspiracy theory, especially since White Star went out of its way to save its reputation: it distorted information about the disaster in every possible way, bribed witnesses, and so on. Actually, convincing arguments were found only after the sunken liner itself was discovered (and this happened only seventy-three years later - the remains of the ship were discovered by the expedition of Robert Ballard in September 1985). So, the participants of one of the expeditions, descending to the wrecked ship, took photographs of the propeller, which clearly shows the minted serial number of the Titanic - 401 (his older brother had exactly 400). Conspiracy theorists claim, however, that the Olympic damaged its propeller after colliding with the Hawk, and White Star replaced it with a propeller from the then unfinished Titanic. But the number 401 is also found on other parts of the sunken ship, so the charge of a planned disaster with the White Star Line can be dropped. The following theory looks much more plausible - we will talk about it now.

John Pierpont Morgan And did you know that...

One of the arguments in favor of the conspiracy theory was the fact that the industrialist John Morgan, one of the owners of the Titanic, was supposed to sail aboard his ship, but canceled the ticket a day before the ship left the port.

And they also say (here the mysticism began) that the tycoon was dissuaded from going by Nikola Tesla, endowed with the gift of foresight, the development of which was financed by Morgan.

Second version. Blue Ribbon Chase

It all started a long time ago, when regular sea traffic was established between England and America, and, therefore, competition between ship-owning companies began to flare up. The faster the ship crossed the Atlantic, the more popular it was. In 1840, the Cunard company came up with a prize for ships that set a speed record: now the ship crossing the Atlantic Ocean faster than all its predecessors received the Blue Ribbon of the Atlantic as an award.

Actually, there was no material prize. The winner did not receive a cash prize, the captain was not awarded a commemorative cup that can be put in a prominent place in the wardroom. But the ship acquired something more - an invaluable prestige that cannot be obtained by other means. In addition to honor in maritime circles (and, therefore, fame and popularity), the winner of the award received a contract for the transportation of mail (including diplomatic mail) between America and Europe, and this is a very profitable shipping item. And in general - see for yourself: if you are a rich businessman, maybe even a millionaire, on which ship would you prefer to travel? Isn't it on the most prestigious and fastest?

At the time of the Titanic's departure from Southampton, the Blue Ribbon was owned by the Mauritania, a ship owned by White Star's archrival. Naturally, it was impossible to put up with this, and White Star decided to bet on its favorite. The conquest of the Blue Ribbon by the Titanic would be a triumph for this corporation, allowing it to correct its precarious position: the Cavalier of the All-Atlantic Ribbon usually had four times as many passengers as other similar ships.

Due to the threat of collision with floating ice, the prescribed route of the Titanic (and any other vessel following the same course) did not run in a straight line, but made a small detour, skirting the dangerous ocean area where most icebergs drift. Of course, this maneuver lengthens the road. That's why it might seem that Captain Smith was sailing his ship right into a bunch of icebergs - he just needed to take a short cut and get the Blue Ribbon by all means. That is why the Titanic went at full steam and did not slow down even after receiving several radiograms warning of ice danger from other ships. Let other ships worry - and the Titanic has nothing to fear. In the "crow's nest" - a special observation platform on the front mast - there are two lookouts who, in case of danger, will be able to report it to the captain's bridge in the blink of an eye using telephone communication: the Titanic is equipped with the latest technology. And if a collision does occur, well, it only means that the record will be set another time. Icebergs do not pose a danger to the ship - after all, it is known that the Titanic is completely unsinkable. Its hold is divided into sixteen watertight compartments, so that if suddenly it gets a hole (which, of course, cannot be), then only one of the compartments will be filled with water, and the ship will calmly continue its journey. That one - the liner will not sink, even if four compartments are filled! And a ship can only receive such damage in a war.

