Titanic cost 75 million pounds, with a tonnage of 46,328 tons, a length of 882.9 feet and a width of 92.5 feet. From the keel to the top of the four large chimneys, it is 175 feet, which is equivalent to 1 1 floor. It was a first-class super-luxury ship at that time.
In May 2006, the last female survivor who witnessed the incident died at the age of 99. At present, two female survivors are still alive, but they were less than one year old at the time of the accident, so they will not have memories of the incident.
Construction process
1March 3, 9091day Titanic began construction at Hanand Wolff Shipyard in Belfast, the largest city in Northern Ireland. The hull was launched on 19 1 1 May 3/year. She is also the second Olympic-class mail ship built by White Star Line in the same shipyard. At that time, it was the largest and most prestigious manned mail ship. Titanic is 260 meters long and 28 meters wide, with a tonnage of 46,329 tons (net weight 2 183 1 ton) and an unprecedented displacement of 66,000 tons! Although it contains more space, it leads to a larger total tonnage (more than the Olympic number 1600 tons). Her hull is still as big as her sister ship, the Olympic. The ship has 899 crew members and can carry 3300 passengers. Because she also delivers mail, it is also called the Royal Mail Steamboat Titanic. Only three of the four huge chimneys actually work. The other one is a foil, and its only practical use is as a chimney in the main kitchen. There are three sets of main engines in the power system: two sets are four-cylinder reciprocating steam engines and one set is steam turbine. The main engine power reaches 50,000 horsepower and the speed is 23-24 knots.
But White Star's interest is not in the pursuit of speed. Biggs, the baker of Titanic, recalled, "... there won't be another boat like her. I once worked on the Olympic, Solemn and Queen Elizabeth. None of them can compare with the Titanic. ..... Yes, just like the Olympic, but much more luxurious. For example, in the big restaurant, the Olympic doesn't even have a carpet. Titanic's carpet is so thick that you can't reach your knees ... and the furniture is so heavy that you can't lift it. And those clapboards ... They can build a bigger and faster ship, but Titanic put all her strength into building a luxurious and comfortable space ... She is really a great ship ... ". What Biggs said is a common view. Titanic seduced everyone who built and designed her. This temptation has made her more and more popular after many years. In the words of Shipbuilder magazine, Titanic "imitated the Palace of Versailles in many details ... the lounge filled with Louis XV style furniture, with a style similar to that of the Salon of Little Trianon Palace in France, and the carved work on the fireplace was" The Goddess of Hunting in Versailles ". There are other exquisite reliefs and works of art ... fine teak and brass decorations, chandeliers and murals, carpets from India and Persia ". Even the third-class cabin has a marble washbasin and bedside heating equipment. Titanic was unparalleled luxury at that time. Although she was not the first ship to provide deck swimming pool, gym, bathroom and elevator, she tried her best to provide a level of service that she had never seen before. For first-class passengers, she provided three elevators; As an innovation, she provided a lift for the second-class passengers. Economy class passengers still need to climb stairs.
One of her most famous features is her luxurious stairs. James Cameron faithfully recreated this staircase in his film.
Although the Olympic and Titanic are sister ships, some details are different. After the observation of the maiden voyage of the Olympic, it was found that people on deck A would be drenched by water mist, and the utilization rate of the promenade running through deck B was not high. Both of these defects were improved on the Titanic, and part of the B deck was converted into a private terrace for the first-class luxury suite.
Titanic is regarded as a fixed-point work of technological achievements. Titanic talked more about safety. The two-story ship bottom is divided into 16 watertight compartments by 15 watertight partitions with automatic watertight doors, spanning the whole ship. 16 watertight compartments to prevent her from sinking. Strangely, these watertight compartments do not extend very high. The first two watertight partitions and the last five were only built on deck D. The eight walls in the middle are only set to the lower e deck. Even so, any two compartments are filled with water, and she can still drive, and even four compartments are filled with water, and can remain floating. People at that time could not imagine a worse situation, so they called the Titanic an unsinkable ship. A crew member said to Sylvia Caldwell, a second-class female passenger, during the voyage, "Even if God comes himself, he can't sink this ship."
