"The Telegraph", UK

Each family has its own secrets, but usually they relate to things that do not interest anyone outside of it. However, this does not apply to Louise Patten - or rather Lady Patten, to be called the full title - the wife of the former Minister of Education in the Tory government, Lord Patten (however, she has enough of her own achievements - she became the first woman, included in the board of directors of FTSE 100, and in addition writes the popular financial thrillers).

In the 1960s, when Patten was still a teenager, her beloved grandmother revealed a family secret to her, warning that her publicity could have two consequences. One of them would be terrible - the good name of Grandfather Patten Charles Lightoller, who was awarded the Cross for outstanding servant in the First World War and was again recognized as a hero in 1940 during the evacuation from Dunkirk, could be blamed. However, the second would have changed history and overturned the official version of one of the most famous disasters - the death of the Titanic, which claimed the lives of 1,517 people in April 1912.

The tension between these two consequences partly explains why Patten was silent for 40 years and did not tell - she admits with a girlish laugh, glancing from under the luxurious black fringe - that she knew, even to her husband. What did he say when he found out about it? "In my opinion, something like:“ Oh my God. "" However, now 56-year-old Patten eventually decided to tell the rest of the world honestly in her new novel, “Good as Gold”.

It would seem that something new can be said about the disaster almost 100 years later? “My grandfather was on the Titanic’s second assistant to the captain,” Patten explains. “When the ship collided with the iceberg, he was in his cabin. Then he did not follow the direct order and refused to go down to the rescue boat, but he ended up escaping anyway.” .

Surprisingly, when the Titanic plunged into the water, Lightoller jumped into the ocean and was dragged into the depths, but then the force of the underwater explosion pushed him to the surface. Then he was picked up by one of the boats.

The idea that, after all the investigations, films, books, and finally, after descending to the wreck of the Titanic at the bottom of the Atlantic, the key to the secret of what happened on that fateful night is that a respected business lady from London seems to be unrelated to this topic looks extremely unusual. However, why, I wonder, Grandfather Patten, who looked like an extremely honest and brave man, lied and continued to lie all his life? “The fact is,” she replies, “that when another vessel already picked up the survivors, Bruce Ismay convinced my grandfather that if he told the truth, the White Star Line would be accused of negligence and would not pay her insurance. In fact, it meant that the company will go bankrupt and everyone will lose their jobs. In those days, people like my grandfather adhered to their code of honor. He lied so that other people would not lose their jobs. "

But why didn't her grandmother speak after Lightoller died in 1952? "She didn’t want this heroic figure to be considered a liar. My mother, who was also privy to secret, was unhappy that my grandmother told me everything. She was hurt by this even more. She literally worshiped my grandfather."

So what happened and remained a secret kept in the family circle, of which only Patten remained alive. "I have an older sister, but she spent most of her time far from home in a boarding school. I was a teenager, and I spent much more time at home with my grandmother."

But why reveal the secret now? "My mother and grandmother died, but - she trails off, as if she’s still not sure that she did the right thing - I still hear my mother saying that grandfather needs to be remembered as a hero."

Most writers would have used this story for a long time, though, most likely, not for a work of art, but for a documentary - perhaps for a memoir. Why recycle it into a novel? “Because I write thrillers,” Patten says firmly, making me think that she is probably an effective chairman of the board of directors. “I planned to write a thriller about a family with family secrets, about a banking dynasty associated with shipping, and here I suddenly thought that I did have my own family secret, also related to shipping. "

Exactly 107 years ago, the Titanic set off on its first and last flight. On this occasion, we collected 20 little-known facts about one of the most unlucky ships in history.

Polina Bykhovskaya

1. For the construction of the Titanic 3 million rivets were used, most of which were handmade.

2. To launch the vessel into the water, 23 tons of fat, locomotive oil and liquid soap were required to lubricate the gangways.

3. Designers considered the liner unsinkable. The double bottom and 16 watertight bulkheads were know-how for that time. However, the designers did not know how punchy an iceberg could be.

