Happy Navaratri 2019
Happy Women's Day 2019
Do watch my Video created by myself Amruta Kulkarni on "World's Environmental Day" that is on 5th June. (2018)
Happy Mother's Day 2018
Happy Women's Day 2018
Happy Diwali 2017
Happy Father's Day
Happy Mother's Day 14 May 2017
Gudhi padva aani nava varshachya hardik shubhechha.
Wishing you a very Happy and Safe Holi
8th March 2016
RMS Titanic
The disaster was greeted with worldwide shock and outrage at the huge
loss of life and the regulatory an
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. The sinking resulted in the deaths of more
than 1,500 passengers and crew, making it one of the deadliest
commercial peacetime maritime disasters in modern history. The RMS Titanic, the largest ship afloat at the time it entered service, was the second of three Olympic class ocean liners operated by the White Star Line, and was built by the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast with Thomas Andrews
as her naval architect. Andrews was among those who died in the
sinking. On her maiden voyage, she carried 2,224 passengers and crew.
Under the command of Edward Smith, the ship's passengers included some of the wealthiest people in the world, as well as hundreds of emigrants from Great Britain and Ireland, Scandinavia
and elsewhere throughout Europe seeking a new life in North America. A
high-power radiotelegraph transmitter was available for sending
passenger "marconigrams" and for the ship's operational use. Although Titanic had advanced safety features such as watertight compartments and remotely activated watertight doors, there were not enough lifeboats to accommodate all of those aboard due to outdated maritime safety regulations. Titanic
only carried enough lifeboats for 1,178 people—slightly more than half
of the number on board, and one-third her total capacity.
After leaving Southampton on 10 April 1912, Titanic called at Cherbourg in France and Queenstown (now Cobh) in Ireland before heading west to New York. On 14 April 1912, four days into the crossing and about 375 miles (600 km) south of Newfoundland,
she hit an iceberg at 11:40 p.m. ship's time. The collision caused the
ship's hull plates to buckle inwards along her starboard side and opened
five of her sixteen watertight compartments to the sea; the ship
gradually filled with water. Meanwhile, passengers and some crew members
were evacuated in lifeboats, many of which were launched only partly
loaded. A disproportionate number of men were left aboard because of a "women and children first" protocol followed by some of the officers loading the lifeboats. By 2:20 a.m., she broke apart and foundered, with well over one thousand people still aboard. Just under two hours after Titanic foundered, the Cunard liner RMS Carpathia arrived on the scene of the sinking, where she brought aboard an estimated 705 survivo
d operational failures that had led
to it. Public inquiries in Britain and the United States led to major improvements in maritime safety. One of their most important legacies was the establishment in 1914 of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea
(SOLAS), which still governs maritime safety today. Additionally,
several new wireless regulations were passed around the world in an
effort to learn from the many missteps in wireless communications—which
could have saved many more passengers.
The wreck of Titanic
remains on the seabed, split in two and gradually disintegrating at a
depth of 12,415 feet (3,784 m). Since her discovery in 1985, thousands
of artefacts have been recovered and put on display at museums around
the world. Titanic has become one of the most famous ships in history, her memory kept alive by numerous books, folk songs, films, exhibits, and memorials.
 |
| RMS Titanic departing Southampton on 10 April 1912 |
Background
The name Titanic was derived from Greek mythology and meant gigantic. Built in Belfast, Ireland, in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (as it was then known), the RMS Titanic was the second of the three Olympic-class ocean liners—the first was the RMS Olympic and the third was the HMHS Britannic. They were by far the largest vessels of the British shipping company White Star Line's fleet, which comprised 29 steamers and tenders in 1912.The three ships had their genesis in a discussion in mid-1907 between the White Star Line's chairman, J. Bruce Ismay, and the American financier J. P. Morgan, who controlled the White Star Line's parent corporation, the International Mercantile Marine Co. (IMM).The White Star Line faced an increasing challenge from its main rivals Cunard, which had recently launched the Lusitania and the Mauretania—the fastest passenger ships then in service—and the German lines Hamburg America and Norddeutscher Lloyd. Ismay preferred to compete on size rather than speed and proposed to commission a new class of liners that would be larger than anything that had gone before as well as being the last word in comfort and luxury. The company sought an upgrade in their fleet primarily in response to the Cunard giants but also to replace their oldest pair of passenger ships still in service, being the SS Teutonic of 1889 and SS Majestic of 1890. Teutonic was replaced by Olympic while Majestic was replaced by Titanic. Majestic would be brought back into her old spot on White Star's New York service after Titanic's loss.
