Titanic - the true story of the disaster. The History of the Titanic: Past and Present The History of the Sunken Titanic

Most of the photos were taken father Frank Brown.

From 1911 to 1916, Frank Brown studied theology at Milltown Park Institute in Dublin. During this period, his uncle Robert (Bishop of Cloyne) sent him an unusual gift: a ticket for a short journey on board " Titanic", heading on his first voyage. My uncle gave Frank traveling from Southampton to Cherbourg and then to Queenstown (Cobh), County Cork, Ireland.

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

"Get off this ship! Archbishop".

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

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

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

"Olympic" And " Titanic" (right) at Belfast. This is the only photograph of the two ships together. (Shipping Company White Star Line built three huge liners: “ Titanic», « Olympic" And " Britannic»)

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

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

Before you come on board" Titanic", Frank Brown took this photo. In the distance is a second class gangway identical to the one he is standing on

April 10, 1912, 12.00. "Titanic"set sail from Southampton

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

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

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

"Titanic"has already rounded the end of the pier, where he passed the New York liner, which had already unmoored and began to turn towards " Titanic"Passengers can be seen leaning out of the windows of the large promenade deck to view the suspected collision

The photograph taken by F.H. Ernott shows the tug "Vulcan" alongside the " Titanic"The ship's departure from Southampton was delayed for an hour after it nearly collided with the New York."

The boy on the right is Jack Odell, a member of the family with whom he is traveling Frank Brown, and in the distance is the major Archibald Butt, military aide-de-camp to President William Howard Taft

Captain Smith on a 187 yard deck

This is obviously an American novelist Jacques Fotrell standing on the deck next to the gym" Titanic". The author of the popular detective stories "Thinking Machine", he took on board many unpublished stories that would be lost forever. Having celebrated his 37th birthday the day before sailing, he would die in a disaster

The gentleman in the white flannel suit is T. W. McCauley, a 34-year-old PE teacher from Aberdeen. One of the passengers a few years later will remember McCauley as a very strict person in relations with passengers. But with children on board he behaved more gently

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

Frank Brown ran into an unfamiliar couple taking a morning walk. Upstairs, at the railing of the second class promenade deck, benches are assembled

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

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

Boilers " Titanic"

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

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

Bedroom 1st class (B-57)

Coupe - luxury 1st class (D-19)

Bedroom 1st class (B-38)

Bedroom 1st class (B-64)

Hall with fireplace in a luxury apartment

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

Cafe on Deck B, starboard

Deck" Titanic"

Staircase under the dome. 1 class

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

Lunch menu card for April 14, 1912, which Frank Brown purchased as an illustration for my lectures

1st class lounge

Common room 1st class

Smoking room 1st class

Cafe on the veranda. 1 class

Canteen for 1st class passengers

Reading room on A-deck

Library 2nd grade

Dining room 3rd class

Common room 3rd class

3rd class menu

Captain's bridge on " Olympic". "Titanic" And " Olympic"almost identical. This is the only photograph of the captain's bridge

Swimming pool on " Olympic", completely identical to the pool on " Titanic"

On April 11, 1912, the Titanic stopped at Queenstown to take on passengers and mail.

Queenstown. White Star Marina. Crowd waiting to board messenger ships

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

Queenstown merchants had licenses to sell lace and other Irish souvenirs on board transatlantic liners

Loaders waiting to work on delivering correspondence

Illegal trade takes place on board the ship

Loading mail

The messenger ships "Ireland" and "America" with passengers and mail dock at " Titanic"

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

One of their later photographs, Frank Brown made it immediately after sailing" Titanic" from Queenstown with 1,316 passengers and 891 crew on board,at 13:55 April 11, 1912

Bruce Ismay(first class passenger, cabins No. B52, 54, 56, ticket No. 112058) Executive Director of White Star Line. He survived, but was branded with shame. I could never forgive myself for being one of the first to take my place on the boat. He soon left his post and spent the rest of his life as a hermit.

Edward John Smith- captain " Titanic".

Smith enjoyed high popularity among crew members and passengers.

Due to his wealth of experience, he was entrusted with command of a passenger liner" Titanic" on his first voyage, after which the captain had to retire.

