People who died on the Titanic. How many people died on the Titanic? The true story of the disaster

One of the most tragic and at the same time of the 20th century remains the crash of the largest passenger liner of its time - the Titanic. There are still numerous disputes about the details of his death: how many were on the Titanic, how many of them survived and how many died, whose fault was in the disaster. Let's try to at least partially understand these nuances.

History of construction

In order to find out how many people were on the Titanic, you first need to determine the number of passengers and crew it could potentially accommodate. For this purpose, let’s dive into the history of construction
The very idea of ​​creating a giant passenger ship arose in connection with intense competition between the White Star Line and Cunard Line companies. The latter corporation by that time had already been able to create several large intercontinental liners, the largest for their time. Naturally, the White Star Line did not want to lag behind. This is how the idea of ​​​​creating the Titanic was born, which was supposed to break records in size and capacity.

Construction began in the spring of 1909 at a shipyard in Belfast, Ireland. More than one and a half thousand workers took part in the construction of this giant. They were built using standard methods for that time, in which a vertical keel was mounted on the horizontal keel of the ship.

In the late spring of 1911, the Titanic was finally launched. But this did not mean that the construction was completed. Next, equipment was installed in the engine room and finishing work was carried out.

In February 1912 the ship was completely ready, and in April it was put into operation.

Technical characteristics of the Titanic

The Titanic, at the time of its creation, was the largest ship that had ever existed. Its length was 259.8 m, height - 18.4 m, width - more than 28 m, draft - 10.54 m, displacement - 52,310 tons, weight - 46,330 tons. At the same time, it had a power of 55,000 horsepower and developed a speed of 24 knots, which was achieved thanks to three propellers, two four-cylinder engines and a steam turbine. Such dimensions and the presence of fifteen partitions created the illusion of unsinkability.

Now let's find out how many people could be on board the Titanic at the same time. According to technical specifications, the ship could accommodate 2,556 passengers and 908 crew members. Total - 3464 people. At the same time, there were only 20 lifeboats on the Titanic, which could accommodate only 1,178 passengers. That is, even initially it was assumed that in the event of a large-scale disaster, less than half of the people who could potentially be on the liner would be able to escape. But, most likely, no one even thought that such a disaster could happen on an “unsinkable” ship.

But, of course, the potential capacity of the ship does not yet give an exact answer to the question of how many people were on the Titanic at the time of the disaster. We'll talk about this below.

Departure

The Titanic made its first and, as it turned out, last voyage in the direction of Southampton (Britain) - New York (USA) across the Atlantic Ocean. The departure was scheduled for April 10, 1912.

Smith, one of the most experienced sailors of that time, was appointed captain. He had twenty-five years of command experience behind him.

After loading passengers on the appointed day at 12:00, the Titanic set off on its final journey.

Number of passengers and crew

Now let's find out how many people were on the Titanic when it set off on its fateful voyage.

According to the official chronicle, the number of crew on the liner when it left Southampton was 891 people. Of these, 390 were ship crew, eight of whom were officers, the rest were service personnel.

The situation with counting passengers is more complicated, since their number was constantly changing. This was due to the fact that some passengers disembarked, while others, on the contrary, boarded the ship at intermediate stops in Cherbourg and Queenstown.

943 passengers departed from Southampton, of whom 195 traveled first class. But by the time it entered the open ocean, the number of passengers had increased to 1,317 people. 324 of them were lucky enough to travel in first class; 128 and 708 people were in second and third class, respectively. It should be noted that there were 125 children among the passengers.

Thus, we see that with the Titanic’s total passenger capacity of 2,556 people, on its first and last voyages it was slightly more than half loaded. It should be noted that the provided number of boats would not even be enough to save all the passengers, not to mention the crew.

Among the famous passengers of the Titanic are millionaires John Jacob Astor and Benjamin Guggenheim, journalist William Stead, and assistant to American President Archibald Bath.

Thus, we answered the question of how many people were on the Titanic.

Swimming

As already mentioned, after calling at Cherbourg and Queenstown, the liner entered the open ocean and headed along the transatlantic route to the shores of North America. The Titanic was given a speed of 21 knots, with a maximum speed of 24 knots.

The weather was excellent during the trip. The voyage itself took place without any special incidents or deviations from the course.

On April 14, 1912, having covered a total of 2,689 kilometers of the Atlantic route, the Titanic reached a point near Newfoundland where it had its fatal encounter with an iceberg.

Collision

Icebergs are quite common companions for ships in the North Atlantic. But the Titanic was moving, as it was believed, along a safe course, on which there should be no ice blocks at that time of year. Nevertheless, on April 14, closer to midnight, their meeting took place.

The commands “Left aboard” and “Full back” were immediately given. But it was already too late. Such a huge ship as the Titanic could not successfully maneuver in such a narrow space. The collision occurred at 11:40 p.m.

The blow was not particularly strong. Nevertheless, even this was enough to play a fatal role in the fate of many passengers and crew members. How many people died on the Titanic because of this fatal blow...

After the collision with the iceberg, six holes were formed in five compartments. The Titanic was not designed for such a turn of events. The command realized that the fate of the ship was sealed. The designer stated that the ship will remain on the surface for no more than an hour and a half.

Passenger evacuation

An order was immediately given to rescue the passengers, primarily women and children. The crew prepared the boats.

To prevent panic among the passengers, the true reasons for the evacuation were hidden from them, they were told that it was being carried out for precautionary purposes. possible collision with an iceberg. Convincing people of this was not particularly difficult, because, as mentioned above, the impact on the Titanic was practically unnoticeable. Many did not even want to leave the comfortable ship and transfer to boats.

But when the water began to gradually flood the ship, it was no longer possible to hide the true state of things. There was panic on board, which intensified after the Titanic began to list. It became clear that there were not enough boats for all. The stampede began. Everyone wanted to be among the rescued, although the team made every effort to let women and children through first.

Two hours after midnight, the last boat with passengers set sail from the sinking ship. There was nothing else to transport the remaining people.

