peste 800 de oameni au fost angajati pentru aceasta calatorie, si anume:
*289 fochisti si mecanici
*28 inginer
*39 marinari brevetati
*7 custozi si functionari
*491 stewarzi si personal de servire
*1 intendenta
*7 tamplari
*2 doctori
*2 spalatori de geamuri
*2 angajati pentru baia turceasca
*8 muzicanti
*2 radiotelegrafisti
*5 factori postali
sâmbătă, 26 iulie 2008
duminică, 20 iulie 2008
Provizii
Alimentele si bautura
erau depozitate in camari, in cantitati uluitoare, si cuprindeau:
*34.000 kg carne rosie
*11.000 kg carne pasare
*5.000 kg peste
*40.000 oua
*200 butoaie faina
*40 tone cartofi
*800 legaturi sparanghel
*7.000 capatani de salata
*36.000 mere
*15.000 sticle de bere
*1.000 sticle vin
*850 sticle tarie
Vesela si lenjeria
*3.000 cesti ceai
*2.000 farfurii intinse
*8.000 tacamuri
*2.000 solnite
*400 suporturi felii paine prajita
*6.000 fete masa
*45.000 servetele
*15.000 cearsafuri simple
*7.500 prosoape de baie
erau depozitate in camari, in cantitati uluitoare, si cuprindeau:
*34.000 kg carne rosie
*11.000 kg carne pasare
*5.000 kg peste
*40.000 oua
*200 butoaie faina
*40 tone cartofi
*800 legaturi sparanghel
*7.000 capatani de salata
*36.000 mere
*15.000 sticle de bere
*1.000 sticle vin
*850 sticle tarie
Vesela si lenjeria
*3.000 cesti ceai
*2.000 farfurii intinse
*8.000 tacamuri
*2.000 solnite
*400 suporturi felii paine prajita
*6.000 fete masa
*45.000 servetele
*15.000 cearsafuri simple
*7.500 prosoape de baie
Calatoria
Marti, 2 aprilie 1912, Titanicul a parasit docul din Belfast, sub comanda lui Edward John Smith, cel mai experimentat dintre capitanii companiei White Star. Vaporul a navigat pe Marea Irlandei catre Southampton, unde urma sa fie pregatit pentru calatoria sa inaugurala catre New York, stabilita sa inceapa pe 10 aprilie. In saptamana care a urmat, vaporul a fost centrul unei activitati intense: in interior au fost efectuate ultimele finisari, s-au receptionat marfuri la bord si s-a recrutat personalul.
sâmbătă, 28 iunie 2008
Barcile de salvare
Proiectarea vapoarelor fiind intr-un continuu progres si vapoarele britanice avand la activ o lista lunga de calatorii in conditii de siguranta, propietarii de vapoare si autoritatile care se acupau cu reglementarea navigatiei au decis ca barcile de salvare nu reprezentau o prioritate. A fost stabilit un numar minim de barci de salvare, utilizand o formula bazata pe greutatea vasului. Aceasta formula fusese actualizata ultima data in 1894, cand toate vapoarele aveau o greutatemai mica de 20000 de tone. Aceasta insemna ca vapoare precum Olympic si Titanic, care erau concepute pentru a transporta maximum 3500 de oameni fiecare, trebuia sa aiba locuri in barcile de salvare doar pentru 962 de pasageri, adica pentru mai putin de unul din 3 oameni care s-ar fi aflat la bord.
In realitate, Titanicul avea mai multe barci de salvare decat cere regulamentul: avea 16 barci normale si 4 barci pliante, care erau concepute sa tina 1178 de oameni. Barcile de salvare normale si 2 dintre cele pliante (C si D) erau montete pe gruie de ambarcatiuni, pe puntea vasului. Celelalte barci pliante (A si B), erau depozitate pe acoperisul cabinelor ofiterilor.
In realitate, Titanicul avea mai multe barci de salvare decat cere regulamentul: avea 16 barci normale si 4 barci pliante, care erau concepute sa tina 1178 de oameni. Barcile de salvare normale si 2 dintre cele pliante (C si D) erau montete pe gruie de ambarcatiuni, pe puntea vasului. Celelalte barci pliante (A si B), erau depozitate pe acoperisul cabinelor ofiterilor.
joi, 26 iunie 2008
Tehnologia radio
Vapoarele noi nu numai ca erau considerate greu de scufundat; tehnologia radio, pusa la punct de inventatorul italian Guglielmo Marconi la inceputul secolului, usura enorm cererea de ajutor din partea celor de pe vas, daca aveau probleme. Instalatiile radio devenisera o dotare aproape standard pe vapoarele mai mari.
Compartimente etanse
Titanicul era impartit de peretii de coloziune in 16 compartimente etanse. Din economie si pentru a facilita deplasarea pe vapor, fiecare perete de coloziune avea doar inaltimea considerata necesara pentru a impiedica patrunderea apei in urmatorul compartiment. Usile etanse dintre compartimente puteau fi cu usurinta manevrate manual de pe puntea de comanda sau automat, cu ajutorul unor ingenioase mecanisme plutitoare care intrau in functiune daca compartimentele erau inundate cu mai multe de 10cm de apa. Cu o asemenea instalatie, vaporul putea fi gaurit oriunde de-a lungul lui, sitotusi sa nu se scufunde.
Proiectat pentru siguranta
Calatoria cu vaporul putea fi riscanta, iar marile companii de transporturi navale depunea eforturi considerabile pentru siguranta pasagerilor. Era obiceiul ca asemenea vapoare sa fie construite cu fund dublu, adica un strat interior etans deasupra chilei, si cu niste pereti de coliziune - pereti ermetici rezistenti, ce inconjoara nava din partile din fata si din spate. Daca vaporul se ciocnea de ceva sau isi zgaria chila de de stanci in ape de adancime mica, prin gaura formata, apa patrundea doar intr-o zona restransa, in cantitate insuficienta pentru a scufunda vaporul. Totusi, nici fundul dublu, nici peretii de coloziune nu puteau proteja complet vasul, asa ca la vapoarele mai moderne s-au luat si alte masuri de protectie. Unele, cum ar fi Lusitania si Mauretania, aveau integral carene duble. Pentru Olympic si Titanic s-a ales alta solutie. Aceste vapoare erau impartite in 16 compartimente etanse. Daca oricare 3(in anumite conditii chiar 4) compartimente s-ar fi umplut cu apa, vapoarele ar fi continuat sa pluteasca.
marți, 24 iunie 2008
Cabinele si amenajarile
Toate cele 9 punti au ost construite in jurul motoarelor si cazanelor si erau dotate cu spatii de cazare si amenajari necesare gazduirii pasagerilor si echipajului - peste 3000 de persoane, daca vasul era plin. Puntea situata cel mai sus, numita puntea vasului, gazduia ofiterii de pe vapor, pe cand cea situata cel mai jos, cunoscuta sub denumirea de puntea inferioara, cuprindea doar magazii. Pasagerii si restul echipajului erau distribuiti pe cele 7 punti dintre acestea 2, etichetate de la A la G. Cabinele pasagerilor erau impartite astfel: clasa I, clasa a II-a si clasa a III-a. Fiecare clasa ocupa o parte distincta a vaporului si avea propriile servicii.
Clasa I
Se afla pe: puntile de la A la D, cu anumite servicii pe puntea vasului
Numar de cabine: 416
Facilitati: 1.bai turcesti
2.sauna si masaj
3.piscina
4.sala de gimnastica
5.teren de squash
6.frizerie
7.camera obscura
8.calcatorie
9.fumoar
10.sala de lectura
11.un salon si o biblioteca de unde se puteau imprumuta carti
Costul:870 de lire sterline pentru cele mai luxoase cabine de clasa I (60000 lire sterline azi)
Clasa a II-a
Se afla pe: puntile de la B la G, cu anumite servicii pe puntea vasului
Numar de cabine:162
Facilitati: 1.un lift electric
2.o promenada pe punta vasului
3.un fumoar
4.o bibliotaca
Cost:13 lire sterline si 10 silingi (900 lire sterline azi)
Clasa a III-a
Se afla pe: puntile de la D la G, cu anumite servicii pe puntea C
Numar de cabine:262
Facilitati: 1.o promenada pe puntea de la pupa
2.un fumoar
Costul:7 lire sterline si 15 silingi (500 lire sterline azi)
Clasa I
Se afla pe: puntile de la A la D, cu anumite servicii pe puntea vasului
Numar de cabine: 416
Facilitati: 1.bai turcesti
2.sauna si masaj
3.piscina
4.sala de gimnastica
5.teren de squash
6.frizerie
7.camera obscura
8.calcatorie
9.fumoar
10.sala de lectura
11.un salon si o biblioteca de unde se puteau imprumuta carti
Costul:870 de lire sterline pentru cele mai luxoase cabine de clasa I (60000 lire sterline azi)
Clasa a II-a
Se afla pe: puntile de la B la G, cu anumite servicii pe puntea vasului
Numar de cabine:162
Facilitati: 1.un lift electric
2.o promenada pe punta vasului
3.un fumoar
4.o bibliotaca
Cost:13 lire sterline si 10 silingi (900 lire sterline azi)
Clasa a III-a
Se afla pe: puntile de la D la G, cu anumite servicii pe puntea C
Numar de cabine:262
Facilitati: 1.o promenada pe puntea de la pupa
2.un fumoar
Costul:7 lire sterline si 15 silingi (500 lire sterline azi)
Forta Aburului
Puterea Titanicului proveneade la 3 enorme motoare cu abur. Pe partea dreapta si pe partea stanga a vasului erau 2 motoare cu piston traditionale, cele mai mari de acest fel construite vreodata, avand inaltimea de aproape 12m. Al 3 motor, central, era o turbina actionata de aburul provenit de la cele 2 motoare cu piston.
Era nevoie de 200 de oameni pentru a pastra focurile aprinse, iar cand vaporul se deplasa cu viteza de croaziera, la fiecare 24 de ore trebuia sa fie incarcate aproape 600t de carbune. Fumul provenit din camerele de ardere era evacuat prin primele 3 cosuri ale vasului. Al 4-lea cos nu era, de fapt, necesar, dar fusese adaugat deoarece proiectantii vasului credeau ca vaporul va arata mai ciudat fara el. Era folosit pe post de canal de urias de ventilatie, servind la evacuarea mirosurilor de mancare din cambuza navei.
Era nevoie de 200 de oameni pentru a pastra focurile aprinse, iar cand vaporul se deplasa cu viteza de croaziera, la fiecare 24 de ore trebuia sa fie incarcate aproape 600t de carbune. Fumul provenit din camerele de ardere era evacuat prin primele 3 cosuri ale vasului. Al 4-lea cos nu era, de fapt, necesar, dar fusese adaugat deoarece proiectantii vasului credeau ca vaporul va arata mai ciudat fara el. Era folosit pe post de canal de urias de ventilatie, servind la evacuarea mirosurilor de mancare din cambuza navei.
Ziua Lansarii
Data lansarii Titanicului a fost in fine stabilita - 31 mai 1911 - aceeasi zi in care Harland&Wolff trebuia sa livreze vaporul Olympic companiei maritime White Star. Era un eveniment extraordinar in Belfast, unde constructia de nave era pe departe cea mai importanta industrie; parea ca 1/2 din oras iesise sa vada cele 2 vapoare. Lordul Pirrie era de fata, desigur, la fel ca Bruce Ismay, impreuna cu sotia si cu copii. Pana si J.P. Morgan era prezent. In mijlocul tuturor se afla Thomas Andrews arhitectul navelor.
Desi Titanicul era acum pe apa, mai era nevoie de multa munca pana sa intre in exploatare. Interiorul acestui vas trebuia echipat, era nevoie de cosuri si trebuia sa se instaleze motoarele si alte masinarii. Toate acestea au mai durat aproape 1 an, dar in final, vaporul era aproape coplesitor.
Desi Titanicul era acum pe apa, mai era nevoie de multa munca pana sa intre in exploatare. Interiorul acestui vas trebuia echipat, era nevoie de cosuri si trebuia sa se instaleze motoarele si alte masinarii. Toate acestea au mai durat aproape 1 an, dar in final, vaporul era aproape coplesitor.
Olympic, Titanic si Gigantic (Britannic)
Bruce Ismay si Lordul Pirrie stiau ca trebuie sa raspunda la provocare si au decis sa construiasca trei vapoare de linie noi: Olympic, Titanic si Gigantic. Acestea urmau sa fie mai mari ca vapoarele comapaniei Cunard, sa transporte mai multi pasageri si sa fie mai luxoase. Primul urma sa fie Olympic, urmat de Titanic si de Gigantic.
