On April 14, 1912, the forward looking Frederick Fleet noticed an iceberg at the course of the liner on which he served. Unfortunately, it was already too late: a minute later the ship received holes and began to sink under water. And after about two hours, it broke into 2 parts and sank. Out of 2,224 people, only 712 managed to escape.

It took about half an hour after the collision, when the captain ordered the launch of lifeboats and a distress signal. But the passengers refused to evacuate from the ship, because it did not look crashing, the push was not felt, everything worked and there were no signs of impending tragedy. Therefore, the boats sailed half-empty from the Titanic.

Only an hour and a half later, passengers realized the scale of the disaster. Panic began, for places in boats began to fight. The advantage during the evacuation, of course, was given to travelers of the first and second class, and among them primarily women and children. Those who purchased tickets to the third class had practically no hope of salvation.

Seven ships responded to the distress call.

The steamboat “Carpathia” managed to come to the rescue. It was he who picked up 712 surviving people. At that time, many more people remained afloat in the water, but people in boats were afraid to approach the crash site.

The Titanic in 1912.

Iceberg, which, presumably, faced the Titanic.


Frederick Fleet, 24 years old - the first to spot an iceberg on the Titanic course.

Survivors of the Titanic approach the steamboat Carpathia.


Surviving aboard the Carpathia.


The survivors are wrapped in warm clothes aboard the Carpathia.

People are waiting for news at the door of the White Star Line shipping office in New York.


People are waiting in the rain for the arrival of Carpathia in New York.

The Titanic boats are returned to the wharf owned by the White Star Line.


Surviving the crew of the Titanic.

Survivors of first-class service personnel are queuing for interrogation.


Pasco's four brothers managed to survive in a shipwreck.


Relatives await survivors from the Titanic at Southampton Railway Station.


Relatives are waiting for survivors in Southampton.


Southampton. Waiting for the survivors.


Meeting survivors of the shipwreck.


The surviving crew member hugs and kisses his wife, who came to meet him in Plymouth.


The crowd at Devonport gathered to listen to the story of one of the survivors.


Issuance of cash compensation to surviving passengers.


Operator Harold Thomas Coffin is being interrogated in New York.


The survivor gives the woman an autograph.

“Orphans of the Titanic” Michel (4 years) and Edmond Navratil (2 years). The only adult accompanying them - their father - died, and the brothers, due to their age, could not immediately identify.


A nurse holds in her arms a newborn Lucien Smith. His mother, Eloise, became pregnant with him during her honeymoon aboard the Titanic.

Stories to tell!

When the Titanic left Southampton on April 10, 1912, and set off on his first voyage, he was the largest and most luxurious ship in the world. It is tragic that the liner of the White Star shipping company never reached New York. He collided with an iceberg on April 14, 1912 at 23:40 and sank in the North Atlantic at 2:20 a.m. on April 15. Then more than 1,500 passengers and crew members died, and only 705 people managed to survive this terrible sea disaster.

This event shocked the whole world, because many people initially believed that the luxury liner was unsinkable. This tragedy still attracts attention, many are interested in how passengers and crew acted on that fateful night. Most of us know a fictional story about Jack and Rose, or have heard of The Unsinkable Molly Brown, but there are also a few intriguing but little-known tales.

1. Alex Mackenzie

24-year-old Alex Mackenzie never stepped aboard the Titanic, despite the fact that he had already packed his luggage and stood in line to the ramp aboard the luxury liner. Parents bought him a ticket for the first voyage of the ship as a gift. Suddenly, Alex heard a voice that warned him that he would die if he went on a trip on an advertised ship.

The voice sounded so clear that Alex began to look around to see who was talking, but no one was around. Deciding that he misheard, Mackenzie continued to move towards the ramp, but suddenly he heard this message again. He ignored him again - only to hear the voice again, this time much louder. Then Alex obeyed and refused the trip, deciding to return to his hometown of Glasgow, where he was to explain to his parents why he refused to board the greatest ship in the world.

