Everyone heard about how the Titanic sank. This British liner was the largest in the world. The disaster became a legend, setting the stage for several movies.
Liner construction
At the beginning of the 20th century, shipping was a cutting edge industry. In the UK, there was fierce competition between two shipbuilding companies: Cunard Line and White Star Line. The first became famous for having launched two of the fastest liners. This greatly weakened the position of the White Star Line, and its management decided to respond to competitors. Soon, the construction of liners was launched, inferior to Kunard's in speed, but exceeding them in size.
The ships were given majestic names inspired by mythology: "Titanic" and "Olympic". More than 1,500 people were involved in the construction of the first. By 1911, he was ready. But it was not the grandiose construction that became the main thing in the history of the liner, but how the Titanic sank.
Check
The preliminary voyage of the Titanic took place at the end of May. A huge number of people have gathered in Belfast, wanting to see it. The equipment check was successful, no accidents were foreseen. For eight hours, the ship went at high speed. After that, it was allowed to make a real cruise trip.
Single flight
The first voyage, which became the last for the ship, began on April 10. It all started off favorably. But from April 14-15, 1912, the Titanic collided with an iceberg. As a result, five of the sixteen watertight compartments were damaged. The ship sank after about 3 hours. Less than half of the passengers were saved.
Causes of death
It is known that the captain was Edward Smith, one of the most experienced of his kind. He personally welcomed over 2,200 passengers on the ship. But on the voyage, he lost his leadership qualities. His actions were overly cautious and sluggish.
There were only 20 boats on the Titanic. They were not designed to rescue the number of passengers on board. In addition, the crew allowed only women and children on them, which caused panic in the crowd of passengers furiously making their way onto the boats. Two of them could not be lowered at all.
In addition to the official version of why the Titanic sank, there is an alternative one. It says that a fire started in the coal compartment. They did not extinguish it, deciding that the ship would have time to reach its destination, where they would extinguish the fire. Therefore, the captain increased the speed of the Titanic and took a chance, deciding to shorten the path, bypassing the iceberg.
"Titanic" marked the beginning of a series of films and books on the subject. Survivors released their memoirs for huge sums of money. The last victim of the crash died in 2006.