4. There wasn’t such a simple thing on the Titanic as binoculars. The captain fired his second assistant, Blair, who, in revenge, dragged the keys to the safe, where binoculars lay for the forward-looking.

5. The shipwreck occurred on April 14, 1912. Events are recreated to the smallest detail. In the morning, ten times the crews of other airliners reported that the icebergs were nearby, but the Titanic ignored these warnings. The latest report arrived on the Titanic 40 minutes before the collision. But the radio operator of the Titanic did not even listen to the message and disconnected.

6. On the liner were many celebrities of that time. Among them, for example, was a millionaire and feminist Margaret Brown. She was famous for knowing five languages \u200b\u200band swearing at them like a shoemaker. After a collision with an iceberg, Margaret helped to seat people on boats, but she was in no hurry to leave the ship. Finally, someone forced her into a boat and sent her to the open sea. Having reached another ship, the Carpathia, Margaret immediately began looking for blankets for the victims, food, compiled lists of survivors, and collected money. By the time Karpatia arrived at the port, it had raised $ 10,000 for the survivors.

7. Another famous Titanic passenger, businessman Benjamin Guggenheim, put his companion in a lifeboat. He convinced her that they would see each other soon, although he understood that the situation was hopeless. Together with the valet, he returned to the cabin and changed into a tailcoat, and then sat at a table in the central hall and began to drink whiskey. When someone suggested they still try to escape, Guggenheim replied: "We are dressed in accordance with our position and are ready to die like gentlemen."

8. The outstanding ticket for the Titanic launching ceremony went under the hammer at a London auction for $ 56,300. A menu on board the liner with a list of 40 dishes was sold in New York for $ 31,300. Another similar menu in London went for 76,000 pounds. The keys to the ship’s room, which contained lights for lifeboats, were also preserved and were sold for 59,000 pounds.

9. The liner was drowning to music. The orchestra to the last stood on the deck and played the church hymn "Closer, Lord, to Thee."

10. The Russian deep-sea vehicles Mir in 1991 and 1995 sank to the ship, which is now at a depth of 3.8 kilometers. Then the devices shot a video, which was included in the notorious James Cameron movie. This year, in honor of the centenary of the death of the liner, our submariners again promised to dive to the Titanic.

11. UNESCO waited a hundred years to declare the wreck of the Titanic an object cultural heritage. For such cases, they have a special convention. Now, UNESCO will ensure that items from the Titanic are not given to uncultured divers.

12. Released in honor of the centennial, Titanic 3D has already raised an impressive $ 17.4 million in the United States. The "Titanic" of James Cameron in 1997 was a phenomenal success and the fees at that time were huge: $ 1.8 billion. They managed to break this record only 12 years later after the movie Avatar.

13. The ill-fated black iceberg, more precisely, his photograph, was found 90 years after the death of the Titanic. A few days after the tragedy, a certain Stefan Regorek from Bohemia on a different airliner sailed past the crash site and photographed an iceberg. After a thorough examination, it was proved that the ship could make dents on the iceberg. So the block of ice also suffered.

14. Jack Dawson, the hero of the same film that brought Cameron fame and fortune, is a real character. True, Cameron later assured that he took the name from the ceiling and that it was a coincidence. However, the real Jack Dawson was a coal miner on the Titanic. True, he was in love not with the green-eyed Kate Winslet (she was not born then), but with the sister of his friend, who persuaded him to become a sailor. As a result, all, of course, perished.

15. Legends still tell about the Titanic. For example, lovers of mysticism point out that in 1898, the writer Morgan Robertson wrote the novel "Vanity" - about a huge transatlantic liner and its smug passengers. The story is very much the same, for example, the name of the ship - "Titan" - and a collision with an iceberg on a cold April night.

16. Another legend says that once every six years, radio operators catch the SOS signal from the Titanic on the air. This was first announced by the crew of the battleship Theodore Roosevelt in 1972. The radio operator rummaged through the archives and found notes from his colleagues that they also received strange radiograms allegedly from the Titanic: in 1924, 1930, 1936 and 1942. In April 1996, the Canadian ship Quebec received the SOS signal from the Titanic.