The sinking of the Titanic

Meanwhile, water filled the ship more and more. The captain's bridge was the first to be flooded. The bow of the ship went under the water, and the stern, on the contrary, rose up a little. The people remaining on the Titanic rushed there.

As the sinking progressed, the angle between the stern and bow of the ship began to increase, causing the Titanic to break in two. At 2:20 the liner finally sank.

But how many people died on the Titanic? Did any of the remaining passengers and crew on the ship survive? And how many people were saved from the Titanic? We will try to answer these questions below.

Number of people saved

In order to find out how many people died on the Titanic, you need to determine two mandatory inputs. With their help it will be possible to answer this question. First of all, we need to find out how many people were on the Titanic. We defined this above. You also need to know how many people were saved from the Titanic. Below we will try to answer this question.

According to official statistics, a total of 712 people were rescued. Of these, 212 are crew members and 500 passengers. The largest percentage of people saved were among first class passengers, 62%. The survival rates in second and third grade were 42.6% and 25.6%, respectively. At the same time, only 23.6% of the team members were able to escape.

These figures are explained by the fact that the order was given to rescue passengers first, and not crew members. The greater number of survivors traveling in first class is due to the fact that the lower the class, the further it was located from the deck of the ship. Consequently, people had less access to lifeboats.

If we talk about how many people on the Titanic survived among those passengers and crew members who could not be evacuated, then we need to state the fact that it was simply impossible to save one’s life in these conditions. The sufferer sucked everything into the abyss.

Now it will not be difficult for us to determine how many people drowned on the Titanic.

How many people died?

Having determined how many people survived on the Titanic, and also keeping in mind the original number of passengers and crew members, it is not difficult to answer the question of the number of deaths during the sinking.

1,496 people died, that is, more than 67% of the people on the ship at the time of the collision with the ice block. Including 686 casualties among crew members and 810 passengers. These figures indicate poor organization of rescue of people in distress.

Thus, we found out how many people died on the Titanic.

Causes of the disaster

It is difficult to judge how great the guilt of the crew members who were unable to notice the iceberg in time was. But it should be noted that the collision occurred late at night, and in latitudes where no one expected to see a block of ice at this time of year.

Another thing is that the designers of the ship and the organizers of the voyage relied too much on the unsinkability of the Titanic. For this reason, only half of the required number of boats were located on the ship. In addition, when organizing the evacuation, the crew members did not know their exact capacity, so the first rescue boats were only half full.

How many people died on the Titanic, how many families lost relatives only because no one even seriously thought about the possibility of a disaster...

The meaning of the disaster

It is difficult to overestimate the impact that the death of the Titanic had on the minds of his contemporaries. It was perceived as a response from the forces of nature to the aspirations of a man who, in his pride, decided that he had created an unsinkable ship.

There have also been disputes among experts about true reasons tragedy and whether it could have been avoided, how many people survived on the Titanic and how many died.

The death of this miracle of human thought still haunts the consciousness of people. This disaster continues to influence culture to this day. Books are written and films are made about the fate of the Titanic and the people who were on it at the time of the disaster.

105 years ago, on the night of April 14-15, 1912, the legendary Titanic sank. This disaster is described in hundreds of articles, books, films... Why exactly does the sinking of the Titanic attract so much attention?
I agree that the sinking of the Titanic is one of the largest maritime disasters. But not the largest at all. If in terms of the number of victims - much more people died in .
If we talk about disasters that occurred outside of hostilities, then the Titanic ranks third in terms of the number of victims. The sad leader is the Dona Paz ferry, which collided with an oil tanker in 1987. More than 4 thousand people died in the collision and subsequent fire. Second place is held by the wooden paddle steamer Sultana, which sank on April 27, 1865 on the Mississippi River near Memphis due to a steam boiler explosion and fire. Total number More than 1,700 people died on the ship.
So why exactly does the Titanic attract so much attention?

« Titanic» ( RMS Titanic)- a British steamship of the White Star Line, the second of three twin ships of the Olympic class. The largest passenger airliner in the world at the time of its construction.

Laid down on March 31, 1909 at the shipyards of the Harland and Wolff shipbuilding company in Queens Island (Belfast, Northern Ireland), launched on May 31, 1911, and underwent sea trials on April 2, 1912.
To mark the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the ship, the Titanic Museum was opened at the Harland and Wolf shipyard.

The workers pictured are just a small number of the 15,000 people who built the Titanic.

Specifications:
Gross tonnage 46,328 register tons, displacement 66 thousand tons.
Length 268.98 m, width 28.2 m, distance from waterline to boat deck 18.4 m.
Height from the keel to the tops of the pipes - 52.4 m;
Engine room - 29 boilers, 159 coal fireboxes;
The ship's unsinkability was ensured by 15 watertight bulkheads in the hold, creating 16 conditionally watertight compartments; the space between the bottom and the second bottom flooring was divided by transverse and longitudinal partitions into 46 waterproof compartments.
Maximum speed 24-25 knots.

During its maiden voyage on April 14, 1912, it collided with an iceberg and sank 2 hours and 40 minutes later. There were 1,316 passengers and 908 crew members on board, for a total of 2,224 people. Of these, 711 people were saved, 1513 died.
The Titanic disaster has become legendary; several films have been made based on its plot. feature films. But why did the sinking of the Titanic become legendary?
Titanic was one of the largest ships of that time, the personification of success technical progress. To some extent, it symbolized the very idea of ​​man's victory over nature. "Man - that sounds proud!" - as the classic said.

And on the night of April 14-15, proud humanity received a deafening slap in the face from nature. A huge piece of melting ice easily and quickly sent the result of the work of thousands of people who designed and built the “floating palace” to the bottom.
Historians still argue about the reasons for the death of the Titanic. Proponents of the “conspiracy theory” put forward versions that the Titanic was deliberately sunk to obtain insurance, that it was torpedoed...
All this is, of course, nonsense. But it still couldn’t happen without the human factor. More precisely, a combination of errors, miscalculations, and negligence.
So, already at the construction stage, design miscalculations surfaced. It was believed that the Titanic could theoretically remain afloat if any two of its 16 watertight compartments, any three of the first five compartments, or all of the first four compartments were flooded. Watertight bulkheads, designated from stem to stern by the letters "A" to "P", rose from the second bottom and passed through 4 or 5 decks: the first two and last five reached the "D" deck, eight bulkheads in the center of the liner reached only the deck "E". All bulkheads were so strong that they had to withstand significant pressure if they were breached.

