Mystery of Titanic
Hello , friends!
This is the incident of 10th April, 1912
RMS Titanic: world's largest and most luxurious ship in its time
It set out on its first voyage
It was traveling from Southampton, England to New York
All kinds of people were aboard- renowned industrialists and actors as well as immigrants,
who were on their way to America in search of a better life
It was being commanded by the 62 year old Senior captain Edward John Smith
There was a lot of excitement regarding this ship in the passengers, public and the media
It was not only the world's largest ship- around 269 meters in length
and more than 53 meters high-
the luxury on this ship was awe inspiring!
In those times, it cost 7.5 million dollars to build the ship, which,
if you take inflation into account, is equal to 400 million dollars today!
The facilities and decorations inside the ship could even leave a 5 star hotel behind
Stained glass mirrors, ornate wood paneling, two grand staircases
heated swimming pool, a Turkish bath, an electric bath
a gym, a squash court, 4 restaurants, 2 barber shops and a library as well!
Moreover, the kind of safety features that were used to build the Titanic,
this ship was believed to be "unsinkable"
It was a ship that could never sink- it was that safe!
White Star Line was the name of the company that built this ship
The Vice President of this company was so confident regarding that,
he had come out in front of the public and said that this ship is unsinkable!
But two days later after setting out on its first voyage, on 12th April, 1912,
Titanic began to get its first ice warnings
The Atlantic ocean that Titanic was crossing in order to get to America was replete with ice
There were mountains of ice- icebergs, that were a danger to this ship
These warnings are not an unusual thing
The ships that sail the oceans often communicate through radio and signal the nearby ships
about ice being present in their vicinity and seek caution in their path
After getting these warnings, Titanic changed its course twice to avoid danger
but it did not reduce its speed
It continued its journey towards its destination at a speed of 21.5 knots, which is equal 40 km/hr,
Two days later, on 14th April, 1912, there were 7 more ice warnings
but captain Smith and his crew ignored these warnings.
They did not slow the speed of Titanic
Slowly, the day draws to a close, the sun sets and the temperature sinks
The notable thing about the night of 14th April was that the moon was not visible
Without the moon, there was no moonlight and the visibility was low on this night
There was a crow's nest on the ship- a small platform at a height
which could be called a lookout point.
Someone is made to sit atop it so that they can keep watch on the track of the ship
to lookout for traffic or obstructions
The person sitting here has to face very low temperatures
The cold winds were blowing at a very fast pace
Moreover it was nighttime. The cold winds make the eyes tear up, which makes it difficult to see
At 11:39 PM, a man named Fredrick Fleet was atop the crow's nest
Suddenly, he saw before himself, a huge iceberg
He rang the bell thrice quickly so that the people below could be alerted
then picked up the phone and called the officers on the bridge
He screams that there was an iceberg in front of them and that the ship should be steered immediately
First officer, William, heard this message and signalled the engine room
that the ship should be steered in the left direction
But unfortunately, it was too late
Just one minute later, at 11:40 PM, the ship crashed into the iceberg.
NEWS TAGLINES :
*The Titanic was a new breed of luxury life**Titanic left port of Southampton, England...**Among the passengers were many of the wealthy and influential-the band plays, the gay tunes and American red time dancers"The time was 11:40**The iceberg grazed the right side of the ship...**...and all of a sudden, she lifted up quickly.*
This iceberg was not a small one-
It was 200x400 feet in length- as big as a football field
and was so high that it was matching the crow's nest in height
Scientists estimate that the iceberg weighed as much 1.5 million tons
Titanic's front right side collided with the iceberg
Specifically, near the bow
Now, what is the bow?
You can see in this picture that the part right at the front is the bow
The part above the bow is called the stern and the protruded part below is called the keel
For around 10 seconds, the ship grazed against the iceberg and a huge dent was formed
Due to this, small holes formed in the main body of the ship
You might wonder how that is possible?
How can a piece of ice tear through metal?
If you use the ice in your fridge, then yes, it won't cut through metal
But keep in mind the weight of a mountain of ice
It is true that even wood cannot cut through metal
but even then your metal car can crash into a tree and get deformed completely
Similarly, since the iceberg was so big and heavy, it caused massive damage to Titanic
A few seconds after collision, the ship's captain, Smith and architect Thomas Andrews
arrived at the site to see how much damage had the ship incurred due to the impact
When they saw, they realized that the ship would sink
They were completely shocked upon seeing this!
