Amazing and unknown stories about the Titanic

For more than a century, the tragic story of the Titanic captures the world's imagination. However, many important details that famous night of April remain relatively unknown. For example, did you know that ...

The weather that night was wonderful

It's pretty easy to imagine the Titanic fighting with huge waves in the sea, where the fog and rain hid the iceberg that sent him to a watery grave. In fact, it was completely wrong. When the Titanic sailed towards his death, the weather was excellent, eerily quiet. With no wind or waves of the sea were smoothed as a perfect mirror, there was only a ripple on the water from the ship, when he slipped on the waves. And this beautiful weather, perhaps, was the cause of his death.

According to the meteorologist Edward Lawrence (Edward Lawrence), even a slight ripple on the water would be enough to ensure that the phosphorescent plankton lit edge of the iceberg. Plankton, which light intensity when disturbed, in fact, have pointed out the danger to lookouts on the Titanic. The second ship officer, Charles Lightoller (Charles Lightoller), in particular, noted the absence of luminous plankton as one of the causes of the disaster. Windless weather also prevented feel a sudden rise and drop in temperature, which, as a rule, warns that you are on the road section with icebergs.

Unfortunately, by that time, it was seen as an iceberg, almost did not have time to avoid a collision. During the investigation of the death of the Titanic was discovered in 1912 that the Titanic had only 37 seconds to that to try to change the course, although later examination of the evidence suggests that in fact the team had a little more than a minute. In any case, the ship was doomed. After the sinking of the ship began to blow cold wind, even more cooling passengers fighting for survival.

On fire since the beginning of his ship sailed

Shortly before the ship went on its first and last voyage, the ship's coal bunkers fire started. During the investigation of the disaster the United Kingdom, it was found that the flames are still raging on the ship when it sailed for New York, which in itself posed a threat to the lives of those people who were on the ship.

According to the surviving fireman named Jay Dilli (J Dilley): "We could not put out the fire, and the conversation went to other firemen that after the passengers will go ashore in New York, they would have to devastate a huge coal silos and cause a fire boat to assist in extinguishing the fire. It turned out that their help was not needed, because, according to Dilli, the fire was extinguished when an iceberg broke through the hull and flooded coal bunkers salt water.

Other crew members claimed that the fire was successfully extinguished the day before the ship struck an iceberg. In any case, on the Titanic fire raged for most of the way. He was not catastrophic, since the steel bunkers were designed to deter coal fires. However, this increases the riskiness of the trip and the managing director of the company "White Star Line" by the name of Bruce Ismay (Bruce Ismay) subsequently suggested that the owner of the vessel, JP Morgan (JP Morgan), forced the crew to sail at full speed to "reach New York and disembark all passengers before the inevitable explosion would have occurred. " Morgan himself was supposed to sail on the Titanic, but changed his mind and decided to stay on the ground at the last minute.

The tragic foresight William Thomas Stead (William T Stead)

In 1886, the legendary journalist William Thomas Stead wrote a fictional story about the Atlantic steamship that sank in a collision. In his story, most of the passengers were killed due to a lack of lifeboats. Stead wrote this story to draw attention to the permissive rules of navigation, which did not specify the requirement to carry a sufficient number of lifeboats for everyone on board. Stead returned to this topic in 1892 with a story based on the liner "Majestic" (Majestic) company "White Star Line". In the climactic chapter of the ship crosses the Atlantic Ocean, being touristy. Suddenly:

There was so much noise, as if the ship wade through the ice, and the screws churned ice blocks. Passengers carefully climbed onto the deck. She was wet and sticky, and very cold. Every thirty seconds heard a fog signal whistle. ice roar of shipboard and gnashing clamped ice screw was so loud that it was impossible to hear what another person said. Then there was a shout: "Icebergs on starboard."

Twenty years Stead died, being a passenger of the Titanic. On the ship there were only 20 lifeboats, which was barely enough for half the passengers on board.

The captain had failed his navigation test

Edward Smith (Edward John Smith), captain of the Titanic, was the subject of countless myths since that fateful night when he decided to die with his ship. Many even think that he personally saved the child before it disappeared in the Atlantic Ocean. However, some argue that it is a heroic description is not the full truth.