The first two bulkheads in the bow and the last one in the stern were solid; all the rest had sealed doors that allowed the crew and passengers to move between compartments. On the flooring of the second bottom, in bulkhead “K”, there were only doors that led to the refrigerator compartment. On decks “F” and “E”, almost all bulkheads had hermetic doors connecting the rooms used by passengers; all of them could be sealed either remotely or manually, using a device located directly on the door and from the deck to which it reached bulkhead. To bolt such doors on passenger decks, a special key was required, which was available only to the chief stewards. But on G deck there were no doors in the bulkheads.

In the bulkheads “D” - “O”, directly above the second bottom in the compartments where the machines and boilers were located, there were 12 vertically closed doors; they were controlled using an electric drive from the navigation bridge. In case of danger or accident, or when the captain or watch officer considered it necessary, electromagnets, upon a signal from the bridge, released the latches and all 12 doors were lowered under the influence of their own gravity and the space behind them was hermetically sealed. If the doors were closed by an electric signal from the bridge, then they could only be opened after removing the voltage from the electric drive.
In the ceiling of each compartment there was an emergency hatch, usually leading to the boat deck. Those who did not manage to leave the premises before the doors closed could climb up its iron ladder. This is such a seemingly wonderful design, designed to ensure the complete safety of the ship.
But in July - October 1909, while on a business trip in England, Russian engineer V.P. Kostenko, a student of the famous shipbuilder A.N. Krylov, drew the attention of the Titanic designer Thomas Andrews to the potential danger that the watertight bulkheads of the ship’s compartments did not reach the main deck: “Understand, one small hole and the Titanic will be gone.”
However, the proud Briton ignored V.P. Kostenko’s advice, which later became one of the reasons for the death of the ship.

In addition, the steel used to cover the Titanic's hull was of low quality, with a large admixture of phosphorus, which made it very brittle at low temperatures. If the casing were made of high-quality, tough steel with a low phosphorus content, it would significantly soften the impact force. The metal sheets would simply bend inward and the damage to the body would not be so serious. Perhaps then the Titanic would have been saved, or at least would have remained afloat for a long time, sufficient to evacuate most of the passengers.
Also, according to the research, it was revealed that the hull steel was susceptible to brittle rupture in cold waters, which also accelerated the sinking of the ship.

It is now also known that the rivets on the Titanic were of poor quality. Conducted research and tests, analysis of procurement documents showed that forged iron rivets were used as rivets, and not steel, as was originally planned. Moreover, these rivets were of low quality, they contained many foreign impurities, in particular coke; during forging, this coke collected in the heads, further increasing fragility. During an iceberg strike, the heads of cheap rivets simply broke, and sheets of 2.5-centimeter steel separated under the pressure of the ice.

In addition, the number of lifeboats was insufficient due to outdated Admiralty instructions. But even those boats that were there were not completely filled. And this is due to miscalculations in the training of the Titanic crew.

But they didn’t skimp on luxury. There were legends about the pomp and splendor of the Titanic's interiors. The ship had 762 cabins, which were divided into 3 classes. There was room for 2,566 passengers, with unprecedented amenities available to passengers in all classes.
The difference between the luxurious first class cabins and the cheapest accommodation in third class was great: the differences were in everything - in size, decoration and number of rooms. Some third-class cabins had no washbasins or closets, things had to be stored in bags and used as a pillow, and all the furniture consisted of an iron bed with a straw mattress.
In terms of comfort, luxury and service, the Titanic was comparable to the best hotels of that time and was rightfully considered a luxury “floating hotel”.

1st class cabin:

1st Class Restaurant on Deck:

Smoking lounge 1st class:

Library:

Gym

What strange sports equipment there were back then...

There was even a swimming pool.

Smoking lounge 2nd class.

3rd class premises

A bunch of miscalculations led to errors in maneuvering, to a collision with an iceberg, to the fact that the ship quickly sank, and many passengers were unable to use the boats... All this is quite well known and has been described many times.

By the way, an interesting detail. Almost all the women and children from the 1st and 2nd class cabins were saved. More than half of the women and children from the 3rd class cabins died because they had difficulty finding their way up through the labyrinth of narrow corridors. Almost all the men also died. 323 men (20% of all adult men) and 331 women (75% of all adult women) survived.
On the one hand, this speaks of class privileges and prejudices of the society of that time. On the other hand, the fact that there are many men among the dead, and fewer women, tells us that the advanced ideas of feminism had not yet captured the masses. And it was still customary for women to be allowed to go ahead. As historians, aristocrats and millionaires say. those traveling 1st class could have been saved, but ladies and children were allowed to go ahead. 3rd class passengers were not always so gallant, and some rushed to the boats, pushing aside those who were weaker.

Yes, the representatives of the elite of that time had not matured enough to understand that “those who don’t have a billion can go to hell.” (c) And they believed that there is something more important in life than life itself. They could have saved their skins, but their upbringing and breed did not allow them to bet own life above all. And I involuntarily remember the words of Fr. Vsevolod Chaplin that earthly human life is not at all the highest value for a Christian. These words caused a terrible butthurt among the burning hamsters. Unlike the reactionary priest, the handshake representatives of a progressive society consider their precious lives to be the highest value. Like those passengers of the Titanic who furiously rushed to the lifeboats, pushing aside women and children...