(of a ship) make its maiden/first voyage
19 12 On February 3rd, Titanic finished the decoration work, and the maiden voyage was originally scheduled for March 20th. However, the unfortunate collision of the Olympic in September 19 1 1 2008 (with the Royal Navy's Hawk cruiser) delayed the final work of the Titanic. Her maiden voyage was scheduled for April 10. Before that, there will be a sea trial on April 1 day. Everything is perfect. Titanic arrived in Southampton Port on the 3rd, and anchored at No.41,waiting for the exciting moment of 10. As an unpleasant little episode, the work of adding coal encountered a little setback due to the strike of coal workers in Southampton Port. IMM Company didn't want to postpone the maiden voyage of Titanic any longer, so it searched all the coal blocks from all the coal cabins of the company's mail ships moored in Southampton Port.
19 12 April 10, at the ocean pier in Southampton port, thousands of people surged. The unsinkable Titanic set sail for the new world. The dock was crowded with passengers, family members who came to see me off, baggage handlers and customs inspectors. At 1 1 in the morning, white steam was emitted from the No.1 chimney. Twenty-five of the 29 boilers started to make fires in turn. At noon 12 o'clock sharp, the Titanic slowly left the dock under the pull of the tugboat. Two outer propellers began to stir the sea water in Southampton Harbour. The Titanic sailed past the steamer Solemn (not the one later compensated by Germany), Philadelphia, St Louis, Ocean and New York in turn, and honked its horns to greet them. This 46,000-ton ship seems to be very attractive to other ships. Under the suction of the current, the hull of the New York mail ship began to approach the Titanic. Fortunately, the anchor chain and cable caught it in time. Titanic's tugboat, the vulcan, jacked the hull of the New York. The world's largest mail ship started its first and only voyage.
At 7 o'clock that evening, Titanic arrived in Cherbourg, France. Another group of passengers and goods boarded the Titanic on two special ferry boats, Nomadic and Traffic, including American rich people Astor and Margaret? Mrs. Brown-later called "unsinkable noble Mrs. Brown" by the newspaper. At noon the next day, Titanic arrived in Queenstown, Ireland (Cork today). A group of Irish immigrants who are full of longing and hope for the new world boarded the ship. A passenger landed here, and the photos he took later became out-of-print photos of Titanic, which are of great value to collectors today.
In order to cross the Atlantic at the fastest speed, Titanic chose the shorter northern route. The temperature keeps dropping. But the weather is very sunny. The surviving crew said that they had never seen such a peaceful North Atlantic before. According to Ismail's orders, the Titanic sped up to 25 knots the next day. Although it is believed that Kanade Company only seeks quick strategy to reduce its image, White Star Company also wants to get the blue ribbon to show off. Along the way, nothing important happened on the Titanic. Philip, the telegraph operator on board, is busy sending expensive private telegrams for first-class passengers, mostly nonsense about peace and instructions for stock trading and delivery.
19 12 April 14 Sunday night, a calm night. There's not even a breath of wind. If there is, the lookout on the ship will find the little phosphorescence of the waves on the iceberg. Titanic sailed at a speed of 22 knots on this dark and cold ocean. Captain Smith ordered the lookout to observe carefully after receiving ice reports from many ships nearby. This year's icebergs drifted farther south than in previous years. However, surprisingly, despite the custom-made gold-plated stair handles and Indian hand-woven carpets for the first class, White Star Company did not equip the lookout with binoculars! ! 1 1 40, lookout Frederick? Fleet (who survived later) found a dark shadow "the size of two tables" in the distance, which became bigger at a fast speed. He knocked the alarm bell on the bridge three times and grabbed the phone: "There is an iceberg directly ahead!" " . Six Moody's officers who answered the phone informed Murdoch, the first mate next to them. Murdoch ordered to slow down, left full rudder, stop the ship and reverse. It turned out to be the stupidest decision. At that time, the best choice was either to speed up and leave the rudder full and take some risks; Or slow down and hit an iceberg with a solid bow. 19 12 On that cold night in April, the Titanic and the iceberg had a kiss of death.