The ships were constructed by the Belfast shipbuilders Harland and Wolff, who had a long-established relationship with the White Star Line dating back to 1867. Harland and Wolff were given a great deal of latitude in designing ships for the White Star Line; the usual approach was for the latter to sketch out a general concept which the former would take away and turn into a ship design. Cost considerations were relatively low on the agenda and Harland and Wolff was authorised to spend what it needed on the ships, plus a five percent profit margin. In the case of the Olympic-class ships, a cost of £3 million for the first two ships was agreed plus "extras to contract" and the usual five percent fee.
Harland and Wolff put their leading designers to work designing the Olympic-class vessels. The design was overseen by Lord Pirrie, a director of both Harland and Wolff and the White Star Line; naval architect Thomas Andrews, the managing director of Harland and Wolff's design department; Edward Wilding, Andrews' deputy and responsible for calculating the ship's design, stability and trim; and Alexander Carlisle, the shipyard's chief draughtsman and general manager. Carlisle's responsibilities included the decorations, equipment and all general arrangements, including the implementation of an efficient lifeboat davit design.[a]
On 29 July 1908, Harland and Wolff presented the drawings to J. Bruce Ismay and other White Star Line executives. Ismay approved the design and signed three "letters of agreement" two days later authorising the start of construction. At this point the first ship—which was later to become Olympic—had no name, but was referred to simply as "Number 400", as it was Harland and Wolff's four hundredth hull. Titanic was based on a revised version of the same design and was given the number 401.
Dimensions and layout
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.[17]
All three of the Olympic-class ships had ten decks (excluding
the top of the officers' quarters), eight of which were for passenger
use. From top to bottom, the decks were:
- The Boat Deck, on which the lifeboats were housed. It was from here during the early hours of 15 April 1912 that Titanic's lifeboats were lowered into the North Atlantic. The bridge and wheelhouse were at the forward end, in front of the captain's and officers' quarters. The bridge stood 8 feet (2.4 m) above the deck, extending out to either side so that the ship could be controlled while docking. The wheelhouse stood directly behind and above the bridge. The entrance to the First Class Grand Staircase and gymnasium were located midships along with the raised roof of the First Class lounge, while at the rear of the deck were the roof of the First Class smoke room and the relatively modest Second Class entrance. The wood-covered deck was divided into four segregated promenades: for officers, First Class passengers, engineers, and Second Class passengers respectively. Lifeboats lined the side of the deck except in the First Class area, where there was a gap so that the view would not be spoiled.
- A Deck, also called the Promenade Deck, extended along the entire 546 feet (166 m) length of the superstructure. It was reserved exclusively for First Class passengers and contained First Class cabins, the First Class lounge, smoke room, reading and writing rooms and Palm Court.
- B Deck, the Bridge Deck, was the top weight-bearing deck and the uppermost level of the hull. More First Class passenger accommodation was located here with six palatial staterooms (cabins) featuring their own private promenades. On Titanic, the A La Carte Restaurant and the Café Parisien provided luxury dining facilities to First Class passengers. Both were run by subcontracted chefs and their staff; all were lost in the disaster. The Second Class smoking room and entrance hall were both located on this deck. The raised forecastle of the ship was forward of the Bridge Deck, accommodating Number 1 hatch (the main hatch through to the cargo holds), numerous pieces of machinery and the anchor housings.[b] Aft of the Bridge Deck was the raised Poop Deck, 106 feet (32 m) long, used as a promenade by Third Class passengers. It was where many of Titanic's passengers and crew made their last stand as the ship sank. The forecastle and Poop Deck were separated from the Bridge Deck by well decks.
- C Deck, the Shelter Deck, was the highest deck to run uninterrupted from stem to stern. It included both well decks; the aft one served as part of the Third Class promenade. Crew cabins were housed below the forecastle and Third Class public rooms were housed below the Poop Deck. In between were the majority of First Class cabins and the Second Class library.
- D Deck, the Saloon Deck, was dominated by three large public rooms—the First Class Reception Room, the First Class Dining Saloon and the Second Class Dining Saloon. An open space was provided for Third Class passengers. First, Second and Third Class passengers had cabins on this deck, with berths for firemen located in the bow. It was the highest level reached by the ship's watertight bulkheads (though only by eight of the fifteen bulkheads).