Well, it’s not for nothing that pride is one of the deadly sins. She played with the Titanic bad joke: the iceberg damaged five compartments - one more than was allowed. A piece of the Titanic skin lifted from the bottom

But how could the ice break through the steel of the ship's plating? In the mid-nineties, a piece of the Titanic's skin was brought to the surface and subjected to a fragility test: a sheet of metal, fixed in clamps, had to withstand the impact of a thirty-kilogram pendulum. For comparison, a piece of steel used in shipbuilding today was also tested. Before the experiment, both samples were placed in an alcohol bath with a temperature of just over a degree - this is exactly what the ocean water was on that fateful night. Modern metal came out of the test with honor: under the blow of a hammer, it bent, but remained intact. Raised from the bottom, it split into two parts. Maybe he became so fragile after lying eighty years at the bottom of the ocean? The researchers managed to get at the Belfast shipyard, where the Titanic was built, a steel sample of those years. He endured the strength test no better than his brother. The experts' conclusion was that the steel used in the construction of the Titanic was of very poor quality, with a large admixture of sulfur, which made it brittle when low temperatures. Alas, at the beginning of the twentieth century, the level of development of metallurgy was far from today. If the lining of the liner were made of high-quality steel, the hull would simply bend inward from the impact, and the tragedy could have been avoided.

American press about the sinking of the Titanic And did you know that...

On the Internet, you can find not only Western newspapers of that time (see photo on the right), but also pre-revolutionary Russian publications, which reported on the crash in the Atlantic Ocean. A strange feeling arises when you read these dry lines - for the people of that time, the Titanic had not yet become a legend ...

To the death of the Titanic.

LONDON. The sessions of the commission to investigate the circumstances of the sinking of the Titanic were opened by the representative of the Department of Commerce, Isaacs, who indicated that from the moment of her entry into the sea, the Titanic had been moving at a speed of 21 knots per hour, and this speed was not reduced until the very moment of collision with the ice mountain despite receiving warnings of moving ice. The investigation will pay special attention to the insufficient number of lifeboats on the ship and to the installation of watertight bulkheads.

* * * * *

But the publication of Iskra, as it should be for an "artistic and literary magazine", describes the situation in the best traditions of the yellow press:

The death of the Titanic.

Russian press about the sinking of the Titanic April 1, at 10:25 pm, a real floating city - the greatest in the world, a luxurious nine-story steamer "Titanic" (length ¼ verst (126 sazhens), displacement 66,000 tons, cost at 20,000,000 rubles, with machines of 55,000 horsepower, reaching speeds of up to 38 miles per hour) on the way to New York, having 2,700 people on board, ran into floating ice at full speed. At midnight, from the Titanic, by wireless telegraph, they reported: "We perish."

Stunning scenes played out on the deck of the sinking steamer. Millionaire passengers (there were 7 of them, with a total fortune of 3 billion) offered fabulous sums for seats in lifeboats. Because of these places, people fought, pushed each other into the water, smashed their heads with oars ...

1,410 people died.

William Stead died aboard the Titanic. A convinced journalist, with boundless faith in the power of the printed word, Stead exposed the horrors of the depravity of aristocratic London, its brothels, the sale of children, vigorously advocated an end to the Anglo-Boer War, for rapprochement with Russia. In 1905, Stead came to Russia with the aim of reconciling Russian society with the government.

Third version. Fire in the hold

On September 20, 1987, French television told the world sensational news: the cause of the death of the Titanic, it turns out, was a fire that broke out in the hold of the ill-fated liner, and not a collision with an iceberg at all. Apparently, the supporters of the new hypothesis assured, spontaneous combustion of coal occurred in one of the ship’s coal storage facilities (well, this is actually possible), the fire spread to the entire hold, reached the steam boilers, which exploded from this, which is why the ship went to the bottom. As for the iceberg, it just happened to be nearby, so it was accused of crashing the liner. One of the watertight bulkheads of the Titanic

Yes, indeed, there was a fire on the Titanic - and this is no longer guesswork, but an established fact. However, could he cause a disaster? Oh, hardly. How do you imagine a fire in a coal bunker? A roaring flame that throws ominous crimson reflections on the metal sheathing of the walls, sailors rushing about with a bare chest, someone pumps a pump, and a jet of water disappears into a raging wall of fire? I must disappoint you - in fact, everything is much more prosaic. In general, a fire in the coal bunker of steamships of that time was a fairly common thing. Coal in such a fire does not blaze, does not burn, but smolders quietly and peacefully, sometimes for several days. Fought with such fires most in a simple way- out of turn, they burned smoldering coal in steamship furnaces. So a fire in a coal hold is, of course, an unpleasant phenomenon, but, as a rule, it does not promise any serious troubles to the ship. And certainly not under any circumstances not capable of producing such monstrous destruction, which supporters of the version of the death of the Titanic from the flames attribute to him. Moreover, the fire on the ship was extinguished even before it went on its last voyage. The bunker was emptied and inspected by specialists from the shipyard where the Titanic was docked. It seems that the most serious consequence of the fire was a slight deformation of one of the watertight bulkheads, which could not affect the fate of the liner.

