Why did the Titanic sink? Add your price to the base Comment. A century later: six unofficial versions of the sinking of the "Titanic. What is the number of the Titanic 400 or 441

27.11.2019

On the night of April 14-15, 1912, stumbling upon an iceberg in the cold waters of Antarctica, the most big ship called "Titanic", which was considered the safest cruise ship at that time. The sinking of the Titanic has become overgrown with many myths and legends. There are still no answers to many questions. There is an opinion that in that ill-fated flight the White Star Line did not send the Titanic, but another, and at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean lies its twin brother, the Olympic. But is it really so?

There is a version that the White Star Line Company (hereinafter referred to as USL) sent the Olympic instead of the Titanic, having changed the name. The saddest thing is that most people believe that it was possible to replace these two ships. This article, I hope, will help dot the i's.

Now let's move on to the theory itself. I quote from the forum the words of another person: “I wonder if any of the members of the forum heard about the version of the substitution of the Titanic by Olympic and the intentional creation of an accident with an iceberg. In order to receive a large insurance premium ”. The essence of the theory is that the USL company decided to hastily patch up the Olympic and send it on the last voyage, setting up an accident in order to get insurance, the amount of which was five times the cost of the ship. And what? By this the company is killing two birds with one stone: it sends an old "Olympic" on a voyage, and gets money like for a brand new "Titanic". The theory, in itself, is interesting and has the right to life, but this is from the realm of fantasy. Experienced people know that it is impossible to change the liner, because they were very different. Now let's go over this in more detail.

The White Star Line itself, to which both Titanic and Olympic belonged, were unlikely to benefit from the accident. They needed to restore their reputation after the breakdown of the Olympic. The Titanic disaster only ruined the reputation of the White Star Line, a large shipping company. Following this version, the ship owner of the USL company was not thinking about the success of his company, but about how to quickly ruin the company. There is confirmation, and more than one person, that such an accident is not realistic to set up. It is unlikely that they swam all over Antarctica in search of an iceberg. At the expense of replacing the plates. This is complete nonsense. About 15 thousand people worked at the shipyard, and as it was written above, the ships can easily be distinguished from each other, it was especially easy to distinguish it from those who built it. The workers could not help but notice that the Olympic and Titanic had changed places. Did "USL" bribe everyone and no one let it slip? This is complete nonsense. Probably, they also "transferred" the interiors from one ship to another.

All the surviving passengers on that fateful night repeated with one voice that they could smell fresh paint. This suggests that the ship was only recently built.

Before the first flight of the Titanic, the Olympic had been in operation for a year already, and the feeling of something new was gone. They also had very different interiors. The stokers argued that the boiler rooms were sterile, and this is possible only in one case - if the ship is new. After a year of operation of the vessel, this is impossible. Carpets, furniture and other utensils cannot be transferred from one liner to another overnight. Can you tell the difference between a used car and a new one? So it was right there. The smell of fresh paint is a powerful argument that the ship was brand new. An important factor is also the fact that a part with the number 401 was found at the bottom of the ocean - this is the number assigned to the Titanic, the Olympic had 400. Now we can say with confidence that it is the Titanic that rests with 1,500 souls of those who died on day Atlantic Ocean, and not his cousin called "Olympic".

"Titanic" (English Titanic) - British transatlantic steamer, the second liner of the "Olympic" class. Built in Belfast at the Harland & Wolfe shipyard from 1909 to 1912 by order of the White Star Line shipping company.

At the time of commissioning, it was the largest vessel in the world.

On the night of April 14-15, 1912, during the maiden voyage, it crashed in the North Atlantic, colliding with an iceberg.

Information about the vessel

The Titanic was equipped with two four-cylinder steam engines and a steam turbine.

The entire power plant had a capacity of 55,000 liters. with.
The ship could reach speeds of up to 23 knots (42 km / h).
Its displacement, which exceeded the twin steamer Olympic by 243 tons, was 52 310 tons.
The hull of the vessel was made of steel.
The hold and lower decks were divided into 16 compartments by bulkheads with sealed doors.
If the bottom was damaged, the double bottom prevented the ingress of water into the compartments.

