On April 10th 1912, the British liner, Titanic, glided out of Southampton harbor on her first voyage ever for New York with over 2,200 passengers on her deck waving farewell to their loved ones. As the giant ship set sail on that faithful afternoon, no-one would have believed that a massive iceberg will only allow the total of just 705 of them to ever set foot land again.
The Titanic was the ultimate in sea-going luxury, displacing 66,000 tons, 104 feet high, 882.5 feet long, with two sets of 4-cylinder reciprocating engines producing 50,000 registered horsepower and a cruising speed of 24 to 25 knots.
She could carry up to 3,000 passengers in her magnificently appointed three class cabins. However, her most prized feature was her special construction, the superb 16 watertight compartments which her owners, the White Star Line, claimed it to be virtually unsinkable.
"Even God himself cannot sink it," a sailor said to a high-classed passenger just before the liner set sail.
Captain Edward Smith went down with his ship.
RMS Titanic
zdjęcie przedstawia statek SS Californian.However, by the night of Sunday April 14th he was proved wrong.
Overstated self -confidence has brought the Titanic to its devastating end.
Just hours before the sinking, the wireless operator John Phillips kept receiving odd signals from other nearby ships on the main transatlantic route ahead. There seemed to be large ice packs sifting unusually far south.
Around 7.15pm, the temperature around the shop began to drop to freezing point. Yet, no-one in the authority took notice.
At 11pm, a nearby chip, the Californian directly contacted the Titanic to announce that it was totally hemmed in by ice and was forced to stop engines. John Phillips by this time had worn out with a day's work and was reported to have snapped back, "Shut up, shut up! I am busy!"
A blind disregard...