The result of this collision was later known to all. But at that time, the passengers and crew on board reacted differently. Some passengers in first class and second class who didn't sleep well were awakened by a slight metal scraping sound. The hull gave a slight vibration. Some people think that there is a big wave, some people think that they are on the rocks, and some people think that the propeller has failed. But the passengers in the cabin below felt the vibration much more violently. Some passengers saw the milky white iceberg passing by outside the porthole. Some of the wiped ice fell into the cabin. The immigrant passengers on the ground floor were even more shocked to find that the icy sea water was overflowing the door from somewhere I didn't know. The ship stopped soon. Some passengers put on their coats and came to the deck. Stars are shining over the North Atlantic, and the temperature is as low as MINUS one degree. Under the dark sky, the window of the Titanic gave off a warm yellowish light. Four tall yellow and black chimneys were filled with white steam smoke. Suddenly, three of them suddenly gave a deafening roar and screams. Passengers who know the steam engine know that it is the boiler safety valve on board that releases excess superheated high-pressure steam. Captain Smith and Harlan who were notified? Thomas, chief shipbuilding engineer of Wolf Company? Andrews will check the damage together. The five compartments in front flooded into the sea. The sea seems to be flowing over the H deck in an orderly way. Under the dim light of the mail cabin, packages of mail floated on the sea. After checking all watertight compartments, Andrews calmly said to Captain Smith, "This ship is hopeless.". Captain Smith asked how much time was left, and the answer was one hour, two hours at the most. What happened after that is already clear to everyone. /kloc-at 0: 05 a.m. on 0/5, Captain Smith ordered the lifeboat to be released. At 0: 00 15, Titanic sent out the distress signal of "CQD MGY". CQD was the general distress signal at that time, and MGY was the radio call code of Titanic. Soon after, the SOS distress signal newly determined by the International Maritime Association was issued. Many ships in the Atlantic have received distress telegrams. The Temple Mount of Canadian Pacific Company, Carpathian of Canard Company, Myanmar of Russian cargo ship, Frankfurt and Virginia are all speeding up to the accident site. The exception is that the telegraph operator of the tramp passenger ship Californian, just outside 18 nautical miles, turned off the telegraph and went to bed at this time. The ship has been trapped by ice floes for nearly a day, and nothing serious happened on board all night, as if nothing serious would happen.
At 0: 45, the first lifeboat was lowered. The ship launched its first rocket in distress. A shiny white spark slowly falls. At 0: 55, the bow of the Titanic was submerged. The work by the lifeboat is messy. Although the virtue of women and children (women and children in first class and second class) boarding the lifeboat first has been observed, many lifeboats are put down in mid-air. However, this can't be blamed on the crew. At that time, the maritime community thought that if the lifeboat was fully loaded with people, it would cause damage or even capsize. Titanic's lifeboat was well designed, but the crew didn't know it. As a result, the lifeboat with 1 178 people could be carried, and only 65 1 person was boarded (some people were rescued from the lifeboat after jumping into the sea). At 1 40, the last folding lifeboat was lowered to the sea. The band on the ship accompanied the passengers and used music to appease the people who were doomed to die in a few minutes, playing until the last moment. Faced with the choice of life and death, some people choose to die like a gentleman. The rich man Guggenheim put on his evening dress, "Even if he dies, he will die like a gentleman." Mrs Evans from Denver gave her lifeboat seat to a child's mother, while Ismail, chairman of White Star Company, left his passengers, his crew and his boat and jumped into the lifeboat at the last minute. The goodness and evil of human nature are exposed here. With more and more seawater pouring into the front of the hull, the stern gradually left the water and tilted high. At 1 35 in the morning, seawater was immersed in the boiler room. At 2 o'clock 10, Phillips, who has been sticking to his post, sent the last distress telegram. At 2: 00 13, 29 large boilers on board left the base one after another, colliding with each other and smashing watertight walls, breaking big holes in the bow and falling into the sea. At 2 o'clock 17, seawater flooded into the central power control room, causing a short circuit and the lights of the whole ship went out. At 2 o'clock 18, with a loud cracking sound, the Titanic hull broke in two from the middle of the third and fourth chimneys. At 2: 20, the bow part sank into the sea, and the second half hit the sea surface. Within one minute, it sank into the water along with the first half of the Titanic. 1503 passengers and crew went with it.