At 2.13 a.m., just 10 minutes before the ship finally sank under water, Smith returned to the captain's bridge, where he met death.

William McMaster Murdoch . First mate" Titanic". Died

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

Second Mate " Titanic» Charles Herbert Lightoller. Having jumped off the ship as one of the last and miraculously avoided being sucked into the ventilation shaft, he swam to the collapsible boat B, which was floating upside down. A pipe that came off and fell into the sea next to him " Titanic» moved the boat further away from the sinking ship and allowed it to remain afloat

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

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

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

Benjamin Guggenheim - wealthy American businessman. Died

John Jacob and Madeleine ASTOR - millionaire, science fiction writer with his young wife, who was one year younger than John Jacob's son from his first marriage to Ava Willing. They say, John Jacob, like many other influential people, was advised not to board this liner. However, the multimillionaire decided to try his luck and nevertheless went on his last voyage on the doomed liner. Madeleine escaped on lifeboat No. 4. John Jacob's body was recovered from the depths of the ocean 22 days after his death. The writer and multimillionaire was discovered by a signet with the letters J.J.A.

Margaret (Molly) Brown - American socialite, philanthropist and activist. Survived. When on " Titanic"There was a panic Molly putting people into lifeboats, she herself refused to get in: “If the worst happens, I’ll swim out,” but in the end someone forcefully pushed her into lifeboat number 6, which made her famous.

The boat could have accommodated 65 passengers, but in reality there were only 26 of them. As they set sail, the boilers on the ship began to explode. “Suddenly the sea opened up, and it was as if giant arms clasped the ship,” she wrote Margaret. Sitting in a lifeboat with 24 women and two men, she argued frantically with the captain of the boat. Robert Hitchens, demanding to return to the crash site and pick up the drowning people. When one of the passengers felt cold, Molly I gave her my fur coat. And when the cold “finished off” even her, she ordered the women to sit down at the oars and row to keep warm

Molly hands the captain " Carpathia"To Arthur Rostron a cup of love on behalf of the surviving passengers" Titanic»

On " Carpathia» Margaret I took up what I knew how to do best: organization. She knew several languages and could speak with passengers from different countries. She looked for blankets and food for them, compiled lists of survivors, collected money for those who lost along with " Titanic“everything: family and savings. By the time of arrival " Carpathia"At the port she collected $10,000 for the survivors. When the ship arrived in New York and the reporters asked Margaret, which she owed to her luck, she replied: “Usual Brown luck. We are unsinkable!”

She played in the filmKathy Bates

Lucy Christina, Lady Duff Gordon - one of the leading British fashion designers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, known in the professional arena as Lucille. Survived

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

"The Telegraph", UK

Every family has its secrets, but usually they concern things that are of no interest to anyone outside of it. However, this does not apply to Louise Patten - or rather Lady Patten, to give her full title - the wife of the former Tory education secretary Lord John Patten (however, she has enough achievements of her own - she became the first woman, sits on the board of a FTSE 100 company, and also writes best-selling financial thrillers).

In the 1960s, when Patten was still a teenager, her beloved grandmother revealed a family secret to her, warning her that going public could have two consequences. One of them would be terrible - the good name of Patten's grandfather Charles Lightoller, who was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross in World War I and again recognized as a hero in 1940 during the Dunkirk evacuation, could be tarnished. However, the second would change history and overturn the official version of one of the most famous disasters - the sinking of the Titanic, which claimed the lives of 1,517 people in April 1912.

The tension between these two consequences partly explains why Patten remained silent for 40 years and did not tell - she admits with a girlish giggle, glancing up from under her luxurious black bangs - what she knew, not even to her husband. What did he say when he found out about this? "I think it was like, 'Oh my God.'" But now Patten, 56, has finally decided to come clean to the rest of the world in her new novel, Good as Gold.

It would seem, what new can be said about the disaster almost 100 years later? “My grandfather was a second mate on the Titanic,” explains Patten. “He was in his cabin when the ship hit an iceberg. Then he disobeyed a direct order and refused to go down to the rescue boat, but in the end he was saved by accident anyway.” .