17. Although the official version says that the Titanic sank the iceberg, not everyone believes it. For example, some claimed that the Titanic was sunk by a German torpedo that was fired by employees of the company that built the ship in order to get insurance. However, this sounds unconvincing, given how many company employees died on April 14, 1912.

18. The Titanic was not the only major White Star Line airliner. The ship "Olympic" began to be built simultaneously with the "Titanic". In 1911, when entering the 11th flight, the Olympic collided with the British cruiser Hawk. The latter, while miraculously, remained afloat, while the Olympic got off with minor injuries.

19. The younger brother of the Titanic - the British ship was supposed to be named Giantik, but after the collapse of the first airliner, the builders decided to moderate their ambitions. The Britannic was the most comfortable of the three ships: it had two hairdressing salons, a children's playroom, and a gymnasium for second-class passengers. Unfortunately, passengers did not have time to appreciate the merits of the new airliner. After the outbreak of war, he was converted into a hospital ship and was soon blown up by a mine near Greece. True, most of the people on board were saved.

20. The last of the Titanic passengers died in 2009 at the age of 97. She was 2.5 months old at the time of the shipwreck.

It was interesting? Then read these articles. Your erudition will thank you. Telegram channel MAXIM: Fiction

What happened on April 14, 1912 at 23 hours 40 minutes in the North Atlantic remains a mystery to many. That night, the world's largest passenger liner, the Titanic, collided with an iceberg, and as a result sank. However, this version has often been called into question. They even say that the ship sank not at all because of a collision with an iceberg ...

Undisclosed Secrets of the Titanic

Rumors of a fatal liner. According to one myth, shortly before the completion of construction, shipbuilders repeatedly heard strange taps in that part of the Titanic, where the second bottom was located. There is an opinion that, since the construction of the vessel was very fast, one or several builders remained walled up in its hull. This supposedly explains the strange tapping: people tried to escape from the trap they fell into.

It is also widely believed that the anti-Christian code was incorporated into the Titanic. The serial number of the ship’s hull is 3909 04. According to the myth, some ship builders who had a negative attitude towards the Catholic Church put a secret message in the six-digit number. If you write this number by hand on paper and look in the mirror, then the words "No Pope" (translated as "No Dad") will be reflected there. Irish Protestants believed that these words mean "No to the Pope," so divine retribution did not take long, and the liner sank in the first voyage.

According to rumors, modern ships still catch the SOS signal from the Titanic. Moreover, this happens every few years with a certain periodicity. The matter is not limited to receiving radio signals from a long sunken ship. According to some evidence, decades after the tragedy, ships sailing past the Titanic flooded area periodically caught ... escaped passengers!

So, a middle-aged woman dressed in fashion at the beginning of the 20th century was allegedly caught from the deep sea. She claimed that it was now 1912 and she miraculously managed to survive. After the woman was taken ashore and decided to establish her identity, it turned out that the name with which she introduced herself coincided with the real name of one of the Titanic passengers. However, as one would expect, the further fate of this woman is unknown.

This is not the only case of this kind. Members of the crew of various courts claimed that they managed to pick up a ten-month-old baby in the ocean who was in a life buoy with the inscription "Titanic" and an elderly man who was dressed in the captain uniform of the White Star Line company. The man claimed that he was none other than the captain of the Titanic Smith.

Conspiracy theory

Because of the similarities between the Titanic and another White Star Line ship, Olympic soon after the crash appeared conspiracy theory, according to which a second ship was actually sent to a tragic flight. The basis of this theory is the assumption of possible fraud in order to receive an insurance payment that could cover all the losses of the company White Star Line. According to supporters of the theory, the stern sheets with the name of the vessel, as well as all household items and the interior with the name of the vessel were replaced, as a result of which no one could suspect the substitution.

In 1911, when going on flight 11, the Olympic collided with the English cruiser Hawk. Olympic received only minor injuries, and they were not enough to pay insurance. It was necessary for the ship to receive even greater damage. Therefore, the vessel was exposed to the deliberate risk of collision with an iceberg - the company was sure that, even after receiving serious damage, the vessel would not sink.