Chila Olympicului a fost trasata in decembrie 1907. Constructia ei a durat 3 anisi vasul a fost gata de lansare la apa in octombrie 1910, vreme la care lucrarile de constructie la Titanic erau foarte avansate. Desi planurile initiale pentru cele 2 vase au fost aproape identice, pe masura ce constructia lor avansa, la proiectul Titanicuui au fost efectuate diferite modificari. Astlfel, s-a decis ca amenajarile destinate pasagerilor de la clasa I sa fie mai mari si mai luxoase. Aceasta insemna ca Titanicul avea sa cantareasca in final cu aprox. 1000 de tone mai mult decat Olympicul, devenind astfel cel mai mare vapor din lume
Chila Olympicului a fost trasata in decembrie 1907. Constructia ei a durat 3 anisi vasul a fost gata de lansare la apa in octombrie 1910, vreme la care lucrarile de constructie la Titanic erau foarte avansate. Desi planurile initiale pentru cele 2 vase au fost aproape identice, pe masura ce constructia lor avansa, la proiectul Titanicuui au fost efectuate diferite modificari. Astlfel, s-a decis ca amenajarile destinate pasagerilor de la clasa I sa fie mai mari si mai luxoase. Aceasta insemna ca Titanicul avea sa cantareasca in final cu aprox. 1000 de tone mai mult decat Olympicul, devenind astfel cel mai mare vapor din lume
luni, 23 iunie 2008
Cordonul Albastru
In anii 1860 s-a creat o rivalitate intre diferitele companii navale, pentru traversarea cat mai rapida a Atlanticului. Un premiu neoficial, Cordonul Albastru, era acordat celui care detinea recordul, evenimentul atragand dupa sine multa publicitatepentru compania respectiva.
Printre Principalele companii care concurau pentru trofeul Cordonul Albastru se numara si linia maritima White Star, dar si cel mai mare rivl al ei, Cunard. Thomas Ismay (tatal lui Bruce Ismay) detinea linia maritima White Star la acea vreme. El si-a dat seama ca din ce in ce mai multi oameni bogati doreau sa calatoreasca si ca acestia nu isi doreau doar viteza ci si lux. Ismay a comandat companiei Harland&Wolff un nou tip e vapoare de linie, care sa fie extreme de rapid, dar si foarte, foarte confortabil.
Noile vapoare de linie au reprezentat un succes enorm, dar in final Ismay a decis ca era prea costisitor sa construiasca vase de linie care sa fie si cele mai luxoase, si cele mai rapide. A decis sa iasa din cursa pentru dobindirea trofeului Cordonul Albastru. Desi nu mai concurau pentru premiu, vapoarele de la White Star urmau sa fie totusi rapide si, desigur, cele mai confortabile.
Thomas Ismay a murit in 1899, iar fiul sau, Bruce, a preluat conducerea firmei. Apoi, in 1902, magnatul american J. P. Morgan a preluat controlul afacerii si a integrat-o in colosul naval International Mercantile Marine, desi Bruce Ismay a continuat sa conduca linia maritima White Star, Ismay a lansat pe mare o serie de vapoare din ce in ce mai mari, culminand cu Oceanic, in 1899, si cu Celtic, in 1901 - care erau la acea vreme cele ma mari vapoare construite vreodata. Apoi, in 1906 mandria companiei a suferit o lovitura teribila. Rivalii de la Cunard au lansat la apa Mauretania si Lusitania acestea puteau traversa Atlanticul in mai putin de 6 zile.
Printre Principalele companii care concurau pentru trofeul Cordonul Albastru se numara si linia maritima White Star, dar si cel mai mare rivl al ei, Cunard. Thomas Ismay (tatal lui Bruce Ismay) detinea linia maritima White Star la acea vreme. El si-a dat seama ca din ce in ce mai multi oameni bogati doreau sa calatoreasca si ca acestia nu isi doreau doar viteza ci si lux. Ismay a comandat companiei Harland&Wolff un nou tip e vapoare de linie, care sa fie extreme de rapid, dar si foarte, foarte confortabil.
Noile vapoare de linie au reprezentat un succes enorm, dar in final Ismay a decis ca era prea costisitor sa construiasca vase de linie care sa fie si cele mai luxoase, si cele mai rapide. A decis sa iasa din cursa pentru dobindirea trofeului Cordonul Albastru. Desi nu mai concurau pentru premiu, vapoarele de la White Star urmau sa fie totusi rapide si, desigur, cele mai confortabile.
Thomas Ismay a murit in 1899, iar fiul sau, Bruce, a preluat conducerea firmei. Apoi, in 1902, magnatul american J. P. Morgan a preluat controlul afacerii si a integrat-o in colosul naval International Mercantile Marine, desi Bruce Ismay a continuat sa conduca linia maritima White Star, Ismay a lansat pe mare o serie de vapoare din ce in ce mai mari, culminand cu Oceanic, in 1899, si cu Celtic, in 1901 - care erau la acea vreme cele ma mari vapoare construite vreodata. Apoi, in 1906 mandria companiei a suferit o lovitura teribila. Rivalii de la Cunard au lansat la apa Mauretania si Lusitania acestea puteau traversa Atlanticul in mai putin de 6 zile.
Melodiile din filmul "Titanic" 1997
Titanic Soundtrack - Never An Absolution
Titanic Soundtrack - Southampton
Titanic Soundtrack - Unable To Stay Unwilling To Leave
Titanic Soundtrack - A Life So Change
Titanic Soundtrack - Distant Memories
Titanic Soundtrack - Hymn To The Sea
Titanic Soundtrack - Rose
Titanic Soundtrack - The Sinking
Titanic Soundtrack - Hard To Starboard
Titanic Soundtrack - Take Her To Sea, Mr. Murdoch
Titanic Soundtrack - Leaving Port
Titanic Soundtrack - Death Of Titanic
Titanic Soundtrack - Southampton
Titanic Soundtrack - Unable To Stay Unwilling To Leave
Titanic Soundtrack - A Life So Change
Titanic Soundtrack - Distant Memories
Titanic Soundtrack - Hymn To The Sea
Titanic Soundtrack - Rose
Titanic Soundtrack - The Sinking
Titanic Soundtrack - Hard To Starboard
Titanic Soundtrack - Take Her To Sea, Mr. Murdoch
Titanic Soundtrack - Leaving Port
Titanic Soundtrack - Death Of Titanic
lista strainilor de la clasa III-Queenstown
Barry, JuliaBourke, CatherineBourke, JohnBradley, BridgetBuckley, DanielBuckley, KatherineBurke, JeremiakBurke, MaryBurns, MaryCanavan, MaryCarr, EllenCar, JeannieChartens, DavidCannavan, PatColbert, PatrickConlin, Thos. H.Connaghton, MichelConnors, PatConolly, KateConolly, KateDaly, MarcellaDaly, EugeneDevanoy, MargaretDewan, FrankDooley, PatrickDoyle, ElinDriscoll, BridgetEmmeth, ThomasFarrell, JamesFoley, JosephFoley, WilliamFlynn, JamesFlynn, JohnFox, PatrickGallagher, MartinGilnegh, KatieGlynn, MaryHagardon, KateHagarty, NoraHart, HenryHealy, NoraHorgan, JohnHemming, NorahHenery, DeliaJenymin, AnnieKelly, JamesKelly, Annie K.Kelly, MaryKerane, AndyKennedy, JohnKilgannon, ThomasKiernan, JohnKiernan, PhillipLane, PatrickLemom, DenisLemon, MaryLinehan, MichelMadigan, MaggieMahon, DeliaMannion, MargarethMangan, MaryMcCarthy, KatieMcCoy, AgnesMcCoy, AliceMcCoy, BernardMcCormack, ThomasMcDermott, DeliaMcElroy, MichelMcGovern, MaryMcGowan, KatherineMcGowan, AnnieMcMahon, MartinMechan, JohnMeeklave, EllieMoran, JamesMoran, BerthaMorgan, Daniel J.Morrow, ThomasMullens, KatieMulvihill, BerthaMurphy, NorahMurphy, MaryMurphy, KateNaughton, HannahNemagh, RobertO'Brien, DenisO'Brien, ThomasO'Brien, HannahO'Connell, Pat D.O'Connor, MauriceO'Connor, PatO'Donaghue, BertO'Dwyer, NellieO'Keefe, PatOLeary, NorahO'Neill, BridgetO'Sullivan, BridgetPeters, KatieRice, MargaretRice, Albert (child)Rice, George (child)Rice, Eric (child)Rice, Arthur (child)Rice, Eugene (child)Riordan, HannahRyan, PatrickRyan, Edw.Sadlier, MattScanlan, JamesShaughnesay, PatShine, EllenSmyth, JulianTobin, Roger
lista strainilor de la clasa III-Cherbourg
Assaf, MarianAttala, MalakeBaclini, LatilaBaclini, MariaBaclini, EugeneBaclini, HeleneBadt, MohamedBanoura, AyoutBarbara, CatherineBarbara, SaudeBetros, TannousBoulos, HannaBoulos, SultaniBoulos, NourelainBoulos, Akar (child)Banous, EliasCaram, JosephCaram, MariaShabini, GeorgesChehab, Emir FarresChronopoulos, ApostolosCbronopoulos, DemetriosDibo, EliasDrazenovie, JosipElias, JosephElias, JosephFabini, LeeniFat-ma, MustmaniGerios, AssafGerios, YoussefGerios, YoussefGheorgheff, StanioHanna, MansourJean Nassr, SaadeJohann, MarkimJoseph, MaryKarun, FranzKarun, Anna (child)Kassan, M. HousseingKassem, FaredKassein, HassefKalil, BetrosKhalil, ZahieKraeff, ThodorLemberopoulos, PeterMalinoff, NicolaMeme, HannaMonbarek, HannaMoncarek, OmineMoncarek, Gonios (child)Moncarek, Halim (child)Moussa, MantouraNaked, SaidNaked, WaikaNaked, MariaNasr, MustafaNichan, KrikorianNicola, JamilaNicola, Elias (child)Novel, MansouerOrsen, SirayanianOrtin, ZakarianPeter, Catherine JosephPeter, MikePeter, AnnaRafoul, BaccosRaibid, RaziSaad, AminSaad, KhalilSamaan, HannaSamaan, EliasSamaan, YoussefSarkis, MardirosianSarkis, LahowdSeman Betros (child)Shedid, DaherSleiman, AttallaStankovic, JovanTannous, ThomasTannous, DalerThomas, CharlesPThomas, TaminThomas, Assad (infant)Thomas, JohnTonfik, NahliTorfa, AssadUseher,BaulnerVagil, Adele JaneVartunian, DavidVassilios, CatavelasWazli, YousifWeller, AbiYalsevae, IvanYazbeck, AntoniYazbeck, SaliniYoussef, BrahimYoussef, HanneYoussef, Maria (child)Youssef Georges (child)Zabour. TaminiZabour, HileniZakarian, Maprieder
lista strainilor de la clasa III-Southampton
Abelseth, KarenAbelseth, OlausAbramson, AugustAdahl, MauritzAdolf, HumblinAhlin, JohannaAhmed, AliAlhomaki, IlmariAli, WilliamAnderson, AlfredaAnderson, ErnaAnderson, AlbertAnderson, AndersAnderson, SamuelAnderson, Sigrid (child)Anderson, ThorAnderson, CarlaAnderson, Ingeborg (child)Anderson, Ebba (child)Anderson, Sigvard (child)Anderson, EllisAnderson, Ida AugustaAnderson, Paul EdvinAngheloff, MinkoAsplund, Carl (child)Asplund, CharlesAspland, Felix (child)Asplund, Gustaf (child)Asplund, JohanAsplund, Lillian (child)Asplund, Oscar (child)Asplund, SelmaArnold, JosephArnold, JosephineAronsson, Ernest Axel A.Asim, AdolaAssam, AliAugustsan, AlbertBackstrom, KarlBackstrom, MarieBalkic, CerinBenson, John ViktorBerglund. IvarBerkeland, HansBjorklund, ErnstBostandyeff, GuentchoBraf, Elin EsterBrobek, Carl R.Cacic, GregoCacic, LukaCacic, MariaCacic, MandaCalie, PeterCarlson, Carl R.Carlsson, JuliusCarlsson, August SigfridCoelho, Domingos FernardeoColeff, FotioColeff, PeyoCor, BartolCor, IvanCor, LudovikDahl, MauritzDahlberg, GerdaDakic, BrankoDanbom, ErnestDanbom, Gillber (infant)Danoff, SigridDanoff, YotoDantchoff, KhristoDelalic, RegyoDenkoff, MitoDimic, JovanDintcheff, ValtchoDyker, AdoffDyker, ElizabethEcimovic, JosoEdwardsson, GustafEklunz, HansEkstrom, JohanFinote, LuigiFischer, EberhardGoldsmith, NathanGoncalves, Manoel E.Gronnestad, Daniel D.Gustafson, AlfredGustafson, AndersGustafson, JohanGustafsson, GideonHaas, AloisiaHadman, OscarHagland, Ingvald O.Hagland, Konrad R.Hakkurainen, PekkoHakkurainen, ElinHampe, LeonHankonen, ElunaHansen, ClausHansen, JannyHansen, Henry DamgavdHeininen, WendlaHendekevoic, IgnazHenriksson, JennyHervonen, HelgaHervonen, Hildwe (child)Hickkinen, LainaHillstrom, HildaHolm, John F. 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Epoca vapoarelor de linie
Titanicul si-a inceput scurta existenta la data de 31 martie 1909, cand chila sa a fost trasata in santierul naval al companiei de constructii navale Harland&Wolff, cu sediul in Belfast, Irlanda de Nord. Vaporul fusese doar un vis cu mai putin de 2 ani in urma, in vara anului 1907 - visul lui Bruce Ismay, director la compania armatoriala White Star, si al Lordului Pirrie, presedinte al consiliului de conducere de la Harland&Wolff. La acea vreme, pana la transportul aerian in masa urmau a mai treaca decenii si singurul mijloc de transport petru oameni si marfuri peste ocean era vaporul. In anteriorii 50 de ani, aburul preluase sarcina velelor, ca mijloc principal de a pune navele in miscare. Linia maritima White Star era una din companiile nou-aparute pe piata care foloseau vapoare cu abur, concurand pentru a obtine o cota din comertul naval, in special pe cea mai profitabila ruta - peste Atlantic intre Europa si SUA.
duminică, 22 iunie 2008
Studiu introductiv
La ora 9, in seara zilei de joi, 18 aprilie 1912, in mijlocul unei teribile vijelii, un transatlantic se retragea incet in portul orasului New York si se pregatea de andocare.
