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Titanic was built at Hanand Wolf Shipyard in Belfast, the largest city in Northern Ireland. Hull launching may 3 19 1 1. She is also the second Olympic-class steamboat built by White Star Company in the same shipyard. It was the largest and most prestigious manned cruise ship at that time. Titanic is 260 meters long and 28 meters wide, with a total weight of 46,329 tons (net weight of 2 1, 83 1 ton), power of 3,000 horsepower and speed of 23-24 miles per hour. Although it contains more space, it leads to a larger gross tonnage. Her hull is still as big as her sister ship, the Olympic. The ship has 899 crew members and can carry 3300 passengers. Because she also delivers mail, it is also called the Royal Mail steamship Titanic. Only three of the four huge chimneys can work normally. The other is foil, whose only practical use is as a chimney in the main kitchen.
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. For first-class passengers, she provided three elevators; As an innovation, she provided an elevator for second-class passengers. Economy class passengers still need to climb stairs. One of her most famous features is her luxurious stairs. James Cameron faithfully reproduced this staircase in his film.
Titanic is a fixed-point work of technological achievements. 16 watertight cabin in case she sinks. During the voyage, a crew member said to Sylvia Caldwell, a second-class female passenger, "Even if God comes himself, he can't sink this ship.
(of a ship) making its first voyage.
Titanic set off from Southampton, England, on April 19 12, for new york, USA. The captain's name is edward smith. He left Southampton Port at noon on April 12, and planned to cross the North Atlantic and go straight to new york. When she was about to set sail, another regular ship "New York" moved in the water because of its huge size, which caused the attraction of a large amount of backfill water to almost hit her hull, delaying for an hour. After the departure, Titanic first docked in Cherbourg, France, across the English Channel to accept more passengers, and then docked in Queenstown, Ireland. Finally, she arrived in new york with 65,438+0,324 passengers and 892 deck workers. Titanic divided passengers into three classes. Third-class cabins are also the cheapest in the lower hull. Most of these passengers are immigrants who plan to build a new life across the Atlantic. 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 their first class on other ships, but gave up because of the voyage of Titanic and transferred coal energy to 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. The famous ones are John Jacob, a millionaire at that time (theoretically calculated in pounds or dollars), Benjamin Guggenheim, his wife and entrepreneur, Isador and Ida Staus, and the unsinkable Molly Brown. And J. Bruce Ismay, the director of White Star Cruises, and Thomas Andrews, the chief designer, also traveled in the first class of the ship.
/kloc-On the night of April, 0/4, she hit an iceberg. In the process of colliding with an iceberg, due to misjudgment, he made an emergency turn at high speed, leading to turning forward. At the same time, the iceberg made a long crack in the bottom of the ship, which not only loosened the rivets under the starboard waterline, but also caused the water in six watertight compartments. Finally, due to too much water, the hull tilted to an amazing state close to the hull vertical (vertical to the horizontal plane), because the tilting can continue to pour water. Finally, the hull couldn't support the weight, and half of the hull on the water broke off, and then 1522 people sank to the bottom of the sea.
On the port side of the ship, lifeboats only carry women and children. On the starboard side, men are allowed to board the ship only after women have the priority to escape. So more people were rescued on the starboard side than on the port side.
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.
Consequences and effects of the accident
Contrary to popular belief, when the Titanic sank, it did use the internationally used Morse code SOS, but this was not the earliest example of SOS. 1906 SOS signal was first put forward by the international radiocommunication conference off Berlin. 1908, the international community recognized this proposal and gradually began to use it widely, four years before the sinking of the Titanic. However, British radio operators rarely use SOS signals, and they prefer the old CQD distress signals. John George Philip, the chief radio officer of Titanic, kept sending CQD distress signals until Harold Brad, a junior radio operator, suggested him to send SOS, which is a new call signal. This may be your last chance to send it! Then Philip mixed the sos signal with the traditional CQD distress signal. Because there was no 24-hour radio, the California ship finally received a distress signal the next morning.
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 is more fragile because it is immersed in cold seawater.
Even today, 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. The sinking of the Titanic changed this life-saving strategy forever. 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.
On the other hand, there are many theories about the sinking form of 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, the famous scientist Ballard found the wreckage of Titanic in the sea about 380 miles southeast of Newfoundland, including 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 subverts the "double cut theory" of the past 20 years. Scientists believe that the Titanic broke three sections and sank.
The sinking of Titanic greatly affected shipbuilding and radio and telegraph communication. 19131February 12 Therefore, the first international conference on the safety of life at sea was held in London, England. The treaty reached at the meeting contributed to the establishment and capital investment of the international iceberg inspection organization. To this day, she is still detecting and reporting icebergs in the North Atlantic that may threaten ships. The treaty also unanimously reached a new regulation: all manned ships must have enough lifeboats to carry all the people on board, and appropriate related training should be carried out. In addition, the radio communication should be open 24 hours a day, plus the secondary standby power supply, so that the distress signal will not be missed. The treaty also agreed that any rocket launched from a ship must be interpreted as a distress signal.
In May 2006, the last female survivor who witnessed this incident died at the age of 99. At present, two female survivors are still alive, but they were less than one year old when the accident happened, so they will not have memories of the incident.