They thought that this ship was unsinkable!
At the beginning of the video, I'd mentioned that this ship was considered unsinkable, owing to impressive safety features
There were two main safety features which led to this belief
First- this ship had a double bottom hull
The main body of the ship is called a hull
A double bottomed hull would mean two layers:
even if the layer below got damaged, the second layer could save the ship
Second- the hull of the ship was divided into 16 separate water tight compartments
Even if 4 out of 16 compartments were filled with water, the ship would still sail
It would make no difference to the ship
But the impact created by the iceberg was on the side of the ship
The double bottom hull proved to be of no use
The sides only had one single layer
Second- the impact was so large that 6 out 16 water tight compartments were breached
Water was filling in all of them
The limit was 4. The inundation of 6 compartments meant that the ship couldn't be saved from sinking
The unsinkable ship would sink!
20 mins after collision, at 12:00 AM, captain Smith ordered his crew to send a distress call over radio
The nearby ships would maybe detect it and come to save them
Senior radio Jack Phillips turns out to be the hero of our story
One after the another, he began sending distress signals- there was no response
He sent another, and another... there must be some ship out there that would pick up their distress call
20 mins later, at 12:20 AM, there was a ship called RMS Carpathia that was present near the Titanic
It detected the signal
He spoke to the operator of Titanic over radio and directed his ship to move towards Titanic
and go save them
The problem was that despite its closeness, this ship was 107 kms away
Even if it moved towards the Titanic at its top speed, it would take 3.5 hours to reach the Titanic
Would the Titanic ship stay put for 3.5 hours?
The rest of the crew members lit up flares and rockets in the sky
in the hope that a ship nearby would notice them
But unfortunately, apart from the ship Carpathia, there was no response from any other ship
Meanwhile, Captain Smith ordered the evacuation of passengers using the lifeboats on the ship
As per protocol, women and children would be given preference to board the lifeboats
As for the passengers on the ship, they were not that scared
Most of the passengers believed that Titanic was an unsinkable ship, there is no need for worry
After all, the company that put out ads, claimed this again and again!
So, yes, they might have hit an iceberg, but the ship wouldn't sink!
For this reason, the first life boat that went down had a capacity of 65 people, but only 28 went
Half the lifeboat remained empty as it was lowered!
With the passage of time, compartments began to be filled with water one after the other
The ship began to tilt
Gradually, the passengers realised that the ship could indeed sink
When this realization dawned, there was chaos and people began to run around in panic
By 1 in the night, so much water had filled the compartments in the front
that the bow of the ship had gone underwater
Due to this, the rear part of Titanic surfaced out of the water
The propellers at the back surfaced out of the water
When the ship tilted to this degree, pandemonium reigned
People began to fight with one another for a seat in the lifeboat
The problem was there was a scarcity of lifeboats on the ship- there were only 20 lifeboats
which could accommodate only 1,200 people approximately
But there were around 2,200 aboard the ship
At 2:05 AM, the last lifeboat was lowered from the Titanic
But 1,500 people were still onboard
In this chaos, some people tried snatching their place in the lifeboats
But some people had accepted their fate and stayed back in the ship
*The end was chaotic. Everybody was crying, praying,
trying to get into the few lifeboats that were left.
Oh... it was, um, pretty sad at the end.*
As per eyewitnesses, the ship broke into two halves at around 2:20
and then slowly began to sink
It did not take even three hours for the unsinkable ship to sink
Of 1500 people aboard the ship either drowned with the ship
or the ones that knew how to swim, were killed by hypothermia
The temperature of the water was -2 degrees Celsius
If you fall into the water at this temperature, you'd die within minutes due to hypothermia
It is said that the captain of Titanic, Edward Smith stayed at the wheel until the end and drowned with the ship
Some even believe that he committed suicide by killing himself
The ship RMS Carpathia, that had set out to save the Titanic
reached this location around 3:30-4:00 AM
to save the people on the ship -but it was one hour late
But the ship successfully saved the 705 people that had set out on lifeboats
After the disaster of the Titanic, questions were raised, many controversies took birth
investigations were conducted and some unknown facts surfaced that shocked everyone
How would it feel if I say that there was another ship 37 kms away from Titanic that night,
which could make it in time to save the passengers of the Titanic.
