Титаник катастрофы

RMS Titanic

Verbitskiy Mikhail 11A1

Contents

• 1. What is Titanic
• 2. Maiden voyage
• 3. Aftermath of sinking
• 4. Survivors and victims
• 5. Sources of information.

What is Titanic

RMS Titanic was a British passenger liner that sank in the North Atlantic Ocean in the early morning of 15 April 1912 after colliding with an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, UK to New York City, US.

Titanic was 882 feet 9 inches (269.06 m) long with a maximum breadth of 92 feet 6 inches (28.19 m). Her total height, measured from the base of the keel to the top of the bridge, was 104 feet (32 m). She measured 46,328 gross register tons and with a draught of 34 feet 7 inches (10.54 m), she displaced 52,310 tons.

Maiden voyage

Titanic's maiden voyage was intended to be the first of many cross-Atlantic journeys between Southampton in England, Cherbourg in France, Queenstown in Ireland and New York in the United States, returning via Plymouth in England on the eastbound leg. Indeed, her entire schedule of voyages through to December 1912 still exists.

Titanic 's passengers numbered around 1,317 people: 324 in First Class, 284 in Second Class. and 709 in Third Class. Of these, 869 (66%) were male and 447 (34%) female. There were 107 children aboard, the largest number of which were in Third Class.

The first three days of the voyage from Queenstown passed without incident. From 11 April to local apparent noon the next day, Titanic covered 484 nautical miles (557 mi; 896 km); the following day, 519 nautical miles (597 mi; 961 km); and by noon on the final day of her voyage, 546 nautical miles (628 mi; 1,011 km). From then until the time of her sinking she travelled another 258 nautical miles (297 mi; 478 km), averaging about 21 knots (24 mph; 39 km/h).

The weather cleared as she left Ireland under cloudy skies with a headwind. Temperatures remained fairly mild on Saturday 13 April, but the following day Titanic crossed a cold weather front with strong winds and waves of up to 8 feet (2.4 m). These died down as the day progressed until, by the evening of Sunday 14 April, it became clear, calm and very cold.

At 11:40 p.m. on 14 April (ship's time), lookout Frederick Fleet spotted an iceberg immediately ahead of Titanic and alerted the bridge. First Officer William Murdoch ordered the ship to be steered around the obstacle and the engines to be put in reverse, but it was too late; the starboard side of Titanic struck the iceberg, creating a series of holes below the waterline.

Those aboard Titanic were ill-prepared for such an emergency. In accordance with accepted practices of the time, where ships were seen as largely unsinkable and lifeboats were intended to transfer passengers to nearby rescue vessels, Titanic only had enough lifeboats to carry about half of those on board; if the ship had carried her full complement of about 3,339 passengers and crew, only about a third could have been accommodated in the lifeboats

At 2:20 a.m., two hours and forty minutes after Titanic struck the iceberg, her rate of sinking suddenly increased as her forward deck dipped underwater and the sea poured in through open hatches and grates.

As her unsupported stern rose out of the water, exposing the propellers, the ship began to break in two between the third and fourth funnels due to the immense strain on the keel.

With the bow underwater, and air trapped in the stern, the stern remained afloat and buoyant for a few minutes longer, rising to a nearly vertical angle with hundreds of people still clinging to it, before sinking

All remaining passengers and crew were plunged into lethally cold water with a temperature of 28 °F (2 °C). Almost all of those in the water died of cardiac arrest or other causes within 15–30 minutes. Only 13 of them were helped into the lifeboats though these had room for almost 500 more people.

Aftermath of sinking

Carpathia took three days to reach New York after leaving the scene of the disaster. Her journey was slowed by pack ice, fog, thunderstorms and rough seas. She was, however, able to pass news to the outside world by wireless about what had happened.

Later that day, confirmation came through that Titanic had been lost and that most of her passengers and crew had died. The news attracted crowds of people to the White Star Line's offices in London, New York, Montreal, Southampton, Liverpool and Belfast. It hit hardest in Southampton, whose people suffered the greatest losses from the sinking.

Survivors and victims

The number of casualties of the sinking is unclear, due to a number of factors. These include confusion over the passenger list, which included some names of people who cancelled their trip at the last minute, and the fact that several passengers travelled under aliases for various reasons and were therefore double-counted on the casualty lists. The death toll has been put at between 1,490 and 1,635 people.

Famous people on the Titanic

• John Jacob Astor IV (the wealthiest person aboard Titanic) – Died
• Madeleine Force Astor (his wife) – Survived
• Benjamin Guggenheim (industrialist) – Died
• Isidor Straus (Macy's owner) – Died
• Ida Straus (his wife) – Died
• Margaret "Molly" Brown (Denver millionairess) – Survived
• Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon (prominent Scottish landowner) – Survived
• Lucy Duff-Gordon (his wife; couturière) – Survived
• John Borland Thayer (cricketer and businessman) – Died
• William Thomas Stead (journalist) - Died

The end

Sources of information.

• Wikipedia.org
• Google pictures