They have repeatedly tried to refute this theory. For example, it was testified against by the fact that many passengers of the Titanic had sailed on the Olympic before and could determine which ship they were actually sailing on. But finally, the conspiracy theory was debunked only after the details were lifted from the steamer, on which number 401 (the building number of the Titanic) was knocked out, and the construction number of the Olympic was 400.

Other crash versions

According to the official version, the Titanic sank not so much because it collided with an iceberg, but how much the ship was going with. But not everyone agrees with this.

For a long time there is a version that even before sailing in the coal compartment of the ship, a fire broke out, which provoked an explosion, and then a collision with an iceberg. An expert who has been studying the history of the Titanic for over 20 years, Ray Boston, has put forward new evidence for this theory. According to him, a fire in the sixth hold of the vessel arose on April 2, and it was not possible to put out it. The owner of the vessel, John Pirpont Morgan, decided that the Titanic would quickly get to New York, drop off passengers, and then the fire would be put out. The ship went to sea with a fire on board, and an explosion occurred during the voyage. The high speed of the Titanic at night, when the danger of collision with ice was especially high, can be explained by the fears of Captain Edward John Smith that his ship would fly before arriving in New York. Despite numerous warnings from other ships about ice, Smith did not slow down, as a result of which the Titanic could not slow down when an iceberg was spotted.

There is a version that the “Titanic” sank not at all from the damage that the iceberg inflicted on him, but from a torpedo launched by a German submarine, again with the aim of receiving insurance payment. And the submarine commander, who agreed to be a member of the scam, was a relative of one of the owners of the Titanic. But this theory does not have strong arguments in its favor. If the torpedo somehow damaged the Titanic’s hull, this would not have gone unnoticed by both passengers and crew.

It is also known that one of the historians, Lord Canterville transported on the Titanic in a wooden box the perfectly preserved Egyptian mummy of the soothsaying soothsayers. Since the mummy had a fairly high historical and cultural value, it was not placed in the hold, but placed directly near the captain’s bridge. The essence of the theory is that the mummy influenced the mind of Captain Smith, who, despite numerous warnings about the ice in the area where the Titanic sailed, did not slow down and thereby doomed the ship to certain death. In favor of this version, there are well-known cases of mysterious deaths of people who troubled the peace of ancient burials, in particular - mummified Egyptian rulers.

Particularly noteworthy is the version that appeared after the novel was published by the granddaughter of the second assistant captain "Titanic" C. Laitoller lady Patten "worth its weight in gold." According to the version put forward by Patten in his book, the ship had enough time to dodge the obstacle, but the helmsman Robert Hitchens panicked and turned the helm in the wrong direction. The truth about what really happened that fateful night was kept secret in the Lightoller family - the oldest surviving Titanic officer and the only survivor who knew exactly what caused the death of the ship. Lightoller hid this information for fear that White Star Line would go bankrupt. The only person to whom Lightoller told the truth was his wife Sylvia, who conveyed the words of her husband to her granddaughter.

Another version appeared in the writer's circles. At the time of the Titanic, there was a prestigious shipping prize awarded to ocean liners for the record speed at which they crossed the North Atlantic - the Atlantic Blue Ribbon. This prize was awarded to the Kunard company Mauritania, which, incidentally, was the founder of the award, as well as the main competitor of White Star Line. In defense of this theory, it is suggested that the president of the company that owned the Titanic, Ismay, urged the captain of the Titanic Smith to arrive in New York a day ahead of schedule and receive an honorary prize. This supposedly explains the high speed of the ship in a dangerous area of \u200b\u200bthe Atlantic. But this theory has an elementary refutation. “Titanic” simply could not physically reach the speed of 26 knots, at which “Mauritania” set a record that lasted more than 10 years after the disaster in the Atlantic.



Most photos taken father Frank Brown.

From 1911 to 1916, Frank Brown studied theology at the Milltown Park Dublin Institute. During this period, his uncle Robert (Bishop Kloyna) sent him an unusual gift: a ticket for a short trip on board " Titanic"heading on his first voyage. Uncle gave To Frank Travel from Southampton to Cherbourg and then to Queenstown (Cob), County Cork, Ireland.