- E Deck, the Upper Deck, was predominantly used for passenger accommodation for all three classes plus berths for cooks, seamen, stewards and trimmers. Along its length ran a long passageway nicknamed Scotland Road, in reference to a famous street in Liverpool. Scotland Road was used by Third Class passengers and crew members.
- F Deck, the Middle Deck, was the last complete deck and mainly accommodated Second and Third Class passengers and several departments of the crew. The Third Class dining saloon was located here, as were the swimming pool and Turkish bath.
- G Deck, the Lower Deck, was the lowest complete deck that carried passengers, and had the lowest portholes, just above the waterline. The squash court was located here along with the travelling post office where mail clerks sorted letters and parcels so that they would be ready for delivery when the ship docked. Food was also stored here. The deck was interrupted at several points by orlop (partial) decks over the boiler, engine and turbine rooms.
- The Orlop Decks and the Tank Top were on the lowest level of the ship, below the waterline. The orlop decks were used as cargo spaces, while the Tank Top—the inner bottom of the ship's hull—provided the platform on which the ship's boilers, engines, turbines and electrical generators were housed. This area of the ship was occupied by the engine and boiler rooms, areas which passengers would not be permitted to see. They were connected with higher levels of the ship by flights of stairs; twin spiral stairways near the bow provided access up to D Deck.
Passenger facilities
The passenger facilities aboard Titanic aimed to meet the highest standards of luxury. According to Titanic's
general arrangement plans, the ship could accommodate 833 First Class
Passengers, 614 in Second Class and 1,006 in Third Class, for a total
passenger capacity of 2,453. In addition, her capacity for crew members
exceeded 900, as most documents of her original configuration have
stated that her full carrying capacity for both passengers and crew was
approximately 3,547. Her interior design was a departure from that of
other passenger liners, which had typically been decorated in the rather
heavy style of a manor house or an English country house.
Titanic was laid out in a much lighter style similar to that of contemporary high-class hotels—the Ritz Hotel was a reference point—with First Class cabins finished in the Empire style.[47] A variety of other decorative styles, ranging from the Renaissance to Victorian,
were used to decorate cabins and public rooms in First and Second Class
areas of the ship. The aim was to convey an impression that the
passengers were in a floating hotel rather than a ship; as one passenger
recalled, on entering the ship's interior a passenger would "at once
lose the feeling that we are on board ship, and seem instead to be
entering the hall of some great house on shore".
Passengers could use an on-board telephone system, a lending library and a large barber shop. The First Class section had a swimming pool, a gymnasium, a squash court, a Turkish bath, an electric bath and a Verandah Cafe.
First Class common rooms were adorned with ornate wood panelling,
expensive furniture and other decorations, while the Third Class general
room had pine panelling and sturdy teak furniture.The Café Parisien was located on a sunlit veranda fitted with trellis decorations and offered the best French haute cuisine for First Class passengers.
Third Class (also commonly referred to as Steerage) accommodations aboard Titanic
were not as luxurious as First Class, but even so were better than on
many other ships of the time. They reflected the improved standards
which the White Star Line had adopted for trans-Atlantic immigrant and
lower-class travel. On most other North Atlantic passenger ships at the
time, Third Class accommodations consisted of little more than open
dormitories in the forward end of the vessels, in which hundreds of
people were confined, often without adequate food or toilet facilities.
The White Star Line had long since broken that mould. As seen aboard Titanic,
all White Star Line passenger ships divided their Third Class
accommodations into two sections, always at opposite ends of the vessel
from one another. The established arrangement was that single men were
quartered in the forward areas, while single women, married couples and
families were quartered aft. In addition, while other ships provided
only open berth sleeping arrangements, White Star Line vessels provided
their Third Class passengers with private, small but comfortable cabins
capable of accommodating two, four, six, eight and ten passengers.
Third Class accommodations also included their own dining rooms, as
well as public gathering areas including adequate open deck space, which
aboard Titanic included the Forecastle Deck forward, the Poop
Deck aft, both well decks and a large open space on D Deck which could
be used as a social hall. This was supplemented by the addition of a
smoking room for men and a reading room for women, and although they
were not as glamorous in design as spaces seen in upper class
accommodations, they were still far above average for the period.
Leisure facilities were provided for all three classes to pass the
time. As well as making use of the indoor amenities such as the library,
smoking rooms, and gymnasium, it was also customary for passengers to
socialise on the open deck, promenading or relaxing in hired deck chairs
or wooden benches. A passenger list was published before the sailing to
inform the public which members of the great and good were on board,
and it was not uncommon for ambitious mothers to use the list to
identify rich bachelors to whom they could introduce their marriageable
daughters during the voyage.