Shipbuilder magazine called the Titanic virtually unsinkable, a statement widely circulated in the press and among the public.

In accordance with outdated regulations, the Titanic was equipped with 20 lifeboats, with a total capacity of 1,178 people, which was only a third of the steamer's maximum load.

The Titanic's cabins and public spaces were divided into three classes.

A swimming pool, a squash court, an A la carte restaurant, two cafes, and a gym were presented to the services of first-class passengers. All classrooms had dining and smoking rooms, open and closed boardwalks. The most luxurious and sophisticated were the first class interiors, made in various artistic styles using expensive materials such as mahogany, gilding, stained glass, silk and others. The cabins and salons of the third class were designed as simply as possible: the steel walls were painted white or sheathed with wooden panels.

1 On April 0, 1912, the Titanic departed from Southampton on her maiden and only voyage. Having made stops in the French Cherbourg and Irish Queenstown, the ship sailed into the Atlantic Ocean with 1,317 passengers and 908 crew on board. The ship was commanded by Captain Edward Smith. On April 14, the Titanic radio station received seven ice warnings, but the liner continued to move at almost top speed. To avoid encountering floating ice, the captain ordered to go a little south of the usual route.

At 11:39 p.m. on April 14, the lookout reported to the captain's bridge about an iceberg straight ahead. Less than a minute later, a collision occurred. Having received several holes, the steamer began to sink. First of all, women and children were put in the boats.
At 2:20 am on April 15, breaking into two parts, the Titanic sank, killing 1,496 people. 712 survivors were picked up by the steamer "Karpatia".

The wreckage of the "Titanic" rests at a depth of 3750 m. They were first discovered by the expedition of Robert Ballard in 1985. Subsequent expeditions raised thousands of artifacts from the bottom. The bow and stern parts have sunk deep into the bottom silt and are in a deplorable state; their ascent to the surface intact is not possible.

Wreck of the steamer "Titanic"

The catastrophe claimed the lives, according to various sources, from 1495 to 1635 people. Until December 20, 1987, when the Philippine ferry Dona Paz crashed, killing more than 4,000 people, the sinking of the Titanic remained the largest in terms of number killed by the disaster at sea in Peaceful time... Informally, it is the most famous disaster of the 20th century.

Alternative versions of the death of the ship

And now - alternative versions, each of which has its adherents in the worldwide mystery lovers club.

Fire

A fire in the coal compartment, which arose even before sailing and provoked first an explosion, and then a collision with an iceberg. The ship's owners knew about the fire and tried to hide it from passengers. This version was put forward by British journalist Chenan Moloney, writes The Independent. Moloney has been researching the causes of the sinking of the Titanic for over 30 years.

In particular, he studied photographs taken before the ship left the Belfast shipyard. The journalist saw black marks along the right side of the ship's hull - just where the iceberg had pierced it. Subsequently, experts confirmed that the tracks were likely caused by a fire that broke out in the fuel storage. “We looked at exactly where the iceberg got stuck, and it seems that this part of the hull in this place was very vulnerable, and this happened even before he left the shipyard in Belfast,” says Moloney. A 12-man team tried to extinguish the flames, but they were too large to be quickly brought under control. It could reach temperatures of up to 1000 degrees Celsius, which made the Titanic's hull very vulnerable at this point. And when it hit the ice, experts say, it immediately broke. The publication also added that the liner's management forbade passengers to talk about the fire. “This is a perfect match of unusual factors: fire, ice and criminal negligence. Nobody has investigated these tags before. It completely changes the story, ”says Moloney.

Conspiracy

Conspiracy theory: This is not Titanic at all! This version was put forward by experts in the study of the causes of the sinking of the ship Robin Gardiner and Dan Van Der Watt, published in the book "The Riddle of the Titanic". According to this theory, the wreck is not the Titanic at all, but its twin brother, the Olympic. These ships looked practically no different from each other. On September 20, 1911, the Olympic collided with the British Navy cruiser Hawk, as a result of which both ships were seriously damaged. The owners of Olimpik suffered heavy losses, as the damage inflicted on Olimpik was not enough for the insurance payment.