The fate of the passengers and crew of the Titanic has become the topic of numerous articles. Some of them are not really surprising. For example,
In May 2006, the last American eyewitness to survive the sinking of the Titanic died at the age of 99. Swedish by birth Lillian Gertrud Asplund (Swedish. Lillian Gertrud Asplund), who was 5 years old at the time of the disaster, lost her father and three brothers. Her mother and brother, who was three years old at the time, survived. They were third class passengers and escaped in lifeboat No. 15. Asplund was the last person to remember how the tragedy occurred, but she avoided publicity and rarely spoke about the event.
who was two and a half months old at the time of the death of the liner, died on May 31, 2009 at the age of 97 years. Her ashes were scattered to the wind on October 24, 2009 in the port of Southampton, where the Titanic began its first and last voyage...

The crash of the airliner became one of the most famous disasters in human history. In essence, the tragedy of the Titanic became a symbol of the death of what seemed powerful and unsinkable, a symbol of the weakness of human technogenic civilization in front of the forces of nature. And ahead of humanity awaited revolutions, bloody world and local wars...
Therefore, the disaster was widely reflected in art, for example in the film Titanic.

The futility of human pride, power and glory - all this was absorbed by the Titanic disaster. A century ago, the “floating palace” rests at the bottom, becoming the grave for many people.
R.I.P.

105 years ago, on April 15, 1912, the “unsinkable ship,” “the largest and most luxurious ocean liner,” crashed into an iceberg on its first voyage and took more than one and a half thousand passengers with it to the bottom of the ocean. It would seem that after many decades there are no more mysteries and secrets about this terrible disaster. And yet, let's remember how it was.

First official version

Two government investigations that followed the disaster determined that it was the iceberg, and not the ship's defects, that caused the death of the liner. Both commissions of inquiry concluded that the Titanic sank not in parts, but as a whole - there were no major faults.

The blame for this tragedy was placed entirely on the shoulders of the ship's captain, Edward Smith, who died along with his crew and passengers of the Atlantic liner. Experts reproached Smith for the fact that the ship was traveling at a speed of 22 knots (41 km) through a dangerous ice field - in dark waters, off the coast of Newfoundland.

Robert Ballard's discovery

In 1985, oceanographer Robert Ballard, after a long unsuccessful search, finally managed to find the remains of a ship at a depth of about four kilometers on the ocean floor. It was then that he discovered that the Titanic had actually split in half before sinking.

A couple of years later, the wreckage of the ship was brought to the surface for the first time, and a new hypothesis immediately appeared - low-grade steel was used to build an “unsinkable ship.” However, according to experts, it was not the steel that turned out to be of low quality, but the rivets - the most important metal pins that tie together the steel plates of the airliner's body. And the found wreckage of the Titanic does indicate that the stern of the ship did not rise high into the air, as many believed. It is believed that the Titanic split into parts while relatively level on the surface of the ocean - this is a clear sign of miscalculations in the ship's design, which were hidden after the disaster.

Design miscalculations

The Titanic was built in a short time - in response to the production of a new generation of high-speed liners by competitors.

The Titanic could stay afloat even if 4 of its 16 watertight compartments were flooded - this is amazing for a ship of such gigantic size.

However, on the night of April 14-15, 1912, just a few days into the liner’s debut voyage, its Achilles’ heel was revealed. The ship, due to its size, was not agile enough to avoid a collision with the iceberg, which the watchmen had been shouting about for the last minute. The Titanic did not collide with the fatal iceberg head-on, but drove along it on its right side - the ice punched holes in the steel plates, flooding six “watertight” compartments. And after a couple of hours the ship was completely filled with water and sank.

According to experts studying the potential weakness"Titanic" - rivets, it was established that due to the fact that time was running out, the builders began to use low-grade material. When the liner hit an iceberg, the weak steel rods in the bow of the ship cracked. It is believed that it was no coincidence that the water, having flooded six compartments held together by low-grade steel rods, stopped exactly where the high-quality steel rivets began.

In 2005, another expedition studying the crash site was able to establish from the wreckage of the bottom that during the crash the ship tilted only about 11 degrees, and not at all 45, as for a long time was considered.

Memories of Passengers

Because the ship tilted only slightly, passengers and crew were lulled into a false sense of security—many of them did not understand the gravity of the situation. When the water sufficiently flooded the bow of the hull, the ship, while remaining afloat, split in two and sank in minutes.

Charlie Jugin, the Titanic's chef, was standing near the stern when the ship sank and did not notice any signs of hull fracture. Nor did he notice the suction funnel or the colossal splash. According to his information, he calmly sailed away from the ship, without even getting his hair wet.

However, some passengers sitting in lifeboats claimed to have seen the stern of the Titanic raised high in the air. However, this could only be optical illusion. With a tilt of 11 degrees, propellers sticking out in the air, the Titanic, the height of a 20-story building, seemed even taller, and its roll into the water even greater.

How the Titanic sank: a real-time model

The menu for the last dinner on the Titanic, which sank in 1912, has been sold in New York. The price for it was 88 thousand dollars (about 1.9 million hryvnia).

Blue Star Line announced the construction of Titanic 2. According to the designers, the ship will become an exact copy the famous liner that sank in 1912. However, the liner will be equipped modern means security. Australian mining magnate Clive Palmer undertook to finance the project.

Now this 105-year-old cracker is considered the most expensive in the world.

It turns out that a cracker made by Spillers and Bakers called "Pilot" was included in the survival kit that was placed on each lifeboat. Later, one of these products went to a man who kept it as a souvenir. It was James Fenwick, a passenger on the ship Carpathia, which was picking up shipwreck survivors.

REFERENCE

On the night of April 15, 1912, the Titanic collided with an iceberg and sank. He sailed in the Atlantic Ocean on his way from Southampton (England) to New York. About 1.5 thousand people died then, mostly third class passengers. In total there were more than 2.2 thousand people there.

Statistics

Common data:

• Home port - Liverpool.
• Board number - 401.
• Call sign - MGY.
• Ship dimensions:
• Length - 259.83 meters.
• Width - 28.19 meters.
• Weight - 46328 tons.
• Displacement - 52310 tons.
• The height from the waterline to the boat deck is 19 meters.
• From the keel to the top of the pipe - 55 meters.
• Draft - 10.54 meters.

Technical data:

• Steam boilers - 29.
• Waterproof compartments - 16.
• The maximum speed is 23 knots.