2. Edith Russell


Many people dreamed of being a first-class passenger aboard the Titanic, but not Edith Rosenbaum (later known as Edith Russell). She could not get rid of bad premonitions. Edith boarded the Titanic during his first stop in Cherbourg, France, she was returning from Paris from a French fashion show. In a letter to her secretary, Edith wrote: “We are going to Queenstown. I just hate leaving Paris and would be happy to be back here again. I was going to rest on this trip, but I can not get rid of depression and foreboding of trouble. How I want it to be over soon! ”

When the Titanic collided with an iceberg, Edith asked the steward to bring a piggy-shaped music box from her first-class cabin. She stood on the boat deck, clutching her hand in this music box and refused to board the lifeboat until all the women and children were put in. Suddenly someone grabbed a casket wrapped in a blanket, deciding that it was a child, and threw it into the boat. Not wanting to part with such a beloved thing, Edith jumped into the boat. The music box saved her life.

3. Two homeless children at sea


Since adult male passengers were not put in lifeboats during the death of the Titanic, the father was forced to put his two sons in the boat, while he himself remained on board the ship. The kids could only speak French and did not have any personal items with them, so they could not establish their identity on the Carpathia rescue vessel. In order to find a family of boys in France, newspapers published articles about two “marine street children” and published photographs of them.

Meanwhile, the mother was desperately looking for her two sons, who had disappeared without a trace. The story of two homeless children overtook her in Nice, in France. After the woman described the signs of her children in the rescue service, the boys were identified as four-year-old Michelle and two-year-old Edmond. The boys were abducted by their father, Michel Navratil, who was traveling on a ship under the pseudonym Mr. Hoffman and hoped to start a new life in the USA with his children.

4. Edward and Ethel Beane


Second-class passengers Edward and Ethel Beane were about to celebrate their recent marriage aboard the Titanic. When the Titanic collided with an iceberg, the newlyweds from England did not bother, as they, like many, believed that the ship was unsinkable. They were not worried until a passenger from a neighboring cabin warned them twice about the seriousness of the situation.

Ethel reluctantly descended into the lifeboat, leaving Edward aboard the ship. While Ethel was swimming in a safe place, her husband had to jump overboard to reunite with his wife. Edward sailed from a sinking ship until he found salvation on a boat. Fortunately, the happy couple reunited to continue their family life.

5. Thomas Millar


After his wife’s death and three months before the Titanic’s first flight, Thomas Millar decided to take a White Star luxury airliner as an assistant deck mechanic. He did this to secure the future of his two sons, Thomas and Ruddick.

Millar left his children in the care of an aunt in a village near Belfast. He hoped that he would be able to start a new life in the United States, to which his sons would later join. Before heading to America, Thomas gave each of his sons one penny and told them that they should not spend it until he returned. Thomas Millar never returned to his sons because he lost his life aboard the ship. While Thomas Jr. spent his pennies, Ruddick's coin is still kept in the Millar family as a symbol of his father’s love for his children.

6. Father Francis Brown


Father Francis Brown was a first-class passenger aboard the Titanic. He was one of those people who have preserved many rare photographs of life on board the ship. The Jesuit priest was a passionate photographer; he received a ticket for the first flight of the Titanic as a gift from his uncle. Thrilled that he was on board a luxury ship, and realizing that he was present on historical event, Father Brown took many photographs, which after the disaster were published in print media around the world.

While most of the Titanic's passengers were heading to New York, Father Brown was one of eight passengers who left the ship during his call to Queenstown (now known as Koba) in Ireland, the last port before traveling across the Atlantic. Despite the fact that the rich couple offered to pay for the remainder of the trip to New York, the priest was recalled from the ship by his leadership. Therefore, Father Brown survived the disaster, as well as the photographs he took, which now give us an idea of \u200b\u200blife on that ill-fated ship.

7. Two cousins


On board the Titanic were two cousins, but not one of them knew about the presence of his distant relative. William Edvey Ryerson was a steward who served the first-class lounge dining room. He knew little about his second cousin, Arthur Ryerson, who was also present aboard the ship as a first-class passenger with his wife Emily and their three children.

Arthur's family was heading to their hometown of Cooperstown, New York, after being informed that Arthur's son had passed away. William and Arthur shared a great-great-grandfather, but they were absolutely from different circles. William was born into a working-class family in Port Dover, Ontario, Canada, while Arthur lived a prosperous life.

While William was seating passengers in lifeboats, Arthur arranged with crew members to put his 13-year-old son John in a lifeboat with his wife and daughters. Arthur was the only member of the family who died during a maritime disaster, while William escaped from a sinking ship in a lifeboat.