The theory is based on the assumption of possible fraud in order to obtain insurance payments to the owners of the Titanic. According to this version, the owners of "Titanic" deliberately sent "Olympic" to the area of possible appearance of ice and at the same time convinced the captain not to reduce speed, so that the ship would receive serious damage in a collision with an ice block. This version was initially supported by the fact that a large number of objects were raised from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, where the "Titanic" lies, but nothing was found that would bear the name "Titanic". This theory was refuted after the details were raised to the surface, on which the side (building) number of the Titanic - 401 was knocked out. tail number was 400. In addition, the embossed side number of the Titanic was also found on the propeller of the sunken ship. Even so, the conspiracy theory still has a number of followers.

German attack

1912 year. Two years remain before the First World War, and the prospect of an armed conflict between Germany and Great Britain is becoming more and more likely. Germany owns several dozen submarines, which, during the war, will launch 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 Atlantic Blue Ribbon - remember?

Based on these facts, some Western publications offered their version of the sinking of the Titanic in the mid-nineties: a torpedo attack by a German submarine secretly escorting 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, "Titanic" either did not collide with an iceberg at all, or received very minor damage in a 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? To be honest, nothing.

There was a collision with an iceberg - there is no doubt about it. The deck of the ship was even covered with snow and ice crumbs. The cheerful passengers started playing football with ice - that the ship is doomed, it will become clear later. The collision itself passed surprisingly quietly - almost no one of the passengers felt it. The 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!).

Proponents of the theory of the German attack claim, however, that the people in the boats heard a terrible roar just before the sinking of the Titanic - well, it 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 cause any doubts. It is unlikely that the Germans would have fired a torpedo at an almost sunken ship, right? And the rumble heard by the survivors was due to the fact that the feed 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 bear the weight of the lifted stern (however, they learn about this only after finding the liner at the bottom: the break occurred below the water level), and this also hardly happened silently ... And why would the Germans suddenly start sinking a passenger liner two years before the start of the war? This seems, to put it mildly, dubious. And to put it bluntly - absurd.

A curse

Mystical version: the curse of the pharaohs. It is known for certain that one of the historians, Lord Cantherville, transported the perfectly preserved Egyptian mummy of a priestess - a soothsayer on the Titanic in a wooden box. Since the mummy had a rather high historical and cultural value, it was not placed in the hold, but placed directly next to the captain's bridge. The essence of the theory is that the mummy influenced the mind of Captain Smith, who, despite numerous warnings about ice in the area where the Titanic sailed, did not slow down and thereby doom the ship to certain death. This version is supported by the well-known cases of the mysterious death of people who disturbed the peace of ancient burials, especially the mummified Egyptian rulers. Moreover, deaths were associated precisely with clouding of the mind, as a result of which people performed inappropriate actions, often there were cases of suicide. Pharaohs had a hand in the sinking of the Titanic?

Steering error

One of latest versions the sinking of the Titanic deserves special attention. It appeared after the novel by the granddaughter of the second mate of the Titanic, Lady Patten, Lady Patten, was published. According to the version put forward by Patten in his book, the ship had enough time to dodge the obstacle, but the helmsman Robert Hitchens panicked and turned the steering wheel in the wrong direction.

A catastrophic mistake resulted in the iceberg causing fatal damage to the vessel. The truth about what really happened on that fateful night was kept secret in the family of Lightoller - the oldest surviving officer on the Titanic and the only survivor who knew exactly what caused the ship's death. Lightoller withheld this information out of fears that the White Star Line, which owned the ship, would go bankrupt and his colleagues would lose their jobs. The only person to whom Lightoller told the truth was his wife Sylvia, who conveyed her husband's words to her granddaughter. In addition, according to Patten, such a large and reliable liner like the Titanic sank so quickly because after collision with an ice block it was not immediately stopped, and the rate of water flow into the holds increased hundreds of times. The liner was not immediately stopped because the manager of the White Star Line, Bruce Ismay, convinced the captain to continue sailing. He feared that the incident could cause considerable material damage to the company he headed.