Rescue equipment:

• Standard boats - 14 (65 seats).
• Collapsible boats - 4 (47 seats).

Passengers:

• I class: 180 men and 145 women (including 6 children).
• Class II: 179 men and 106 women (including 24 children).
• III class: 510 men and 196 women (including 79 children).

Team members:

• Officers - 8 people (including the captain).
• Deck crew - 66 people.
• Engine room - 325 people.
• Obs. personnel - 494 people (including 23 women).
• In total there were 2201 people on board.

Officers

• Captain - Edward J. Smith
• Chief Mate - Henry F. Wilde
• First Mate - William M. Murdock
• Second Mate - Charles G. Lightoller
• Third Mate - Herbert J. Pitman
• Fourth Mate - Joseph G. Boxhall
• Fifth Mate - Harold P. Lowe
• Sixth Mate - James P. Moody

Specifications
height from the keel to the tops of the pipes - 53.3 m;
engine room - 29 boilers, 159 coal fireboxes;
The ship's unsinkability was ensured by 15 watertight bulkheads in the hold, creating 16 conditionally “watertight” compartments; the space between the bottom and the second bottom flooring was divided by transverse and longitudinal partitions into 46 waterproof compartments.

Bulkheads
Watertight bulkheads, designated from stem to stern by the letters "A" to "P", rose from the second bottom and passed through 4 or 5 decks: the first two and last five reached the "D" deck, eight bulkheads in the center of the liner reached only the deck "E". All bulkheads were so strong that they had to withstand significant pressure if they were breached.
The Titanic was built so that it could remain afloat if any two of its 16 watertight compartments, any three of its first five compartments, or all of its first four compartments were flooded.
The first two bulkheads in the bow and the last one in the stern were solid; all the rest had sealed doors that allowed the crew and passengers to move between compartments. On the flooring of the second bottom, in bulkhead “K”, there were only doors that led to the refrigerator compartment. On decks “F” and “E”, almost all bulkheads had hermetic doors connecting the rooms used by passengers; all of them could be sealed either remotely or manually, using a device located directly on the door and from the deck to which it reached bulkhead. To bolt such doors on passenger decks, a special key was required, which was available only to the chief stewards. But on G deck there were no doors in the bulkheads.
In the bulkheads “D”—“O”, directly above the second bottom in the compartments where the machines and boilers were located, there were 12 vertically closed doors; they were controlled by an electric drive from the navigation bridge. In case of danger or accident, or when the captain or watch officer considered it necessary, electromagnets, upon a signal from the bridge, released the latches and all 12 doors were lowered under the influence of their own gravity and the space behind them was hermetically sealed. If the doors were closed by an electric signal from the bridge, then they could only be opened after removing the voltage from the electric drive.
There was an emergency hatch in the ceiling of each compartment, usually leading to the boat deck. Those who did not manage to leave the premises before the doors closed could climb up its iron ladder.

Lifeboats
In formal compliance with the current requirements of the British Merchant Shipping Code, the ship had 20 lifeboats, which were sufficient to board 1,178 people, that is, for 50% of the people on board at that moment and 30% of the planned load. This was taken into account with the expectation of increasing the walking space on the deck for the ship's passengers.

Decks
The Titanic had 8 steel decks, located above each other at a distance of 2.5-3.2 m. The topmost one was the boat deck, below it there were seven others, designated from top to bottom with the letters “A” to “G”. Only decks "C", "D", "E" and "F" extended along the entire length of the ship. The boat deck and the “A” deck did not reach either the bow or the stern, and the “G” deck was located only in the front part of the liner - from the boiler rooms to the bow and in the stern - from the engine room to the stern. There were 20 lifeboats on the open boat deck, and there were promenade decks along the sides.
Deck “A”, 150 m long, was almost entirely intended for first class passengers. Deck "B" was interrupted at the bow, forming an open space above deck "C", and then continued in the form of a 37-meter bow superstructure with equipment for handling anchors and mooring gear. At the front of deck "C" were the anchor winches for the two main side anchors, and there was also a galley and a dining room for sailors and stokers. Behind the bow superstructure there was a promenade (the so-called inter-superstructure) deck for third-class passengers, 15 m long. On deck “D” there was another, isolated, third-class promenade deck. Along the entire length of deck "E" were cabins for first and second class passengers, as well as cabins for stewards and mechanics. In the first part of deck “F” there were 64 cabins for second class passengers and the main living quarters for third class passengers, stretching 45 m and occupying the entire width of the liner.
There were two large salons, a dining room for third-class passengers, ship laundries, a swimming pool and Turkish baths. Deck "G" covered only the bow and stern, between which the boiler rooms were located. The bow part of the deck, 58 m long, was 2 m above the waterline; towards the center of the liner it gradually lowered and at the opposite end was already at the waterline level. There were 26 cabins for 106 third-class passengers, the rest of the area was occupied by the luggage compartment for first-class passengers, the ship's mailroom and the ballroom. Behind the bow of the deck there were bunkers with coal, which occupied 6 watertight compartments around the chimneys, followed by 2 compartments with steam lines for piston steam engines and a turbine compartment. Next came the aft deck, 64 m long, with warehouses, storerooms and 60 cabins for 186 third-class passengers, which was already below the waterline.

Masts
One was in the stern, the other in the forecastle, each was steel with a teak top. On the front, at an altitude of 29 m from the waterline, there was a top platform (“crow’s nest”), which could be reached via an internal metal ladder.

Office premises
In the front part of the boat deck there was a navigation bridge, 58 m away from the bow. On the bridge there was a pilothouse with a steering wheel and a compass, immediately behind it was a room where navigation charts were stored. To the right of the wheelhouse were the charthouse, the captain's cabin and part of the officers' cabins, to the left were the remaining officers' cabins. Behind them, behind the forward funnel, was the radiotelegraph cabin and the radio operator's cabin. At the front of Deck D there were living quarters for 108 stokers; a special spiral ladder connected this deck directly to the boiler rooms, so that stokers could go to work and return without passing by cabins or passenger lounges. At the front of E deck were living quarters for 72 stevedores and 44 sailors. In the first part of deck “F” there were quarters of 53 stokers of the third shift. On deck "G" there were quarters for 45 stokers and oilers.

