Titanic

Titanic


It was a British liner, the largest ship in the world at the time of its completion, which sank on the night of 14 to 15 April 1912 during its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York. The sinking of the Titanic in 1514 of the 2223 people aboard were killed, making this tragedy in one of the largest shipwreck in history occurred in peacetime. Built between 1909 and 1912 at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, the Titanic was the second of three liners who formed the Olympic class, owned by the White Star Line.

Among its passengers were some of the richest people in the world, plus hundreds of Irish, British and Scandinavian immigrants who went in search of a better life in America. The ship was designed to be the ultimate in luxury and comfort, and had a gym, pool, library, fancy restaurants and opulent cabins for first-class travelers. It was also equipped with a powerful telegraphy station for use by passengers and crew and advanced security measures, such as bulkheads and airlocks helmet activated remotely. However, due to outdated safety standards of the time, it carried lifeboats for only 1178 passengers, 6 little more than half of those who were on board on its maiden voyage and one third of its total capacity.

After setting sail from Southampton on April 10, 1912, the Titanic docked in Cherbourg, France, and in Queenstown (now Cobh) in Ireland, before setting sail the Atlantic Ocean. At 23:40 on April 14, four days after departure, about 600 km south of Newfoundland, the Titanic struck an iceberg. The collision opened several hull plates on her starboard side below the waterline along five of her sixteen bulkheads, which began to flood. For two and a half hours the boat was gradually sinking his front while the stern rose, and at this time several hundred passengers and crew were evacuated in lifeboats, some of which were not filled to maximum capacity. A very high number of men died due to rescue strict protocol followed in the process of evacuation of the ship, known as "women and children first" 7 8 Just before 2:20 pm April 15, the Titanic it broke in half and sank bow with hundreds of people still on board. Most of those who remained floating on the sea surface died of hypothermia, although some were rescued by the lifeboats. The 710 survivors were rescued by the RMS Carpathia transatlantic few hours later.

The wreck of the Titanic shocked and angered the world by the high number of deaths and mistakes. Public research conducted in the United Kingdom and the United States led to the implementation of significant improvements in maritime safety and the creation in 1914 of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS, for short), which still it governs maritime safety. Many of the survivors who lost all their assets in the tragedy, were helped by public charity, but others, like the president of the White Star Line, J. Bruce Ismay, were accused of cowardice by his premature abandonment of the ship and socially ostracized.

The wreck of the Titanic was discovered on September 1, 1985 by oceanographer Robert Ballard US in the bottom of the North Atlantic at a depth of 3784 meters. The remains are badly damaged and suffer a progressive deterioration, but since its discovery ship thousands of objects have been recovered from the seabed and are on display in many museums. The Titanic is perhaps the most famous ship in history and memory is kept very much alive by numerous books, songs, movies, exhibitions and memorials.

It all began on July 31, 1908 with the signing of the contract for construction in the shipyards of Belfast (Northern Ireland), the Titanic, Olympic and Britannic called a third party who then added ocean liners. The Titanic was built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard with construction number 401.1 was intended to compete with the Lusitania and Mauretania vessels rival company Cunard Line. The Titanic, along with his brothers of the Olympic, Olympic and Gigantic (later Britannic) class, the latter still under construction, were intended to be the largest and most luxurious ocean liners. The designers were William Pirrie 9 managing director of Harland and Wolff; naval architect Thomas Andrews, construction manager and head of the design department of Harland and Wolff10 and Alexander Carlisle, the chief and general manager of Carlisle astillero.11 designer's responsibilities included the decorations, equipment and all general arrangements, including the implementation of an efficient system of davits for lifeboats. Carlisle left the project in 1910, before the ships were thrown, when it became a shareholder in Welin Davit & Engineering Company Ltd, the company that made the davits.

The construction of RMS Titanic, funded by the American businessman JP Morgan and his International Mercantile Marine Co. company, began on 31 March 1909.13 with a total cost of 7.5 million dollars of the time, ie, 300 million at current exchange [citation needed]. The hull of the Titanic was launched into the sea at 12:13 on the 31st May 1911.14 and its construction was completed on March 31 the following year. Its total length was 269 m, the sleeve was 28 m, had a gross tonnage of 46,328 tonnes and a height of 18 meters from the waterline to the deck of botes.15 The Titanic was equipped with two four alternative machines cylinder triple expansion and low pressure turbine Parsons, who drove three bronze propellers. He was 29 boilers 159 coal furnaces that made possible a top speed of 23 knots (43 km / h). Only three of the four fireplaces, with 18.9 meters high, were functional; the fourth fireplace served only for ventilation, 15 and was added to give the boat a more impressive appearance.

Upon completion of its construction, the Titanic succeeded his twin Olympic as the world's largest ship. This was because, although both vessels had the same dimensions, the Titanic weighed 1008 tons and more the size of a vessel is measured by tonnage.