Pursuit of the Atlantic Blue Ribbon

There were and still are many supporters of this theory, especially among writers, since it appeared in literary circles. The Atlantic Blue Ribbon is a prestigious shipping prize awarded by ocean liners for the record speed of crossing the North Atlantic.

At the time of the Titanic, this prize was awarded to the ship Mauritania of the Kunard company, which, incidentally, was the founder of this award, as well as the main competitor of the White Star Line. In defense of this theory, the opinion is put forward that the president of the company that owned the Titanic, Ismay urged the captain of the Titanic, Smith, to arrive in New York one day ahead of schedule and receive the honorary prize. This allegedly explains the high speed of the ship in the dangerous area of the Atlantic. But this theory can easily be refuted, because the Titanic simply physically could not reach the speed of 26 knots, at which the Mauritania of the Cunard company set a record, which, incidentally, held out for more than 10 years after the disaster in the Atlantic.

But what was it like in reality?

Sadly, but studying the history of the most famous maritime disaster, we have to admit that Titanic owes its death to a long chain of fatal accidents. If even one link of the ominous chain were destroyed, the tragedy could have been avoided.

Perhaps the first link was the successful start of the journey - yes, that's right. On the morning of April 10, while the Titanic sailed from the quay wall of the Port of Southampton, the superliner passed too close to the American ship New York, and a phenomenon known in navigation as the suction of ships arose: the New York began to be attracted to a moving nearby "Titanic". However, thanks to the skill of Captain Edward Smith, the collision was avoided.

Ironically, if an accident had happened, it would have saved one and a half thousand lives: if the Titanic had been delayed in the port, the ill-fated meeting with the iceberg would not have happened.

This time. 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 heap of papers. These are two.

Nevertheless, 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, of big business), but why did he risk the lives of passengers? Yes, not so risked, in fact. In those years, the captains of ocean liners often passed dangerous ice districts without slowing down: it was like crossing the road at a red light: it seems like you can't do that, but it always works. Almost always.

To the credit of Captain Smith, it must be said that he remained faithful to maritime traditions and remained on the dying ship until the very end.

But why was the bulk of the iceberg not seen? Here everything came together one to one: a moonless, dark night, calm weather. If there were even small waves on the water surface, lookouts could see white sheep 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 over its underwater, saturated with water, its dark part upward, due to which at night it was practically not visible from afar (an ordinary, white iceberg would be distinguishable from a mile ). The sentinel saw him only 450 meters away, and there was almost no time for maneuver. Perhaps the iceberg would have been noticed earlier, but the next link in the fatal chain played a role here - there were no binoculars in the "crow's nest". The box where they were kept was locked, and the second mate, taken from the ship just before departure, took the key to it in a hurry.

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. Officer of the watch, Murdoch, on watch, gave the helmsman the order to turn left, while sending the command "full back" to the engine room. Thus, he made a gross mistake, adding another link in the chain that led the liner to death: even if the Titanic hit 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 perished. But only two watertight compartments would be flooded. With such damage, the liner would remain afloat and could wait for the help of other ships.

And if Murdoch, turning the ship to the left, ordered an increase, not a decrease in speed, there might not have been a collision 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 executed in the engine room.

So the collision happened. The iceberg damaged the fragile skin of the ship along the six starboard compartments.

Looking ahead, we will say that only seven hundred and four managed to escape: the next link in the chain of failures was that some sailors too literally understood the captain's order to put women and children in the boats, and did not let men go there, even if there were empty seats. 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 was not clear why they would 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.

But why was there such a monstrous disparity in the seats on the lifeboats? The owners of the Titanic, extolling the merits of the new ship, stated that they even exceeded the code's instructions: instead of the prescribed 962 rescue places on the ship, there were 1178. Unfortunately, they did not attach any importance to the discrepancy between this number and the number of passengers on board.

It is especially bitter that not far from the sinking Titanic, another passenger steamer, the Californian, stood waiting for the ice hazard. A few hours ago, he notified the neighboring ships that he was locked by ice and had to stop, so as not to accidentally run into an 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), rudely interrupted the warning: "Go to hell, you are interfering with my work!" What was the Titanic's radio operator so busy with?