8. Countess Rotes


Some of the richest people in the world went on a trip across the North Atlantic on the Titanic, and one of the honorary passengers aboard the ship was Lucy Noel Martha, Countess Rotes. She went to the United States with her cousin Gladys Cherry and maid, Roberta Mayoni. Her goal was to meet her husband and two children to start a new life in the United States.

The countess and her cousin were woken up when the ship collided with an iceberg. Captain Smith instructed everyone to return to their cabins and put on life jackets. At about 1:00 in the night, the countess, together with her cousin and the maid, plunged into the boat number 8, which was the first of those launched. Tom Jones, the sailor of the lifeboat, quickly guessed the strict leader in the countess and ordered her to steer the boat. She sat at the helm of the boat and managed it for more than an hour, after which she swapped places with her cousin to try to calm the Spanish bride who had lost her fiance on the ship.

The countess rowed oars throughout the night and morally supported the passengers until the Carpathia arrived at the crash site.

She provided assistance not only while traveling on a boat. The countess remained on board the Carpathia even after the ship moored in New York, helping those passengers who lost everything as a result of the crash. Upon returning to Scotland, Countess Rotes bought a silver watch with the inscription “April 15, 1912, Countess Rotes”, which she sent to Tom Jones as a gift and in gratitude for his efforts on board the lifeboat. He answered her gift with a letter, thanking for the kindness and courage, and sent her a brass tablet from the lifeboat. The sailor and countess corresponded until her death in 1956.

9. James Moody


Another hero on board the ship was Sixth Officer James Moody, who decided to stay on board despite being offered a place in a lifeboat. The 24-year-old junior officer received a small salary of $ 37 for his service on the ship and his own cabin while he was aboard the Titanic.

Before the Titanic set off on its first transatlantic flight, Moody involuntarily saved the lives of six crew members who were not allowed to climb the ramp because they were late. When the ship collided with the iceberg, the young officer was at the post and answered the call of Lucut Frederic Fleet, asking him: "What do you see?" Fleet replied, “Iceberg, right in front of us!”

When the captain announced that the ship would sink in a matter of hours, Officer Moody launched lifeboats No. 12, 14, and 16. Fifth officer Harold Lowe suggested that Moody steer lifeboat No. 14, which was normal for lower-level officers. But Moody rejected Low's offer. Despite his low rank, Moody remained on the ship and helped the first officer Murdoch until the water began to flood the boat deck. Moody has repeatedly offered to become a boat commander, but each time he courageously decided to stay on the ship in order to save as many lives as possible and watch the disaster until the very end. Second Assistant Lightoller was the last person to see Moody alive at 2:18 a.m. when he was trying to launch collapsible lifeboats.

10. Jack Phillips


Jack Phillips was a senior radio operator aboard the Titanic and was paired with a junior cameraman Harold Bride. Two men were engaged in receiving and sending messages from passengers using Morse code, as well as receiving meteorological warnings for the captain.

Before the disaster, Phillips received numerous warnings about icebergs from other ships; Bride delivered many of them to the captain. However, due to the large number of passenger communications, Phillips was not able to deliver all warnings to Captain Smith; he believed that the captain had already received enough warnings about the danger of icebergs. When the Californian steamer received another message about an iceberg, Phillips replied: “Shut up!” I have talks with Cape Cape Flight! ” Subsequently, Phillips was called one of the culprits of the crash.

However, when the ship collided with an iceberg 400 nautical miles from Newfoundland, Phillips did his best to send distress signals to save passengers and crew. The 25-year-old telegraph operator remained at his post even when the captain relieved him of his duties. He tirelessly sent messages to the nearest ships until 2:17, when the ship was already sinking to the bottom of the ocean.

His connection with Carpathia helped save 705 passengers. Many ships later reported that Phillips' messages were absolutely clear, despite the chaos that was going on around him. Unfortunately, despite having a foldable boat, Jack Phillips died in a maritime disaster.


The transatlantic liner Titanic on April 15, 1912, after a collision with an iceberg, sank and took 1504 human lives with it to the abyss.

The scheme of the survivors and the dead. Among the passengers were selfless heroes, and those who cared only about their salvation, and those who survived by a miracle.

The saddest hall of the exhibition. Lists are posted on the wall. Only my pictures came out very vaguely.

Top lists of the dead. By grades.

