Interesting Facts About The Titanic

2 decades ago, the blockbuster film James Cameron's "Titanic" had astounded many viewers around the world. The story about the sunken Titanic ship has amassed billions of views to this day since it was based on a real-life tragedy that occurred a long time ago.

But it was only 10 years after the incident, Robert Ballard who was an oceanographer found the Titanic ship in 1985. He revealed to the whole world that he managed to find the popular shipwreck of the Titanic ship as a result of his secret military expedition with the United States Navy.

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Interestingly enough, the finding of this shipwreck can be said to be by accident since the mission of finding this ship was only a ploy or a smokescreen for the navy from being discovered by their enemies.

Their true intent was to find two nuclear submarines that were believed to have sunk in the vicinity. Here we would like to share with you the interesting story of the sinking Titanic.

Background of The Titanic

Titanic is a wealthy British passenger liner that sunk on 15 April 1912 after crashing on a huge iceberg resulting in the death of more than 1,500 passengers and crew members. The Titanic ship was believed to have sunk somewhere in the northern Atlantic Ocean.

It was only 4 days after its operation that this massive ship went into contact with a huge chunk of ice resulting in many casualties of the people onboard. The Titanic shipwreck was found on 1 September 1985 after 73 years the ship sank to the ocean's floor.

After sinking in 1912 the shipwreck was found almost 400 miles in Newfoundland in the northern Atlantic Ocean at the depth of 13,000 feet. The Titanic tragedy has definitely given a deep impact on the world of maritime.

If we were to talk about one of the ship tragedies that cause hundred to thousands of deaths, many would relate to the Titanic incident. The Titanic happens to be a ship that underwent intense competition with other ship companies in the 20th century.

In the early 1900s, the trade of transatlantic passengers was considered very lucrative and competitive with the shipping routes being competed to take in tourists and wealthy newcomers.

Two from the main line will be the White Star and Cunard. The Titanic ship is the second among the three passengers ship to control the business along the journey crossing the Atlantic Ocean.

The ship was owned by The White Star Line and built in Belfast by Harland and Wolff. At the time of its launch, the Titanic was considered the biggest steamboat in the world. During the first sailing of this ship, it collided with a huge iceberg during nighttime and completely sink into the ocean 2 hours and 40 minutes later.

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The tragedy which took the lives of more than 1,500 people has made it the worst maritime disaster of the century. This incident took everyone by surprise especially when the Titanic itself is fully equipped with the most advanced technology at that time as well as many highly experienced crews onboard.

Some people even believed that the Titanic ship will never even sink. Titanic was known as Millionaire's Special and was driven by Captain James J. Smith that was called by the name Millionaire's Captain due to his popularity among rich passengers.

Construction of Titanic Ship

Aside from the fancy decorations, the Titanic also features a very huge first-class restaurant and also equipped with 4 service elevators as well as a swimming pool. Its second-class accommodations are comparable with the first-class of other ships around.

Not just that, the third class that is available despite being quite moderate, it is still very comfortable for the passengers.

When we talk about the safety elements of the ship, the Titanic comprised 16 parts including doors that can be closed so that influx of water can be prevented in case there were damages to the body of the ship.

Even though the ship itself is considered waterproof, there are still some spaces at the top where water can come in. After completing the body parts and main structures of the ship, the Titanic was launched on 31 May 1911.

It then continued with the assembly phase after machinery was brought into the ship and inside works were initiated. During its preparatory phase to start off its first journey, the Titanic was one of the biggest and most expensive ships.

It was registered to occupy a capacity of 46,328 tonnes of load and when fully occupied, its full weight can reach more than 52,000 tonnes. The Titanic is roughly 882.5 feet long and around 92.5 feet wide at its peak point.

The Finding of Shipwreck

Parts of the story of this Cold War have been known since the mid of 1990s but its complete details have now been revealed according to Robert Ballard. Several years before that, rumors were going around that both submarines sank during the Cold War.

However, no one was ever to confirm it until Robert Ballard himself revealed this matter to the public. Robert Ballard met with the United States Navy in 1982 to ask for funding to develop the required robot submarine technology to find the Titanic.

Robert Ballard

Unfortunately, the cost of his initiative was not in their budget. Ronald Thunman who at the time was the Deputy Chief Operation of Naval Operations for submarine warfare told Robert Ballard that the United States Navy was very interested in the technology being proposed but only to investigate the shipwreck of U.S.S Thresher and U.S.S Scorpion.

Both these submarines happen to be the US nuclear submarines that have sunk. Considering the technology that has been developed by Robert Ballard can reach sunken submarines and take a photo of the shipwreck, this oceanographer agreed to help.

He then requested the United States Navy if he can also find the Titanic which was coincidentally located between both shipwrecks. Ronald Thunman later emphasized that their main mission was to only find both missing submarines.

But he also added that if the mission was a complete success and time was on their side, the United States navy is more than willing to help Robert. They did not put any high hopes that the Titanic's shipwreck will be there but if it was found by the US navy, then it will definitely get the attention of the public.

The main concern of the US navy was that if it was found and revealed to the public, their secret mission will also be blown out. But the opposite thing happened when the public was too focused on the discovery of the Titanic to the extent that they did not know or realized that the US Navy was on a more important mission.

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Therefore, this secrecy still remains intact until it was revealed by Robert Ballard who was also involved in the expedition.

Research On The Impacts of Nuclear

The Thresher and Scorpion submarines have sunk in the northern Atlantic Ocean at the depth of 3,000 to 4,600 meters. The main mission of finding both these submarines was because the US navy wants to know the condition of the nuclear reactor powering both the submarines.

This finding is crucial to help determine the safety of the environment and research the impacts of disposing of nuclear substances in the ocean. The US navy also wants to know whether there was any proof to support that the Scorpion submarine was shot down by the Soviets.

Finally, after the submarines were found, they noticed the data collected by Robert Ballard showed that the nuclear reactor is safe and sound in the deep sea leaving the environment unharmed.

The data also confirmed that the Tresher submarine might have sunk due to piping issues which ultimately result in the failure of nuclear-powered generation.

It can be said that the tragedy of the Titanic ship left a huge impact on the world of maritime. When the news regarding this event spread out to the whole world, the world was shaken by the fact that the Titanic has sunken into the ocean taking together thousands of innocent lives despite being equipped with the most sophisticated technology.

Source:

• APHD

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