190 1 year, after British White Star Shipping Company was acquired by IMM International Shipping Company of American chaebol Julius pierpont Morgan, his target was Canard Company. Canard, who was in financial trouble, was forced to turn to the British government for help. 1907, two unprecedented clippers-Lusitania and Mauritania, which used large steam turbines for the first time, joined the huge postal fleet of Kanade Company. Now White Star Company has fallen behind in the competition. With the support of IMM, White Star Company decided to catch up.
/kloc-One night in 0/908, Lord Piry, the owner of Harlan Wolff Shipyard, and Bruce Ismay, the chairman of White Star Company, had dinner at Lord Piry's residence in levia, Berger, London. Harland Wolf Shipyard in Belfast (Harland &; Wolff, HW) has been a loyal partner of White Star Company since 187 1. They talked about two new ships of the Duck Company. Ismail proposed to build two unprecedented giant ships at HW Shipyard, each with three chimneys, with a tonnage about 15000 tons higher than that of the two new canard ships. There were two people in peary's study, two boats became three, and three chimneys became four. These three unprecedented giant ships will become the undisputed overlord of the Atlantic route, not only in tonnage, but also in speed and luxury. The new ship will have a first-class restaurant with a height spanning three decks, and even the decoration of the third-class cabin will be far more comfortable and advanced than other mail ships. The new ship must reach a high speed of 26 to 27 knots. White Star will install three propellers on the new ship. In order to test the reliability of this new configuration, White Star Company purchased two 15000-ton passenger ships from Dominion Shipping Company in 1909 for comparative test. Three propellers proved to give the mail ship a speed advantage.
[Olympic (left) and Titanic (right, unfinished)]
Olympic (left) and Titanic (right, unfinished)
The first Olympic-class mail ship "No.400" started construction at Harlan Wolf Shipyard on June1908+February 16. Different from other companies' practice of keeping the new ship name secret before launching, White Star Company soon announced the names of three ships-Royal Navy Olympic, Royal Navy Titanic and Royal Navy Giant (Royal Navy Britain, renamed after the sinking of Titanic). Because the hull size is too large-880 feet long, it is obvious that the shipyard of Harlan Wolf Shipyard cannot start three ships at the same time. They decided to build 1 (Titanic) and No.2 (Olympic) first, and then start building No.3 (Giant).
General situation of construction
1909 On March 3 1 day, the Titanic started construction at Hanand Wolf Shipyard in Belfast, the largest city in Northern Ireland. Hull launching may 3 19 1 1. All works were completed on March 3, the following year. Titanic was designed by William peary, director of Harlan and Wolff Shipyard, Thomas Andrews, chief designer, and Alexander Carlisle, general manager. Bruce Ismay, managing director of White Star Shipping Company, provided many suggestions in the design process. But in order to make the top deck of Titanic more spacious, he reduced the number of lifeboats of Titanic from 48 to 16. In addition, in order to make the first class of Titanic more luxurious, he lowered the height of the middle bulkhead after learning that the ship could bear four bottom cabins filled with seawater without sinking. The funds to build Titanic came from J.P. Morgan and his international merchant shipping company. At that time, it was the largest and most famous manned mail ship. The total length of Titanic is about 269.06 meters (882.75 feet), the width is 28. 19 meters (92.5 feet), the waterline to deck height is 18.4 meters (60 feet), and the registered tonnage is 46,328 tons (net weight is 2183/kloc-0 Although she contains more space, this leads to a larger gross tonnage (than her
[Grand Dream Ship]
A gorgeous dream ship
Sister ship Olympic multi 1600 tons). Only three of the four huge chimneys are really used to emit smoke. The other is foil, which is actually used as a chimney and ventilation in the main kitchen. The ship has 89 1 crew and can carry more than 2200 passengers.