One of Titanic's most distinctive features was her First Class staircase, known as the Grand Staircase
or Grand Stairway. This descended through seven decks of the ship, from
the Boat Deck to E deck in the elegant style depicted in photographs
and movies, and then as a more functional and less elegant staircase
from there down to F deck.It was capped with a dome of wrought iron and glass that admitted
natural light. Each landing off the staircase gave access to ornate
entrance halls lit by gold-plated light fixtures.
At the uppermost landing was a large carved wooden panel containing a
clock, with figures of "Honour and Glory Crowning Time" flanking the
clock face. The Grand Staircase was destroyed in Titanic's sinking and is now just a void in the ship which modern explorers have used to access the lower decks. During the filming of James Cameron's Titanic
in 1997, his replica of the Grand Staircase was ripped from its
foundations by the force of the inrushing water on the set. It has been
suggested that during the real event, the entire Grand Staircase was
ejected upwards through the dome.
The gymnasium on the Boat Deck, which was equipped with the latest exercise machines
The famous Grand Staircase, which connected Boat Deck and E Deck
The A La Carte restaurant on B Deck, run as a concession by Italian-born chef Gaspare Gatti
Lifeboats
Titanic carried a total of 20 lifeboats: 14 standard wooden Harland and Wolff lifeboats with a capacity of 65 people each and four Englehardt "collapsible" (wooden bottom, collapsible canvas sides) lifeboats (identified as A to D) with a capacity of 47 people each. In addition, she had two emergency cutters with a capacity of 40 people each. Olympic herself did not even carry the four collapsibles A–D during the 1911–12 season. All of the lifeboats were stowed securely on the boat deck and, except for collapsible lifeboats A and B, connected to davits by ropes. Those on the starboard side were odd-numbered 1–15 from bow to stern, while those on the port side were even-numbered 2–16 from bow to stern.The two cutters were kept swung out, hanging from the davits, ready for immediate use, while collapsible lifeboats C and D were stowed on the boat deck (connected to davits) immediately inboard of boats 1 and 2 respectively. A and B were stored on the roof of the officers' quarters, on either side of number 1 funnel. There were no davits to lower them and their weight would make them difficult to launch by hand. Each boat carried (among other things) food, water, blankets, and a spare life belt. Lifeline ropes on the boats' sides enabled them to save additional people from the water if necessary.
Titanic had 16 sets of davits, each able to handle 4 lifeboats. This gave Titanic the ability to carry up to 64 wooden lifeboats which would have been enough for 4,000 people—considerably more than her actual capacity. However, the White Star Line decided that only 16 wooden lifeboats and four collapsibles would be carried, which could accommodate 1,178 people, only one-third of Titanic's total capacity. At the time, the Board of Trade's regulations required British vessels over 10,000 tons to only carry 16 lifeboats with a capacity of 990 occupants.
Therefore, the White Star Line actually provided more lifeboat accommodation than was legally required.[64]
At the time, lifeboats were intended to ferry survivors from a sinking
ship to a rescuing ship—not keep afloat the whole population or power
them to shore. Had the SS Californian responded to Titanic's distress calls, the lifeboats may have been adequate to ferry the passengers to safety as planned.
 |
Construction in gantry, 1909–11
|
 |
Launch, 1911 (unfinished superstructure)
|
 |
Sea trials
RMS Titanic leaving Belfast for her sea trials on 2 April 1912
Titanic's sea trials
began at 6 a.m. on Tuesday, 2 April 1912, just two days after her
fitting out was finished and eight days before she was due to leave
Southampton on her maiden voyage. The trials were delayed for a day due to bad weather, but by Monday morning it was clear and fair.
Aboard were 78 stokers, greasers and firemen, and 41 members of crew.
No domestic staff appear to have been aboard. Representatives of various
companies travelled on Titanic's
sea trials, Thomas Andrews and Edward Wilding of Harland and Wolff and
Harold A. Sanderson of IMM. Bruce Ismay and Lord Pirrie were too ill to
attend. Jack Phillips and Harold Bride
served as radio operators, and performed fine-tuning of the Marconi
equipment. Francis Carruthers, a surveyor from the Board of Trade, was
also present to see that everything worked, and that the ship was fit to
carry passengers.