And did you know that...

The Titanic is one of the first, if not the first ship in history to send an SOS signal.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the letters "CQD" were adopted as a distress signal - short for "Come Quick, Danger" ("Hurry here, danger"). But this signal was inconvenient in that it was also used to warn on land of railway wrecks. In 1906, at the International Radiotelegraph Conference, it was proposed to introduce a special signal for maritime disasters. Then the letters known to the whole world today were chosen - SOS. Contrary to popular belief, this is not an acronym for a phrase like "Save Our Souls". Such letters were chosen simply because their combination is very easy to recognize in ethereal Morse code: three dots, three dashes, three dots.

However, habit is second nature, and the CQD signal was still used in water crashes. The radio operator of the Titanic, twenty-five-year-old John Philips, also sent him: “CQD, here are our coordinates: 41.46 north 50.14 west. We require immediate assistance. Tonem. You can't hear anything over the roar of the steam pipes." He repeated this message for the next quarter of an hour, until his partner suggested sending a new distress signal over the air, joking cynically: "Man, try tapping out an SOS signal - we will not have such an opportunity again in our lives." Philips smiled sadly at the joke, and at 00:45 on April 15, 1912, one of the first SOS signals in history was sent from the Titanic.

Fourth version. German torpedo

German submarine during World War I

1912 The First World War is two years away, and the prospect of an armed conflict between Germany and Great Britain is becoming more and more likely. Germany is the owner of several dozen submarines, which during the war will unleash a ruthless hunt for enemy ships trying to cross the ocean. For example, the reason for America's entry into the war will be that the U-20 submarine will sink the Lusitania in 1915 - the twin of the same Mauritania that set the speed record and won the Blue Ribbon of the Atlantic - remember?

Based on these facts, in the mid-nineties, some Western publications offered their own version of the death of the Titanic: a torpedo attack by a German submarine that secretly accompanied the liner. The purpose of the attack was to discredit the British fleet, famous for its power throughout the world. In accordance with this theory, the Titanic either did not collide with the iceberg at all, or received very minor damage in the collision and would have remained afloat if the Germans had not finished off the ship with a torpedo.

What speaks in favor of this version? Honestly, nothing.

First, there was a collision with an iceberg - this is beyond doubt. The deck of the ship was even covered with snow and ice chips. Cheerful passengers started to play football with ice cubes - that the ship is doomed, it will become clear later. The collision itself was surprisingly quiet - almost none of the passengers felt it. A torpedo, you see, could hardly have exploded completely silently (especially since some claim that the submarine fired as many as six torpedoes at the ship!). Supporters of the theory of the German attack claim, however, that people in the boats heard a terrible roar just before the Titanic sank - well, that was two and a half hours later, when only the stern lifted up into the sky remained above the water and the death of the ship did not raise any doubts. It is unlikely that the Germans would have fired a torpedo at an almost sunken ship, would they? And the roar that the survivors heard was due to the fact that the stern of the Titanic rose almost vertically and huge steam boilers fell from their places. Also, do not forget that at about the same minutes, the Titanic broke in half - the keel could not withstand the weight of the rising stern (although they only find out about this after finding the liner at the bottom: the break occurred below the water level), and this is also unlikely to have happened silently . And why would the Germans suddenly begin to sink a passenger liner two years before the start of the war? This seems, to put it mildly, doubtful. And to put it bluntly, it's absurd.

And did you know that...

Before filming Titanic, director James Cameron worked closely with the crew of the Russian scientific vessel Akademik Mstislav Keldysh and personally made twelve dives with a movie camera to the ship's wreck on the Mir-1 and Mir-2 bathyscaphes - they can be seen in documentaries movie fragments. During each dive, Cameron could shoot only fifteen minutes due to the fact that only so much film could fit in the camera.

Five years later, the Mir-1 and Mir-2 bathyscaphes will be used to dive to the sunken submarine Kursk.

Fifth version. Curse of the Egyptian Mummy

The very first horror movie about a mummy

Yes, yes, imagine, there is such a version! I purposely saved it for the end.