Below are lists of survivors. Also in classes.

Let me remind you that at the entrance to the exhibition everyone was given a ticket of a real person. Here is my ticket for the Titanic. Here everything is written in detail about this passenger.

Now you need to find the name Aubart among the lists.

Here are the first class passengers who survived.

In the third line I found her last name. Hooray! My heroine survived!

Parisian - Miss Leontin's singer Pauline Obar - rode on the Titanic accompanied by her maid. She traveled with her lover, New York millionaire Benjamin Guggenheim. Her luggage consisted of 4 suitcases with 24 dresses, 24 pairs of shoes, underwear, gloves and a diamond diadem. Benjdamin was traveling accompanied by a valet. Of these four, two were saved. What do you think: who was the second saved? Mentally say the answer, and then read what is below.

Benjamin Guggenheim is a millionaire. In France, he founded a company that supplied accessories for the Eiffel Tower elevators. On April 12, 1912, the Guggenheim went aboard the Titanic, accompanied by his mistress, French singer Madame Leontina Obar, her valet Victor Giglio, and maid Madame Obar Emma Segesser. On the night of April 15, during the clash between the Titanic and the iceberg, the Guggenheim and Giglio slept, and only Madame Obar and her maid were awakened, who felt the collision. With the help of a steward, they put on life vests and went up to the deck. The Guggenheim put Madame Obar and her maid in a boat, who reluctantly obeyed him. He convinced them that it was just a repair and they would meet soon. Realizing that the situation is much more serious and he will not be able to escape, Guggenheim returned with a valet to the cabin, where he changed into tailcoats. They sat down together at a table in the central hall, where they whisked slowly while watching the disaster. When someone suggested they try to escape, the Guggenheim responded: "" We are dressed in accordance with our position and are ready to die like gentlemen. ""

This is a real hero !!! That night they became one of the many victims of the Titanic, and after the tragedy their bodies were never identified. After the death of the Titanic, the identity of Bejamin Guggenheim became very famous, and his characters repeatedly appeared in various films about the death of the Titanic.

Why did so many people die?

The rescue equipment available on the liner could accommodate only 1,178 people. The Titanic had 20 lifeboats - four folding boats for 47 people each were added to the standard set of 16 boats of two types of capacity (for 65 and 40 people).


Joseph Bruce Ismey, managing director of the White Star Line shipping company, was responsible for the construction of the Titanic. He is an antihero. It was he who decided not to place extra lifeboats on board the ship for reasons of cost savings. These boats could save 1,500 lives - almost everyone who died. This circumstance is aggravated by the fact that Ismay, despite the captain’s order “women and children first of all,” took his place in the boat on time and was able to survive the disaster. On the ship "Carpathia", which lifted 706 people on board, Ismay was located in a separate cabin, while the rest were sleeping on the floor and tables.

However, the crew did not even manage to launch all the boats that were on the ship. One boat was washed overboard, the other was floating upside down. Striking is the fact that most of the boats were no more than two-thirds full. This happened for many reasons. At first, passengers did not want to take seats in boats, because it seemed to them that it was safer to stay on the Titanic. Later, when it became obvious that the death of the ship was inevitable, the boats were better filled. In one of the boats, designed for 65 people, only 12 survived.

... Once in the water, many people died instantly from a broken heart or pain shock ...

It is very unfortunate that so many children died, only 52% were saved.

As a sign of mourning for the dead children, the legendary company "Steiff" made 500 black bears measuring 50 centimeters in size. They have a red rim around their tear-stained eyes.

On April 10, 1912, the Titanic liner set off from Southampton Port on its first and last voyage, which 4 days later collided with an iceberg. We are aware of the tragedy of nearly 1496 people who died in many respects thanks to the film, but let's get acquainted with the real stories of the passengers of the Titanic.

On the passenger deck of the Titanic, the real cream of society gathered: millionaires, actors and writers. Not everyone could afford to buy a Class I ticket - the price was $ 60,000 at current prices.

3rd class passengers bought tickets for only $ 35 ($ 650 these days), because they had no right to go above the third deck. On the fateful night, the division into classes was more tangible than ever ...

One of the first to jump into a lifeboat was Bruce Ismay, CEO of White Star Line, which owned the Titanic. The boat, designed for 40 people, set sail from the side with only twelve.