The sea trials consisted of a number of tests of her handling characteristics, carried out first in Belfast Lough and then in the open waters of the Irish Sea. Over the course of about twelve hours, Titanic
was driven at different speeds, her turning ability was tested and a
"crash stop" was performed in which the engines were reversed full ahead
to full astern, bringing her to a stop in 850 yd (777 m) or 3 minutes
and 15 seconds.The ship covered a distance of about 80 nautical miles (92 mi; 150 km),
averaging 18 knots (21 mph; 33 km/h) and reaching a maximum speed of
just under 21 knots (24 mph; 39 km/h).
On returning to Belfast at about 7 p.m., the surveyor signed an
"Agreement and Account of Voyages and Crew", valid for twelve months,
which declared the ship seaworthy. An hour later, Titanic left
Belfast again—as it turned out, for the last time—to head to
Southampton, a voyage of about 570 nautical miles (660 mi; 1,060 km).
After a journey lasting about 28 hours she arrived about midnight on 4
April and was towed to the port's Berth 44, ready for the arrival of her
passengers and the remainder of her crew.
Maiden voyage
Both Olympic and Titanic registered Liverpool as their home port. The offices of the White Star Line as well as Cunard were in Liverpool, and up until the introduction of the Olympic, most British ocean liners for both Cunard and White Star, such as Lusitania and Mauretania, sailed out of Liverpool followed by a port of call in Ireland. However, the Olympic class liners were to sail out of the port of Southampton on England's southern coast. Southampton had many advantages over Liverpool, the first being its closer proximity to London.In addition, Southampton, being on England's southern coast, allowed ships to easily cross the English Channel and make a port of call in northern France, usually at Cherbourg. This allowed British ships to pick up clientele from continental Europe before recrossing the channel and picking up passengers in southern Ireland. The Southampton-Cherbourg-New York run would become so popular that most British ocean liners began using the port after World War I. Out of respect for Liverpool, ships continued to be registered there until the early 1960s. Queen Elizabeth 2 was one of the first ships registered in Southampton when introduced into service by Cunard in 1969.
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.The White Star Line intended to operate three ships on that route: Titanic, Olympic and the smaller RMS Oceanic.
Each would sail once every three weeks from Southampton and New York
usually leaving at noon each Wednesday from Southampton and each
Saturday from New York, thus enabling the White Star Line to offer
weekly sailings in each direction. Special trains were scheduled from
London and Paris to convey passengers to Southampton and Cherbourg
respectively. The deep-water dock at Southampton, then known as the "White Star Dock", had been specially constructed to accommodate the new Olympic-class liners, and had opened in 1911.
 |
Edward Smith, captain of Titanic, in 1911
|
 |
Titanic at Southampton docks, prior to departure
|
 |
Display ad for Titanic's first but never made sailing from New York on 20 April 1912
|
Crew
Passengers
Main article: Passengers of the RMS Titanic
John Jacob Astor IV in 1909. He was the wealthiest person aboard Titanic.
Usually, a high prestige vessel like Titanic could expect to be fully booked on its maiden voyage. However, a national coal strike
in the UK had caused considerable disruption to shipping schedules in
the spring of 1912, causing many crossings to be cancelled. Many
would-be passengers chose to postpone their travel plans until the
strike was over. The strike had finished a few days before Titanic sailed; however, that was too late to have much of an effect. Titanic
was able to sail on the scheduled date only because coal was
transferred from other vessels which were tied up at Southampton, such
as SS City of New York and RMS Oceanic, as well as coal Olympic had brought back from a previous voyage to New York, which had been stored at the White Star Dock.
Some of the most prominent people of the day booked a passage aboard Titanic, travelling in First Class. Among them were the American millionaire John Jacob Astor IV and his wife Madeleine Force Astor, industrialist Benjamin Guggenheim, Macy's owner Isidor Straus and his wife Ida, Denver millionairess Margaret "Molly" Brown,[i] Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon and his wife, couturière Lucy (Lady Duff-Gordon), cricketer and businessman John Borland Thayer with his wife Marian and son Jack, the Countess of Rothes, author and socialite Helen Churchill Candee, journalist and social reformer William Thomas Stead, author Jacques Futrelle with his wife May, and silent film actress Dorothy Gibson, among others. Titanic's owner J. P. Morgan was scheduled to travel on the maiden voyage but cancelled at the last minute. Also aboard the ship were the White Star Line's managing director J. Bruce Ismay and Titanic's designer Thomas Andrews, who was on board to observe any problems and assess the general performance of the new ship.The exact number of people aboard is not known, as not all of those who had booked tickets made it to the ship; about 50 people cancelled for various reasons, and not all of those who boarded stayed aboard for the entire journey. Fares varied depending on class and season. Third Class fares from London, Southampton, or Queenstown cost £7 5s (equivalent to £641 today) while the cheapest First Class fares cost £23 (£2,034 today). The most expensive First Class suites were to have cost up to £870 in high season (£76,929 today).