Vaporul se numea Carpathia si era unul din zecile de vase care traversau cu regularitate Atlanticul de Nord. In mod normal, sosirea sa ar fi reprezentat un interes scazut in agitatia portului aglomerat. De acesata data, insa, situatia era alta. Zeci de mii de oameni se buluceau pe chei si asteptau rabdatori. Si asta deoarece Carpathia nu transporta doar proprii pasageri si propriul echipaj, ci si pe supravietuitorii traumatizati ai unei ingrozitoare calamitati. Cu 4 zile i urma, in noaptea de duminica, 14 aprilie 1912, cel mai mare vapor din lume, Titanic, se ciocnise de un iceberg in mijlocul oceanului si se scufundase. Murise 1517 oameni. Era cel mai grav naufragiu al tuturor timpurilor. Datorita tehnologiei radio, aproape imediat au inceput sa se raspandeasca stiri despre eveniment, astfel incat ultimele editii ale ziarelor de luni, din Europa si America de Nord anuntau d3eja ca marele vas suferise un accident. Multe din aceste prime relatari ale evenimentului, insa, s-au dovedit a fi extrem de inexacte. Unii afirmau ca vaporul fusese grav avariat, dar ca lutea in continuare si era remorcat catre portul Halifax din Canada, pentru reparatii. Altii anuntau ca Titanicul se scufundase, dar ca totii oamenii de la bord au fost salvati. In martea care a urmat dezastrului, pe masura ce "transpirau" rapoarte din ce in ce mai detaliate dinspre Carpathia si dinspre alte vapoare care se grabisera sa ajunga la locul tragediei,
amplitudinea catastrofei si a teribilei pierderi de vieti a devenit clara. Intreg mapamondul era in stare de soc. Titanicul era un vapor npu-nout - aceasta fusese calatoria inaugurala peste Atlantic - si incorpora cele mai avansate tehnici ingineresti in domeniul constructiilor de nave. Toata lumea credea ca este practic imposibil ca Titanicul sa se scufunde.
In urmatoarele cateva saptamani, la Londra si la New York au fost efectuate 2 anchete oficiale ale accidentului. Supravietuitorii au fost intervievati si zeci de experti chemati ca martori au fost supusi unor interogatorii. Ambele anchete aveau aceleasi scopuri:
1. sa descopere cu exactitate ce se intamplase;
2. sa afle cauzele accidentului;
3. sa descopere vinovatul.
Vaporul se numea Carpathia si era unul din zecile de vase care traversau cu regularitate Atlanticul de Nord. In mod normal, sosirea sa ar fi reprezentat un interes scazut in agitatia portului aglomerat. De acesata data, insa, situatia era alta. Zeci de mii de oameni se buluceau pe chei si asteptau rabdatori. Si asta deoarece Carpathia nu transporta doar proprii pasageri si propriul echipaj, ci si pe supravietuitorii traumatizati ai unei ingrozitoare calamitati. Cu 4 zile i urma, in noaptea de duminica, 14 aprilie 1912, cel mai mare vapor din lume, Titanic, se ciocnise de un iceberg in mijlocul oceanului si se scufundase. Murise 1517 oameni. Era cel mai grav naufragiu al tuturor timpurilor. Datorita tehnologiei radio, aproape imediat au inceput sa se raspandeasca stiri despre eveniment, astfel incat ultimele editii ale ziarelor de luni, din Europa si America de Nord anuntau d3eja ca marele vas suferise un accident. Multe din aceste prime relatari ale evenimentului, insa, s-au dovedit a fi extrem de inexacte. Unii afirmau ca vaporul fusese grav avariat, dar ca lutea in continuare si era remorcat catre portul Halifax din Canada, pentru reparatii. Altii anuntau ca Titanicul se scufundase, dar ca totii oamenii de la bord au fost salvati. In martea care a urmat dezastrului, pe masura ce "transpirau" rapoarte din ce in ce mai detaliate dinspre Carpathia si dinspre alte vapoare care se grabisera sa ajunga la locul tragediei,
amplitudinea catastrofei si a teribilei pierderi de vieti a devenit clara. Intreg mapamondul era in stare de soc. Titanicul era un vapor npu-nout - aceasta fusese calatoria inaugurala peste Atlantic - si incorpora cele mai avansate tehnici ingineresti in domeniul constructiilor de nave. Toata lumea credea ca este practic imposibil ca Titanicul sa se scufunde.
In urmatoarele cateva saptamani, la Londra si la New York au fost efectuate 2 anchete oficiale ale accidentului. Supravietuitorii au fost intervievati si zeci de experti chemati ca martori au fost supusi unor interogatorii. Ambele anchete aveau aceleasi scopuri:
1. sa descopere cu exactitate ce se intamplase;
2. sa afle cauzele accidentului;
3. sa descopere vinovatul.
Article in the newspaper New York Time
Researchers have discovered that the builder of the Titanic struggled for years to obtain enough good rivets and riveters and ultimately settled on faulty materials that doomed the ship, which sank 96 years ago Tuesday.The builder’s own archives, two scientists say, harbor evidence of a deadly mix of low quality rivets and lofty ambition as the builder labored to construct the three biggest ships in the world at once — the Titanic and two sisters, the Olympic and the Britannic.For a decade, the scientists have argued that the storied liner went down fast after hitting an iceberg because the ship’s builder used substandard rivets that popped their heads and let tons of icy seawater rush in. More than 1,500 people died.When the safety of the rivets was first questioned 10 years ago, the builder ignored the accusation and said it did not have an archivist who could address the issue.Now, historians say new evidence uncovered in the archive of the builder, Harland and Wolff, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, settles the argument and finally solves the riddle of one of the most famous sinkings of all time. The company says the findings are deeply flawed.Each of the great ships under construction required three million rivets that acted like glue to hold everything together. In a new book, the scientists say the shortages peaked during the Titanic’s construction.“The board was in crisis mode,” one of the authors, Jennifer Hooper McCarty, who studied the archives, said in an interview. “It was constant stress. Every meeting it was, ‘There’s problems with the rivets and we need to hire more people.’ ”Apart from the archives, the team gleaned clues from 48 rivets recovered from the hulk of the Titanic, modern tests and computer simulations. They also compared metal from the Titanic with other metals from the same era, and looked at documentation about what engineers and shipbuilders of that era considered state of the art.The scientists say the troubles began when its ambitious building plans forced Harland and Wolff to reach beyond its usual suppliers of rivet iron and include smaller forges, as disclosed in company and British government papers. Small forges tended to have less skill and experience.Adding to the problem, in buying iron for the Titanic’s rivets, the company ordered No. 3 bar, known as “best” — not No. 4, known as “best-best,” the scientists found. Shipbuilders of the day typically used No. 4 iron for anchors, chains and rivets, they discovered.So the liner, whose name was meant to be synonymous with opulence, in at least one instance relied on cheaper materials.Many of the rivets studied by the scientists — recovered from the Titanic’s resting place two miles down in the North Atlantic by divers over two decades — were found to be riddled with high concentrations of slag. A glassy residue of smelting, slag can make rivets brittle and prone to fracture.“Some material the company bought was not rivet quality,” said the other author of the book, Timothy Foecke of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a federal agency in Gaithersburg, Md.The company also faced shortages of skilled riveters, the archives showed. Dr. McCarty said that for a half year, from late 1911 to April 1912, when the Titanic set sail, the company’s board discussed the problem at every meeting. For instance, on Oct. 28, 1911, Lord William Pirrie, the company’s chairman, expressed concern over the lack of riveters and called for new hiring efforts.In their research, the scientists, who are metallurgists, found that good riveting took great skill. The iron had to be heated to a precise cherry red color and beaten by the right combination of hammer blows. Mediocre work could hide problems.“Hand riveting was tricky,” said Dr. McCarty, whose doctoral thesis at Johns Hopkins University analyzed the Titanic’s rivets.Steel beckoned as a solution. Shipbuilders of the day were moving from iron to steel rivets, which were stronger. And machines could install them, improving workmanship.The rival Cunard line, the scientists found, had switched to steel rivets years before, using them, for instance, throughout the Lusitania.The scientists discovered that Harland and Wolff also used steel rivets — but only on the Titanic’s central hull, where stresses were expected to be greatest. Iron rivets were chosen for the stern and bow.
And the bow, as fate would have it, is where the iceberg struck. Studies of the wreck show that six seams opened up in the ship’s bow plates. And the damage, Dr. Foecke noted, “ends close to where the rivets transition from iron to steel.”
The scientists argue that better rivets would have probably kept the Titanic afloat long enough for rescuers to arrive before the icy plunge, saving hundreds of lives.
The researchers make their case, and detail their archive findings, in “What Really Sank the Titanic” (Citadel Press).
Reactions run from anger to admiration. James Alexander Carlisle, whose grandfather was a Titanic riveter, has bluntly denounced the rivet theory on his Web site. “No way!” Mr. Carlisle writes.
For its part, Harland and Wolff, after its long silence, now rejects the charge. “There was nothing wrong with the materials,” Joris Minne, a company spokesman, said last week. Mr. Minne noted that one of the sister ships, the Olympic, sailed without incident for 24 years, until retirement. (The Britannic sank in 1916 after hitting a mine.)
David Livingstone, a former Harland and Wolff official, called the book’s main points misleading. Mr. Livingstone said big shipyards often had to scramble. On a recent job, he noted, Harland and Wolff had to look to Romania to find welders.
Mr. Livingstone also called the slag evidence painfully circumstantial, saying no real proof linked the hull opening to bad rivets. “It’s only waffle,” he said of the team’s arguments.
But a naval historian praised the book as solving a mystery that has baffled investigators for nearly a century.
“It’s fascinating,” said Tim Trower, who reviews books for the Titanic Historical Society, a private group in Indian Orchard, Mass. “This puts in the final nail in the arguments and explains why the incident was so dramatically bad.”
The Titanic had every conceivable luxury: cafes, squash courts, a swimming pool, Turkish baths, a barbershop and three libraries. Its owners also bragged about its safety. In a brochure, the White Star Line described the ship as “designed to be unsinkable.”
On her inaugural voyage, on the night of April 14, 1912, the ship hit the iceberg around 11:40 p.m. and sank in a little more than two and a half hours. Most everyone assumed the iceberg had torn a huge gash in the starboard hull.
The discovery in 1985 of the Titanic wreck began many new inquiries. In 1996, an expedition found, beneath obscuring mud, not a large gash but six narrow slits where bow plates appeared to have parted. Naval experts suspected that rivets had popped along the seams, letting seawater rush in under high pressure.
A specialist in metal fracture, Dr. Foecke got involved in 1997, analyzing two salvaged rivets. He was astonished to find about three times more slag than occurs in modern wrought iron.
In early 1998, he and a team of marine forensic experts announced their rivet findings, calling them tentative.
Dr. Foecke, in addition to working at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, also taught and lectured part time at Johns Hopkins. There he met Dr. McCarty, who got hooked on the riddle, as did her thesis adviser.