After the disaster, Ismay was accused of getting into a lifeboat bypassing women and children, and also that he had instructed the Titanic captain to increase speed, which led to the tragedy. The court acquitted him.

William Ernest Carter boarded the Titanic in Southampton with his wife Lucy and two children, Lucy and William, as well as two dogs.

On the night of the disaster, he was at a party in the restaurant of a first-class ship, and after the collision, together with his comrades, he went to the deck, where boats were already being prepared. First, William put his daughter in a boat number 4, but when it was the turn of his son, they were waiting for problems.

Right in front of them, a 13-year-old John Ryson got into the boat, after which the landing officer ordered not to take teenage boys on board. Lucy Carter resourcefully threw her hat on her 11-year-old son and sat down with him.

When the landing process was completed and the boat began to descend into the water, Carter himself quickly got into it with another passenger. It was them who were already mentioned Bruce Ismay.

21-year-old Roberta Maoney worked as a servant of the countess and sailed on the Titanic with her mistress in the first grade.

On board, she met a brave young steward from the crew of the ship, and soon the young people fell in love. When the Titanic began to sink, the steward rushed into Roberta's cabin, brought her to the boat deck and put her in a boat, giving her his life jacket.

He himself died, like many other crew members, and the Carpathia ship picked up Robert, on which she sailed to New York. Only there, in the pocket of her coat, she found a badge with a star, which at the moment of parting the steward put in her pocket as a keepsake.

Emily Richards sailed with her two little sons, mom, brother and sister to her husband. At the time of the disaster, a woman slept in a cabin with her children. They were awakened by the screams of their mother, who ran into the cabin after the collision.

Richards miraculously managed to get into the descending boat No. 4 through the window. When the Titanic sank completely, the passengers of its boat managed to get seven more people out of the icy water, two of whom, unfortunately, soon died of frostbite.

In the first class, the famous American businessman Isidor Strauss traveled with his wife Ida. Strausses have been married for 40 years and have never parted.

When the ship's officer invited the family to board the boat, Isidore refused, deciding to give way to women and children, but Ida also followed him.

Instead, Strauss put their maid in the boat. The body of Isidore was identified by the wedding ring, the body of Ida was not found.

Two orchestras played on the Titanic: a quintet led by 33-year-old British violinist Wallace Hartley and an additional trio of musicians who were hired to give Café Parisien a continental touch.

Typically, two members of the Titanic orchestra worked in different parts of the liner and at different times, but on the night of the ship's death all of them united into one orchestra.

One of the Titanic’s rescued passengers writes later: “That night many heroic deeds were committed, but not one of them could compare with the feat of these few musicians who played hour after hour, although the ship sank deeper and deeper, and the sea crept up to the place where they stood. The music they performed gave them the right to be included in the list of heroes of eternal glory. "

Hartley's body was found two weeks after the death of the Titanic and sent to England. A violin was attached to his chest - a gift from the bride. Among the other members of the orchestra there were no survivors ...

Four-year-old Michelle and two-year-old Edmond traveled with their father, who died during the crash, and were considered “Titanic orphans” until their mother was found in France.

Michelle died in 2001, he was the last of the surviving males on the Titanic.

Winnie Coates was heading to New York with her two children. On the night of the disaster, she woke up from a strange noise, but decided to wait for the orders of the crew. Her patience snapped, she darted along the endless corridors of the ship for a long time, lost.

Suddenly met a crew member directed her to the boats. She bent over a broken closed gate, but just at that moment another officer appeared who rescued Vinnie and her children by giving them his life jacket.

As a result, Vinnie was on the deck, where she was landing in the boat number 2, which, by a miracle, she managed to dive ..

Seven-year-old Eva Hart escaped from the sinking Titanic with her mother, but her father died during the crash.

Helen Walker believes that her conception occurred precisely on the Titanic before a collision with an iceberg. “It means a lot to me," she admitted in an interview.

Her parents were 39-year-old Samuel Morley, the owner of a jewelry store in England, and 19-year-old Kate Phillips, one of his women workers, fled to America from the man’s first wife, trying to start a new life.

Kate got into the lifeboat, Samuel jumped into the water after her, but could not swim and drowned. “Mom spent 8 hours in the lifeboat,” said Helene. “She was in one nightgown, but one of the sailors gave her his jumper.”