Collecting passengers
On Wednesday 10 April 1912 Titanic's maiden voyage began. Following the embarkation of the crew the passengers began arriving from 9:30 a.m., when the London and South Western Railway's boat train from London Waterloo station reached Southampton Terminus railway station on the quayside, alongside Titanic's berth.[111]
The large number of Third Class passengers meant they were the first to
board, with First and Second Class passengers following up to an hour
before departure. Stewards showed them to their cabins, and First Class
passengers were personally greeted by Captain Smith on boarding.
Third Class passengers were inspected for ailments and physical
impairments that might lead to their being refused entry to the United
States - a prospect the White Star Line wished to avoid, as it would
have to carry anyone who failed the examination back across the
Atlantic. 922 passengers were recorded as having embarked Titanic at Southampton. Additional passengers were picked up at Cherbourg and Queenstown.
The maiden voyage began on time, at noon. An accident was narrowly averted only a few minutes later as Titanic passed the moored liners SS City of New York and Oceanic. Her huge displacement caused both of the smaller ships to be lifted by a bulge of water and then drop into a trough. New York's mooring cables could not take the sudden strain and snapped, swinging her around stern-first towards Titanic. A nearby tugboat, Vulcan, came to the rescue by taking New York under tow, and Captain Smith ordered Titanic's engines to be put "full astern". The two ships avoided a collision by a matter of about 4 feet (1.2 m). The incident delayed Titanic's departure for about an hour, while the drifting New York was brought under control.
After making it safely through the complex tides and channels of Southampton Water and the Solent, Titanic headed out into the English Channel. She headed for the French port of Cherbourg, a journey of 77 nautical miles (89 mi; 143 km).[115] The weather was windy, very fine but cold and overcast.[116] Because Cherbourg lacked docking facilities for a ship the size of Titanic, tenders had to be used to transfer passengers from shore to ship. The White Star Line operated two at Cherbourg, the SS Traffic and the SS Nomadic. Both had been designed specifically as tenders for the Olympic-class liners and were launched shortly after Titanic. (Nomadic is today the only White Star Line ship still afloat.) Four hours after Titanic left Southampton, she arrived at Cherbourg and was met by the tenders. 274 more passengers boarded Titanic, and 24 left aboard the tenders to be conveyed to shore. The process was completed within only 90 minutes and at 8 p.m. Titanic weighed anchor and left for Queenstown[118] with the weather continuing cold and windy.
At 11:30 a.m. on Thursday 11 April, Titanic arrived at Cork Harbour on the south coast of Ireland. It was a partly cloudy but relatively warm day, with a brisk wind. Again, the dock facilities were not suitable for a ship of Titanic's
size, and tenders were used to bring passengers aboard. One hundred
thirteen Third Class and seven Second Class passengers came aboard,
while seven passengers left. Among the departures was Father Francis Browne, a Jesuit trainee, who was a keen photographer and took many photographs aboard Titanic,
including the last-ever known photograph of the ship. A decidedly
unofficial departure was that of a crew member, stoker John Coffey, a
Queenstown native who sneaked off the ship by hiding under mail bags
being transported to shore.Titanic weighed anchor for the last time at 1:30 p.m. and departed on her westward journey across the Atlantic.
 |
 |
Titanic in Cork harbour, 11 April 1912
|
 |
Atlantic crossing
Titanic was planned to arrive to New York Pier 54 on the morning of April 17. After leaving Queenstown Titanic followed the Irish coast as far as Fastnet Rock,
a distance of some 55 nautical miles (63 mi; 102 km). From there she
travelled 1,620 nautical miles (1,860 mi; 3,000 km) along a Great Circle
route across the North Atlantic to reach a spot in the ocean known as
"the corner" south-east of Newfoundland, where westbound steamers
carried out a change of course. Titanic sailed only a few hours past the corner on a rhumb line leg of 1,023 nautical miles (1,177 mi; 1,895 km) to Nantucket Shoals Light when she made her fatal contact with an iceberg. The final leg of the journey would have been 193 nautical miles (222 mi; 357 km) to Ambrose Light and finally to New York Harbor.