The team acquired rivets from salvors who pulled up hundreds of artifacts from the sunken liner. The scientists also collected old iron of the era — including some from the Brooklyn Bridge — to make comparisons. The new work seemed only to bolster the bad-rivet theory.
In 2003, after graduating from Johns Hopkins, Dr. McCarty traveled to England and located the Harland and Wolff archives at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, in Belfast.
She also explored the archives of the British Board of Trade, which regulated shipping and set material standards, and of Lloyd’s of London, which set shipbuilding standards. And she worked at Oxford University and obtained access to its libraries.
What emerged was a picture of a company stretched to the limit as it struggled to build the world’s three biggest ships simultaneously. Dr. McCarty also found evidence of complacency. For instance, the Board of Trade gave up testing iron for shipbuilding in 1901 because it saw iron metallurgy as a mature field, unlike the burgeoning world of steel.
Dr. McCarty said she enjoyed telling middle and high school students about the decade of rivet forensics, as well as the revelations from the British archives.
“They get really excited,” she said. “That’s why I love the story. People see it and get mesmerized.”
And the bow, as fate would have it, is where the iceberg struck. Studies of the wreck show that six seams opened up in the ship’s bow plates. And the damage, Dr. Foecke noted, “ends close to where the rivets transition from iron to steel.”
The scientists argue that better rivets would have probably kept the Titanic afloat long enough for rescuers to arrive before the icy plunge, saving hundreds of lives.
The researchers make their case, and detail their archive findings, in “What Really Sank the Titanic” (Citadel Press).
Reactions run from anger to admiration. James Alexander Carlisle, whose grandfather was a Titanic riveter, has bluntly denounced the rivet theory on his Web site. “No way!” Mr. Carlisle writes.
For its part, Harland and Wolff, after its long silence, now rejects the charge. “There was nothing wrong with the materials,” Joris Minne, a company spokesman, said last week. Mr. Minne noted that one of the sister ships, the Olympic, sailed without incident for 24 years, until retirement. (The Britannic sank in 1916 after hitting a mine.)
David Livingstone, a former Harland and Wolff official, called the book’s main points misleading. Mr. Livingstone said big shipyards often had to scramble. On a recent job, he noted, Harland and Wolff had to look to Romania to find welders.
Mr. Livingstone also called the slag evidence painfully circumstantial, saying no real proof linked the hull opening to bad rivets. “It’s only waffle,” he said of the team’s arguments.
But a naval historian praised the book as solving a mystery that has baffled investigators for nearly a century.
“It’s fascinating,” said Tim Trower, who reviews books for the Titanic Historical Society, a private group in Indian Orchard, Mass. “This puts in the final nail in the arguments and explains why the incident was so dramatically bad.”
The Titanic had every conceivable luxury: cafes, squash courts, a swimming pool, Turkish baths, a barbershop and three libraries. Its owners also bragged about its safety. In a brochure, the White Star Line described the ship as “designed to be unsinkable.”
On her inaugural voyage, on the night of April 14, 1912, the ship hit the iceberg around 11:40 p.m. and sank in a little more than two and a half hours. Most everyone assumed the iceberg had torn a huge gash in the starboard hull.
The discovery in 1985 of the Titanic wreck began many new inquiries. In 1996, an expedition found, beneath obscuring mud, not a large gash but six narrow slits where bow plates appeared to have parted. Naval experts suspected that rivets had popped along the seams, letting seawater rush in under high pressure.
A specialist in metal fracture, Dr. Foecke got involved in 1997, analyzing two salvaged rivets. He was astonished to find about three times more slag than occurs in modern wrought iron.
In early 1998, he and a team of marine forensic experts announced their rivet findings, calling them tentative.
Dr. Foecke, in addition to working at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, also taught and lectured part time at Johns Hopkins. There he met Dr. McCarty, who got hooked on the riddle, as did her thesis adviser.
The team acquired rivets from salvors who pulled up hundreds of artifacts from the sunken liner. The scientists also collected old iron of the era — including some from the Brooklyn Bridge — to make comparisons. The new work seemed only to bolster the bad-rivet theory.
In 2003, after graduating from Johns Hopkins, Dr. McCarty traveled to England and located the Harland and Wolff archives at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, in Belfast.
She also explored the archives of the British Board of Trade, which regulated shipping and set material standards, and of Lloyd’s of London, which set shipbuilding standards. And she worked at Oxford University and obtained access to its libraries.
What emerged was a picture of a company stretched to the limit as it struggled to build the world’s three biggest ships simultaneously. Dr. McCarty also found evidence of complacency. For instance, the Board of Trade gave up testing iron for shipbuilding in 1901 because it saw iron metallurgy as a mature field, unlike the burgeoning world of steel.
Dr. McCarty said she enjoyed telling middle and high school students about the decade of rivet forensics, as well as the revelations from the British archives.
“They get really excited,” she said. “That’s why I love the story. People see it and get mesmerized.”
Titanic, The lost liner
The departure of the Titanic on April 10, 1912, on her maiden voyage made minor ripples compared with the Olympic's inaugural trip less than a year earlier. In Southampton a big crowd saw her off, but there were no ceremonies and no long-winded speeches from local dignitaries and invited bigwigs.
Her first-class passenger list, however, which included John Jacob Astor, one of America's wealthiest men, was remarkable and may well be unsurpassed in the annals of ocean travel. This was the era when wealth equaled celebrity, and the Titanic's maiden voyage had clearly attracted an unusual number of the transatlantic elite. In fact, however, her greatest claim to fame seemed likely to be a brief reign as the largest ship in the world. At 882.5 feet, she was identical in length to the Olympic, the previous record holder, but the prize for size would soon pass to Hamburg-Amerika's 909-foot-long Imperator, due to enter service the following year.
Five days later, without ever having encountered a storm at sea, the Titanic had become the most famous passenger ship in history, a place she retains to this day. And although the story of her wreck has been told countless times, it seems to have lost none of its fascination. This enduring allure stems only partly from the scale of the tragedy -- more than 1,500 lives lost, still, with the exception of a 1987 Philippines ferry disaster, the worst death toll from a wreck at sea during peacetime. For the Titanic seems to have it all, an irresistible combination of human drama and symbolic gravitas.
To many observers, especially proud Britons, she and her sister seemed to represent the final triumph of technology over nature. Although her builders never claimed that the Titanic was unsinkable, she was widely believed to be so. Even Captain Smith, who had spent a lifetime on the sea and should have known better, had a few years before remarked of an earlier White Star ship, the Adriatic, "I cannot imagine any condition which would cause a ship to founder. I cannot conceive of any vital disaster happening to this vessel. Modern shipbuilding has gone beyond that." Smith was only articulating a widely held sentiment. And the Titanic boasted the latest in safety features, most notably watertight compartments whose doors could be closed electrically. So safe were these huge ships considered to be that the British Board of Trade hadn't bothered to revise its lifeboat requirements to reflect the increased numbers carried. There were lifeboats on board for barely one-third the number of passengers and crew when the ship was fully booked. Not that this posed any problem. As the Republic had shown, a ship with the Titanic's safety features would surely sink so slowly that help would arrive with time to spare. The lifeboats would be needed only to ferry passengers back and forth. To technological arrogance, to Edwardian pride that went before a tragic fall, must then be added the element of chance. Somehow the binoculars for the crow's nest had disappeared, possibly stolen or misplaced, so the lookout who peered into Atlantic darkness did so without their aid. What's more, he did so on a most unusual night, with no moonlight to reflect off a floating mountain of ice and a sea so calm no surf would etch a berg's perimeter, the bioluminescence making it visible in time for evasive action. Never in Captain Smith's experience had the ice been so far south this late in the season. And there was one final mischance: When the iceberg was sighted-too late to avoid a collision-the ship might have been saved had the officers on the bridge steered her straight into it rather than turning the wheel. The glancing blow that ruptured the Titanic's hull over a distance of roughly 250 feet and admitted water into six of her compartments sealed her fate.
In retrospect, it is easy to fault the Titanic's skipper for not exercising more caution. Having received repeated ice warnings, he did not slow his ship down. But Smith was only doing what he and captains like him had been doing for years, taking calculated risks to make their companies look good. It was a risk no different in kind from the one that had led to the wreck of the Republic three years earlier. But Captain Smith's casual, almost cavalier, air that evening, when he lingered late over a second cigar following an elegant dinner with some of the ship's more distinguished passengers, casts him in an inevitably unfavorable light.
Abetting these dramatic elements is the time the ship took to sink, long enough for hundreds of minor dramas to be played out on her ever-more-sloping decks, but not long enough for help to arrive. Once the iceberg disappeared back into the cold, clear night, the ship remained afloat for two and a half hours. At first the great liner appeared so slightly damaged that most of the passengers and many in the crew refused to believe she was doomed. In the first-class lounge, the band played upbeat tunes, and for a time there was almost a festive air. The first lifeboats left the ship far less than full. The one occupied by Sir Cosmo and Lady Duff Gordon, among the Titanic's few titled passengers, rowed off with only 12 on board. Its capacity was 40. Although there were exceptions, the prevailing rule was women and children first. When husbands helped their wives into a boat and waved goodbye, most assumed a speedy reunion. But soon the slope of the decks became disturbing, and the frisson of a harmless adventure gave way to alarm. Crewmen had to physically prevent passengers from storming the lifeboats. Various survivors reported at least one shot being fired to quell an incipient riot. In a grim echo of the Republic, the prerogatives of class superseded common humanity. Until near the end, some of the third-class passengers remained trapped below decks, prevented by locked gates and stern stewards from reaching the boats. And through it all another ship was visible on the horizon, seemingly oblivious to the distress rockets being fired from the stricken liner.
Finally, after the lifeboats had departed and the bow had slipped underwater, the hundreds of people cling to the upjutting stern faced their mortality. Some jumped, some waited for the ship to rear up and suddenly sink. Few survived more than several minutes in the near-freezing waters. But there were some miraculous escapes. A baker who had spent the evening aiding others while fortifying himself with whisky stepped off the stern as it dropped beneath him and paddled amiably for several hours, apparently insulated against the ice-cold water by all the alcohol he had consumed. Seventeen-year-old Jack Thayer, about to inherit a Philadelphia fortune, leaped from the rail when the water was still 12 to 15 feet below, than swam as hard as he could. One of the ship's funnels narrowly missed him as it fell, and he was almost drowned by its suction. But when he gasped to the surface, he bumped up against an overturned collapsible lifeboat and was hauled to safety. Of those who watched in wonder and horror as the ship disappeared, he was one of the many who felt sure she had broken in two at the surface.
The final moments of the rich and famous became legends. John Jacob Astor asked if he could join his much younger and very pregnant wife in the lifeboat. But when Second Officer Lightoller refused his request, Astor walked politely away, a gentleman to the last. (When his body was recovered, there was more than two thousand dollars in his pocket.) Ida Straus refused to leave her husband, Isidor, one of the owners of Macy's department store, "We have lived together many years," she told him. "Where you go, I go." William T. Stead, the crusading English journalist on his way to speak to a peace conference in New York, was last seen quietly reading in the first-class smoking room.
The last act of the drama came with the daring rescue by the Cunarder Carpathia. Ignoring caution, Captain Arthur Rostron raced through a sea studded with icebergs and arrived on the scene just as dawn was breaking. Meticulous to a fault, he had transformed his passenger ship en route to the Mediterranean into an emergency field hospital by the time the first lifeboats were alongside and the half-dead survivors were being helped on board. "One thing stands out in my mind about it all," he later wrote, "the quietness. There was no noise or hurry. When our passengers at length came on deck they were some time before they seemed to realize the stupendous nature of the tragedy; it was too big to assimilate at once." Recalling the Titanicby Robert Ballard
A good deal has changed since we explored the wreck of the Titanic in the summer of 1986. For example, the crow's nest that we saw still attached to the fallen foremast is now gone. And the foremast itself has now buckled and collapsed farther. As well, more than 3,000 artifacts have been lifted from the debris field. But the wreck site retains its essential character. The bow section still sits upright and remarkably intact, its knife edge seeming to plow a furrow in the bottom mud. The stern section still rises above the ocean floor, looking for all the world like a building after a massive internal explosion. These two starkly different faces of death could almost stand for the starkly different fates of those who were saved and those who were drowned.
For all the subsequent attention, little has been added in these past 12 years to our knowledge of the ship or how it sank. The 1987 salvage expedition found the starboard propeller we had missed. The 1991 IMAX filmmaking expedition, brought back images of unprecedented clarity of the wreck. And in 1995 moviemaker James Cameron took the most dramatic video yet of the bow and fo'c'sle, images he planned to use in his Titanic feature movie. Of more interest to me, however, he explored deeper into the ship than anyone before. On its descent down the grand staircase, Cameron sent his tethered robot into the sitting room of the starboard parlor suite, one of the more deluxe first-class accommodations. The robot's eye spotted the ruins of a chair and got a close look at the beautiful brass firebox in the remains of the fireplace. Even more exciting, however, the robot ventured down to the D-deck reception room outside the first-class dining room. Here it found remains of wood paneling, pillars with pieces of intact woodwork, and octagonal ceiling fixture dangling down and one of the main entry doors through which the first-class passengers boarded the ship. One of the double doors still hangs on its hinges, its ornate iron grillwork clearly visible.