While swimming on Titanic", father brown made friends with a couple of American millionaires sitting with him at the same table in the dining room of the liner for the first class. They invited him to send a message to his abbot in Dublin (the archbishop) to ask him for permission to remain on board until the end of his voyage to New York. An American couple offered to pay for his travel. The message was immediately telegraphed, and the answer was waiting Frank upon arrival in Queenstown. It consisted of five words:

"Get off this ship! Archbishop".

The picture was taken at Waterloo Station on Wednesday, at 9:45 april 10, 1912. The photographer captured the first and last train that brought passengers to " Titanic"

For many years it was believed that the gentleman on the left is John Jacob Astor, who died during the death of "T itanica"(see below). Actually - this is his cousin, William Weldorf Astorwho in 1980 moved to England from the USA

Two out of three screws. " Titanic"(left and middle)



"Olympic"and" Titanic"(right) in Belfast. This is the only photograph of two ships together. (Shipping Company White star line built three huge liners: " Titanic», « Olympic"And" Briton»)

Crow's nest on Titanic". Observing platform on the foremast for the forward looking

"Titanic"in Southampton on April 5, 1912, when the Great Flag of Glory was hoisted for the first and last time



Before boarding " Titanic", Frank Brown took this shot. In the distance are visible gangways for second-class passengers, identical to those on which he stands

April 10, 1912, 12.00. "Titanic"sets sail from Southampton

The photographer leaned over the side of the ship to take pictures of the towing vessels below. In the distance you can see the bank of the Test River and several private yachts anchored. To the left of the photographer is lifeboat number seven. When " Titanic"begins to sink, this boat will be launched first


Moving along the deck of the ship, Frank Brown photographed a crowd consisting mainly of localsseeing off " Titanic"

"Titanic"barely avoids collision with the American ship" New York ". The tug is trying to pull the stern of" New York "off board" Titanic".

"Titanic"already rounded the end of the pier, where he passed the New York airliner, which had already docked and began to turn towards" Titanic". You can see passengers protruding from the windows of the large promenade deck to see the alleged collision

The photograph taken by F. H. Ernott shows the tug "Volcano" at the side " Titanic". The departure of the ship from Southampton was delayed by an hour after he nearly collided with the ship" New York "


The boy on the right is Jack odell, a member of the family with whom he travels Frank Brownand away - major Archibald Butt, military adjutant to President William Howard Taft

Captain Smith on deck 187 yards long

This is obviously an American short story Jacques Photrellstanding on deck next to the gym Titanic"The author of the popular Thinking Machine detectives, he took with him on board many unpublished stories that would be lost forever. Celebrating his 37th anniversary the day before sailing, he will die in a disaster


A gentleman in a white flannel suit is T.V. McCowley, 34-year-old physical education teacher from Aberdeen. One of the passengers will remember several years later Mccouley as a very strict person in relation to passengers. But with the children on board, he behaved softer



Taken from the stern of the A-deck, this photograph shows the back of the ship’s above-deck structure. On the upper deck, a group of second-class passengers

Frank Brown Faced an unfamiliar couple on a morning walk. Upstairs, at the railing of the promenade deck of the second class, benches are assembled


Sexennial Robert Douglas Steadman from Tuxedo Park, New York, launches a spinning top, and his father Frederick watching. During the death of the ship, both father and son were saved, but the photographs taken by Frederick with the camera hanging on his shoulder - no

Vertically lowering doors (closed in the photo) in one of the waterproof bulkheads

Boilers " Titanic"

Junior radio operator " Titanic", Harold Brideat his post. Since this is the only photograph ever taken in the radio cabin of a liner, Frank Brown kept it, despite the double exposure



Third-class passengers crowd around the stern of the ship, from where you can see a sign warning of the danger of propellers below. The smallest dot on the fourth chimney is the soot-covered face of a stoker who climbed up to take a bird's eye view of the Irish port. To some, he seemed a black ghost of death, looking down. Superstitious passengers saw this as a bad omen