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.
Titanic received a series of warnings from other ships of drifting ice in the area of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. Nonetheless the ship continued to steam at full speed, which was standard practice at the time. Although the ship was not trying to set a speed record,
timekeeping was a priority, and under prevailing maritime practices,
ships were often operated at close to full speed, with ice warnings seen
as advisories and reliance placed upon lookouts and the watch on the
bridge.
It was generally believed that ice posed little danger to large
vessels. Close calls with ice were not uncommon, and even head-on
collisions had not been disastrous. In 1907 SS Kronprinz Wilhelm,
a German liner, had rammed an iceberg but still had been able to
complete her voyage, and Captain Smith himself had declared in 1907 that
he "could not imagine any condition which would cause a ship to
founder. Modern shipbuilding has gone beyond that."
Sinking
Main article: Sinking of the RMS Titanic
At 11:40 p.m. (ship's time) on 14 April, 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.[k]
Five of the ship's watertight compartments were breached. It soon
became clear that the ship was doomed, as she could not survive more
than four compartments' being flooded. Titanic began sinking bow-first, with water spilling from compartment to compartment as her angle in the water became steeper.
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.
The crew had not been trained adequately in carrying out an evacuation.
The officers did not know how many they could safely put aboard the
lifeboats and launched many of them barely half-full.
Third-class passengers were largely left to fend for themselves,
causing many of them to become trapped below decks as the ship filled
with water. The "women and children first" protocol was generally followed when loading the lifeboats, and most of the male passengers and crew were left aboard.
At 2:20 a.m., two hours and 40 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.[1
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 plunging into the murky depths. For many years it was generally believed the ship sank in one piece; however, when the wreck was located
many years later, it was discovered that the ship had fully broken in
two. All remaining passengers and crew were immersed into lethally cold
water with a temperature of 28 °F (−2 °C).[m] Almost all of those in the water died of cardiac arrest or other bodily reactions to freezing water, within 15–30 minutes.Only 13 of them were helped into the lifeboats, though these had room for almost 500 more people.
Distress signals were sent by wireless, rockets, and lamp, but none of the ships that responded was near enough to reach Titanic before she sank. A nearby ship, the SS Californian, which was the last to have been in contact with her before the collision, saw Titanic's flares but failed to assist. Around 4 a.m., RMS Carpathia arrived on the scene in response to Titanic's earlier distress calls.
About 710 people survived the disaster and were conveyed by Carpathia to New York, Titanic's original destination, while 1,500 people lost their lives. Carpathia's
captain described the place as an ice field that had included 20 large
bergs measuring up to 200 feet (61 m) high and numerous smaller bergs,
as well as ice floes and debris from Titanic; passengers described being in the middle of a vast white plain of ice, studded with icebergs.
 |
The sinking, according to J. Thayer, sketched onboard Carpathia, based on his description
|
 |
The iceberg thought to have been hit by Titanic, photographed on the morning of 15 April 1912.
|
 |
"Untergang der Titanic", as conceived by Willy Stöwer, 1912
|
Survivors and victims
Main article: List of Titanic passengers
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. The tables below use figures from the British Board of Trade report on the disaster.Fewer than a third of those aboard Titanic survived the disaster. Some survivors died shortly afterwards; injuries and the effects of exposure caused the deaths of several of those brought aboard Carpathia.The figures show stark differences in the survival rates of the different classes aboard Titanic. Although only 3 percent of first-class women were lost, 54 percent of those in third class died. Similarly, five of six first-class and all second-class children survived, but 52 of the 79 in third class perished.
The last living survivor, Millvina Dean from England, who at only nine weeks old was the youngest passenger on board, died aged 97 on 31 May 2009. A special survivor was crew member Violet Jessop who survived the sinkings of both Titanic and Britannic and was aboard Olympic when she was rammed in 1911.