Considerable hullabaloo attended the attempt in the summer of 1996 to raise a piece of the hull from the debris field, but far more interesting was the ultrasound investigation of the area of the bow damaged by the iceberg. These images revealed six small tears or openings affecting the first six compartments. Just as we had surmised in 1986, the great gash was a myth and the actual openings into the ship seem to have been the result of rivets popping and hull plates separating.
Her first-class passenger list, however, which included John Jacob Astor, one of America's wealthiest men, was remarkable and may well be unsurpassed in the annals of ocean travel. This was the era when wealth equaled celebrity, and the Titanic's maiden voyage had clearly attracted an unusual number of the transatlantic elite. In fact, however, her greatest claim to fame seemed likely to be a brief reign as the largest ship in the world. At 882.5 feet, she was identical in length to the Olympic, the previous record holder, but the prize for size would soon pass to Hamburg-Amerika's 909-foot-long Imperator, due to enter service the following year.
Five days later, without ever having encountered a storm at sea, the Titanic had become the most famous passenger ship in history, a place she retains to this day. And although the story of her wreck has been told countless times, it seems to have lost none of its fascination. This enduring allure stems only partly from the scale of the tragedy -- more than 1,500 lives lost, still, with the exception of a 1987 Philippines ferry disaster, the worst death toll from a wreck at sea during peacetime. For the Titanic seems to have it all, an irresistible combination of human drama and symbolic gravitas.
To many observers, especially proud Britons, she and her sister seemed to represent the final triumph of technology over nature. Although her builders never claimed that the Titanic was unsinkable, she was widely believed to be so. Even Captain Smith, who had spent a lifetime on the sea and should have known better, had a few years before remarked of an earlier White Star ship, the Adriatic, "I cannot imagine any condition which would cause a ship to founder. I cannot conceive of any vital disaster happening to this vessel. Modern shipbuilding has gone beyond that." Smith was only articulating a widely held sentiment. And the Titanic boasted the latest in safety features, most notably watertight compartments whose doors could be closed electrically. So safe were these huge ships considered to be that the British Board of Trade hadn't bothered to revise its lifeboat requirements to reflect the increased numbers carried. There were lifeboats on board for barely one-third the number of passengers and crew when the ship was fully booked. Not that this posed any problem. As the Republic had shown, a ship with the Titanic's safety features would surely sink so slowly that help would arrive with time to spare. The lifeboats would be needed only to ferry passengers back and forth. To technological arrogance, to Edwardian pride that went before a tragic fall, must then be added the element of chance. Somehow the binoculars for the crow's nest had disappeared, possibly stolen or misplaced, so the lookout who peered into Atlantic darkness did so without their aid. What's more, he did so on a most unusual night, with no moonlight to reflect off a floating mountain of ice and a sea so calm no surf would etch a berg's perimeter, the bioluminescence making it visible in time for evasive action. Never in Captain Smith's experience had the ice been so far south this late in the season. And there was one final mischance: When the iceberg was sighted-too late to avoid a collision-the ship might have been saved had the officers on the bridge steered her straight into it rather than turning the wheel. The glancing blow that ruptured the Titanic's hull over a distance of roughly 250 feet and admitted water into six of her compartments sealed her fate.
In retrospect, it is easy to fault the Titanic's skipper for not exercising more caution. Having received repeated ice warnings, he did not slow his ship down. But Smith was only doing what he and captains like him had been doing for years, taking calculated risks to make their companies look good. It was a risk no different in kind from the one that had led to the wreck of the Republic three years earlier. But Captain Smith's casual, almost cavalier, air that evening, when he lingered late over a second cigar following an elegant dinner with some of the ship's more distinguished passengers, casts him in an inevitably unfavorable light.
Abetting these dramatic elements is the time the ship took to sink, long enough for hundreds of minor dramas to be played out on her ever-more-sloping decks, but not long enough for help to arrive. Once the iceberg disappeared back into the cold, clear night, the ship remained afloat for two and a half hours. At first the great liner appeared so slightly damaged that most of the passengers and many in the crew refused to believe she was doomed. In the first-class lounge, the band played upbeat tunes, and for a time there was almost a festive air. The first lifeboats left the ship far less than full. The one occupied by Sir Cosmo and Lady Duff Gordon, among the Titanic's few titled passengers, rowed off with only 12 on board. Its capacity was 40. Although there were exceptions, the prevailing rule was women and children first. When husbands helped their wives into a boat and waved goodbye, most assumed a speedy reunion. But soon the slope of the decks became disturbing, and the frisson of a harmless adventure gave way to alarm. Crewmen had to physically prevent passengers from storming the lifeboats. Various survivors reported at least one shot being fired to quell an incipient riot. In a grim echo of the Republic, the prerogatives of class superseded common humanity. Until near the end, some of the third-class passengers remained trapped below decks, prevented by locked gates and stern stewards from reaching the boats. And through it all another ship was visible on the horizon, seemingly oblivious to the distress rockets being fired from the stricken liner.
Finally, after the lifeboats had departed and the bow had slipped underwater, the hundreds of people cling to the upjutting stern faced their mortality. Some jumped, some waited for the ship to rear up and suddenly sink. Few survived more than several minutes in the near-freezing waters. But there were some miraculous escapes. A baker who had spent the evening aiding others while fortifying himself with whisky stepped off the stern as it dropped beneath him and paddled amiably for several hours, apparently insulated against the ice-cold water by all the alcohol he had consumed. Seventeen-year-old Jack Thayer, about to inherit a Philadelphia fortune, leaped from the rail when the water was still 12 to 15 feet below, than swam as hard as he could. One of the ship's funnels narrowly missed him as it fell, and he was almost drowned by its suction. But when he gasped to the surface, he bumped up against an overturned collapsible lifeboat and was hauled to safety. Of those who watched in wonder and horror as the ship disappeared, he was one of the many who felt sure she had broken in two at the surface.
The final moments of the rich and famous became legends. John Jacob Astor asked if he could join his much younger and very pregnant wife in the lifeboat. But when Second Officer Lightoller refused his request, Astor walked politely away, a gentleman to the last. (When his body was recovered, there was more than two thousand dollars in his pocket.) Ida Straus refused to leave her husband, Isidor, one of the owners of Macy's department store, "We have lived together many years," she told him. "Where you go, I go." William T. Stead, the crusading English journalist on his way to speak to a peace conference in New York, was last seen quietly reading in the first-class smoking room.
The last act of the drama came with the daring rescue by the Cunarder Carpathia. Ignoring caution, Captain Arthur Rostron raced through a sea studded with icebergs and arrived on the scene just as dawn was breaking. Meticulous to a fault, he had transformed his passenger ship en route to the Mediterranean into an emergency field hospital by the time the first lifeboats were alongside and the half-dead survivors were being helped on board. "One thing stands out in my mind about it all," he later wrote, "the quietness. There was no noise or hurry. When our passengers at length came on deck they were some time before they seemed to realize the stupendous nature of the tragedy; it was too big to assimilate at once." Recalling the Titanicby Robert Ballard
A good deal has changed since we explored the wreck of the Titanic in the summer of 1986. For example, the crow's nest that we saw still attached to the fallen foremast is now gone. And the foremast itself has now buckled and collapsed farther. As well, more than 3,000 artifacts have been lifted from the debris field. But the wreck site retains its essential character. The bow section still sits upright and remarkably intact, its knife edge seeming to plow a furrow in the bottom mud. The stern section still rises above the ocean floor, looking for all the world like a building after a massive internal explosion. These two starkly different faces of death could almost stand for the starkly different fates of those who were saved and those who were drowned.
For all the subsequent attention, little has been added in these past 12 years to our knowledge of the ship or how it sank. The 1987 salvage expedition found the starboard propeller we had missed. The 1991 IMAX filmmaking expedition, brought back images of unprecedented clarity of the wreck. And in 1995 moviemaker James Cameron took the most dramatic video yet of the bow and fo'c'sle, images he planned to use in his Titanic feature movie. Of more interest to me, however, he explored deeper into the ship than anyone before. On its descent down the grand staircase, Cameron sent his tethered robot into the sitting room of the starboard parlor suite, one of the more deluxe first-class accommodations. The robot's eye spotted the ruins of a chair and got a close look at the beautiful brass firebox in the remains of the fireplace. Even more exciting, however, the robot ventured down to the D-deck reception room outside the first-class dining room. Here it found remains of wood paneling, pillars with pieces of intact woodwork, and octagonal ceiling fixture dangling down and one of the main entry doors through which the first-class passengers boarded the ship. One of the double doors still hangs on its hinges, its ornate iron grillwork clearly visible.
Considerable hullabaloo attended the attempt in the summer of 1996 to raise a piece of the hull from the debris field, but far more interesting was the ultrasound investigation of the area of the bow damaged by the iceberg. These images revealed six small tears or openings affecting the first six compartments. Just as we had surmised in 1986, the great gash was a myth and the actual openings into the ship seem to have been the result of rivets popping and hull plates separating.
in cautarea unei nave de razboi si gasirea Titanicului
The 1985 discovery of the Titanic stemmed from a secret United States Navy investigation of two wrecked nuclear submarines, according to the oceanographer who found the infamous ocean liner.
Pieces of this Cold War tale have been known since the mid-1990s, but more complete details are now coming to light, said Titanic's discoverer, Robert Ballard.
"The Navy is finally discussing it," said Ballard, an oceanographer at the University of Rhode Island in Narragansett and the Mystic Aquarium and Institute for Exploration in Connecticut.
Ballard met with the Navy in 1982 to request funding to develop the robotic submersible technology he needed to find the Titanic.
Ballard is also a National Geographic Society explorer-in-residence. (National Geographic News is owned by the National Geographic Society.)
Surprise Find
Ronald Thunman, then the deputy chief of naval operations for submarine warfare, told Ballard the military was interested in the technology—but for the purpose of investigating the wreckage of the U.S.S. Thresher and U.S.S. Scorpion.
Since Ballard's technology would be able to reach the sunken subs and take pictures, the oceanographer agreed to help out.
He then asked the Navy if he could search for the Titanic, which was located between the two wrecks.
"I was a little short with him," said Thunman, who retired as a vice admiral and now lives in Springfield, Illinois. He emphasized that the mission was to study the sunken warships.
Once Ballard had completed his mission—if time was left—Thunman said, Ballard could do what he wanted, but never gave him explicit permission to search for the Titanic.
Pieces of this Cold War tale have been known since the mid-1990s, but more complete details are now coming to light, said Titanic's discoverer, Robert Ballard.
"The Navy is finally discussing it," said Ballard, an oceanographer at the University of Rhode Island in Narragansett and the Mystic Aquarium and Institute for Exploration in Connecticut.
Ballard met with the Navy in 1982 to request funding to develop the robotic submersible technology he needed to find the Titanic.
Ballard is also a National Geographic Society explorer-in-residence. (National Geographic News is owned by the National Geographic Society.)
Surprise Find
Ronald Thunman, then the deputy chief of naval operations for submarine warfare, told Ballard the military was interested in the technology—but for the purpose of investigating the wreckage of the U.S.S. Thresher and U.S.S. Scorpion.
Since Ballard's technology would be able to reach the sunken subs and take pictures, the oceanographer agreed to help out.
He then asked the Navy if he could search for the Titanic, which was located between the two wrecks.
"I was a little short with him," said Thunman, who retired as a vice admiral and now lives in Springfield, Illinois. He emphasized that the mission was to study the sunken warships.
Once Ballard had completed his mission—if time was left—Thunman said, Ballard could do what he wanted, but never gave him explicit permission to search for the Titanic.
Titanic construction
The Titanic was conceived in 1907 and met with disaster in 1912, a brief existence but one fraught with all the drama of a Greek tragedy.
It was the beginning of the twentieth century, a time of optimism and progress. The transatlantic transport of passengers, cargo, and mail was brisk and competitive. In the spirit of this competition, managing director of the White Star Line, J. Bruce Ismay, engaged the Belfast shipbuilding company of Harland & Wolff to build three leviathans that would become the largest moving objects created by man. The three Royal Mail Ships were to be called Olympic, Titanic, and Gigantic. (Not to tempt fate, later the Gigantic's name would be changed to Britannic.) The ships were to be virtually identical in size and structure, but Titanic was to be the true shining star.