People who fell into the water soon lost consciousness. What awaits them is rapid hypothermia, nerve paralysis and death. The people in the lifeboat were also frozen to death. Some people completely rely on strong will, half-length soaking in icy seawater, tightly clinging to the overturned No.2 lifeboat. Mrs. Brown in lifeboat 6 insisted on saving those who were still in the water, but was severely threatened by the crew on the lifeboat. Until 3: 30, the passenger ship Carpathian of Canard Company was the first to arrive at the scene of the accident. At 4 o'clock, the Carpathian crew found the first lifeboat in the twilight of the North Atlantic. The rescue work continued until 8: 30 in the morning, and the lifeboat 12 was tied with rescue cables. Of the 2208 crew and passengers on the Titanic, only 705 survived. The captain and priest of Carpathian hosted a mourning ceremony in the dining room. At 8: 50, turn around and return to new york.
1 1 month 18, Carpathian arrived in new york port. Tens of thousands of people watched as they passed the Statue of Liberty on the Vattre coast of Manhattan Island. At Pier 54, about 30,000 people stood in the rain and silently greeted the survivors of the Titanic. The news of the sinking of Titanic shocked the whole western world. At that time, people were as shocked as the 9. 1 1 incident in the United States in this century. Flags were flown at half-mast in many places on both sides of the Atlantic. King George V of England and President Taft of the United States exchanged messages of condolence. Kaiser Wilhelm II also sent a telegram of condolence.
Consequences and effects of the accident
Titanic is the product of the peak of human dream, which reflects the strong self-confidence of human beings to master the world. Her sinking shows mankind the mysterious power of nature and the unpredictability of fate. By the day the Titanic sank, people in the western world had enjoyed 100 years of stability and peace. With the steady progress of science and technology and the rapid development of industry, people are full of confidence in the future. The sinking of the Titanic awakened all this. This "unsinkable ship", the largest man-made steel structure after the Eiffel Tower, was a great achievement in the industrial age. Because it was careless about the power of nature, it sank on its first maiden voyage. Titanic will always remind people of the price of human arrogance and self-confidence. People will never forget this picture: the Titanic held her head high at the bottom of the sea, and the ruins and stains could not hide her nobility. This is where she belongs. History has thus evolved into a legend.
The disaster shocked the international community. Because it proves to some people that people and their technological achievements cannot be compared with the forces of nature.
At that time, the steelmaking technology was not very mature, and the steel produced could not be built by modern standards. The steel plate used in Titanic contains many chemical impurities, zinc sulfide, which, combined with long-term immersion in cold seawater, makes the steel plate more fragile.
On the other hand, the schematic diagram of the Titanic collision is inconsistent with the public's idea: there are also many sayings about the sinking form of the Titanic. Including the sinking of the whole ship; The hull is folded near the middle of the second and third chimneys, and then sinks vertically; The hull was folded near the middle of the third and fourth chimneys, and then the front hull dragged the stern, which sank vertically. Until 1 September, 19851day, when the famous scientist Ballard found the wreckage of the Titanic in the sea about 380 miles southeast of Newfoundland, it was the bow part of the first two chimneys and the stern part after the fourth chimney, which initially proved the third theory. This theory was later experienced in the movie Titanic directed by James Cameron. At that time, everyone thought that because the hull of the third chimney had been blown to pieces, it would never be found. However, in August 2005, the archaeological team sponsored by History Channel found this part of the hull 500 meters behind the stern wreck, which was about 12 meters by 27 meters, and the red paint on the bottom of the hull was still clearly visible. This discovery overturns the "double-cut theory" of the past 20 years. Scientists believe that the Titanic sank after breaking three sections.
When Titanic sank, it did use the internationally used Morse code distress signal SOS, but this was not the earliest example of SOS. SOS signal was first proposed at the international radiocommunication conference outside Berlin in 1906. 1908 The international community recognized this proposal and gradually began to use it widely, which was four years before the Titanic sank. However, British radio operators rarely use SOS signals, and they prefer the old CQD distress signals. John George Philip, the chief radio officer of Titanic, kept sending CQD distress signals until Harold Brad, a junior radio operator, suggested him: Send SOS, this is a new call signal, and this may be your last chance to send it! Then Philip mixed SOS signal with the traditional CQD distress signal. The distress signal was finally received by the California ship the next morning because she didn't listen to the radio 24 hours a day.