Surprisingly, when the Titanic sank, Lightoller jumped into the ocean and was pulled into the depths, but then the force of an underwater explosion pushed him to the surface. He was then picked up by one of the boats.

The idea that after all the investigations, films, books and - finally - after the descent to the wreckage of the Titanic at the bottom of the Atlantic, the key to the mystery of what happened on that fateful night is held by a seemingly unrelated respected businesswoman from London , looks extremely unusual. However, why, I am perplexed, did Grandfather Patten, who looked like an extremely honest and brave man, lie and continue to lie all his life? “The fact is,” she replies, “that when the survivors had already been picked up by another ship, Bruce Ismay convinced my grandfather that if he told the truth, the White Star Line would be accused of negligence and would not pay its insurance. In fact, this meant that "The company will go bankrupt and everyone will lose their jobs. In those days, people like my grandfather stuck to their code of honor. He lied so other people wouldn't lose their jobs."

But why didn't her grandmother speak up after Lightoller died in 1952? "She didn't want this heroic figure to be considered a liar. My mother, who was also privy to the secret, was unhappy that my grandmother told me everything. It hurt her even more. She literally worshiped my grandfather."

So what happened remained a secret kept in the family circle, of which in the end only Patten remained alive. “I have an older sister, but she spent most of her time far from home at a boarding school. As a teenager, I was sick a lot, and spent much more time at home with my grandmother.”

But why reveal the secret now? “My mother and grandmother are dead, but,” she pauses, as if she still isn’t sure she did the right thing, “I still hear my mother saying that my grandfather should be remembered as a hero.”

Most writers would have used this story long ago, although most likely not for a work of fiction, but for a documentary - perhaps for a memoir. Why rework it into a novel? “Because I write thrillers,” Patten replies firmly, making me think that she must be an effective chairman of the board. “I was planning to write a thriller about a family with family secrets, about a banking dynasty with ties to shipping, and then “I suddenly thought that I had my own family secret, also related to shipping.”

"The Telegraph", UK

Thanks to James Cameron's film, the whole world learned about the disaster on the Titanic on April 15, 1912. For almost three hours after the collision, the ship slowly perished while people were loaded into lifeboats, and brave musicians, not hoping for salvation, played to support the people. On an early spring morning, just 400 miles offshore, 1,500 people died in icy waters. The disaster became the most important event of the century, but then it was forgotten for a while, until the film of the same name was released. Many facts about the crash were revealed in the film itself, but what do we still not know about the crash?

Before the collision, the Titanic was warned 6 times.

The crew of the Titanic knew about the possibility of a collision. The communicator repeatedly warned the crew, but there was no way to see the iceberg: there was no moon in the sky, the light of which could reflect the ice, and the sea was calm, without waves that could create foam around the iceberg.

About an hour passed between the start of the disaster and the people getting into the boats.

The first boat was launched only an hour later. It could accommodate 65 people, but due to panic and poor organization, only 28 first class passengers boarded. With a better organization of the rescue operation, many more people could have survived the disaster.

If the collision had happened differently, the disaster could have ended differently.

The Titanic hit the underwater part of the iceberg and received a hole in the lowest technical decks. If a head-on collision occurred, the airliner's partitions could withstand such a load.

Three dogs may have escaped on the boats.

There were 12 dogs on the ship along with the first class passengers, but only three small dogs survived. Spitz and Pekingese had a better chance: they could fit into the boat.

The last SOS signal sent by the ship was incorrect.

The latitude coordinates were correct, but the latitude coordinates were skewed by 14 miles. Help arriving late received information about the wrong location. The answer to why the ship transmitted false coordinates has not yet been found.

No one conducted exercises on boarding people in lifeboats.

Chaos reigned on the ship during the rescue operation. No one knew the rules for using the boats, including the crew members. This is what overconfidence led to.

The Titanic sent an SOS signal only an hour later.

The crew did not want to publicize the hole in the “unsinkable” liner. He issued a distress signal too late, when the possible consequences of the collision became obvious. In those moments while the crew was in doubt, a passenger steamer was passing nearby, and if it had received the signal, more people could have been saved.

The speed at which the ship was sinking was catastrophically high.