Class 1 bedroom (B-57)


Coupe - Class 1 Suite (D-19)


Class 1 bedroom (B-38)


Class 1 bedroom (B-64)

Hall with fireplace in the luxury apartment


Bedroom in the apartment Frank Brown number A-37 on board "Titanic "


Cafe on deck B starboard


Deck " Titanic"


Staircase under the dome. 1 class


Ticket for " Titanic". Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Kimbell. Departure April 10, 1912. Cabin D-19

The lunch menu card for April 14, 1912, which Frank Brown acquired as an illustration to his lectures


Class 1 Lounge

Class 1 common room


Smoking room 1 class


Cafe on the veranda. 1 class


Dining room for 1st class passengers


A-deck reading room

Class 2 library


Class 3 dining room


Class 3 common room

Class 3 menu

Captain’s bridge on Olympic". "Titanic"and" Olympic"almost identical. This is the only photograph of the captain’s bridge.


Swimming pool at Olympic"completely identical to the pool on" Titanic"

On April 11, 1912, the Titanic made a stop in Queenstown to take passengers and mail on board

Queenstown. Marina "White Star". Crowd awaiting boarding messenger ships

Passengers " Titanic"go ashore from the ship" America "



Queenstown merchants had licenses to sell lace and other Irish souvenirs aboard transatlantic liners


Movers waiting for work to transfer correspondence


Illegal trade occurs on board


Mail loading





Messenger ships "Ireland" and "America" \u200b\u200bwith passengers and mail moor to " Titanic"

Giant right anchor " Titanic"raised for the last time. It took several minutes for the anchor to reach the surface. The liner used a chain of 6 wrought iron anchor chains. Each of the chains had a length of 15 fathoms (fathoms)

One of their later shots, Frank Brown made it right after sailing " Titanic" from Queenstown with 1316 passengers and 891 crew members on board, at 13:55 on April 11, 1912

Bruce Ismay (first class passenger, cabins No. B52, 54, 56, ticket No. 112058) executive Director, White Star Line. He survived, but was branded with shame. I could never forgive myself for being one of the first in the boat. He soon left his post and spent the rest of his life as a hermit

Edward John Smith - captain " Titanic".

Smith enjoyed high popularity among crew members and passengers.

By virtue of his wealth of experience, he was instructed to command the passenger airliner " Titanic"on his first voyage, after which the captain was to retire.


At 2.13 nights, just 10 minutes before the ship’s final submersion, Smith He returned to the captain’s bridge, where he met death.

William McMaster Murdoch . First Mate " Titanic". Died

William Murdoch honestly fulfilled his duty and did everything in order to save as many people as possible. Seventy-five percent of all those rescued from the Titanic were evacuated from the starboard side, where they commanded a rescue operation William Murdoch.

Second Mate " Titanic» Charles Herbert Lightoller.Jumping from the ship one of the last and miraculously avoiding being sucked into the ventilation shaft, he swam to the folding boat B, which floated upside down. A pipe breaking off and falling into the sea next to it " Titanic"Drove the boat further away from the sinking ship and allowed her to stay afloat

There were 30 people on the inverted boat, Lightoller tried to somehow organize them, but in vain. By dawn they were picked up by boats from the ship " Carpathia", By that time there were already 27 people on the boat. These were the last rescued passengers of the Titanic, Lightoller helped to lift passengers and he himself boarded the last. (on the pictureLightoller on right)

Frederick Fleet - one of six forward looking on board the Titanic.The first to see the iceberg and raise the alarm. He died.

Thomas Andrews -(first class passenger, cabin No. A 36, ticket No. 112050), Irish businessman and shipbuilder, executive director of the Harland & Wolf shipbuilding company in Belfast. Andrews was a designer Titanic"And one of the 1,517 dead. During evacuation Thomas helped passengers to board their boats, and the last time they saw him in the first-class smoking room near the fireplace, where he looked at the painting “Port Plymouth”. His body after the crash was never found. In the movie Cameron played himVictor Garber.


