100 years after Titanic disaster
REUTERS - As the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic nears next month the public's interest in the tragedy has not diminished. On April 10, 1912, the Titanic set sail on its maiden voyage, traveling from Southampton, England, to New York. It was nicknamed the "Millionaire's Special". The ship was fittingly captained by Edward J. Smith, who was known as the "Millionaire's Captain" because of his popularity with wealthy passengers. Onboard were a number of prominent people, including American businessman Benjamin Guggenheim, British journalist William Thomas Stead, and Macy's department store co-owner Isidor Straus and his wife, Ida. Here is a look at the disaster and its aftermath: THE DISASTER: -- The liner struck an iceberg late on April 14 and sank in the early hours of April 15, 1912. The ship's starboard side scraped along the iceberg. At least five of its supposedly watertight compartments toward the bow were ruptured. -- After assessing the damage, as the ship's forward compartments filled with water, its bow would drop deeper into the ocean, causing water from the ruptured compartments to spill over into each succeeding compartment, thereby sealing the ship's fate. -- Of the 2,223 passengers and crew aboard the ship, dubbed "unsinkable" before departure, 1,517 died. Third class suffered the greatest loss - of approximately 710 on board, only some 174 survived. Seventy-six percent of the crew died.
100 YEARS ON: -- U.S. and British investigations proposed various safety recommendations just after the sinking, and in 1913 the first International Conference for Safety of Life at Sea was called in London. The conference drew up rules requiring that every ship have lifeboat space for each person embarked; that lifeboat drills be held for each voyage. -- In September 1985, the first underwater images of the Titanic were recorded as its giant boilers were discovered. Later video showed the ship lying upright in two pieces. -- In addition to being the subject of numerous books, the ship inspired various movies, notably "A Night to Remember" (1958) and James Cameron's blockbuster "Titanic" (1997). -- Millvina Dean, the last survivor of the 1912 sinking died in June 2009. She was 97. Dean was just nine weeks old when her family sold a pub they owned in London to travel on the maiden voyage of the passenger liner and begin a new life in Wichita, Kansas, in the United States, where her father Bertram hoped to open a tobacconist shop. -- Researchers assembled in March 2012 a field map of the wreck. The mapping team snapped 130,000 photos throughout 2010 using two underwater robots and using solar imaging to create the most in-depth picture yet of the 3-mile by 5-mile swath of wreckage. Sources: Reuters/www.britannica.com/www.titanicfacts.net (Reporting by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit; editing by Patricia Reaney)
Ethereal views of Titanic's bow (modeled) offer a comprehensiveness of detail never seen before. COPYRIGHT© 2012 RMS TITANIC, INC; Produced by AIVL, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. Modeling by Stefan Fichtel.
With her rudder cleaving the sand and two propeller blades peeking from the murk, Titanic's mangled stern rests on the abyssal plain, 1,970 feet south of the more photographed bow. This optical mosaic combines 300 high-resolution images taken on a 2010 expedition. COPYRIGHT© 2012 RMS TITANIC, INC; Produced by AIVL, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.
As the starboard profile shows, the Titanic buckled as it plowed nose-first into the seabed, leaving the forward hull buried deep in mud—obscuring, possibly forever, the mortal wounds inflicted by the iceberg. COPYRIGHT© 2012 RMS TITANIC, INC; Produced by AIVL, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.
The first complete views of the legendary wreck Titanic's battered stern is captured overhead here. Making sense of this tangle of metal presents endless challenges to experts. Says one, "If you're going to interpret this stuff, you gotta love Picasso." COPYRIGHT© 2012 RMS TITANIC, INC; Produced by AIVL, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.
Two of Titanic's engines lie exposed in a gaping cross section of the stern. Draped in "rusticles"—orange stalactites created by iron-eating bacteria—these massive structures, four stories tall, once powered the largest moving man-made object on Earth. COPYRIGHT© 2012 RMS TITANIC, INC; Produced by AVIL, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute
National Geographic magazine's April 2012 issue provides the first-ever complete images of the Titanic wreck. (Credit: National Geographic)
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