Titanic’s keel was laid on March 22, 1909. For the next twenty-six months, Harland & Wolff’s shipyard workers labored nine hours a day, six days a week, to construct her massive hull (98/0001.A1). The White Star flagships would have both reciprocating steam engines, the norm for the period, and a turbine engine to power the center of three propellers. Moreover, a double-plated bottom and a sophisticated system of watertight compartments provided the utmost in security.
On May 31, 1911, her superstructure completed, Titanic slipped gracefully into the River Lagan launched on twenty-two tons of tallow, train oil, and soap, and was towed to the fitting out basin. It was now time for the three thousand carpenters, engineers, electricians, plumbers, painters, master mechanics, and interior designers to fit the Titanic with the latest in marine technology and the most sumptuous fixtures and furniture. Finally, on April 2, 1912 she was ready. Certified seaworthy, Harland & Wolff handed her over to the White Star Line and the Royal Mail Triple-Screw Steamer Titanic departed for her place in history.
It was the beginning of the twentieth century, a time of optimism and progress. The transatlantic transport of passengers, cargo, and mail was brisk and competitive. In the spirit of this competition, managing director of the White Star Line, J. Bruce Ismay, engaged the Belfast shipbuilding company of Harland & Wolff to build three leviathans that would become the largest moving objects created by man. The three Royal Mail Ships were to be called Olympic, Titanic, and Gigantic. (Not to tempt fate, later the Gigantic's name would be changed to Britannic.) The ships were to be virtually identical in size and structure, but Titanic was to be the true shining star.
Titanic’s keel was laid on March 22, 1909. For the next twenty-six months, Harland & Wolff’s shipyard workers labored nine hours a day, six days a week, to construct her massive hull (98/0001.A1). The White Star flagships would have both reciprocating steam engines, the norm for the period, and a turbine engine to power the center of three propellers. Moreover, a double-plated bottom and a sophisticated system of watertight compartments provided the utmost in security.
On May 31, 1911, her superstructure completed, Titanic slipped gracefully into the River Lagan launched on twenty-two tons of tallow, train oil, and soap, and was towed to the fitting out basin. It was now time for the three thousand carpenters, engineers, electricians, plumbers, painters, master mechanics, and interior designers to fit the Titanic with the latest in marine technology and the most sumptuous fixtures and furniture. Finally, on April 2, 1912 she was ready. Certified seaworthy, Harland & Wolff handed her over to the White Star Line and the Royal Mail Triple-Screw Steamer Titanic departed for her place in history.
un mic dosar din arhiva Bibliotecii Congresului
In 1912, Titanic, un vapor cu aburi al companiei engleze White Star, a ridicat ancora, plecand in calatoria sa tragica. Nava avea la bord 2227 de pasageri entuziasti si membrii echipajului, imbarcati pentru o calatorie care avea sa faca istorie, de la Southampton, Anglia spre New York City. Doar 705 dintre acestia aveau sa supravietuiasca dupa ce nava a intrat in coliziune cu un imens iceberg. Iata cateva dintre cele mai interesante informatii despre nava si calatoria sa nefericita: Titanicul a fost proiectat sa sustina 32 de barci de salvare, insa numai 20 au fost prezente la bord; administratia White Star era preocupata de faptul ca prea multe barci aveau sa afecteze estetica navei. Supravietuitorii au fost salvati de nava Carpathia, care se afla la 58 de mile in sud-estul Titanicului, in momentul in care a primit apelul de S.O.S. Titanicul se putea lauda cu ascensoare electrice, o piscina, un teren de squash, o baie turceasca si o sala de gimnastica dotata cu un cal mecanic si o camila mecanica. Ramasitele Titanicului au fost localizate in 1985, la o adancime de 12.500 de picioare, la aproximativ 350 de mile (531 de km) sud-est de Newfoundland, Canada. Un bilet la clasa intai (cabina de lux) pe Titanic costa 4.350 de dolari, suma care ar insemna in prezent 50.000 de dolari. Patru dintre supravietuitorii cunoscuti ai dezastrului mai sunt in viata si astazi.
sâmbătă, 21 iunie 2008
Povestea Titanicului
RMS Titanic (Royal Mail Steamer-Vas postal regal) a fost un mare pachebot care s-a ciocnit cu un aisberg şi s-a scufundat în 1912. Al doilea din trio-ul de „super-nave” (alături de RMS Olympic şi HMHS Britannic) concepute pentru a oferi fiecare câte o cursă săptămânală şi pentru a domina afacerea transatlantică dintre Southampton şi New York în interesul companiei White Star Line. Construit la şantierele Harland and Wolff din Belfast, Titanic a fost cel mai mare vas din lume până la momentul scufundării sale. În timpul călătoriei inaugurale (Southampton, Anglia, apoi Cherbourg, Franţa, Queenstown, Irlanda cu destinaţia New York), s-a ciocnit cu un aisberg la 11:40 PM, în ziua de duminică, 14 aprilie 1912. Vasul s-a scufundat în două ore şi jumătate, după ce s-a rupt în două la ora 2:20 AM (15 aprilie 1912).
Titanic a fost construit la şantierele Harland and Wolff din Belfast şi a fost conceput pentru a putea concura cu navele companiei rivale (Cunard), Lusitania şi Mauretania, cunoscute ca fiind cele mai rapide de pe Oceanul Pacific. Titanic, împreună cu Olympic şi Britannic (denumită iniţial Gigantic) trebuiau să fie cele mai mari şi luxoase nave construite vreodată. Titanic a fost proiectat de directorul şantierului naval, Lord Pirrie, şeful departamentului de proiecte al şantierului, Thomas Andrews, şi managerul general, Alexander Carlisle. Construcţia Titanicului a început la data de 31 martie 1909. Nava a fost lansată doi ani şi două luni mai târziu, pe data de 31 mai 1911. Echiparea navei a fost terminată pe data de 31 martie a anului următor.
Titanic avea 269,1 de metri lungime şi 20 de metri lăţime. Tonajul vasului era de 46.328 de tone şi o înălţime de la nivelul de plutire până la puntea principală de 18 metri. Putea atinge o viteză maximă de 43 de km/h. Doar trei din cele patru coşuri ale sale de 19 metri înălţime erau funcţionale, al patrulea fiind folosit pentru ventilaţie. Titanicul putea să transporte un total maxim de 3547 de pasageri plus echipaj.
Titanicul era considerat apogeul siguranţei pe o navă în caz de accident. A fost numit practic „de nescufundat” de către proiectanţi. Nava era împărţită în şaisprezece încăperi impermeabile despărţite prin uşi etanşe. Era proiectat să stea la suprafaţă cu patru astfel de încăperi inundate. Dacă se umpleau cu apă mai multe de patru camere, vasul se scufunda.
La vremea lui, Titanicul era de neegalat în lux. Oferea o piscină, sală de gimnastică şi sport, băi turceşti, o bibliotecă şi un teren de "squash".[1] Camerele de zi de la clasa întâi erau placate cu lemn scump, mobilă şi alte decoraţiuni elegante. În plus, cafeneaua pariziană oferea o bucătărie foarte agreabilă pentru pasagerii clasei întâi. Condiţiile de la clasele a II-a şi a III-a erau mai bune decât pe alte nave ale vremii. Titanicul avea trei ascensoare pentru pasagerii de la clasa întâi şi încă unul pentru pasagerii de clasa a II-a.
Titanicul era aproape identic cu nava-soră Olympic, dar existau îmbunătăţiri aduse de Bruce Ismay, patronul companiei White Star Line, după observaţiile făcute pe primul vas. Titanicul avea un luxos restaurant parizian pe care Olympic nu l-a avut până în 1913. Altă diferenţă faţă de Olympic era iluminarea mai bogată pe punte. Acestea făceau ca Titanicul să fie cu 1004 tone mai greu.
Titanic a fost construit la şantierele Harland and Wolff din Belfast şi a fost conceput pentru a putea concura cu navele companiei rivale (Cunard), Lusitania şi Mauretania, cunoscute ca fiind cele mai rapide de pe Oceanul Pacific. Titanic, împreună cu Olympic şi Britannic (denumită iniţial Gigantic) trebuiau să fie cele mai mari şi luxoase nave construite vreodată. Titanic a fost proiectat de directorul şantierului naval, Lord Pirrie, şeful departamentului de proiecte al şantierului, Thomas Andrews, şi managerul general, Alexander Carlisle. Construcţia Titanicului a început la data de 31 martie 1909. Nava a fost lansată doi ani şi două luni mai târziu, pe data de 31 mai 1911. Echiparea navei a fost terminată pe data de 31 martie a anului următor.
Titanic avea 269,1 de metri lungime şi 20 de metri lăţime. Tonajul vasului era de 46.328 de tone şi o înălţime de la nivelul de plutire până la puntea principală de 18 metri. Putea atinge o viteză maximă de 43 de km/h. Doar trei din cele patru coşuri ale sale de 19 metri înălţime erau funcţionale, al patrulea fiind folosit pentru ventilaţie. Titanicul putea să transporte un total maxim de 3547 de pasageri plus echipaj.
Titanicul era considerat apogeul siguranţei pe o navă în caz de accident. A fost numit practic „de nescufundat” de către proiectanţi. Nava era împărţită în şaisprezece încăperi impermeabile despărţite prin uşi etanşe. Era proiectat să stea la suprafaţă cu patru astfel de încăperi inundate. Dacă se umpleau cu apă mai multe de patru camere, vasul se scufunda.
La vremea lui, Titanicul era de neegalat în lux. Oferea o piscină, sală de gimnastică şi sport, băi turceşti, o bibliotecă şi un teren de "squash".[1] Camerele de zi de la clasa întâi erau placate cu lemn scump, mobilă şi alte decoraţiuni elegante. În plus, cafeneaua pariziană oferea o bucătărie foarte agreabilă pentru pasagerii clasei întâi. Condiţiile de la clasele a II-a şi a III-a erau mai bune decât pe alte nave ale vremii. Titanicul avea trei ascensoare pentru pasagerii de la clasa întâi şi încă unul pentru pasagerii de clasa a II-a.
Titanicul era aproape identic cu nava-soră Olympic, dar existau îmbunătăţiri aduse de Bruce Ismay, patronul companiei White Star Line, după observaţiile făcute pe primul vas. Titanicul avea un luxos restaurant parizian pe care Olympic nu l-a avut până în 1913. Altă diferenţă faţă de Olympic era iluminarea mai bogată pe punte. Acestea făceau ca Titanicul să fie cu 1004 tone mai greu.
Titanic's story
RMS Titanic was an Olympic-class passenger liner owned by the White Star Line and built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard. On the night of 14 April 1912, during her maiden voyage, Titanic struck an iceberg, and sank two hours and forty minutes later in early 15 April 1912. At the time of her launching in 1912, she was the largest passenger steamship in the world.
The sinking resulted in the deaths of 1,517 people, ranking it as one of the worst peacetime maritime disasters in history and by far the most infamous. The Titanic used some of the most advanced technology available at the time and was popularly believed to be “unsinkable” - indeed, in a 1910 White Star Line brochure advertising the Titanic, it was claimed that she was "designed to be unsinkable". It was a great shock to many that despite the advanced technology and experienced crew, the Titanic still sank with a great loss of life. The media frenzy about Titanic's famous victims, the legends about what happened on board the ship, the resulting changes to maritime law, and the discovery of the wreck in 1985 by a team led by Robert Ballard have made Titanic persistently famous in the years since.
The Titanic was a White Star Line ocean liner, built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland, designed to compete with rival company Cunard Line's Lusitania and Mauretania. The Titanic, along with her Olympic-class sisters, the Olympic and the soon to be built Britannic (originally named Gigantic), were intended to be the largest, most luxurious ships ever to operate. Construction of the RMS Titanic, funded by the American J.P. Morgan and his International Mercantile Marine Co., began on 31 March 1909. Titanic's hull was launched on 31 May 1911, and her outfitting was completed by 31 March the following year. Titanic was 882 ft 9 in (269 m) long and 92 ft 6 in (28 m) wide, had a gross register tonnage of 46,328 tons, and a height from the water line to the boat deck of 60 ft (18 m). Titanic contained two reciprocating four-cylinder, triple expansion, inverted steam engines and one low pressure Parsons turbine which powered three propellers. There were 29 boilers fired by 159 coal burning furnaces that made possible a top speed of 23 knots (43 km/h). Only three of the four 63 feet (19 m) tall funnels were functional; the fourth funnel, which only served as a vent, was added to make the ship look more impressive. The ship could hold a total of 3,547 passengers and crew and, because she carried mail, her name was given the prefix RMS (Royal Mail Steamer) as well as SS (Steam Ship). There were insufficient lifeboats on the Titanic for all passengers, though the legal requirements of the day were met.