The hole from the collision was huge. Water poured into the ship at a terrible speed, plunging the ship more and more into the water. Within three hours, the liner was flooded with tens of thousands of tons of water.

The death of the largest ship of the century forced people to reconsider safety rules at sea.

The disaster became the most important and terrible event of the century. After it, people reconsidered their views on safety at sea. Now the number of boats began to depend on the number of passengers, and not on how much the ship weighed, as it was before.

The fire weakened the ship's hull.

According to new data, it is known that the coal fuel with which the liner moved was burning before the Titanic set off on its fateful voyage. The fire may have started three weeks before shipment. Nobody put out the fire. The liner became weaker, and it could not withstand the collision. The information was obtained by a journalist who has been studying the causes of the sinking of the Titanic for 30 years.

On the night of April 14-15, 1912, the most modern passenger liner at that time, the Titanic, making its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York, collided with an iceberg and soon sank. At least 1,496 people died, 712 passengers and crew were rescued.

The Titanic disaster very quickly became overgrown with a mass of legends and speculation. At the same time, for several decades, the place where the lost ship rested remained unknown.

The main difficulty was that the location of the death was known with very low accuracy - we were talking about an area 100 kilometers in diameter. Considering that the Titanic sank in an area where the depth of the Atlantic is several kilometers, finding the ship was very problematic.

Titanic. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

The bodies of the dead were going to be raised with dynamite

Immediately after the shipwreck, relatives of wealthy passengers who died in the disaster came up with a proposal to organize an expedition to raise the ship. The initiators of the search wanted to bury their loved ones and, to be honest, return the valuables that had sunk to the bottom along with their owners.

The decisive attitude of the relatives came across a categorical verdict from experts: the technology for searching and lifting the Titanic from great depths simply did not exist at that time.

Then a new proposal was received - to drop dynamite charges to the bottom at the supposed site of the disaster, which, according to the authors of the project, were supposed to provoke the ascent of the corpses of the dead from the bottom. This dubious idea also did not find support.

The First World War, which began in 1914, postponed the search for the Titanic for many years.

Interior of the veranda for first class passengers of the Titanic. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Nitrogen and ping pong balls

They started talking about searching for the liner again only in the 1950s. At the same time, proposals began to appear on possible ways to raise it - from freezing the body with nitrogen to filling it with millions of ping-pong balls.

In the 1960s and 1970s, several expeditions were sent to the area where the Titanic sank, but all of them were unsuccessful due to insufficient technical preparation.

In 1980 Texas oil tycoon John Grimm financed the preparation and conduct of the first large expedition to search for the Titanic. But, despite the availability of the most modern equipment for underwater searches, his expedition ended in failure.

Played a major role in the discovery of the Titanic ocean explorer and part-time US Navy officer Robert Ballard. Ballard, who was involved in improving small unmanned underwater vehicles, became interested in underwater archeology and, in particular, the mystery of the Titanic sinkhole back in the 1970s. In 1977, he organized the first expedition to search for the Titanic, but it ended in failure.

Ballard was convinced that finding the ship was only possible with the help of the latest deep-sea bathyscaphes. But getting these at your disposal was very difficult.

Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Doctor Ballard's Secret Mission

In 1985, having failed to achieve results during an expedition on the French research vessel Le Suroît, Ballard moved to the American vessel R/V Knorr, with which he continued the search for the Titanic.

As Ballard himself said many years later, the expedition, which became historic, began with a secret deal concluded between him and the command of the Navy. The researcher really wanted to get the Argo deep-sea research vehicle for his work, but the American admirals did not want to pay for the work of the equipment to search for some historical rarity. The ship R/V Knorr and the Argo apparatus were supposed to carry out a mission to examine the sites of the sinking of two American nuclear submarines, Scorpion and Thresher, which sank back in the 1960s. This task was secret, and the US Navy needed a person who could not only carry out the necessary work, but also be able to keep it secret.

Ballard's candidacy was ideal - he was quite famous, and everyone knew about his passion for finding the Titanic.

The researcher was offered: he could get the Argo and use it to search for the Titanic if he first found and examined the submarines. Ballard agreed.