So, in the eighties of the nineteenth century, a perfectly preserved mummy from the time of Amenhotep IV was discovered near Cairo, named either Amen-Otu, or Amen-Ra, or Amennofis (lovers of mysticism, as you know, do not bother with such trifles. Mummy, and mummy). During her lifetime, the mummy worked as a famous soothsayer, and therefore, after her death, she was awarded a magnificent burial: with jewelry, figurines of gods, and, of course, magical amulets. Among them was the image of Osiris, adorned with the inscription: "Wake up from your swoon, and your look will crush everyone who gets in your way." Others, however, insisted that it was written "Rise from the dust, and only the look of your eyes will triumph over any intrigues against you", but what, in essence, is the difference? That's when the third timidly suggested that nothing of the kind was written on the mummy, then it was certainly clear that this was nonsense.

The mummy was acquired by some collector, then by another, by a third, and all previous owners, of course, died under the most mysterious and mysterious circumstances. That is, maybe, in fact, each of them lived to be ninety-nine years old and rested in the arms of a young beauty, but who will check this? The owners of mummies, as everyone knows, are supposed to die, and, preferably, a terrible death.

Ticket for the Titanic

Finally, our mummy was acquired in the British Museum by an American millionaire and sent to his American residence aboard a ship. Well, guess which liner was chosen for this purpose?

An ordinary box served as a sarcophagus on the way, either glass or wooden (not tin, at least, for sure), and it was kept just near the captain's bridge. Mystics of all stripes avidly assure that Captain Edward Smith, of course, could not resist the temptation and looked into this box with a mummy: their eyes met and ... no, they did not fall in love with each other; quite the contrary: a monstrous curse came true. Otherwise, judge for yourself, how to explain what went wrong in the captain’s head, and with his own intrepid hand he sent the Titanic straight to certain death?

And, in fact, why is it believed that the captain's head was clouded, and he sent the Titanic to certain death with his own hand? Well, how could he not get confused in his head if he met the eyes of a mummy? As you can see, there is nothing to object.

It's a shame that the mummy died a thousand years before the birth of Aristotle, so she had a hard time with logic. Otherwise, she would have realized that the immediate consequence of the fact that the ship rammed the iceberg would be the death of her, mummy, precious body - in ocean water it is unlikely to survive more than a few days. And the destruction of the body is the worst thing that can happen to a mummy: her soul will have nowhere to return to. So if the mummy really had magic power, it would be in her interests to protect the Titanic like the apple of her magic eye. Or maybe she, too, bought into the advertising rhetoric about the unsinkable ship and did not pay attention to the dangerous icebergs?

Be that as it may, but the mummy died in the deep ocean, disappeared without a trace, and cannot stand up for its honest name; this is shamelessly used by the yellow press, which regularly publishes accusations against her under the monotonous headlines: “Sensation! The Titanic was destroyed by the curse of the pharaohs! Let's leave it to the conscience of journalists.

The mummy, by the way, was not the only historical relic that died aboard the Titanic. For art, the death of the original manuscript of Omar Khayyam "Rubaiyat" in the Atlantic Ocean is much more tragic - a relic that truly had no price.

And did you know that...

Immediately after the death of the Titanic, various projects for raising the ship to the surface began to be proposed. One of them was a proposal to fill the hull of the liner with ping-pong balls.

Oh yes, there is another version

She is all in the picture, and there is nothing more to say about her:

Ex-"Giant". What would you name the ship... And did you know that...

The Titanic had not only an older brother (Olympic), but also a younger brother, the Gigantic. At the time of the death of the middle brother in the abyss of the Atlantic, the younger one was still being built on the ropes. To prevent a similar tragedy from happening to him, improvements began to be made to his design on the go - for example, the number of lifeboats was increased (you can see them in the photo - on the upper deck, one above the other). And the most unexpected of measures taken security was - what would you think? Change of vessel name. Recalling from ancient Greek myths that the fate of both titans and giants was very deplorable, the owners of the ship decided not to step on the same rake again and abandoned the name "Gigantic". What, in fact, the devil is not joking?

They called the new ship patriotically: "Britannick". Tellingly, this did not help: in World War I, the youngest of the ships was sunk by a German submarine.

But how was it really?

Regrettably, but, studying the history of the most famous maritime disaster, one has to admit that the Titanic owes its death to a long chain of fatal accidents. If at least one link of the sinister chain had been destroyed, the tragedy could have been avoided.