In her time, Titanic surpassed all rivals in luxury and opulence. She offered an on-board swimming pool, a gymnasium, a Turkish bath, libraries in both the first and second-class, and a squash court.[2] First-class common rooms were adorned with elaborate wood panelling, expensive furniture and other decorations.[3] In addition, the Café Parisien offered cuisine for the first-class passengers, with a sunlit veranda fitted with trellis decorations.[4]
The ship incorporated technologically advanced features for the period. She had an extensive electrical subsystem with steam-powered generators and ship-wide electrical wiring feeding electric lights. She also boasted two wireless Marconi sets, including a powerful 1,500-watt radio manned by operators who worked in shifts, allowing constant contact and the transmission of many passenger messages.
The Titanic closely resembled her older sister Olympic. Although she enclosed more space and therefore had a larger gross register tonnage, the hull was exactly the same length as the Olympic. But there were a few differences. Two of the most noticeable were that half of the Titanic's forward promenade A-Deck (below the boat deck) was enclosed against outside weather, and her B-Deck configuration was different from the Olympic. The Titanic had a speciality restaurant called Café Parisien, a feature that the Olympic did not have until 1913. Some of the flaws found on the Olympic, such as the creaking of the aft expansion joint, were corrected on the Titanic. The skid lights that provided natural illumination on A-deck were round; while on Olympic they were oval. The Titanic's wheelhouse was made narrower and longer than the Olympic's.[6] These, and other modifications, made the Titanic 1,004 gross register tons larger than the Olympic and thus the biggest active ship in the world during her maiden voyage in April 1912.
The ship began her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, bound for New York City, New York, on Wednesday, 10 April 1912, with Captain Edward J. Smith in command. As the Titanic left her berth, her wake caused the liner New York, which was docked nearby, to break away from her moorings and was drawn dangerously close (about four feet) to the Titanic before a tugboat towed the New York away. The near accident delayed departure for one hour. After crossing the English Channel, the Titanic stopped at Cherbourg, France, to board additional passengers and stopped again the next day at Queenstown (known today as Cobh), Ireland, before continuing towards New York with 2,240 people aboard.[7]
Some of the most prominent people in the world were travelling in first–class. These included millionaire John Jacob Astor and his wife Madeleine Force Astor; industrialist Benjamin Guggenheim; Macy's owner Isidor Straus and his wife Ida; Denver millionairess Margaret "Molly" Brown; Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon and his wife couturiere Lady Lucille Duff-Gordon; George Elkins Widener and his wife Eleanor; John Borland Thayer, his wife Marian and their seventeen-year-old son, Jack; journalist William Thomas Stead; the Countess of Rothes; U.S. presidential aide Archibald Butt; author and socialite Helen Churchill Candee; author Jacques Futrelle, his wife May, and their friends, Broadway producers Henry and Irene Harris; silent film actress Dorothy Gibson; and others. Also travelling in first–class were White Star Line's managing director J. Bruce Ismay who came up with the idea for Titanic and the ship's builder Thomas Andrews, who was on board to observe any problems and assess the general performance of the new ship.
On the night of Sunday, 14 April, the temperature had dropped to near freezing and the ocean was absolutely calm. There was no moon and the sky was clear. Captain Smith, in response to iceberg warnings received via wireless over the last few days, altered the Titanic's course slightly to the south. That Sunday at 1:45 PM, a message from the steamer Amerika warned that large icebergs lay in the Titanic's path, but inexplicably, the warning was never relayed to the bridge. Later that evening, another report of numerous large icebergs, this time from the Mesaba, also failed to reach the bridge.
At 11:40 PM while sailing south of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, lookouts Fredrick Fleet and Reginald Lee spotted a large iceberg directly ahead of the ship. Fleet sounded the ship's bell three times and telephoned the bridge exclaiming, "Iceberg, right ahead!" First Officer Murdoch ordered an abrupt turn to port (left) and full speed astern, which stopped and then reversed the ship's engines. A collision was inevitable and the iceberg brushed the ship's starboard (right) side, buckling the hull in several places and popping out rivets below the waterline over a length of 300 ft (91 m). As seawater filled the forward compartments, the watertight doors shut. However, while the ship could stay afloat with four flooded compartments, five were filling with water. The five water-filled compartments weighed down the ship so that the tops of the forward watertight bulkheads fell below the ship's waterline, allowing water to pour into additional compartments. Captain Smith, alerted by the jolt of the impact, arrived on the bridge and ordered a full stop. Following an inspection by the ship's officers and Thomas Andrews, and shortly after midnight on 15 April, lifeboats were ordered to be readied and a distress call sent out.
The first lifeboat launched, boat 7, despite popular belief of a 12:40 AM time, was lowered at 12:27 AM on the starboard side with 12 people on board. Boat 5 was launched two to three minutes later. The Titanic carried 20 lifeboats with a total capacity of 1,178 persons. While not enough to hold all of the passengers and crew, the Titanic carried more boats than required by the British Board of Regulations. At the time, the number of lifeboats required was determined by a ship's gross register tonnage, rather than her human capacity.
Wireless operators Jack Phillips and Harold Bride were busy sending out CQD, the international distress signal. Several ships responded, including Mount Temple, Frankfurt and Titanic's sister ship, Olympic, but none were close enough to make it in time. The closest ship was Cunard Line's RMS Carpathia 58 miles (93 km) away, which arrived in about four hours—too late to rescue all of Titanic's passengers. The only land–based location that received the distress call from Titanic was a wireless station at Cape Race, Newfoundland.
From the bridge, the lights of a nearby ship could be seen off the port side. Not responding to wireless, Fourth Officer Boxhall and Quartermaster Rowe attempted signalling the ship with a Morse lamp and later with distress rockets, but the ship never appeared to respond. The SS Californian, which was nearby and stopped for the night because of ice, also saw lights in the distance. The Californian's wireless was turned off, and the wireless operator had gone to bed for the night. Just before he went to bed at around 11:00 PM the Californian's radio operator attempted to warn the Titanic that there was ice ahead, but he was cut off by an exhausted Jack Phillips, who snapped, "Shut up, shut up, I am busy; I am working Cape Race".[8] When the Californian's officers first saw the ship, they tried signalling her with their Morse lamp, but also never appeared to receive a response. Later, they noticed the Titanic's distress signals over the lights and informed Captain Stanley Lord. Even though there was much discussion about the mysterious ship, which to the officers on duty appeared to be moving away, the Californian did not wake her wireless operator until morning.
The Titanic showed no outward signs of being in imminent danger, and passengers were reluctant to leave the apparent safety of the ship to board small lifeboats. As a result, most of the boats were launched partially empty; one boat meant to hold 40 people left the Titanic with only 12 people on board. With "Women and children first" the imperative for loading lifeboats, Second Officer Lightoller, who was loading boats on the port side, allowed men to board only if oarsmen were needed, even if there was room. First Officer Murdoch, who was loading boats on the starboard side, let men on board if women were absent. As the ship's list increased people started to become nervous, and some lifeboats began leaving fully loaded. By 2:05 AM, the entire bow was under water, and all the lifeboats, save for two, had been launched.
Around 2:10 AM, the stern rose out of the water exposing the propellers, and by 2:17 the waterline had reached the boat deck. The last two lifeboats floated off the deck, one upside down, the other half filled with water. Shortly afterwards, the forward funnel collapsed, crushing part of the bridge and people in the water. On deck, people were scrambling towards the stern or jumping overboard in hopes of reaching a lifeboat. The ship's stern slowly rose into the air, and everything not secured crashed towards the water. While the stern rose the electrical system finally failed and the lights went out. Shortly afterwards, the stress on the hull caused Titanic to break apart between the last two funnels, and the bow went completely under. The stern righted itself slightly and then rose vertically. After a few moments, at 2:20 AM, this too sank into the ocean.
Of a total of 2,223 people, only 706 survived; 1,517 perished.[9] The majority of deaths were caused by hypothermia in the 28 °F (−2 °C) water. Only two of the 18 launched lifeboats rescued people after the ship sank. Lifeboat 4 was close by and picked up five people, two of whom later died. Close to an hour later lifeboat 14 went back and rescued four people, one of whom died afterwards. Other people managed to climb onto the lifeboats that floated off the deck. There were some arguments in some of the other lifeboats about going back, but many survivors were afraid of being swamped by people trying to climb into the lifeboat or getting pulled down by the suction from the sinking Titanic, though it turned out that there had been very little suction. In the disaster, first class men were four times as likely to survive as second class men, and twice as likely to survive as third class men. Nearly every first-class woman survived, compared to 86 percent of those in second class and less than half of those in third class.[10]
As the ship fell into the depths, the two sections behaved very differently. The streamlined bow planed off approximately 2,000 feet (609 m) below the surface and slowed somewhat, landing relatively gently. The stern, however, plunged violently to the ocean floor, the hull being torn apart along the way from massive implosions caused by compression of the air still trapped inside. The stern smashed into the bottom at considerable speed, grinding the hull deep into the silt.
The idea of finding the wreck of Titanic, and even raising the ship from the ocean floor, had been around since shortly after the ship sank. No attempts were successful until September 1, 1985, when a joint American-French expedition, led by Jean-Louis Michel (Ifremer) and Dr. Robert Ballard (WHOI), located the wreck. It was found at a depth of 2 miles (3,800 m), slightly more than 600 km south-east of Mistaken Point, Newfoundland at 41°43′55″N, 49°56′45″W, 13 miles (22 km) from fourth officer Joseph Boxhall's last position reading where Titanic was originally thought to rest. Ballard had in 1982 requested funding for the project from the US Navy, but this was provided only on the condition that the first priority was the search for the sunken US submarines Thresher and Scorpion. Only when these had been discovered and photographed was the search for the Titanic started.[12]
The most notable discovery the team made was that the ship had split apart, the stern section lying 1,970 feet (600 m) from the bow section and facing opposite directions. There had been conflicting witness accounts of whether the ship broke apart or not, and both the American and British inquires found that the ship sank intact. Up until the discovery of the wreck, it was generally assumed the ship did not break apart.
The bow section had embedded itself 60 feet (18 m) into the silt on the ocean floor. Although parts of the hull had buckled, the bow was mostly intact. The stern section was in much worse condition. As the stern section sank the increasing water pressure in turn pressurized the air trapped within the hull to such a point that it exploded. The speed at which the stern hit the ocean floor caused even more damage. Surrounding the wreck is a large debris field with pieces of the ship, furniture, dinnerware and personal items scattered over one square mile (2.6 km²). Softer materials, like wood, carpet and human remains were devoured by undersea organisms.
Dr. Ballard and his team did not bring up any artifacts from the site, considering this to be tantamount to grave robbing. Under international maritime law, however, the recovery of artifacts is necessary to establish salvage rights to a shipwreck. In the years after the find, Titanic has been the object of a number of court cases concerning ownership of artifacts and the wreck site itself. In 1994 RMS Titanic, Inc. was awarded ownership and salvaging rights of the wreck, even though RMS Titanic Inc. and other salvaging expeditions have been criticized for taking items from the wreck.
Approximately 6,000 artifacts have been removed from the wreck. Many of these were put on display at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England, and later as part of a travelling museum exhibit.
Many scientists, including Robert Ballard, are concerned that visits by tourists in submersibles and the recovery of artifacts are hastening the decay of the wreck. Underwater microbes have been eating away at Titanic's iron since the ship sank, but because of the extra damage visitors have caused, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates that "the hull and structure of the ship may collapse to the ocean floor within the next 50 years."
Ballard's book Return to Titanic, published by the National Geographic Society, includes photographs depicting the deterioration of the promenade deck and damage caused by submersibles landing on the ship. The mast has almost completely deteriorated and has been stripped of its bell and brass light. Other damage includes a gash on the bow section where block letters once spelled Titanic, part of the brass telemotor which once held the ship's wooden wheel is now twisted and the crows nest has now completely deteriorated.
The sinking resulted in the deaths of 1,517 people, ranking it as one of the worst peacetime maritime disasters in history and by far the most infamous. The Titanic used some of the most advanced technology available at the time and was popularly believed to be “unsinkable” - indeed, in a 1910 White Star Line brochure advertising the Titanic, it was claimed that she was "designed to be unsinkable". It was a great shock to many that despite the advanced technology and experienced crew, the Titanic still sank with a great loss of life. The media frenzy about Titanic's famous victims, the legends about what happened on board the ship, the resulting changes to maritime law, and the discovery of the wreck in 1985 by a team led by Robert Ballard have made Titanic persistently famous in the years since.
