The Titanic Disaster
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THE TITANIC DISASTER
The Titanic Disaster was one of the worst maritime disasters in history. The British Titanic was built in Belfast, Ireland, by Harland and Wolff shipyard. It was the largest moving man-made object ever created, weighing 46,000 gross tons and measuring 882 feet long. The Titanic left on its maiden voyage on April 10, 1912 from Southampton to New York City. It disastrously struck an iceberg about 153 kilometers south of the Grand Banks, just before midnight on April 14, 1912.
The Titanic was owned by millionaire J. P. Morgan, Jr. He was to be aboard the Titanic for her maiden voyage, but due to poor health cancelled his trip at the last minute.
Edward J. Smith was granted the honor of being the first Captain of the Titanic and he was one of 1,523 who perished in the disaster.
People had been skeptical about the Titanic. There were even rumors about this extremely large ship. One of the rumors stated that it was unsinkable. Nevertheless, this rumor was without a doubt wrong. Proof being that once it collided with an iceberg, which scrapped the right side leaving an opening of 300 feet, it sank in less than three hours.
Investigations have found that the ship had been traveling too fast in the dangerous waters, and that there were only twenty lifeboats onboard. This was only enough to carry half of the passengers and crew. Unfortunately, the majority of the passengers found themselves left to the mercy of the icy, cold waters. Another big factor was that the crew didn’t pay enough attention to the ice warnings about which they were notified several times before the tragic incident. It was 2:20 a.m. on April 15 by the time the vessel had been fully immersed into the water. Of the 2,228 passengers and crew it was carrying, 1,523 died, and only 705 were rescued.
The Titanic was divided into sixteen watertight compartments by means of watertight
bulkheads, which contained electric doo...