Violette Constance Jessop. Until the last moment, the stewardess did not want to be hired by the Titanic, but her friends convinced her, because they thought it would be a "wonderful experience."

Prior to this, on October 20, 1910, Violette became a flight attendant for the Olympic transatlantic liner, which a year later, due to unsuccessful maneuvering, collided with a cruiser, but the girl managed to escape.

And with the Titanic, Violette escaped on a boat. During World War I, the girl went to work as a nurse, and in 1916 she got on board the Britannica, which ... also went down! Two boats with the crew tightened under the screw of a sinking ship. Killed 21 people.

Among them could be Violette, who was sailing in one of the broken boats, but again luck was on her side: she managed to jump out of the boat and survived.

Stoker Arthur John Priest also survived the shipwreck, not only on the Titanic, but also on the Olympic and the British (by the way, all three ships were the brainchild of one company). There are 5 shipwrecks on the account of Priest.

April 21, 1912 " New york The Times published the story of Edward and Ethel Binov, who sailed on the Titanic in the second grade. After the crash, Edward helped his wife get into the boat. But when the boat had already sailed, he saw that she was half empty and rushed into the water. Ethel dragged her husband into the boat.

Among the passengers of the Titanic was the famous tennis player Carl Behr and his lover Helen News. After the disaster, the athlete ran into the cabin and led the women to the boat deck.

The lovers were ready to say goodbye forever when the head of the company White Star Line Bruce Ismay personally offered Bere a place in the boat. A year later, Karl and Helen got married, and later became the parents of three children.

Edward John Smith is the captain of the Titanic, which was very popular with both crew members and passengers. At 2.13 nights, just 10 minutes before the ship was finally submerged, Smith returned to the captain’s bridge, where he decided to meet death.

The second assistant captain Charles Herbert Lightoller jumped from the ship one of the last, miraculously avoiding being sucked into the ventilation shaft. He swam to a folding boat B, floating upside down: the Titanic pipe that came off and fell into the sea next to it drove the boat further away from the sinking ship and allowed it to stay afloat.

The American businessman Benjamin Guggenheim during the crash helped women and children to plunge into lifeboats. To the offer to save himself, he replied: "We are dressed in our best outfits and are ready to die like gentlemen."

Benjamin died at the age of 46, his body was not found.

Thomas Andrews, a first-class passenger, an Irish businessman and shipbuilder, was the designer of the Titanic ...

During the evacuation, Thomas helped passengers to board boats. The last time he was seen in a first-class smoking room near the fireplace, where he looked at the painting "Port Plymouth." His body after the crash was never found.

John Jacob and Madeleine Astor, a millionaire science fiction writer and his young wife traveled first class. Madeleine escaped on boat number 4. The body of John Jacob was lifted from the depths of the ocean 22 days after his death.

Colonel Archibald Gracie IV is an American writer and amateur historian who survived the crash of the Titanic. Returning to New York, Gracie immediately began to write a book about his voyage.

It was she who became a real encyclopedia for historians and researchers of the disaster, thanks to the large number of names of fare dodgers and 1st class passengers that remained on the Titanic contained in it. Gracie's health was severely undermined by hypothermia and injuries, and he died in late 1912.

Margaret (Molly) Brown is an American socialite, philanthropist and activist. Survived. When the panic arose on the Titanic, Molly put people in lifeboats, but she herself refused to board it.

“If the worst happens, I will swim out,” she said, until in the end someone forcefully pushed her into boat number 6, which made her famous.

After Molly organized the Fund for Assistance to the Survivors of the Titanic.

Millvina Dean was the last surviving Titanic passenger: she died on May 31, 2009 at the age of 97 in a nursing home in Hampshire Eschurst on the 98th anniversary of the launch of the ship. .

Her ashes were dispelled on October 24, 2009 at the port of Southampton, from where the Titanic began its first and last voyage. At the time of the death of the liner, she was two and a half months

Of the 2,224 people aboard the Titanic ocean liner, only 706 survived. Among them were selfless heroes, and those who cared only about their salvation, and those who survived by a miracle, and those who could not live on, remembering the hundreds of victims. The tragedy turned over the fate of not only those who were on the ship, but also those who were forced to wait on land for their loved ones.

Boat problem

The rescue equipment available on the liner could accommodate only 1,178 people. The Titanic had 20 lifeboats - four folding boats for 47 people each were added to the standard set of 16 boats of two types of capacity (for 65 and 40 people).