| Age/ |
Class/ |
Number aboard | Number saved | Number lost | Percentage saved | Percentage lost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Children | First Class | 6 | 5 | 1 | 83% | 17% |
| Second Class | 24 | 24 | 0 | 100% | 0% | |
| Third Class | 79 | 27 | 52 | 34% | 66% | |
| Women | First Class | 144 | 140 | 4 | 97% | 3% |
| Second Class | 93 | 80 | 13 | 86% | 14% | |
| Third Class | 165 | 76 | 89 | 46% | 54% | |
| Crew | 23 | 20 | 3 | 87% | 13% | |
| Men | First Class | 175 | 57 | 118 | 33% | 67% |
| Second Class | 168 | 14 | 154 | 8% | 92% | |
| Third Class | 462 | 75 | 387 | 16% | 84% | |
| Crew | 885 | 192 | 693 | 22% | 78% | |
| Total | 2224 | 710 | 1514 | 32% | 68% | |
Wreck
Main article: Wreck of the RMS Titanic
The bow of the wrecked RMS Titanic, photographed in June 2004
The team discovered that Titanic had in fact split apart, probably near or at the surface, before sinking to the seabed. The separated bow and stern sections lie about a third of a mile (0.6 km) apart in a canyon on the continental shelf off the coast of Newfoundland. They are located 13.2 miles (21.2 km) from the inaccurate coordinates given by Titanic's radio operators on the night of her sinking,and approximately 715 miles (1,151 km) from Halifax and 1,250 miles (2,012 km) from New York.
Both sections hit the sea bed at considerable speed, causing the bow to crumple and the stern to collapse entirely. The bow is by far the more intact section and still contains some surprisingly intact interiors. In contrast, the stern is completely wrecked; its decks have pancaked down on top of each other and much of the hull plating was torn off and lies scattered across the sea floor. The much greater level of damage to the stern is probably due to structural damage incurred during the sinking. Thus weakened, the remainder of the stern was flattened by the impact with the sea bed.
The two sections are surrounded by a debris field measuring approximately 5 by 3 miles (8.0 km × 4.8 km).[ It contains hundreds of thousands of items, such as pieces of the ship, furniture, dinnerware and personal items, which fell from the ship as she sank or were ejected when the bow and stern impacted on the sea floor. The debris field was also the last resting place of a number of Titanic's victims. Most of the bodies and clothes were consumed by sea creatures and bacteria, leaving pairs of shoes and boots—which have proved to be inedible—as the only sign that bodies once lay there.
Since its discovery, the wreck of Titanic has been revisited numerous times by explorers, scientists, filmmakers, tourists and salvagers, who have recovered thousands of items from the debris field for conservation and public display. The ship's condition has deteriorated significantly in recent years, partly due to accidental damage caused by submersibles but mainly because of an accelerating rate of growth of iron-eating bacteria on the hull. It has been estimated that within the next 50 years the hull and structure of Titanic will collapse entirely, eventually leaving only the more durable interior fittings of the ship intermingled with a pile of rust on the sea floor.
Many artefacts from Titanic have been recovered from the sea bed by RMS Titanic Inc., which exhibits them in touring exhibitions around the world and in a permanent exhibition at the Luxor Las Vegas hotel and casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.[222] A number of other museums exhibit artefacts either donated by survivors or retrieved from the floating bodies of victims of the disaster.
On 16 April 2012, a day after the 100th anniversary of the sinking,
photos were released showing possible human remains resting on the ocean
floor. The photos, taken by Robert Ballard during an expedition led by NOAA in 2004, show a boot and a coat close to Titanic's
stern which experts called "compelling evidence" that it is the spot
where somebody came to rest, and that human remains could be buried in
the sediment beneath them. The wreck of the Titanic falls under the scope of the 2001 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage.
This means that all States party to the convention will prohibit the
pillaging, commercial exploitation, sale and dispersion of the wreck and
its artefacts. Because of the location of the wreck in international waters
and the lack of any exclusive jurisdiction over the wreckage area, the
convention provides a state co-operation system, by which States inform
each other of any potential activity concerning ancient shipwreck sites,
like the Titanic, and co-operate to prevent unscientific or unethical interventions.
Reference : RMS Titanic - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Save Water
Happy Mother's Day
Happy Akshatritiya
आजचा तेजस्वी चंद्र २२-०५-२०१६
सुमारे ११. ०० ते ११. ३० च्या दरम्यान
(सोबत टीमटीमणारी चांदणी ).
किती तेजस्वी असतील चंद्रदेव ????
मनमोहक
Photos by Amruta Kulkarni
Happy Environmental Day 05-06-2016
Save Earth, SaveTrees. Cleanliness is next to Godliness.
%20jpeg.JPG)
%20jpeg.JPG)
या देवी सर्वभूतेषु मातृरुपेण संस्थिता ।
ReplyDeleteनमतस्यै नमतस्यै नमतस्यै नमो: नमः॥
अंबज्ञोऽस्मि ।
Ambadnya.
ReplyDelete