Perhaps the first link was the successful start of the journey - yes, yes, that's right. On the morning of April 10, as the Titanic sailed from the docking wall in Southampton Port, the superliner passed too close to American ship"New York", and a phenomenon known in navigation as the suction of ships arose: the "New York" began to be attracted to the "Titanic" moving nearby. However, thanks to the skill of Captain Edward Smith, a collision was avoided. Ironically, if an accident had happened, it would have saved one and a half thousand lives: if the Titanic had lingered in the port, the ill-fated encounter with the iceberg would not have happened. This time. Captain of the Titanic Edward Smith

It should also be mentioned that the radio operators who received the message from the Mesaba ship about the ice fields of icebergs did not pass it on to Edward Smith: the telegram was not marked with a special prefix “personally to the captain”, and was lost in a pile of papers. This is two.

However, this message was not the only one, and the captain knew about the ice danger. Why didn't he slow down the ship? The pursuit of the Blue Ribbon is, of course, a matter of honor (and, more importantly, big business), but why did he risk the lives of passengers? Not that much of a risk, really. In those years, the captains of ocean liners often passed through areas dangerous by ice without slowing down: it was like crossing the road at a red light: it’s like, you can’t do that, but it always works out. Almost always. To the credit of Captain Smith, it must be said that he remained true to maritime traditions and remained on the dying ship to the very end.

But why was the bulk of the iceberg not seen? Here everything turned out one to one: moonless, dark night, windless weather. If there were at least small waves on the water surface, the lookouts could see white lambs at the foot of the iceberg. Calm and moonless night are two more links in the fatal chain.

As it turned out later, the chain was continued by the fact that the iceberg, shortly before the collision with the Titanic, turned its underwater dark part upside down, saturated with water, due to which it was practically invisible from a distance at night (an ordinary, white iceberg would be distinguishable for a mile ). The sentinel saw him only 450 meters away, and there was almost no time for maneuver. Perhaps the iceberg would have been seen earlier, but another link in the fatal chain played a role here - there were no binoculars in the "crow's nest". The box where they were stored turned out to be locked, and the second assistant to the captain, taken from the ship just before departure, hastily took the key to it with him. This photo is believed to be the same iceberg.

After the lookout nevertheless saw the danger and reported the iceberg to the captain's bridge, a little more than half a minute remained before the collision. The officer of the watch, Murdoch, who was on watch, gave the helmsman the order to turn left, at the same time transmitting the command "full astern" to the engine room. Thus, he made a gross mistake by adding another link in the chain that led the liner to death: even if the Titanic had crashed into the iceberg head-on, the tragedy would have been less. The bow of the ship would have been crushed, part of the crew and those passengers whose cabins were located in front would have died. But only two watertight compartments would be flooded. With such damage, the liner would have remained afloat and could wait for the help of other ships.

And if Murdoch, turning the ship to the left, ordered to increase, and not decrease the speed, the collision might not have happened at all. However, frankly speaking, the order to change the speed is unlikely to play a significant role here: in thirty seconds it was hardly possible to execute it in the engine room. Thomas Andrews

So the collision happened. The iceberg damaged the ship's fragile hull along the six starboard compartments.

It should be said that Thomas Andrews himself traveled on the Titanic, a talented designer who built this liner. Of course, after the tragedy, there were people who accused him of the unsuccessful design of the ship. These accusations are groundless - Andrews actually built the most perfect ship of his time. It is to him that the survivors of the crash owe the fact that they had almost three hours to leave the ship and move to a safe distance.

After the accident, Captain Smith woke Mr. Andrews and invited him to inspect the hold in order to obtain an authoritative opinion on the fate of the ship. The designer's verdict was disappointing: it was impossible to save the Titanic. We urgently need to start evacuating passengers.

And here we come to one of the most dramatic circumstances. There were 2,208 people on board the ship (fortunately, not the 3,500 for which it was designed), but there were places in the boats for only 1,178 people. Looking ahead, let's say that only seven hundred and four managed to escape: the next link in the chain of failures was that some sailors took too literally the captain's order to put women and children in the boats, and did not let men go there, even if they remained vacancies. However, at first no one was particularly eager to get into the boats. The passengers did not understand what was the matter, and did not want to leave the huge, comfortably lit, such a reliable liner and it is not clear why they should go down in a small unstable boat down to the icy water. However, pretty soon, anyone could notice that the deck was tilting forward more and more, and panic began. Boat deck. Walk to your health.