But White Star is not interested in pursuing speed. At that time, the luxury and exquisiteness of Titanic were unprecedented. The ship is equipped with an indoor swimming pool, gym, bathroom, library, elevator and squash room. The lounge in the first class is decorated with exquisite wooden panels, equipped with high-grade furniture and other high-grade decorations, and tries its best to provide unprecedented service level. The sunny Paris Cafe provides all kinds of high-class snacks for first-class passengers. The living environment of the second class or even the third class of Titanic was as high-grade as the lounge, even comparable to the first class of many passenger ships at that time. Three elevators are specially designed for first-class passengers; As an innovation, second-class passengers also have elevators to use, but third-class passengers still need to climb stairs. Biggs, the baker of Titanic, recalled, "... there won't be another ship like her. I have worked on the Olympic, Solemn and Queen Elizabeth. No ship can compare with the Titanic. Yes, just like the Olympic Games, but much more luxurious. For example, in a big restaurant, the Olympic Sports Center doesn't even have a carpet. The carpet of Titanic is knee-thick ... and the furniture is too heavy for you to carry. And those partitions ... they can build a bigger and faster ship, but Titanic put all her strength into building a luxurious and comfortable space ... She is really a big ship ... ". What Biggs said is a general view. Titanic seduced everyone who built and designed her. This temptation made her more and more popular after many years. In the words of Shipbuilder magazine, Titanic "imitated the Palace of Versailles in many details" ... The lounge was filled with Louis XV-style furniture, similar in style to the salon of the Little Trianon Palace in France, and the carved work on the fireplace was "the hunting goddess of Versailles". There are other exquisite reliefs and artworks ... exquisite teak and brass decorations, chandeliers and murals, carpets from India and Persia. " Even the third class cabin has a marble washbasin and bedside heating equipment. Titanic was an unparalleled luxury at that time. Although she was not the first ship to provide deck swimming pool, gym, bathroom and elevator, she tried her best to provide a level of service that she had never seen before.
The most luxurious part of the ship is the grand staircase of the first class, which is located between the first and second chimneys. The grand staircase with oak paneling and gold-plated railings extends all the way to the E deck, and the top is a glass dome supported by wrought iron brackets, which fills the grand staircase with natural light. A clock is embedded in the wall at the top of the stairs, and fables symbolizing nobility and dignity are carved on both sides of the clock. There is also a relatively simple staircase between the third and fourth chimneys. James Cameron faithfully recreated this staircase in his film Titanic.
Although the Olympic and Titanic are sister ships, some details are different. After the observation of the first flight of the Olympic Games, it was found that passengers on deck A would be drenched by water mist, and the corridor running through deck B was not highly utilized. Both of these defects were improved on the Titanic, and part of the B deck was transformed into a private terrace of the first-class luxury suite.
Titanic is a fixed-point work of technological achievements. Titanic talked more about safety. The two-story ship bottom is divided into 16 watertight compartments by 15 watertight partitions, with automatic watertight doors, spanning the whole ship. 16 watertight compartment to prevent her from sinking. Strangely, these waterproof compartments do not extend very high. The first two watertight partitions and the last five are only built on the D deck, and the eight walls in the middle are only set on the lower E deck. Even so, any two cars are full of water, she can still drive, and even four cars are full of water, which can keep floating. People at that time could not imagine a worse situation, so Shipbuilder magazine thought it was "impossible to sink". A crew member said to Sylvia Caldwell, a second-class female passenger, during the voyage, "Even God himself can't sink this ship."
Mechanical principle and power source
Titanic used coal as fuel to generate steam to drive a steam engine. There are 25 double-ended boilers and 4 single-ended boilers on board, and their power comes from 159 coal-fired boilers, which provide steam for Titanic to maintain strong power for 24 hours. The power system consists of three main engines, two of which are 4-cylinder reciprocating steam engines and the other 65,438+0 are steam turbines. The main engine power exceeds 5 1000 horsepower, so the maximum speed of Titanic can reach 23 knots.
(of a ship) making its first voyage.
1965438+On February 3, 2002, the Titanic completed its renovation work, and its maiden voyage was originally scheduled for March 20. However, the unfortunate collision of191/kloc-0 with the Royal Navy cruiser Hawke in September 2000 delayed the final work of Titanic. Her maiden voyage is scheduled for April 10. Before that, there will be a sea trial on April 1 day. Everything is perfect. Titanic arrived in Southampton Port on the 3rd, anchored at No.41and waited for the exciting moment of No.4 10. As an unpleasant episode, the work of adding coal encountered a little setback due to the strike of coal workers in Southampton Port. IMM Company didn't want to postpone the maiden voyage of Titanic any longer, so it searched all the coal blocks from all the coal cabins of the company's mail ship moored in Southampton Port.
1912 April 10, the "unsinkable" Titanic set sail at the ocean pier in Southampton Port and sailed for the new world. The captain's name is Adward Smith. The dock was crowded with passengers, family members who came to see me off, baggage handlers and customs inspectors. In the morning 1 1, 1 chimney emitted white steam. Twenty-five of the 29 boilers started to fire in turn. At noon 12, Titanic slowly left the dock under the traction of tugboat. Two external propellers began to stir the sea water in Southampton Harbour. Titanic passed the ship Solemn (not the one compensated by Germany later), Philadelphia, St. Lewis, Ocean and New York in turn, and honked its horn to welcome her. This 46,000-ton ship seems to be very attractive to other ships. Just before sailing, another regular ship, the New York, moved in the water because of its huge size, which caused a lot of water to backfill and almost hit her hull, delaying for an hour. Titanic's tugboat Vulcan hijacked the hull of the New York. The world's largest mail ship began its first and only voyage.