Comparison of the size of the Titanic with the modern cruise ship Queen Mary 2, the A-380 aircraft, a bus, a car and a person

Second bottom
The second bottom was located approximately one and a half meters above the keel and occupied 9/10 of the length of the vessel, excluding only small areas in the bow and stern. On the second bottom boilers, piston steam engines, steam turbine and electric generators, all of this was firmly fixed on steel plates, the remaining space was used for cargo, coal and tanks with drinking water. In the engine room section, the second bottom rose 2.1 m above the keel, which increased the protection of the liner in case of damage to the outer skin.

Power point
The registered power of steam engines and turbines was 50 thousand liters. With. (actually 55 thousand hp). The turbine was located in the fifth waterproof compartment in the aft part of the liner, in the next compartment, closer to the bow, steam engines were located, the other 6 compartments were occupied by twenty-four double-flow and five single-flow boilers that produced steam for the main engines, turbines, generators and auxiliary mechanisms. The diameter of each boiler was 4.79 m, the length of the double-flow boiler was 6.08 m, the single-flow boiler was 3.57 m. Each double-flow boiler had 6 fireboxes, and the single-flow boiler had 3. In addition, the Titanic was equipped with four auxiliary machines with generators, each with a capacity of 400 kilowatts, producing a current of 100 volts. Next to them were two more 30-kilowatt generators.

Pipes
The liner had 4 pipes. The diameter of each was 7.3 m, height - 18.5 m. The first three removed smoke from the boiler furnaces, the fourth, located above the turbine compartment, served as an exhaust fan, and a chimney for the ship's kitchens was connected to it. A longitudinal section of the ship is presented on its model, exhibited at the German Museum in Munich, where it is clearly visible that the last pipe was not connected to the fireboxes. There is an opinion that when designing the vessel, the widespread opinion of the public was taken into account that the solidity and reliability of a vessel directly depends on the number of its pipes. It also follows from the literature that in last moments of the ship going into the water almost vertically, its false pipe broke from its place and, falling into the water, killed a large number of passengers and crew members in the water.

Electricity supply
10 thousand light bulbs, 562 electric heaters, mainly in first class cabins, 153 electric motors, including electric drives for eight cranes with a total lifting capacity of 18 tons, 4 cargo winches with a lifting capacity of 750 kg, 4 elevators, each for 12 people, were connected to the distribution network, and a huge number of telephones. In addition, electricity was consumed by fans in the boiler and engine rooms, equipment in the gymnasium, and dozens of machines and appliances in the kitchens, including refrigerators.

Connection
The telephone switch served 50 lines. The radio equipment on the liner was the most modern, the power of the main transmitter was 5 kilowatts, power came from an electric generator. The second, an emergency transmitter, was battery-powered. 4 antennas were stretched between two masts, some up to 75 m high. The guaranteed range of the radio signal was 250 miles. During the day, under favorable conditions, communication was possible at a distance of up to 400 miles, and at night - up to 2000.
The radio equipment arrived on board on April 2 from the Marconi company, which by that time monopolized the radio industry in Italy and England. Two young radio officers spent the entire day assembling and installing the station, and test communications were immediately carried out with the coast station at Malin Head, on the north coast of Ireland, and with Liverpool. On April 3, the radio equipment worked like clockwork; on this day, communication was established with the island of Tenerife at a distance of 2000 miles and with Port Said in Egypt (3000 miles). In January 1912, the Titanic was assigned the radio call sign "MUC", then they were replaced by "MGY", which previously belonged to the American ship "Yale". As the dominant radio company, Marconi introduced its own radio call signs, most of which began with the letter "M", regardless of its location and the home country of the ship on which it was installed.

Collision

The iceberg that the Titanic is believed to have collided with

Recognizing an iceberg in the light haze, the lookout Fleet warned “there is ice in front of us” and rang the bell three times, which meant an obstacle straight ahead, after which he rushed to the telephone that connected the “crow’s nest” to the bridge. Sixth Officer Moody, who was on the bridge, responded almost instantly and heard a cry of “ice right ahead.” After politely thanking him, Moody turned to the officer of the watch, Murdoch, and repeated the warning. He rushed to the telegraph, put its handle on “stop” and shouted “right rudder”, at the same time transmitting the order “full back” to the engine room. In 1912 terminology, “right rudder” meant turning the stern of the ship to the right and the bow to the left. Helmsman Robert Hitchens put his weight on the handle of the steering wheel and quickly turned it counterclockwise as far as it would go, after which Murdoch was told “steer to starboard, sir.” At that moment, the helmsman on duty, Alfred Oliver, and Boxhall, who was in the chart room, came running to the bridge when the bell rang out in the crow’s nest. Murdoch pressed the lever that closed the watertight doors in the bulkheads of the boiler room and engine room, and immediately gave the order “left rudder!”