But why was there such a monstrous discrepancy in the places on the lifeboats? Initially, there were more boats - as many as thirty-five, but it was decided to abandon fifteen of them. Firstly, they “could cause a feeling of insecurity,” but most importantly, they prevented first-class passengers from walking on deck, and this was quickly corrected: the motto of the Titanic was “comfort above all else.” But how could such a poorly equipped ship be set afloat? It's all about the outdated rules of the British Code of Navigation, adopted back in 1894. In accordance with it, the ship certain size a certain number of boats were assigned. And since the displacement of the largest passenger ships of that time rarely exceeded 10,000 tons, all such giant ships were combined into a single category with an order for them to have on board the number of boats sufficient to save 962 people. In 1894, they could not even imagine a ship like the Titanic - with a tonnage of as much as 52,310 tons!

The owners of the Titanic, praising the merits of the new ship, stated that they even overfulfilled the instructions of the code: instead of the required 962 rescue places, there were 1178 on the ship. Unfortunately, they did not attach any importance to the discrepancy between this number and the number of passengers on board. Photo of the radio operator of the Titanic, taken by a crooked photographer

It is especially bitter that not far from the sinking Titanic, another passenger steamer, the Californian, stood, waiting out the danger of ice. A few hours ago, he notified neighboring ships that he was locked in ice and forced to stop so as not to accidentally run into ice block. The radio operator from the Titanic, who was almost stunned by the Morse code from the Californian (the ships were very close, and the signal of one was too loud in the headphones of the other), impolitely interrupted the warning: “Go to hell, you are preventing me from working!”. What was the radio operator of the Titanic so busy with? The fact is that in those years, radio communication on a ship was more of a luxury than an urgent need, and this miracle of technology aroused great interest among the wealthy public. From the very beginning of the voyage, radio operators were literally inundated with messages of a private nature - and no one saw anything reprehensible in the fact that Titanic radio operators paid such attention to wealthy passengers who wished to send a telegram to the ground directly from the ship. And at that moment, when colleagues from other courts reported about floating ice, the radio operator was transmitting another message to the continent. Radio communication was more like an expensive toy than a serious tool: the ships of that time did not even have a round-the-clock watch at the radio station. So the radio operator from the Californian, having finished his shift, went to bed in the evening and could not receive a desperate distress signal - SOS. If it were possible to inform the Californian about the collision, then he could come to the rescue in less than an hour, and the Titanic sank for two and a half hours! They say that from the Californian they even saw signal flares sent by the sinking liner into the night sky, but did not attach any importance to this. Well, missiles, and missiles. Celebrating, probably, something moneybags from the Titanic. Wow, fireworks have arranged for themselves ...

But, fortunately for the passengers, several ships still responded to the distress call. Among them was the Olympic, the twin of the Titanic, but it was too far away - as much as five hundred miles. Apart from the Californian, the closest ship to the sinking ship was the Carpathia, less than sixty miles away. Having received an SOS signal, he changed his course and rushed to the rescue at maximum speed. About two o'clock in the morning the radio operator of the Carpathia received last message from the liner in distress: "Go as quickly as possible, the engine room is flooded to the boilers." There were no more radio signals from the superliner ... Survivors of the Titanic aboard the Carpathia

There were about seven hundred people in the boats in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The agonizing hours of waiting for help dragged on. Some of the lifeboats searched and picked up drowning people all night, and some, on the contrary, sailed away from the scene of the tragedy, fearing that people overboard, trying to escape, could capsize the boat.

At four in the morning, four and a half hours after the collision of the Titanic with an ice mass, and two hours after the stern disappeared into sea ​​depth, "Carpathia" approached the scene of the tragedy and took up the rescue of the survivors. At eight-thirty, the passengers of the last boat were on board. There were 704 people alive. Searching the water for the rest was useless. At this temperature of the water, a life jacket does not save: a person dies from the cold in a few minutes.

At eight-fifty, the Carpathia, ironically owned by the same Cunard Line steamship company, whose laurels the Titanic wanted to take for itself, having won the Blue Ribbon, heads for New York.

P.S.

And finally: a few photos of the Titanic, the legendary ship. Each of them can be enlarged.