The fact is that in those years, radio communication on a ship was more a luxury than an absolute necessity, and this miracle of technology aroused great interest among the wealthy public. From the very beginning of the flight, the radio operators were literally inundated with messages of a private nature - and no one saw anything reprehensible in the fact that the radio operators of the Titanic paid such attention to rich passengers who wished to send a telegram to the ground directly from the liner. So at that moment when colleagues from other ships 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: ships of that time did not even have a round-the-clock watch at the radio station.

On April 14, 1912, at 23 hours 40 minutes, the Titanic collided with an iceberg. As a result of a sliding collision with an ice block, the hull of the starboard side of the giant ship was damaged for a hundred meters, and water began to flow into the five watertight compartments of the Titanic. In the sixth compartment, the leak was insignificant. But the 16 compartments into which the hold was divided, although they were considered watertight, their bulkheads were not hermetically connected to the decks from above, and water, as one compartment was filled, overflowed into another. This explains the gradually increasing trim (tilt of the ship in the longitudinal plane) on the bow of the Titanic, which ultimately led to the death of the giant.

However, the ominous charm of this story lies in the fact that not everyone agrees with the official version death. There are other versions - one more bizarre than the other.

Let's start with the fact that at present the official version is considered to be this: the ship died not just because of a collision with an iceberg, but because of the high speed at which the Titanic was sailing.

And now - alternative versions, each of which has its adherents in the world club of mystery lovers.

1. A fire in the coal compartment, which occurred even before sailing and provoked first an explosion, and then a collision with an iceberg.
This has existed for a long time, but one of the experts who devoted more than 20 years to studying the history of the Titanic, Ray Boston, put forward new evidence of this theory. According to him, the fire in the sixth hold of the ship began on April 2, and it was not possible to extinguish it. The owner of the vessel, John Pierpont Morgan, decided that the Titanic would quickly reach New York, drop the passengers, and then the fire would be extinguished. The ship went to sea with a fire on board, and an explosion occurred during the voyage. The high speed of the Titanic at night, when the danger of collision with ice was especially high, can be explained by the fears of Captain Edward John Smith that his ship will take off even before arriving in New York. Despite numerous warnings from other ships about ice, Smith did not slow down, as a result of which the Titanic collided with an iceberg.

2. Conspiracy theory: This is not Titanic at all! This version was put forward by experts in the study of the causes of the sinking of the ship Robin Gardiner and Dan Van Der Watt, published in the book "The Riddle of the Titanic". According to this theory, the wreck is not the Titanic at all, but its twin brother, the Olympic. These ships looked practically no different from each other. On September 20, 1911, the Olympic collided with the British Navy cruiser Hawk, as a result of which both ships were seriously damaged. The owners of Olimpik suffered heavy losses, as the damage inflicted on Olimpik was not enough for the insurance payment. The theory is based on the assumption of possible fraud in order to obtain insurance payments to the owners of the Titanic. According to this version, the owners of "Titanic" deliberately sent "Olympic" to the area of possible appearance of ice and at the same time convinced the captain not to reduce speed, so that the ship would receive serious damage in a collision with an ice block. This version was initially supported by the fact that a large number of objects were raised from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, where the "Titanic" lies, but nothing was found that would bear the name "Titanic". This theory was refuted after parts were raised to the surface on which the Titanic's side (building) number - 401. The Olympic had a side number 400. In addition, the minted side number of the Titanic was discovered and on the propeller of a sunken ship. Even so, the conspiracy theory still has a number of followers.

3. The Titanic was torpedoed by a German submarine. There is a version that the Titanic sank not from the damage inflicted on it by the iceberg, but from a torpedo fired by a German submarine, with the aim of getting the same insurance payment. And the commander of the submarine, who agreed to be a participant in the scam, was a relative of one of the owners of the Titanic. But this theory has no strong arguments in its favor. If the torpedo somehow damaged the Titanic's hull, it would not have gone unnoticed by both passengers and crew.