Joseph Bruce Ismay, managing director of the White Star Line shipping company, was responsible for the construction of the Titanic. It was he who decided not to place extra lifeboats on board the ship for reasons of cost savings. These boats could save 1,500 lives - almost everyone who died.

This circumstance is aggravated by the fact that Ismay, in spite of the captain’s order “women and children first of all,” took his place in the boat on time and was able to survive the disaster. On the ship "Carpathia", which lifted 706 people on board, Ismay was located in a separate cabin, while the rest were sleeping on the floor and tables.

However, the crew did not even manage to launch all the boats that were on the ship. One boat was washed overboard, the other was floating upside down. Striking is the fact that most of the boats were no more than two-thirds full. This happened for many reasons.

At first, passengers did not want to take seats in boats, because it seemed to them that it was safer to stay on the Titanic. Later, when it became obvious that the death of the ship was inevitable, the boats were better filled.

In one of the boats, designed for 65 people, only 12 were saved. Disputes do not cease about this case. A wealthy passenger, Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon and his wife Lucille, the fashion designer who coined the word “chic,” escaped by paying seven crew members five pounds each to board and row. According to Gordon, it was an act of generosity. But some believe that he hired sailors to sail away from the sinking ship as soon as possible, thereby depriving the others of a chance of salvation.

Among the passengers were those whose heroism was not questioned. The 17-year-old Jack Thayer helped others climb into boats, while refusing to board himself. When the ship sank, the boy dived into the icy water. He survived by climbing on an inverted boat. He returned home as a celebrity; the whole country spoke of him. Thayer was one of ten people who committed suicide after the tragedy.

Cost of salvation

Another circumstance of the tragedy is that the bulk of the surviving passengers traveled in the first and second class. So, of the 143 women who traveled first class (tickets at 875 pounds), four were killed. At the same time, the three ladies themselves refused to leave the ship. Of those who paid £ 12 for a ticket to third-class cabins, more than half the passengers died. Of the crew members, no more than 25% of people were able to survive. Signs of a similar social stratification were observed after their death. The ship, which was sent by the company White Star Line in search of the dead, lifted the bodies of only those who sailed first class. The rest were buried right at sea.

During the investigation of the circumstances of the death of the Titanic, it turned out that many third-class passengers died due to their own indecision and lack of knowledge of the English language. So, some were afraid to climb the boat deck, considering it unsafe; others argued with each other and could not decide what to do.

Not the last role in this was played by the language barrier - many passengers did not speak English, and therefore could not understand each other, or at least read the signs on the signs leading to the upper decks.

When some nevertheless managed to get out onto the boat deck, almost all the Titanic boats were already launched. On the deck there were only a few folding boats, which the team was going to lower last. The third-class passengers who managed to escape from the holds were saved in them. Those who were in the water died from hypothermia almost instantly, since the water temperature did not exceed minus two degrees Celsius.

Arrival in New York

On the night of April 14-15, 1912, radio operators of the Carpathia received a distress signal from the Titanic. Other ships either did not respond to calls for help, or were too far away. Having learned about the situation on the Titanic, the captain of the Carpathian Arthur Rostron immediately ordered to follow to the place of the sinking ship. To develop maximum speed, I had to turn off the heating on the entire ship.

On the morning of April 15, after the last surviving Titanic passenger boarded the Carpathia, the ship headed for New York. Three days passed before the ship reached its destination. During this time, a message was sent from the ship about what happened. As a result, the press began to publish rumors that the Titanic was being towed to New York's marina. When it became clear that most of the people on the Titanic had died, crowds of people began to come to White Star Line offices around the world in the hope of finding out more. Only on April 17 was an unexplained list of dead and missing reported. And the final list was published only four days after the arrival of Carpathia in New York.

In the port of New York, "Carpathia" was met by about 40 thousand people. Many charitable organizations supplied people descending to the marina with warm clothes, medicines, and offered to help get to their home, hospital or hotel. Many headed home to relatives. Wealthy passengers rented entire trains. And the crew members were placed in the passenger cabins of another ship belonging to the White Star Line.

Of course, among the crowd who met Karpatia there were reporters who were eager to tell the stories of the surviving passengers. Some even managed to board the Carpathia before it docked.