Lifeboats
There were 2,208 people on board the Titanic, but the total capacity of the lifeboats was only 1,178. The reason was that, according to the rules in force at that time, the total capacity of lifeboats depended on the tonnage of the ship, and not on the number of passengers and crew members. The rules were drawn up in 1894, when the largest ships had a displacement of about 10,000 tons. The displacement of the Titanic was 46,328 tons.
But these boats were only partially filled. Captain Smith gave the order or instruction "women and children first." Officers interpreted this order in different ways. Second Mate Lightoller, who commanded the launch of the boats on the port side, allowed men to occupy places in the boats only if oarsmen were needed and under no other circumstances. First Officer Murdoch, who commanded the lowering of the boats on the starboard side, allowed men to go down if there were no women and children. Thus, in boat number 1, only 12 of the 40 seats were occupied. In addition, at first many passengers did not want to take seats in the boats, because the Titanic, which had no external damage, seemed safer to them. The last boats were filled better because it was already obvious to the passengers that the Titanic would sink. In the very last boat, 44 of the 47 seats were occupied. But in the sixteenth boat that departed from the side there were many empty seats; 1st class passengers were saved in it.
As a result of the analysis of the operation to rescue people from the Titanic, it is concluded that with adequate actions of the crew there would have been at least 553 fewer victims. The reason for the low survival rate of passengers on the ship is the installation given by the captain to save primarily women and children, and not all passengers; the crew's interest in this order of boarding the boats. By preventing male passengers from accessing the boats, men from the crew were able to take seats in half-empty boats themselves, covering their interests with “noble motives” of caring for women and children. If all the passengers, men and women, occupied seats in the boats, the men from the crew would not get into them and their chances of salvation would be zero, and the crew could not help but understand this. Men from the crew occupied part of the seats in almost all boats during the evacuation from the ship, on average 10 crew members per boat. 24% of the crew were saved, approximately the same number as 3rd class passengers were saved (25%). The crew had no reason to consider their duty fulfilled - most of the passengers remained on the ship without hope of salvation, even the order to save women and children first was not carried out (several dozen children, and more than a hundred women never boarded the boats).
The British commission's report into the Titanic's sinking stated that "if the lifeboats had been delayed a little longer before being launched, or if the passage doors had been opened to passengers, more of them might have gotten onto the lifeboats." The reason for the low survival rate of 3rd class passengers can most likely be attributed to the obstacles caused by the crew to allow passengers to get onto the deck and the closing of the passage doors. A comparison of the results of the evacuation from the Titanic with the results of the evacuation from the Lusitania (1915) shows that the evacuation operation on ships like the Titanic and Lusitania can be organized without a disproportion in the percentage of survivors depending on the gender or class of passengers.
People in boats, as a rule, did not save those in the water. On the contrary, they tried to sail as far as possible from the site of the wreck, fearing that their boats in the water would capsize or that they would be sucked into the crater of the sinking ship. Only 6 people were picked up alive from the water.

The route of the Titanic and the place of its wreck.

Chronology
The route of the Titanic and the place of its wreck.

April 10, 1912
- 12:00 - The Titanic departs from the quay wall of the port of Southampton and narrowly avoids a collision with the American liner New York.
-19:00 - stop in Cherbourg (France) to take passengers and mail on board.
-21:00 — The Titanic left Cherbourg and headed to Queenstown (Ireland).

April 11, 1912
-12:30 - stop in Queenstown to take passengers and mail on board; one crew member deserts the Titanic.
-14:00 - Titanic departs Queenstown with 1,316 passengers and 891 crew on board.

April 14, 1912
-09:00 - Caronia reports ice in the area of ​​42° north latitude, 49-51° west longitude.
-13:42 — Baltic reports the presence of ice in the area of ​​41°51′ north latitude, 49°52′ west longitude.
-13:45 — “America” reports ice in the area of ​​41°27′ north latitude, 50°8′ west longitude.
-19:00 - air temperature 43° Fahrenheit (6 °C).
-19:30 - air temperature 39° Fahrenheit (3.9 ° C).
-19:30 - Californian reports ice in the area of ​​42°3′ north latitude, 49°9′ west longitude.
-21:00 - air temperature 33° Fahrenheit (0.6 °C).
-21:30 - Second Mate Lightoller warns the ship's carpenter and those on watch in the engine room that it is necessary to monitor the fresh water system - the water in the pipelines may freeze; he tells the lookout to watch for the appearance of ice.
-21:40 — “Mesaba” reports ice in the area of ​​42°—41°25′ north latitude, 49°—50°30′ west longitude.
-22:00 - air temperature 32° Fahrenheit (0 °C).
-22:30 - sea water temperature dropped to 31° Fahrenheit (−0.56 °C).
-23:00 — The Californian warns of the presence of ice, but the Titanic’s radio operator interrupts the radio exchange before the Californian manages to report the coordinates of the area.
-23:40 — At a point with coordinates 41°46′ north latitude, 50°14′ west longitude (later it turned out that these coordinates were calculated incorrectly), an iceberg was spotted at a distance of about 450 meters straight ahead. Despite the maneuver, after 39 seconds the underwater part of the vessel touched down, and the hull of the vessel received numerous small holes over a length of about 100 meters. Of the ship's 16 watertight compartments, 6 were cut through (the leak in the sixth was extremely insignificant).
April 15, 1912
-00:05 - the order was given to uncover the lifeboats and call the crew members and passengers to the assembly points.
-00:15 - the first radiotelegraph signal for help was transmitted from the Titanic.
-00:45 - the first flare is fired and the first lifeboat (No. 7) is launched.
-01:15 - 3rd class passengers are allowed on deck.
-01:40 - the last flare is fired.
-02:05 - the last lifeboat is lowered.
-02:10 - the last radiotelegraph signals were transmitted.
-02:17 — the electric lighting goes out.
-02:18 — Titanic breaks into three parts
-02:20 — The Titanic sank.
-03:30 - flares fired from the Carpathia are noticed in the lifeboats.
-04:10 — “Carpathia” picked up the first boat from the “Titanic” (boat No. 2).

Titanic lifeboat, photographed by one of the passengers of the Carpathia

-08:30 — “Carpathia” picked up the last (No. 12) boat from the “Titanic”.
-08:50 — Carpathia, having taken on board 704 people who escaped from the Titanic, heads for New York.

The legendary maiden voyage of the Titanic should have been the main event of 1912, but instead it became the most tragic in history. An absurd collision with an iceberg, an unorganized evacuation of people, almost one and a half thousand dead - this was the only voyage of the liner.

History of the ship

Banal rivalry served as the impetus for the start of construction of the Titanic. The idea of ​​​​creating a liner better than that of a competing company came to the mind of the owner of the British shipping company White Star Line, Bruce Ismay. This happened after their main rival, the Cunard Line, launched its largest ship at that time, the Lusitania, in 1906.

Construction of the liner began in 1909. About three thousand specialists worked on its creation, and over seven million dollars were spent. Last works completed in 1911, and at the same time the long-awaited launch of the liner took place.