Only the leadership of the US Navy knew about the Scorpion and Thrasher; for the rest, Robert Ballard simply explored the Atlantic and looked for the Titanic.

Robert Ballard. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

"Comet tail" at the bottom

He coped with the secret mission brilliantly, and on August 22, 1985, he was able to again begin the search for the liner that died in 1912.

None of the most advanced technology would have ensured his success if not for the previously accumulated experience. Ballard, while examining the sinkhole sites of the submarines, noticed that they left at the bottom a kind of “comet tail” of thousands of fragments. This was due to the fact that the hulls of the boats were destroyed when sank to the bottom due to enormous pressure.

The scientist knew that during the dive on the Titanic, the steam boilers exploded, which meant that the liner should have left a similar “comet tail.”

It was this trace, and not the Titanic itself, that was easier to detect.

On the night of September 1, 1985, the Argo apparatus found small debris at the bottom, and at 0:48 the camera recorded the Titanic’s boiler. Then it was possible to discover the bow of the ship.

It was found that the bow and stern of the broken liner were located at a distance of approximately 600 meters from each other. At the same time, both the stern and the bow were seriously deformed when sank to the bottom, but the bow was still better preserved.

Ship layout. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

House for underwater inhabitants

The news of the discovery of the Titanic became a sensation, although many experts hastened to question it. But in the summer of 1986, Ballard carried out a new expedition, during which he not only described in detail the ship at the bottom, but also made the first dive to the Titanic on a manned deep-sea vehicle. After this, the last doubts were dispelled - the Titanic was discovered.

The last resting place of the liner is located at a depth of 3750 meters. In addition to the two main parts of the liner, tens of thousands of smaller debris are scattered along the bottom over an area of 4.8×8 km: parts of the ship’s hull, remains of furniture and interior decoration, dishes, and personal belongings of people.

The wreckage of the ship is covered with multi-layered rust, the thickness of which is constantly growing. In addition to multi-layered rust, 24 species of invertebrate animals and 4 species of fish live on and near the hull. Of these, 12 species of invertebrates clearly gravitate towards shipwrecks, eating metal and wooden structures. The interior of the Titanic was almost completely destroyed. The wooden elements were consumed by deep sea worms. The decks are covered in layers of clam shells, and stalactites of rust hang from many of the metal pieces.

A wallet recovered from the Titanic. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Are all the people left with shoes left?

During the 30 years that have passed since the discovery of the ship, the Titanic has been rapidly deteriorating. Its current state is such that there can be no talk of any lifting of the vessel. The ship will forever remain at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

There is still no consensus on whether human remains were preserved on the Titanic and around it. According to the prevailing version, all human bodies completely decomposed. However, information periodically appears that some researchers have nevertheless stumbled upon the remains of the dead.

But James Cameron, director of the famous movie "Titanic", who personally has over 30 dives to the liner on the Russian Mir deep-sea submersibles, is sure of the opposite: “We saw shoes, boots and other footwear at the site of the sunken ship, but our team has never encountered human remains.”

Things from the Titanic are a profitable product

Since the discovery of the Titanic by Robert Ballard, about two dozen expeditions have been carried out to the ship, during which several thousand objects were raised to the surface, ranging from personal belongings of passengers to a piece of plating weighing 17 tons.

The exact number of objects recovered from the Titanic is impossible to establish today, since with the improvement of underwater technology, the ship has become a favorite target of “black archaeologists” who are trying to obtain rarities from the Titanic by any means.

Robert Ballard, lamenting this, remarked: “The ship is still a noble old lady, but not the same lady I saw in 1985.”

Items from the Titanic have been sold at auction for many years and are in great demand. So, in the year of the 100th anniversary of the disaster, in 2012, hundreds of items went under the hammer, including a cigar box that belonged to the captain of the Titanic ($40 thousand), a life jacket from the ship ($55 thousand), and a master key first class steward ($138 thousand). As for the jewelry from the Titanic, their value is measured in millions of dollars.

At one time, having discovered the Titanic, Robert Ballard intended to keep this place secret, so as not to disturb the resting place of one and a half thousand people. Perhaps he shouldn't have done this.