Titanic: The Ship That Didn’t Sink

‘Unsinkable,’ were the words used in the introductory advertisement for the Titanic, the famous ship of its time.
The builders of this ship were so confident of its strength, durability and unsinkability that they not only did not keep the full number of lifeboats in it, but also did not completely construct the bulkheads connecting the lower sections. was done. They had no illusion that if the first part of the ship is filled with water, then that water will also go to the back parts.
Built by the White Star Line, this largest ship in the world was 882 feet nine inches long and 92 feet wide, while the height of this ship is said to be 175 feet. The order for the construction of this ship was issued on 17 September 1908 and her construction began on 31 March 1909. She was launched on 31 May 1911 and completed on 2 April 1912.

Eight days later, on April 10, 1912, at nine o’clock at night, this ship left the British city of Southampton for the American city of New York on its maiden voyage. There were 3327 passengers on board, including 892 crew members. The first four days of the trip were very pleasant. The ship’s owners and passengers were all in awe of their good fortune. He was traveling in the largest and most luxurious ship in the world.
The captain of the Titanic was named Edward John Smith. He was an experienced captain, but he tried to set a new world record for crossing the Atlantic Ocean in the shortest time, taking all safety precautions under the direction of the White Star Line. So they started driving the ship at a very high speed and did not listen to the warning of another ship in the sea that there were large icebergs in the sea.

The ship’s crew did not have binoculars and were unable to see very far because of the fog. On April 14, 1912, the ship’s crew saw a huge iceberg approaching. The captain was immediately informed but by then it was too late. The plane hit an iceberg at 11:40 pm despite shutting off the engine.
The rivets that were used to join the Titanic’s parts together were made of very poor material, rather than steel. As soon as the ship hit the iceberg, these rabbets broke and the salty sea water quickly entered the ship.

After the plane’s engine shut down, the passengers also realized that something was wrong. Since no protective walls were built in the lower part of the ship, the water soon spread throughout the ship.

The front part of the ship became so heavy due to flooding that the ship began to sink and in just three hours it broke into two pieces and sank into the sea.
There were only 20 lifeboats on the ship which were very few for the number of passengers. The reason for keeping fewer boats was that the company was confident that the ship could not sink.

Only 755 passengers could save their lives with the help of these lifeboats and the remaining passengers, estimated to be between 1490 and 1635, drowned. Among the survivors was the owner of the ship, Bruce Ismay, who managed to save his life by leaving the women and children in a boat, but for this selfishness he was hated for the rest of his life. He was called the ‘Coward of the Titanic’. He died in 1937.

As for the captain, he was busy trying to save the women and children with the crew members, he was the last man to jump overboard but could not save his own life.

A statue of him has been installed in Beacon Park in Lichfield, Staffordshire, UK to pay tribute to his great spirit. Captain Smith also gave an SOS signal for help on this occasion.

It may not be out of place to mention here that this was the first time that the SOS signal was used for help. At a short distance from Titanic, there were three ships named Frankfurt, Carpathia and Mount Temple, but these three ships did not immediately pay attention to this signal of Titanic.

In the morning, the Carpathia managed to reach the Titanic, but by then the Titanic was completely submerged. The crew of the Carpathia were only able to save the lives of the passengers and crew members in the lifeboats.
73 years later, on September 1, 1985, a team of adventurers found the remains of the Titanic at a depth of about two and a half miles on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, leading to new discoveries.

Experts have been searching for these remains for a long time, but every time failure was their destiny. In 1985, an expedition led by Dr. Robert Ballard was sent to search for the remains and discovered them at a depth of about 12,000 feet in the Atlantic Ocean.

As a result of this discovery, some painful facts also came out that even in this long struggle of life and death social and economic division was taken into account. The ship’s crew kept third-class passengers locked below deck for the last time, as first-class passengers were given priority on lifeboats.

Of the 179 women traveling in the third class, 81 died, while only four of the 143 women traveling in the first class died, three of whom did not accept the abandonment of their husbands.
In 1997, a blockbuster film was made on the theme of Titanic, which broke all previous records of popularity. The film was directed by James Cameron and starred Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio.

It was the first film in the world to earn a billion dollars at the box office, a feat that lasted for 12 years. The film was nominated for an Oscar in 14 categories, out of which it won 11.

Innumerable books have been written on the subject of the Titanic, in which every aspect of the disaster has been preserved. The film Titanic made in 1997 was not the first film made on this subject, but many films had been made on this subject before.

In fact, the same year the Titanic sank, a silent film was made about it.

However, most of the films were documentaries, so they did not achieve the success that the 1997 film did.

If you look at the list of the biggest shipwrecks in the world, the Titanic ranks at the bottom, and there have been bigger shipwrecks in the world that have drowned more people, but the Titanic has the fame of someone else. did not come

110 years after the incident, books are being written and movies are being made about the Titanic.

In this sense, Titanic is truly ‘unsinkable’.