Benjamin Guggenheim - rich american businessman. He died.

John Jacob and Madeleine ASTOR -a millionaire science fiction writer with his young wife, who was one year younger than the son of John Jacob from his first marriage to Ava Willing. They say John Jacob, like many other influential people, advised not to sit on this ship. However, the multimillionaire decided to try his luck and still went on his last voyage on a doomed airliner. Madeleine escaped on boat number 4. The body of John Jacob was lifted from the depths of the ocean 22 days after his death. The writer and the multimillionaire were discovered by a signet with the letters J.J.A.

Margaret (Molly) Brown - American socialite, philanthropist and activist. Survived. When on Titanic"panic arose, Mollyshe put people in lifeboats, while she herself refused to board there: “If the worst happens, I will swim out,” but in the end someone forced her into the number 6 boat, which made her famous.

65 passengers could fit in the boat, but in reality there were only 26 of them. When they sailed, boilers began to explode on the ship. “Suddenly, the sea opened, and like giant arms grasped the ship,” wrote Margaret. Sitting in a lifeboat in the company of 24 women and two men, she fiercely argued with a senior boat Robert Hitchensdemanding to return to the crash site and pick up the drowning. When one of the passengers got cold Molly gave her her fur coat. And when the cold “finished” even her, she ordered the women to sit down at the oars and row to keep warm

Molly gives the captain " Carpathians"Arthur Rostron Cup of Love on behalf of the surviving passengers" Titanic»

On the " Carpathians» Margaret took up what she knew how to do best: organization. She knew several languages \u200b\u200band could speak with passengers from different countries. She looked for blankets and groceries for them, compiled lists of survivors, and raised money for those who had lost with “ Titanic»Everything: family and savings. By the time of arrival " Carpathians"She collected 10,000 dollars for the survivors at the port. When the ship arrived in New York and reporters asked Margaretthan she owes her luck, she replied: “The usual luck of the Browns. We are unsinkable! ”

She played in the filmKatie Bates


Lucy Christina, Lady Duff Gordon -one of the leading British fashion designers of the late XIX - early XX centuries, known in the professional arena as Lucille. Survived

Dorothy Gibson -silent movie american actress, fashion model and singer. Survived. In 1912, she played her most famous role in the film " Escaped from the Titanic»

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One of the largest shipwrecks in human history, even after 100 years, haunts many people. How could an ultramodern ship equipped with all the necessary innovations of that time with the big name “Titanic” go down due to a collision with some kind of iceberg?

It turns out there are several factors besides huge blocks ice, which ultimately could lead to disaster. Here are some of them.

Fire burned in the Titanic’s fuel compartment

"Titanic" moored in the port of Southampton. April 1912

British journalist Senan Molony, who has been researching the history of the Titanic for 30 years, studied the photographs taken before the liner was sent on a flight, and came to the conclusion that the cause of the crash could be a fire in the fuel compartment of the ship.

The fire arose even before the liner went into the voyage, and they tried to extinguish it unsuccessfully for several weeks. The journalist found out that the owners of the vessel knew about the fire and tried to hide it from the passengers: for this, in Southampton the ship was turned to the shore with another side so that the passengers did not notice traces of soot.

The vessel’s lining in this place warmed up to a temperature of about 1,000 ° C, and when the Titanic collided with an iceberg, the steel could not stand it - a huge hole was formed. Experts have confirmed that with such heating, steel becomes brittle and loses up to 75% hardness.

The binoculars were locked and the key remained on land

One of the Titanic binoculars, which many years later was found at the bottom of the ocean

At the last moment before departure, the management of White Star Line decided to change the first assistant captain on the ship, appointing Henry Wilde, who had experience in managing huge liners, to this place. But the previous first assistant, David Blair, forgot to give Wilde the keys to the safe in which the binoculars were stored.

Of course, on board the Titanic were forward-looking, but without binoculars they had to rely only on their own eyes. They noticed an iceberg when it was already too late.

Locked binoculars became known only 95 years after the tragedy, when the key to the safe was put up for auction.