Captain Smith was not only ignored several warnings about the ice and did not hold the ship at an acceptable speed, but it also allowed the lifeboats move off half empty - there were only 27 passengers, and the seats in the boat - 65. In addition, Smith was unable to give a clear indication of the time " abandon ship "because of what many passengers did not immediately realized the gravity of the situation in which they find themselves.

In 2012, it was announced that Smith actually failed their examinations in navigation for the first time, when he gave them. Subsequently, he still passed them in 1888, but the initial failure was probably a bad sign. Ironically, before the disaster of the Titanic Smith really has earned the title of "Captain millionaires" through its ability to flawlessly manage ships.

The only Japanese passenger

The only Japanese passenger on board was a government employee of middle age named Masabumi Hosono (Masabumi Hosono), who came to Europe to study the parameters of rail systems, before he sat down on the Titanic to go home. When the ship began to sink, he made his way to the main deck, Determined to face death with dignity. Considering that the policy of "Women and children first" was carried out at gunpoint, his survival seemed unlikely, but Hosono still felt the desire to find at least some chance to get to safety.

He had the chance, when a crew member shouted that there were two more seats in the lifeboat. After he saw that the boat jumped another man, Hosono followed. If he had known what would all his remaining life, he likely would have decided to sink with the ship.

At that time, it was believed that a man should not hesitate to prefer the noble death survival shameful way. When he returned to Japan, Hosono branded a coward and he had been ostracized by their community. He was also fired from his government job, even though he was later reinstated. His position also helped numerous stories about a man from Asia, shamefully survivors in the lifeboat №13. Hosono people associated with this person.

In 1997, he was kind of justified when his memoirs, written by hand, were found among his personal belongings. In a letter he wrote to his wife, Hosono mentioned that he was in a lifeboat №10 and therefore could not be a man of the boat №13.

This necklace from Titanic

Photo: George Bain (George Bain)

The "Titanic" James Cameron (James Cameron), we see the story of forbidden love and an amazing necklace, known as the "Heart of the Ocean". We can assume that such details have been added to make the film more interesting. However, as it turned out, the real Titanic was the place where there was a similar story, as a passenger by the name of Kate Florence Phillips (Kate Florence Philips) received valuable sapphire necklace from her lover, Henry Morley (Henry Morley).

Morley was a wealthy 40-year-old owner of the pastry shop in the city of Worcester (Worcester), England, and the 19-year-old Kate was originally his cashier. Soon, their relationship went beyond the professional and Morley started to think about how to throw his wife and young daughter to be with Kate. The pair had planned to escape on board the Titanic and start a new life in California. After the ship ran into an iceberg, Kate got on board the very last lifeboat. Morley was unlucky and he was killed.

Exactly nine months after the tragedy, Kate gave birth to a girl named Ellen. In 1989, the story of Ellen became well-known after she came to the news center of Worcester in search of photographs of his father. The newspaper earlier published an article containing detailed information about the victims of the Titanic from Worcester. 76-year-old Ellen cried when she was holding a photograph of Henry. She also told the story of his mother, and said that she was still a sapphire necklace, Kate, as well as the key to the cabin with the Titanic.

In 2012, the granddaughter of Ellen Beverley Farmer (Beverley Farmer), and the great-granddaughter Morley, Deborah Allen (Deborah Allen) held a meeting to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Titanic disaster.

Errors and theory

We all know that the Titanic sank because of an iceberg, but over the years has taken a number of additional attempts to find out the reason why he came to this iceberg. Immediately after the disaster, investigators from both the UK and the US have determined that the ship was sailing at an unacceptably high rate. At lower speeds the loss would be less significant or generally ship could avoid a collision with an iceberg. Whatever it was, as a result of the collision the ship opened six offices, two more than was acceptable to the ship remained afloat.

In 2010, Patton author Louise (Louise Patton), the great-granddaughter of the second mate Charles Lightoller, suggested that the ship could entirely avoid a collision if the helmsman Robert Hitchins (Robert Hitchins) panicked and turned the ship in the wrong direction. According to Patton, her grandfather became a party to the conspiracy to cover their tracks errors during the American and British investigations into the sinking of the belief that the truth would destroy the reputation of "White Star Line" company and his teammates.

