The Titanic is the most famous and expensive passenger liner of the early 20th century. The real floating palace was equipped with the latest technology, modern navigation equipment and seemed to be an unsinkable fortress. But on the night of April 14-15, 1912, during his maiden voyage, he collided with a huge iceberg that rammed the ship. In three hours, the grand steamer sank, taking with it more than one and a half thousand human lives.
Ice warnings
The first warnings about the observation of a cluster of icebergs "Titanic" received on April 12, however, due to the fact that the discovered icebergs were not on the route of the ship, the radio operators did not attach any importance to this message. Throughout the day of April 14, warnings about ice danger continued to be received, but some of these messages were never transmitted to the captain. This circumstance was later called one of the main reasons for the tragedy that unfolded in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. The protocol ordered in such cases to set up a larger number of sentinels who would track large blocks of ice, it was necessary to reduce the speed of the vessel to a minimum and, if necessary, adjust the course. None of this was done, the Titanic went at the maximum speed for that time (almost 42 km per hour) to meet its death.
Iceberg crash
At 23:30, Officer Frederick Fleet, on duty on watch, saw a large iceberg right on the course, this message was transmitted to First Mate William Murdoch. As the researchers believe, it was he who made the irreparable mistake that caused the worst sea catastrophe of the 20th century. He consistently gives the orders "Right on board!", "Stop the car!", "Full back!", Thus Murdoch hoped to bypass the iceberg to the left, to avoid a collision, but he miscalculated. At such a high speed, the liner did not manage to maneuver, at 23:40 the underwater part of the iceberg rammed the left side six meters below the waterline. The length of the damage was about 90 meters. Even during the trial, it was suggested that if Murdoch had not given the order for maneuvers and crashed into an iceberg without reducing speed, then the catastrophe could either have been avoided altogether, or it would not have acquired such catastrophic proportions. One of the most likely scenarios is that a head-on collision could not have destroyed the Titanic, although the lower decks would have been flooded, but complete immersion could have been avoided by blocking the lower decks, while all passengers would have a chance to survive.
In total, out of 2224 passengers and crew members, 710 people were saved, 1514 died along with the Titanic and died later. Among them were 52 children, 106 women, 659 men and 696 crew members, led by Captain Edward Smith.
Wreck and flooding
At first, there was no panic or alarm on the ship, people were so confident in the unsinkability of the ship that they did not admit the thought that most of them had already signed a death warrant. 10 minutes after the collision with the iceberg, the water completely flooded the lower decks in the bow of the vessel, the aft part of the vessel, in which the passenger cabins of the third class were located, was not flooded at first, but the bulkheads between the compartments could not hold back the water pressure for a long time. This was announced by Thomas Andrews, having returned after inspecting the damage to the "Titanic", he also said that, in his opinion, the liner will inevitably go to the bottom.
24 minutes after the start of the wreck, a distress signal was sent from the Titanic, at the same time the first passengers went to the upper deck to put on life jackets and take their places in the boats. Despite the fact that there was not enough room for everyone in the lifeboats, the first boats left the liner half empty. There was no panic yet, people were evacuated in an orderly manner, and the Titanic continued to send distress signals. For the first time, the SOS signal was applied - save our souls. Panic on the deck began to grow only an hour later, by 1:30 already 11 boats were launched, each of which could hold up to 70 people.
Of the 1,500 dead, a little more than 300 bodies were found, the 1985 expedition stated that the remains of human bodies were not preserved on board the sunken "Titanic", they were completely decomposed in the ocean water.
Panic and death
After Murdoch, who led the evacuation, fired several shots into the air, trying to restore order among the passengers of the sinking ship, real hell begins. People drive each other away from the boats, pushing women and children away. More than 500 people could not even find a way out from the lower decks, many of them had already died by 2:00 am, fought and killed each other for places in the boats. At 2:18 a.m. the bow of the liner was completely submerged under the weight of the penetrating water, the stern rose out of the water at an angle of 23 degrees and broke. A few minutes later it was all over: first the bow, and then the stern, sink to the ocean floor, dragging the still living people with them. Only two hours later, the Karpatia liner arrived at the scene of the tragedy, picking up the boats with the surviving people.