The Titanic was a White Star Line ocean liner, built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland, designed to compete with rival company Cunard Line's Lusitania and Mauretania. The Titanic, along with her Olympic-class sisters, the Olympic and the soon to be built Britannic (originally named Gigantic), were intended to be the largest, most luxurious ships ever to operate. Construction of the RMS Titanic, funded by the American J.P. Morgan and his International Mercantile Marine Co., began on 31 March 1909. Titanic's hull was launched on 31 May 1911, and her outfitting was completed by 31 March the following year. Titanic was 882 ft 9 in (269 m) long and 92 ft 6 in (28 m) wide, had a gross register tonnage of 46,328 tons, and a height from the water line to the boat deck of 60 ft (18 m). Titanic contained two reciprocating four-cylinder, triple expansion, inverted steam engines and one low pressure Parsons turbine which powered three propellers. There were 29 boilers fired by 159 coal burning furnaces that made possible a top speed of 23 knots (43 km/h). Only three of the four 63 feet (19 m) tall funnels were functional; the fourth funnel, which only served as a vent, was added to make the ship look more impressive. The ship could hold a total of 3,547 passengers and crew and, because she carried mail, her name was given the prefix RMS (Royal Mail Steamer) as well as SS (Steam Ship). There were insufficient lifeboats on the Titanic for all passengers, though the legal requirements of the day were met.
In her time, Titanic surpassed all rivals in luxury and opulence. She offered an on-board swimming pool, a gymnasium, a Turkish bath, libraries in both the first and second-class, and a squash court.[2] First-class common rooms were adorned with elaborate wood panelling, expensive furniture and other decorations.[3] In addition, the Café Parisien offered cuisine for the first-class passengers, with a sunlit veranda fitted with trellis decorations.[4]
The ship incorporated technologically advanced features for the period. She had an extensive electrical subsystem with steam-powered generators and ship-wide electrical wiring feeding electric lights. She also boasted two wireless Marconi sets, including a powerful 1,500-watt radio manned by operators who worked in shifts, allowing constant contact and the transmission of many passenger messages.
The Titanic closely resembled her older sister Olympic. Although she enclosed more space and therefore had a larger gross register tonnage, the hull was exactly the same length as the Olympic. But there were a few differences. Two of the most noticeable were that half of the Titanic's forward promenade A-Deck (below the boat deck) was enclosed against outside weather, and her B-Deck configuration was different from the Olympic. The Titanic had a speciality restaurant called Café Parisien, a feature that the Olympic did not have until 1913. Some of the flaws found on the Olympic, such as the creaking of the aft expansion joint, were corrected on the Titanic. The skid lights that provided natural illumination on A-deck were round; while on Olympic they were oval. The Titanic's wheelhouse was made narrower and longer than the Olympic's.[6] These, and other modifications, made the Titanic 1,004 gross register tons larger than the Olympic and thus the biggest active ship in the world during her maiden voyage in April 1912.
The ship began her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, bound for New York City, New York, on Wednesday, 10 April 1912, with Captain Edward J. Smith in command. As the Titanic left her berth, her wake caused the liner New York, which was docked nearby, to break away from her moorings and was drawn dangerously close (about four feet) to the Titanic before a tugboat towed the New York away. The near accident delayed departure for one hour. After crossing the English Channel, the Titanic stopped at Cherbourg, France, to board additional passengers and stopped again the next day at Queenstown (known today as Cobh), Ireland, before continuing towards New York with 2,240 people aboard.[7]
Some of the most prominent people in the world were travelling in first–class. These included millionaire John Jacob Astor and his wife Madeleine Force Astor; industrialist Benjamin Guggenheim; Macy's owner Isidor Straus and his wife Ida; Denver millionairess Margaret "Molly" Brown; Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon and his wife couturiere Lady Lucille Duff-Gordon; George Elkins Widener and his wife Eleanor; John Borland Thayer, his wife Marian and their seventeen-year-old son, Jack; journalist William Thomas Stead; the Countess of Rothes; U.S. presidential aide Archibald Butt; author and socialite Helen Churchill Candee; author Jacques Futrelle, his wife May, and their friends, Broadway producers Henry and Irene Harris; silent film actress Dorothy Gibson; and others. Also travelling in first–class were White Star Line's managing director J. Bruce Ismay who came up with the idea for Titanic and the ship's builder Thomas Andrews, who was on board to observe any problems and assess the general performance of the new ship.
On the night of Sunday, 14 April, the temperature had dropped to near freezing and the ocean was absolutely calm. There was no moon and the sky was clear. Captain Smith, in response to iceberg warnings received via wireless over the last few days, altered the Titanic's course slightly to the south. That Sunday at 1:45 PM, a message from the steamer Amerika warned that large icebergs lay in the Titanic's path, but inexplicably, the warning was never relayed to the bridge. Later that evening, another report of numerous large icebergs, this time from the Mesaba, also failed to reach the bridge.
At 11:40 PM while sailing south of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, lookouts Fredrick Fleet and Reginald Lee spotted a large iceberg directly ahead of the ship. Fleet sounded the ship's bell three times and telephoned the bridge exclaiming, "Iceberg, right ahead!" First Officer Murdoch ordered an abrupt turn to port (left) and full speed astern, which stopped and then reversed the ship's engines. A collision was inevitable and the iceberg brushed the ship's starboard (right) side, buckling the hull in several places and popping out rivets below the waterline over a length of 300 ft (91 m). As seawater filled the forward compartments, the watertight doors shut. However, while the ship could stay afloat with four flooded compartments, five were filling with water. The five water-filled compartments weighed down the ship so that the tops of the forward watertight bulkheads fell below the ship's waterline, allowing water to pour into additional compartments. Captain Smith, alerted by the jolt of the impact, arrived on the bridge and ordered a full stop. Following an inspection by the ship's officers and Thomas Andrews, and shortly after midnight on 15 April, lifeboats were ordered to be readied and a distress call sent out.
The first lifeboat launched, boat 7, despite popular belief of a 12:40 AM time, was lowered at 12:27 AM on the starboard side with 12 people on board. Boat 5 was launched two to three minutes later. The Titanic carried 20 lifeboats with a total capacity of 1,178 persons. While not enough to hold all of the passengers and crew, the Titanic carried more boats than required by the British Board of Regulations. At the time, the number of lifeboats required was determined by a ship's gross register tonnage, rather than her human capacity.
Wireless operators Jack Phillips and Harold Bride were busy sending out CQD, the international distress signal. Several ships responded, including Mount Temple, Frankfurt and Titanic's sister ship, Olympic, but none were close enough to make it in time. The closest ship was Cunard Line's RMS Carpathia 58 miles (93 km) away, which arrived in about four hours—too late to rescue all of Titanic's passengers. The only land–based location that received the distress call from Titanic was a wireless station at Cape Race, Newfoundland.
From the bridge, the lights of a nearby ship could be seen off the port side. Not responding to wireless, Fourth Officer Boxhall and Quartermaster Rowe attempted signalling the ship with a Morse lamp and later with distress rockets, but the ship never appeared to respond. The SS Californian, which was nearby and stopped for the night because of ice, also saw lights in the distance. The Californian's wireless was turned off, and the wireless operator had gone to bed for the night. Just before he went to bed at around 11:00 PM the Californian's radio operator attempted to warn the Titanic that there was ice ahead, but he was cut off by an exhausted Jack Phillips, who snapped, "Shut up, shut up, I am busy; I am working Cape Race".[8] When the Californian's officers first saw the ship, they tried signalling her with their Morse lamp, but also never appeared to receive a response. Later, they noticed the Titanic's distress signals over the lights and informed Captain Stanley Lord. Even though there was much discussion about the mysterious ship, which to the officers on duty appeared to be moving away, the Californian did not wake her wireless operator until morning.
The Titanic showed no outward signs of being in imminent danger, and passengers were reluctant to leave the apparent safety of the ship to board small lifeboats. As a result, most of the boats were launched partially empty; one boat meant to hold 40 people left the Titanic with only 12 people on board. With "Women and children first" the imperative for loading lifeboats, Second Officer Lightoller, who was loading boats on the port side, allowed men to board only if oarsmen were needed, even if there was room. First Officer Murdoch, who was loading boats on the starboard side, let men on board if women were absent. As the ship's list increased people started to become nervous, and some lifeboats began leaving fully loaded. By 2:05 AM, the entire bow was under water, and all the lifeboats, save for two, had been launched.
Around 2:10 AM, the stern rose out of the water exposing the propellers, and by 2:17 the waterline had reached the boat deck. The last two lifeboats floated off the deck, one upside down, the other half filled with water. Shortly afterwards, the forward funnel collapsed, crushing part of the bridge and people in the water. On deck, people were scrambling towards the stern or jumping overboard in hopes of reaching a lifeboat. The ship's stern slowly rose into the air, and everything not secured crashed towards the water. While the stern rose the electrical system finally failed and the lights went out. Shortly afterwards, the stress on the hull caused Titanic to break apart between the last two funnels, and the bow went completely under. The stern righted itself slightly and then rose vertically. After a few moments, at 2:20 AM, this too sank into the ocean.
Of a total of 2,223 people, only 706 survived; 1,517 perished.[9] The majority of deaths were caused by hypothermia in the 28 °F (−2 °C) water. Only two of the 18 launched lifeboats rescued people after the ship sank. Lifeboat 4 was close by and picked up five people, two of whom later died. Close to an hour later lifeboat 14 went back and rescued four people, one of whom died afterwards. Other people managed to climb onto the lifeboats that floated off the deck. There were some arguments in some of the other lifeboats about going back, but many survivors were afraid of being swamped by people trying to climb into the lifeboat or getting pulled down by the suction from the sinking Titanic, though it turned out that there had been very little suction. In the disaster, first class men were four times as likely to survive as second class men, and twice as likely to survive as third class men. Nearly every first-class woman survived, compared to 86 percent of those in second class and less than half of those in third class.[10]
As the ship fell into the depths, the two sections behaved very differently. The streamlined bow planed off approximately 2,000 feet (609 m) below the surface and slowed somewhat, landing relatively gently. The stern, however, plunged violently to the ocean floor, the hull being torn apart along the way from massive implosions caused by compression of the air still trapped inside. The stern smashed into the bottom at considerable speed, grinding the hull deep into the silt.
The idea of finding the wreck of Titanic, and even raising the ship from the ocean floor, had been around since shortly after the ship sank. No attempts were successful until September 1, 1985, when a joint American-French expedition, led by Jean-Louis Michel (Ifremer) and Dr. Robert Ballard (WHOI), located the wreck. It was found at a depth of 2 miles (3,800 m), slightly more than 600 km south-east of Mistaken Point, Newfoundland at 41°43′55″N, 49°56′45″W, 13 miles (22 km) from fourth officer Joseph Boxhall's last position reading where Titanic was originally thought to rest. Ballard had in 1982 requested funding for the project from the US Navy, but this was provided only on the condition that the first priority was the search for the sunken US submarines Thresher and Scorpion. Only when these had been discovered and photographed was the search for the Titanic started.[12]
The most notable discovery the team made was that the ship had split apart, the stern section lying 1,970 feet (600 m) from the bow section and facing opposite directions. There had been conflicting witness accounts of whether the ship broke apart or not, and both the American and British inquires found that the ship sank intact. Up until the discovery of the wreck, it was generally assumed the ship did not break apart.
The bow section had embedded itself 60 feet (18 m) into the silt on the ocean floor. Although parts of the hull had buckled, the bow was mostly intact. The stern section was in much worse condition. As the stern section sank the increasing water pressure in turn pressurized the air trapped within the hull to such a point that it exploded. The speed at which the stern hit the ocean floor caused even more damage. Surrounding the wreck is a large debris field with pieces of the ship, furniture, dinnerware and personal items scattered over one square mile (2.6 km²). Softer materials, like wood, carpet and human remains were devoured by undersea organisms.
Dr. Ballard and his team did not bring up any artifacts from the site, considering this to be tantamount to grave robbing. Under international maritime law, however, the recovery of artifacts is necessary to establish salvage rights to a shipwreck. In the years after the find, Titanic has been the object of a number of court cases concerning ownership of artifacts and the wreck site itself. In 1994 RMS Titanic, Inc. was awarded ownership and salvaging rights of the wreck, even though RMS Titanic Inc. and other salvaging expeditions have been criticized for taking items from the wreck.
Approximately 6,000 artifacts have been removed from the wreck. Many of these were put on display at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England, and later as part of a travelling museum exhibit.
Many scientists, including Robert Ballard, are concerned that visits by tourists in submersibles and the recovery of artifacts are hastening the decay of the wreck. Underwater microbes have been eating away at Titanic's iron since the ship sank, but because of the extra damage visitors have caused, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates that "the hull and structure of the ship may collapse to the ocean floor within the next 50 years."
Ballard's book Return to Titanic, published by the National Geographic Society, includes photographs depicting the deterioration of the promenade deck and damage caused by submersibles landing on the ship. The mast has almost completely deteriorated and has been stripped of its bell and brass light. Other damage includes a gash on the bow section where block letters once spelled Titanic, part of the brass telemotor which once held the ship's wooden wheel is now twisted and the crows nest has now completely deteriorated.
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