The sinking of the Titanic greatly affected the shipbuilding and radio and telegraph communication. 19 131February 12, so the first international conference on marine life safety was held in London, England. The treaty made by the conference led to the formation and capital investment of the international iceberg inspection organization. To this day, she is still detecting and reporting icebergs in the North Atlantic that may threaten ships. The treaty also unanimously reached a new regulation: all manned ships should have enough lifeboats to carry all the people on board, and appropriate related training should also be carried out. In addition, radio communication should be open 24 hours a day, plus a secondary standby power supply, so that the distress signal will not be missed. The treaty also agreed that sending any rocket from the ship must be interpreted as a distress signal.
Even today, after 1 century, several absurd statements about Titanic and its sinking still exist. One is that her rudder is too small, and a bigger rudder can avoid this disaster. A bigger rudder might have saved her, when the size of her rudder was not small in terms of the size of her hull. In fact, according to today's regulations on ships, the size of the rudder of Titanic is still qualified. Another way of saying it is that there are not enough lifeboats on the Titanic. In fact, the number of her lifeboats is in line with the British law. The number set by the law is not based on the number of passengers, but on the tonnage of the ship. At that time, the number of lifeboats in all ships was far below the required number, and the purpose of lifeboats at that time was not to hold all passengers; They are only used to transfer passengers from a sinking ship to another rescue ship. At that time, the international maritime safety rules were that the number of lifeboats on passenger ships was one-third of the total number of people on board, and the lifeboats on Titanic could carry half of the passengers. White Star Company was also aggrieved that this extra configuration of "being highly responsible for passenger safety" did not attract public attention. The sinking of the Titanic permanently changed this life-saving strategy. After the sinking of Titanic, new maritime safety regulations were formulated. The requirements for lifeboats are simple: they must be able to accommodate all the people on board. The major shipping companies have quickly carried out the transformation work according to the new requirements. In fact, even if she can hold more lifeboats to carry all the passengers, there may still be no guarantee that more people will be rescued, because the crew did not have time to put down all the lifeboats when she sank! There is also a saying that the crew of the mechanical group insisted on their posts to the end. 1a book published in 988 also mentioned this and made it immortal. In fact, the mechanical cabin was flooded at 1: 15AM. At the last moment of sinking, the mechanics and furnace workers stood on the stern deck like hundreds of others, trapped in the boat, without any hope of being rescued.
A movie about Titanic
Titanic is the name of the following four films based on the fact that the Titanic hit an iceberg and sank on its maiden voyage:
1. Titanic, an Italian silent film made in 19 15, directed by Pier Angelo Mazzolotti.
2. Titanic, filmed in 1943 by German directors Werner Klingler and Herbert Selpin.
3. Titanic, made in 1953, directed by Jean Negulesco.
4. Titanic, 1997 Hollywood blockbuster, directed by James Cameron and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet.
Introduction of James Cameron's Titanic
Paramount Film Company and 20th Century Fox Film Company adapted the Titanic incident into a film in 1997, which was shown all over the world and made a sensation all over the world.
[Movie Name] Titanic
[Starring] Leonardo DiCaprio kate winslet
[Film Region] European and American films
[film type] feature film. At that time, the first expensive movie in the history of movies, the global box office exceeded 10 billion dollars. An unsinkable love swan song on a sunken ship, a warning motto that human beings should always examine their own inferiority.
[Introduction] At 2: 20 am on April 15th, 1912, the luxurious Titanic, then known as the largest and safest in the world, hit a huge iceberg and sank on its maiden voyage from Southampton, England to new york. At that time, it was full of 2,223 passengers. Unfortunately, only more than 700 passengers escaped the biggest shipwreck in history, and more than 1,500 other passengers on board also sank with this huge ship.
After nearly five years of careful planning and preparation, the biggest nightmare at sea started shooting in July 1996. After a year of painful struggle and numerous delays in filming, it was finally completed at the end of December 1997 and will be presented to the audience on December 20. James Cameron, who strives for perfection in everything, also made Titanic the most expensive movie in the history of cinema by exceeding the budget of $250 million under the extreme film special effects. And now it still ranks first in the global box office list!
It is a myth in the history of world movies!
The theme song of this film "My heart will go on" ("My Heart Will Go On") was sung by Canadian singer Celine Dion celine dion, adding indelible color to the film, and this song has also become another classic in the music world. The film episode "Right here waiting" is also a classic.