Titanic divided passengers into three classes. Third class cabin is also the cheapest to get off the hull. Most of these passengers are immigrants who plan to cross the Atlantic to build a new life. The decoration of the second-class cabin and the general guest room was actually the same as that of the first-class cabin of other general ships at that time. Many second-class passengers originally positioned the first class on other ships, but gave up because of the voyage of Titanic. The first class is the most expensive and luxurious part of the whole ship, and some of the richest celebrities in the world were on this journey at that time.
At 7 o'clock that evening, Titanic arrived in Cherbourg, France. Another group of passengers and goods boarded the Titanic were two special ferry boats, namely nomads and transporters, including American rich people Astor and Margaret Brown-later called "unsinkable aristocratic Mrs. Brown" by newspapers. At noon the next day, Titanic arrived in Queenstown, Ireland. A group of Irish immigrants full of longing and hope for the new world boarded the ship. A passenger landed here, and his photos later became out-of-print photos of Titanic, which is of great value to today's collectors.
According to Ismail's orders, the Titanic accelerated to 25 knots the next day. Although people think that Kanade is only looking for a quick strategy to reduce its image, White Star also wants a blue ribbon to show off. Nothing important happened on the Titanic along the way. Philip, the ship's operator, is busy sending expensive private telegrams for first-class passengers, mostly instructions for peace and stock trading and delivery.
An unforgettable night
19 12 April 14, Sunday night, a calm night, even no wind at all. If there is, the crew will find the little phosphorescence of the waves on the iceberg. Titanic sailed on this dark and cold ocean at a speed of 22.3 knots. Captain Smith ordered the lookout to observe carefully after receiving ice reports from many ships nearby. Because it is a warm winter this year, icebergs drift farther south than in previous years. However, the crew of Titanic forgot to bring their binoculars, so the lookout could only observe with the naked eye. At 23: 40, Frederic fleet, a lookout, found a shadow "the size of two tables" in the distance, and it became bigger at a fast speed. He knocked the alarm bell on the bridge three times and grabbed the phone: "There is an iceberg directly ahead!" " ".Six Moody officials who answered the phone informed the first mate Murdoch next to them. Murdoch ordered to slow down, left full rudder, stop the ship and reverse the car. It turns out that this is the stupidest decision. At that time, the best choice was to slow down and hit an iceberg with a solid bow. 19 12 On that cold night in April, the Titanic and the iceberg kissed each other in death.
Before 13 hours, operator Philip received a weak radio signal from Canada, and operator Elise from nearby California sent a telegram to Titanic. Californian's telegram was so loud that it almost deafened Philip's eardrum, so he cut it off, even though it was related to icebergs. At the same time, Elis entered the wrong format and forgot to add Meg. After sending it again, he went to bed.
The result of this collision was later known to people. But at that time, the passengers and crew on board reacted differently. First class and second class are better.
The passengers who didn't sleep well were awakened by the slight scratching of metal. The hull gave a slight vibration. Some people think it's a big wave, some people think it's hitting the rocks, and some people think it's propeller failure. But the passengers in the cabin below felt much stronger vibration. Some passengers saw milky white icebergs passing by outside the porthole. Some scraped ice fell into the cabin. The immigrant passengers on the ground floor were even more shocked to find that the cold sea water was overflowing the car door from a place I didn't know. The ship stopped soon. Some passengers put on their coats and came to the deck. The stars are shining over the North Atlantic, and the temperature is as low as MINUS one degree. Under the dark sky, the window of Titanic gave off a warm light yellow light. Four tall yellow and black chimneys were filled with white steam smoke. Suddenly, the three of them suddenly gave a deafening roar and scream. Passengers who know about steam engines know that it is the boiler safety valve on board that releases excess superheated high-pressure steam. Please see the sinking process of Titanic in detail. Although many passengers escaped from the hull, they were sucked into the sea together when they sank, or lost their temperature in the cold sea water and died. Many passengers' bodies have not been found, and they are likely to be trapped in the engine room and drowned alive.
People who fell into the water soon lost consciousness. What awaits them is rapid hypothermia, nerve paralysis and death. The people in the lifeboat also froze to death. Some people completely rely on strong will, half-immersed in cold sea water, and hold on to the overturned lifeboat No.2. It was not until half past three that Canard's passenger ship Carpathia arrived at the scene of the accident first. At 4 o'clock, the crew of Carpathia found the first lifeboat in the twilight of the North Atlantic. The rescue work continued until 8: 30 in the morning, and the lifeboat 12 tied the rescue cable. Of the 2208 crew and passengers on the Titanic, only 705 survived. The captain and priest of the Carpathia hosted a mourning ceremony in the dining room. At 8: 50, turn around and return to new york.