It is true- the ship was S S Californian
One hour before the Titanic hit the iceberg, the last iceberg warning was issued by S S Californian
They had warned- Watch out! There are a lot of icebergs in the ocean here
After that at 11:15, the radio operator on the Californian ship had switched off the radio
The Californian ship had stopped for the night and was not moving ahead, keeping the danger in mind
Since the ship had stopped for the night and the radio was off, it did not receive the distress signal
The ship was so close to the Titanic that the passengers on the deck of the Titanic
could see the ship on the horizon
When the officers were boarding the passengers in the Titanic,
one officer even remarked that he could see a ship in the distance
and that it would come save them soon and so there was no need to worry.
But this Californian ship did not come even when rockets and flares were lit up
It is reported that after 12 AM, the crew members on the Californian ship
had actually seen the rockets fired from Titanic
They had even informed their captain Stanley Lord but the captain insisted that it was no distress signal.
rather the rich men on Titanic who were partying
Had Captain Lord of the Californian ship taken the rockets and flares seriously that night
so many people aboard the Titanic could have been saved!
Next morning when they switched their radio on, they receive the SOS calls from Titanic
They reach the site but it was too late by then
They only saw dead bodies floating in the water
Both the inquires that were conducted in this matter put the blame on Captain Lord of the Californian
But one single man cannot be blamed for such a huge disaster
Other people were responsible as well
Like the lifeboat example I mentioned, there were not a sufficient number of lifeboats
because the company that made the ship thought it was unsinkable and the lifeboats were unnecessary
Apart from that, the captain of Titanic had not even conducted safety drills
A safety dill was to be conducted on the day Titanic collided with the iceberg
But the captain canceled that because he thought they were unnecessary since the ship was unsinkable
The next mistake was that of steersman Robert Hichens, who was at the steering wheel
That night, when an iceberg alarm was sounded, the officer on the deck instructed that
the ship should be turned left
But in panic, Robert Hichens misunderstood the message
and steered the ship towards the right
This was the opposite direction- towards the iceberg
By the time he realized his mistake, it was too late.
British inquiry also found that Titanic was issued so many iceberg warnings and to proceed with caution
but despite that, the ship was sailing at full speed.
Why was that?
Why did the captain not slow down? There are many theories behind that
A popular theory suggests that Joseph Bruce, the chairman and managing director of White Star Line
the company that manufactured the Titanic, influenced captain Smith
and pressured him that the speed of the ship be maintained
There was tremendous pressure from the company that the ship had to complete its first voyage in 6 days
so that a record could be broken-
so that they could show that the Titanic was not only the biggest, the most expensive ship
but the fastest ship as well!
A specific incident happened on 14th April, at 2 PM
when Captain Smith saw the ice warning and showed it to Joseph
that they should reduce the speed because there is an ice warning
But Joseph stuffed the paper in his pocket so that the people and the crew members did not find out
He did not want the speed of the ship to slow down
This one disaster changed this industry worldwide for ever
Many new regulations and standards were set up to avoid such disasters in the future
In 1914, an International Ice Patrol was set up
so that the oncoming ships could be alerted about the icebergs in their path
A treaty International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS ) was signed
which set new standards regarding ships
For example, a lifeboat regulation was framed
mandating that the ships should have a sufficient number of lifeboats for every passenger
When the Titanic sank, it took more than 70 years to find its wreckage under sea
In Sept 1985, an American ocean explorer, Robert Ballad
and a French oceanographer managed to find the Titanic under the sea
Its wreckage was found 3,800 metres (3.8 kms) under the sea
Two separate pieces of the ship were found- 600 meters apart
Today, so many years later after the ship sank, environment has started to erode the ship lying underwater
The actual ship looked like this and today, this is all that's left of it
It has been reported that bacteria and other organisms are eating away its metal framework
It is expected that by 2030, this ship would completely disintegrate underwater
Today, even after 110 years, the fascination regarding Titanic still remains in the minds of people
In 2012, an Australian billionaire Clive Palmer planned that he would make Titanic 2
A copy cat and a copycat model of the original Titanic
He even declared that it would sail on the same route
All the elements of the ship was to be constructed in the same way as the original
Originally, the project was set to be completed in 2016, but it has not been completed even in 2022 due to delays
It is said that people do not have interest in this project because if an exact replica of the Titanic was made,
because it would not have either TV or Wifi and nobody would want to go on it
It might be that the unsinkable Titanic 2 might have already sunk even before it sailed
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Thank you!