When it was built, the Titanic was the largest
moving human-made object in the world. It had many new features, including
remotely sealable compartments that led to it being deemed
"unsinkable." Alas, it was not.
About the ship
The RMS Titanic was built by the White Star
line, which was a competitor to another shipbuilding company, Cunard. In 1907,
Cunard made major waves by building the Lusitania and the Mauretania, which set
speed records crossing the Atlantic. To compete, White Star Line decided to
build several large vessels known for their comfort instead of their speed, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica: the Olympic, the
Titanic and the Britannic.
The Titanic was completed in 1912 at a cost of
$7.5 million in Belfast, Ireland (although nowadays it's Northern Ireland). It
took more than two years to build, and two workers died during its
construction. The ship was 882 feet (270 meters) long, or more than four city
blocks, and more than 92 feet (28 m) high. It weighed an incredible 46,000
tons. [Titanic Quiz: Fact or Fiction]
The Titanic began its journey in Southampton,
England, and then sailed to Cherbourg, France, and Queenstown, Ireland (now
known as Cobh). It sped west toward New York on April 10. It was carrying a
total of 1,316 passengers and 885 crew members, according to the Encyclopedia Titanica. The
people were a mixture of wealthy individuals as well as immigrants from
Ireland, Germany and elsewhere.
On April 14, a nearby ship, the Californian,
sent a message at 10:55 p.m.: "Ice report: We are stopped and surrounded
by ice." But the captain of the Titanic, Edward Smith, and First Officer
William Murdoch did not heed these warnings, steaming ahead near full-speed.
The
known route of the Titanic and a possible route of the iceberg.
Sinking of the Titanic
At 11:40 p.m. ship's time, watchmen aboard the
ship spotted an iceberg, and the ship made a sudden turn to the left, causing
it to sideswipe the iceberg. The ice punched holes in the starboard (or right
side) of the boat, along a nearly 300-foot (90 m) stretch and it began filling
it with water. Six of the ship's 16 water-tight compartments started filling.
But this was enough to make the ship begin to sink into the water, at which
point the water flowed of the top of these compartments (the "transverse
bulkheads") and begin filling the other compartments. Modern estimates
suggest that the boat could have possibly limped to shore with only four
breached compartments. [Video: How Exactly Did Titanic Sink? - With James Cameron ]
With six compartments leaking, however, the
Titanic's fate was sealed — it had lost too much buoyancy to remain afloat, and
the fact that it was a well-built and durable ship at this point made little
difference. That said, the ship didn't sink for almost three hours, longer than
Titanic's engineer gave it — when he heard that six compartments were leaking,
he predicted it would only stay afloat for 1 to 1.5 hours, said Titanic expert Parks Stephenson. Contrary to
some studies that say the Titanic had weak rivets, it was actually quite
strong for its time, Stephenson said.
As the front filled with water and sunk into the
ocean, the back of the ship lifted out of the water, according to analysis by
James Cameron and eyewitness accounts. This placed tremendous pressure on the
middle of the boat. It eventually cracked and the front of the ship crashed
back into the ocean; the ship sank at 2:20 a.m. on April 15.
Why did the Titanic sink?
Many have speculated as to what led the Titanic
to hit the iceberg. Stephenson said there was likely at the time an atmospheric
effect called a "cold air mirage," which is relatively common in the
North Atlantic, and helped prevent the crew from seeing the iceberg until too
late. This effect may have also prevented nearby ships from seeing the
Titanic's warning flares, or from discerning that they were signals of
distress.
A ship called the Californian was nearby, likely
within less than 20 miles (37 kilometers) of the, and was singled out for
scrutiny for not responding to the Titanic's distress signals. But the ship had
retired for the night, and its wireless system was turned off. The captain of
the ship claimed that the flares his officers saw weren't thought to be
distress signals. But it's unclear exactly why the Californian didn’t respond
and continues to be a matter of some debate, Stephenson said.
The Titanic carried only 16 lifeboats as well as
four "collapsibles," which in total could only accommodate a third
the Titanic's total passengers had the ship been fully filled. As it was, it
could have only accommodated half the passengers aboard. While this may seem
unforgiveable by today's standards, the Titanic actually carried more lifeboats
than necessary under the law at the time. In the aftermath of the sinking, laws
were put in place to prevent this from happening again and required ships to
carry more lifeboats.
Titanic passengers and
survivors
All of the Titanic's survivors were rescued by the
Carpathia, which received the Titanic's distress signal and immediately set off
toward the Titanic. It didn't get there until about 4 a.m., however.
Of the 2,224 people on board, 1,514 lost their
lives, while 710 survived. First-class passengers fared much better than those
in third class. For example, only 3 percent of first-class women died, whereas
54 percent of third class women perished.
Some of the Titanic's passengers were prominent
people, including John Jacob Astor IV, one of the wealthiest men in the world
at that time. So were Ida and Isidor Straus, who was the co-owner of Macy's
department store. And of course, there was "Unsinkable" Molly Brown,
a socialite who became famous when she exhorted her lifeboat to return to look
for survivors, and ultimately survived the ordeal herself.
Astor didn't survive, as he didn't take
seriously the reports that the ship was sinking, and later wasn't allowed onto
a lifeboat due to a "women and children first" policy. (His
pregnant wife did survive, however.) Ida Straus initially boarded a lifeboat
but returned to her husband. "Where you go, I go," she reportedly
said. The couple would die together. (He was 67, she was 63.)
The wreck of the Titanic was discovered by Bob Ballard on
Sept. 1, 1985. He used his underwater craft called Argo to follow a trail of
debris to the ship's hull.
No comments:
Post a Comment