On April 18, the Karpas arrived at new york Port. Thousands of people watched them pass the Statue of Liberty on the Waterray coast of Manhattan Island. At Pier 54, about 30,000 people stood in the rain, silently welcoming the survivors of the Titanic. The news of the sinking of Titanic shocked the whole western world. At that time, people were no less shocked than the 9. 1 1 incident in the United States in this century. Flags were flown at half-mast in many places on both sides of the Atlantic. King George V of England and President Taft of the United States exchanged messages of condolence. Kaiser Wilhelm II also sent a message of condolence.
Consequences and effects of shipwreck
Titanic is the product of the peak of human dreams, which embodies the strong self-confidence of human beings to dominate the world. Her sinking showed mankind the mysterious power of nature and the unpredictability of fate. On the day the Titanic sank, people in the western world had enjoyed 100 years of stability and peace. With the steady progress of science and technology and the rapid development of industry, people are full of confidence in the future. The sinking of the Titanic awakened all this. This unsinkable ship is the largest man-made steel structure after the Eiffel Tower and a great achievement in the industrial age. Because it was careless about the forces of nature, it sank on its first maiden voyage. Titanic will always remind people of the price of human arrogance and self-confidence. People will never forget this picture: Titanic held her head high at the bottom of the sea, and ruins and stains could not hide her nobility. This is where she belongs. History has thus evolved into a legend.
The disaster shocked the international community. Because it proves to some people that people and their scientific and technological achievements cannot be compared with the forces of nature.
At that time, the steelmaking technology was not very mature, and the steel produced was not made by modern standards. The steel plate used in Titanic contains many chemical impurities, such as zinc sulfide, which, combined with long-term immersion in cold seawater, makes the steel plate more fragile.
On the other hand, the schematic diagram of the collision of the Titanic is not in line with the public's idea: there are also many statements about the sinking form of the Titanic. Including the sinking of the whole ship; The hull folds near the middle of the second and third chimneys and then sinks vertically; The hull was folded near the middle of the third and fourth chimneys, then the front hull dragged the stern and the stern sank vertically. Until 1985 and 1 September, the famous scientist Ballard found the wreckage of Titanic in the sea about 380 miles southeast of Newfoundland, which was the bow part of the first two chimneys and the stern part behind the fourth chimney, which initially proved the third theory. This theory was later experienced in the film Titanic directed by James Cameron. At that time, everyone thought that the hull of the third chimney had been blown to pieces and would never be found. However, in August 2005, an archaeological team sponsored by the History Channel found this part of the hull 500 meters behind the wreckage at the stern. The wreckage is about 12 m by 27 m, and the red paint on the bottom of the ship is still clearly visible. This discovery overturns the "double cut theory" of the past 20 years. Scientists believe that the Titanic sank after breaking three sections.
Even after 1 century, several absurd stories about Titanic and its sinking still exist. One is that her rudder is too small, and a bigger rudder can avoid this disaster. A bigger rudder may have saved her, when the size of her rudder is not small for the size of her hull. In fact, according to today's regulations on ships, the size of the rudder of Titanic is still qualified. Another way of saying this is that there were not enough lifeboats on the Titanic. In fact, the number of her lifeboats complies with British law. The number of people stipulated by law is not based on the number of passengers, but on the tonnage of the ship. At that time, the number of lifeboats on all ships was far below the required number, and the purpose of lifeboats at that time was not to hold all passengers; They are only used to transfer passengers from sunken ships to another rescue ship. At that time, the international maritime safety rules were that the number of lifeboats on passenger ships was one-third of the total number of people on board, and the lifeboats on Titanic could carry half of the passengers. White Star Company is also very aggrieved that this extra configuration of "being highly responsible for passenger safety" has not attracted public attention. The sinking of the Titanic changed this life-saving strategy forever. After the sinking of the Titanic, new maritime safety regulations were formulated. The requirements for lifeboats are simple: they must be able to accommodate all the people on board. According to the new requirements, major shipping companies quickly carried out the transformation work. In fact, even if she can load more lifeboats to carry all the passengers, there may still be no guarantee that more people will be rescued, because when she sank, the crew had not had time to put down all the lifeboats! There is also a saying that the crew of the mechanical group stick to their posts until the end. A book published by 1988 also mentioned this point and made it immortal. In fact, the mechanical cabin was flooded at 1: 15AM. At the last moment of sinking, mechanics and furnace workers stood on the stern deck like hundreds of others, trapped in the ship, without any hope of being rescued. According to experts' analysis, people trapped at the stern imploded due to water pressure about ten minutes after the ship sank to the bottom of the sea, or were immediately crushed to death by seawater or hull, or suffocated to death.