4. Mystical version: the curse of the pharaohs. It is known for certain that one of the historians, Lord Cantherville, transported the perfectly preserved Egyptian mummy of a priestess - a soothsayer in a wooden box on the Titanic. Since the mummy had a rather high historical and cultural value, it was not placed in the hold, but placed directly next to the captain's bridge. The essence of the theory is that the mummy influenced the mind of Captain Smith, who, despite numerous warnings about ice in the area where the Titanic sailed, did not slow down and thereby doom the ship to certain death. This version is supported by the well-known cases of the mysterious death of people who disturbed the peace of ancient burials, especially the mummified Egyptian rulers. Moreover, deaths were associated precisely with clouding of the mind, as a result of which people performed inappropriate actions, often there were cases of suicide. Pharaohs had a hand in the sinking of the Titanic?

5. Steering error. One of the latest versions of the sinking of the Titanic deserves special attention. It appeared after the novel by the granddaughter of the second mate of the Titanic, Lady Patten, Lady Patten, was published. According to the version put forward by Patten in his book, the ship had enough time to dodge the obstacle, but the helmsman Robert Hitchens panicked and turned the helm in the wrong direction. A catastrophic mistake resulted in the iceberg causing fatal damage to the vessel. The truth about what really happened on that fateful night was kept secret in the family of Lightoller - the oldest surviving officer of the Titanic and the only survivor who knew exactly what caused the ship's death. Lightoller withheld this information out of fears that the White Star Line, which owned the ship, would go bankrupt and his colleagues would lose their jobs. The only person to whom Lightoller told the truth was his wife Sylvia, who conveyed her husband's words to her granddaughter. In addition, according to Patten, such a large and reliable liner like the Titanic sank so quickly because after collision with an ice block it was not immediately stopped, and the rate of water flow into the holds increased hundreds of times. The liner was not immediately stopped because the manager of the White Star Line, Bruce Ismay, convinced the captain to continue sailing. He feared that the incident could cause considerable material damage to the company he headed.

6. Pursuit of the Atlantic Blue Ribbon. There were and still are many supporters of this theory, especially among writers, since it appeared in literary circles. The Atlantic Blue Ribbon is a prestigious shipping prize awarded to ocean liners for their record speed across the North Atlantic. At the time of the Titanic, this prize was awarded to the ship Mauritania of the Kunard company, which, incidentally, was the founder of this award, as well as the main competitor of the White Star Line. In defense of this theory, the opinion is put forward that the president of the company that owned the Titanic, Ismay urged the captain of the Titanic, Smith, to arrive in New York one day ahead of schedule and receive the honorary prize. This allegedly explains the high speed of the ship in the dangerous area of the Atlantic. But this theory can easily be refuted, because the Titanic simply physically could not reach the speed of 26 knots, at which the Mauritania of the Cunard company set a record, which, incidentally, held out for more than 10 years after the disaster in the Atlantic.

Since the most famous shipwreck of the 20th century - death passenger liner Almost 105 years have passed since Titanic, but it looks like this story will give us reasons for conversation, investigation and inspire to create new films and books for a long time!

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, but a fire that separated them?

Yes, this is exactly the message that the new 2017 brought! British journalist Chenan Moloney, who has over 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 a study of 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 everyone possible ways began to demonstrate his greatness and reliability.

Staircase under the dome in 1st grade

First of all, they broke the tradition of the fleet and did not 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 important persons there were also "special cabins" made in eleven different interior styles - from the Dutch and Adam's style 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 mineral water and beer, 35 thousand eggs and 44 tons of meat, oysters from Baltimore and cheeses from Europe aboard 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 the body of Captain Edward John Smith with it forever. 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, a real man! And even if director Cameron proves as much as he wants that this character is a figment of his imagination, there was actually a coal miner named Jack Dawson on board the Titanic, 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 ship "Karpatia"

Not impressive yet? But he received the signal for help from the Titanic! Then the poor man thought that he "moved with 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.

However, the ominous charm of this story lies in the fact that not everyone agrees with the official version of the death. There are other versions - one more bizarre than the other.

And now - alternative versions, each of which has its adherents in the world club of mystery lovers.