Many people, both rich and poor, sought to get the coveted ticket for this flight, but no one suspected that just a few days after departure the world community would be discussing only one thing - how many people died on the Titanic.

Despite the fact that the White Star Line managed to surpass its competitor in shipbuilding, the subsequent sinking of the Titanic dealt a severe blow to the company's reputation. In 1934 it was completely absorbed by the Cunard Line.

The first voyage of the “unsinkable”

The ceremonial departure of the luxury ship became the most anticipated event of 1912. It was very difficult to get tickets, and they were sold out long before the scheduled flight. But as it turned out later, those who exchanged or resold their tickets were very lucky, and they did not regret not being on the ship when they found out how many people died on the Titanic.

The first and last voyage of the White Star Line's largest liner was scheduled for April 10, 1912. The ship departed at 12 o'clock local time, and just 4 days later, on April 14, 1912, a tragedy occurred - an ill-fated collision with an iceberg.

Tragic prediction of the sinking of the Titanic

The fictional story of a shipwreck in the Atlantic Ocean, which later turned out to be prophetic, was written by British journalist William Thomas Stead in 1886. With his publication, the author wanted to draw public attention to the need to revise navigation rules, namely, he demanded to ensure the number of seats in ship boats corresponding to the number of passengers.

A few years later Stead returned to a similar theme in new history about a shipwreck in the Atlantic Ocean that occurred as a result of a collision with an iceberg. The death of people on the liner occurred due to the lack of the required number of lifeboats.

This work of the author turned out to be prophetic. A major shipwreck occurred exactly 20 years after it was written. The journalist himself, who was on the Titanic at that moment, failed to escape.

How many people died on the Titanic: composition of those who drowned and those who survived

More than 100 years have passed since the most discussed shipwreck of the 20th century, but each time, during the next court proceedings, new circumstances of the tragedy are revealed and updated lists of those killed and survived as a result of the sinking of the liner appear.

This table gives us comprehensive information. The ratio of how many women and children died on the Titanic speaks most of all about the disorganization of the evacuation. The percentage of surviving representatives of the fairer sex even exceeds the number of surviving children. As a result of the shipwreck, 80% of the men died, most of them simply did not have enough space in the lifeboats. High percent deaths among children. These were mostly members of the lower class who were unable to get on deck in time for evacuation.

How were people from high society saved? Class discrimination on the Titanic

As soon as it became clear that the ship would not remain on the water for long, the captain of the Titanic, Edward John Smith, gave the order to put women and children into lifeboats. At the same time, exit to the deck for passengers III class was limited. Thus, advantage in salvation was given to representatives of high society.

The large number of people killed has caused investigations and legal disputes to continue for 100 years. All experts note that there was discrimination based on gender and class on board during the evacuation. At the same time, the number of surviving crew members was greater than that of the III class. Instead of helping the passengers into the boats, they were the first to escape.

How was the evacuation of people from the Titanic carried out?

Evacuation of people not properly organized is still considered main reason mass death of people. The fact of how many people died during the sinking of the Titanic indicates a complete lack of any control over this process. The 20 lifeboats could accommodate at least 1,178 people. But at the beginning of the evacuation, they were launched into the water half filled, and not only with women and children, but also with entire families, and even with lap dogs. As a result, the boats' occupancy rate was only 60%.

The total number of ship passengers excluding crew members was 1,316, meaning the captain had the opportunity to save 90% of the passengers. III class people were able to get onto the deck only towards the end of the evacuation, and therefore even more crew members were eventually saved. Numerous investigations into the causes and facts of the shipwreck confirm that responsibility for how many people died on the Titanic lies entirely with the captain of the liner.

Memoirs of eyewitnesses of the tragedy

All those who pulled out a lucky ticket from a sinking ship to a lifeboat received an unforgettable experience from the first and last voyage of the Titanic. The facts, the number of deaths, and the causes of the disaster were obtained thanks to their testimony. The memoirs of some of the surviving passengers were published and will forever remain in history.

Millvina Dean passed away in 2009 - Last woman of the surviving passengers of the Titanic. She was only two and a half months old at the time of the shipwreck. Her father died on the sinking liner, and her mother and brother escaped with her. And although the woman did not retain the memories of that terrible night, the disaster made such a deep impression on her that she forever refused to visit the site of the shipwreck and never watched artistic and documentaries about the Titanic.

In 2006, at an English auction where about 300 exhibits from the Titanic were presented, the memoirs of Ellen Churchill Candy, who was one of the passengers on the ill-fated voyage, were sold for 47 thousand pounds.

Helped in compiling real picture of the disaster, published memoirs of another Englishwoman, Elizabeth Shoots. She was a governess for one of the first class passengers. In her memoirs, Elizabeth stated that the lifeboat on which she was evacuated had only 36 people, that is, only half of the total number of places available.

Indirect causes of the shipwreck

All sources of information about the Titanic indicate a collision with an iceberg as the main cause of its death. But as it turned out later, this event was accompanied by several indirect circumstances.

During the study of the causes of the disaster, part of the ship's hull was raised to the surface from the bottom of the ocean. A piece of steel was tested, and scientists proved that the metal from which the hull of the airliner was made was of poor quality. This was another circumstance of the crash and the reason for how many people died on the Titanic.

The perfectly smooth surface of the water did not allow the iceberg to be detected in time. Even a small wind would be enough for the waves hitting the ice to detect it before the collision occurred.

The unsatisfactory work of the radio operators, who did not inform the captain in time about the ice drifting in the ocean, the too high speed of movement, which did not allow the ship to quickly change course - all these reasons together led to the tragic events on the Titanic.

The sinking of the Titanic is a terrible shipwreck of the 20th century

A fairy tale that turned into pain and horror - this is how one can characterize the first and last voyage of the Titanic. The true history of the disaster, even after a hundred years, is the subject of controversy and investigation. The death of almost one and a half thousand people with unfilled lifeboats still remains inexplicable. Every year, more and more new reasons for the shipwreck are named, but not one of them is capable of returning lost human lives.