Before:

Titanic at the Harland and Wolf shipyard before being launched (colorized photograph) The Titanic leaves Belfast (colorized photograph) Here you can see the "crow's nest" for the lookout on the mast First class cabin First Class Cabin (colorized photo) Third class cabin (reconstruction) Cafe "Palm Yard" Cafe Parisien with Ocean View (colorized photo) Gym on the Titanic The famous front staircase with a clock (here DiCaprio was waiting for a date with Kate Winslet) Glass dome over the front staircase. Only a first-class passenger was allowed to admire this beauty.

You can find many more colorized photos of the Titanic at titanic-in-color.com

After:

3D model of the Titanic on the ocean floor The remains of the Titanic at the bottom Prow of the ship Fragment of the ship's hull Opened port side window Captain's helm Anchor Davit for launching lifeboats Once upon a time there lay a man Ceramic cup at the bottom The wooden crate is long gone, but the porcelain is still lying Glass in the windows of Captain Smith's cabin Captain Smith bath with hot water, salt or fresh as desired

a ”Frederick Fleet noticed an iceberg right on the course about 650 m from the liner. Striking the bell three times, he reported to the bridge. The first assistant commanded the helmsman: "Left aboard!" - and moved the handles of the machine telegraphs to the "Full back" position. A little later, so that the liner did not hit the iceberg with the stern, he commanded: “Right on board!”. However, the Titanic was too large for a quick maneuver, and continued to move by inertia for another 25-30 seconds, until her nose began to slowly deviate to the left.

At 23:40, the Titanic tangentially collided with an iceberg. On the upper decks, people felt a slight push and a slight trembling of the hull; on the lower decks, the blow was more noticeable. As a result of the collision, six holes were formed in the starboard plating with a total length of about 90 meters. At 00:05, Captain Smith ordered the crew to prepare the lifeboats for launch, then went into the radio room and ordered the radio operators to broadcast a distress signal.

Around 0:20 children and women were put into the boats. At 1:20 the water began to flood the forecastle. At this time, the first signs of panic appeared. The evacuation went faster. After 1:30 a.m., panic broke out on board. At about 2:00 the last boat was lowered, at 2:05 the water began to flood the boat deck and the captain's bridge. The remaining 1,500 people on board rushed towards the stern. The trim began to grow before our eyes, at 2:15 the first chimney collapsed. At 2:16 the power went out. At 02:18, with a bow trim of about 23°, the liner broke. The bow, falling off, immediately went to the bottom, and the stern filled with water and sank two minutes later.

At 2:20, the Titanic completely disappeared under the water. Hundreds of people swam to the surface, but almost all of them died from hypothermia. On two collapsible boats that did not have time to launch from the liner, about 45 people were saved. Eight more were rescued by two boats returning to the crash site (No. 4 and No. 14). An hour and a half after the Titanic was completely submerged, the steamer Carpathia arrived at the disaster site and picked up 712 survivors of the crash.

Reasons for the crash

After the tragedy, commissions were held to investigate the causes of this incident, and, according to official documents, the cause was a collision with an iceberg, and not the presence of defects in the design of the ship. The commission based its conclusion on how the ship sank. As noted by some survivors, the ship went to the bottom as a whole, and not in parts.

As the commission concluded, all the blame for tragic disaster assigned to the captain of the ship. In 1985, oceanographer Robert Ballard, who had been searching for a sunken ship for many years, was lucky. Exactly this happy event helped shed light on the causes of the disaster. Scientists have determined that the Titanic broke in half on the surface of the ocean before it sank. This fact again drew media attention to the reasons for the sinking of the Titanic. New hypotheses arose, and one of the assumptions was based on the fact that low-grade steel was used in the construction of the ship, since it is a well-known fact that the Titanic was built on a tight schedule.

As a result of lengthy studies of the wreckage raised from the bottom, experts came to the conclusion that the cause of the disaster was low-quality rivets - the most important metal pins that tied together the steel plates of the ship's hull. Also, the studied wreckage showed that there were miscalculations in the design of the ship, and this is evidenced by the nature of the sinking of the ship. It was finally established that the stern of the ship did not rise high into the air, as previously believed, and the ship broke into pieces and sank. This indicates clear miscalculations in the design of the ship. However, after the disaster, this data was hidden. And only with the help of modern technology it was found that these circumstances led to one of the most terrible tragedies of mankind.