Meanwhile, two astronomers from the National University of Texas (Texas State University) suggested that the rare "Supermoon" may affect that iceberg began its movement. Supermoon occurs when the Moon reaches its closest point from the Earth during a full moon. A truly striking example of this phenomenon could contemplate the January 4, 1912, when the moon is closer to Earth closer than ever in the past 1400 years.

This happened just a day after the perihelion of the Earth (our planet passing through the nearest point to the sun's orbit). If this is not enough, the Moon and the Sun were also on the same line, which led to the formation of unusually strong tide. These amazing astronomical events could contribute to the disaster of the Titanic as an extreme tide could attract a huge number of icebergs in the path of an ocean liner.

Shuts Elizabeth (Elizabeth Shutes)

In the film, the smell of the ice did not help to save the Titanic from danger. In fact, a passenger, Elizabeth Shuts was so concerned about the smell of the ice, I could not sleep, claiming that he reminded her of the ice cave in which she had once visited. Fortunately, she survived and wrote a fascinating story about the sinking.

Elizabeth was Titanic as governess for 19 years Margaret Graham (Margaret Graham). When the ship first started and staggered after the collision, she was not particularly concerned about, confident that with the huge liner nothing happens. She relaxed in his cabin when suddenly a knock at the door changed everything. A friend told her that he had seen a huge iceberg sailed past his window, saying he was confident that he crashed into the ship. When she asked the maid and the officer about what was happening, she had not received a satisfactory answer.

Only when the first-class passengers were herded on deck, Elizabeth realized the seriousness of his situation. In his memoirs, Elizabeth wrote that the lifeboat was only 36 people, not even half of how much the boat could hold. At that time, she wanted to stay near the ship, because she could not recognize what drowning so great liner. However, slowly but surely, the ship disappeared into the depths of the waters in front of her eyes. When she was already beginning to lose hope of salvation, the liner "Carpathia" (SS Carpathia) appeared on the horizon to take the survivors to safety.

Titanic and the "Costa Concordia"

Since the tragic sinking of the Italian liner "Costa Concordia" people have drawn parallels with the Titanic disaster. Some survivors of Concordia in fact argued that the famous song by Celine Dion (Celine Dion) to play in the dining room when the ship struck the rocks. Not to mention the fact that the ships met their end about a difference of a century - in 1912 and 2012. There are other similarities. Both ships were properly baptized: champagne bottle used for the baptism of Costa Concordia did not break. There is a myth that the same thing happened during the baptism of the Titanic, but in reality he was not baptized. In both catastrophes cause is thought to human error and both ships had the same top speed.

However, the reputation of the two captains are very different. While the captain of the Titanic, Smith is popularly remembered as a hero, which sank with his ship, Francesco Schettino (Francesco Schettino) will always be remembered as the captain who made a big mistake by leaving the ship before they were rescued all the passengers. When Schettino and second mate were saved from the ship, about 300 passengers were still on board the "Concordia".

Optical Illusions

At the time of the sinking of the Titanic with him sent some distress. The ship is nearby, "Californian" if ignored them, despite the fact that the sky is lit up multiple rocket. The captain of the ship "Californian" in fact lost their jobs because of this scandal, as some people thought that he deliberately ignored the rockets. However, the investigation into the death of the Titanic gave a reasonable explanation - the reflection of light.

Night disaster Titanic floated across the field of thermal inversion, where the layers are below the cold air over warm air area. Thermal inversion causes light to be refracted correctly that can create mirages. According to historian Tim Maltin (Tim Maltin) several ships in the area have recorded a series of mirages in the night when the Titanic sank. Maltin convinced that conditions were conducive to abnormal refraction of light, and that this may explain why the sentinel completely lost sight of the iceberg until it was too late. It looks like a mirage could also interfere with the crew of "Californian" correctly identify the signals of the Titanic disaster. Results Maltin appeared in 2012, 20 years after the British government closed its own investigation of refraction of light and its connection to Titanic.