Czy statek zaprojektowany jako najbezpieczniejszy i najbardziej luksusowy na świecie naprawdę mógł zniknąć pod wodami oceanu? Poznaj prawdziwą historię Titanica i tragedię, która wstrząsnęła światem czytając artykuł Asi Strug z klasy 1a, który pojawi się w letnim numerze naszej anglojęzycznej gazetki szkolnej AimHigh Magazine. Zapraszamy do lektury!
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The True Story of the „Unsinkable Ship”
“It was called the ship of dreams, and it was, it truly was.”
Titanic, 1997
Each of us knows the story of the Titanic – a ship that was supposed to be unsinkable. And almost everyone knows this story from James Cameron’s 1997 film. But what was the real story behind this huge ship, one of the largest and most luxurious of that time, weighing over 52,000 tons and measuring 270 meters long? Could the disaster that claimed so many lives have been avoided?
The idea for the Titanic was born in 1907 during a social gathering of Bruce Ismay, director of the White Star Line. The ship’s designer was Thomas A. Andrews. The cost of building the ship was $7.5 million. Today, the ship would cost about $180–200 million.
Edward John Smith was appointed captain. He was 62 years old and had 26 years of experience. When he was asked about the Titanic’s safety, he said that he couldn’t imagine anything that could cause the ship to sink. The Titanic’s maiden voyage was to be his last. He planned to retire after it.
The Titanic’s maiden voyage began on April 10, 1912. The ship was to sail from Southampton, England, via Cherbourg in France, and Queenstown in Ireland, to New York. The ship carried about 2,208 first-, second-, and third-class passengers.
The fourth day of the voyage, April 14, 1912, was a cloudy day. At 1:35 PM, the SS America sent the Titanic a message. The ship was heading directly into an ice field. For unknown reasons, this message didn’t reach the ship, and the Titanic didn’t slow down.
Shortly before 11:40 PM, the sailors spotted an iceberg. The Titanic was heading directly toward it. The officer gave the order to avoid the iceberg on the right side. However, there wasn’t enough time. Thirty-seven seconds later, the Titanic brushed the iceberg, and water began pouring into the ship. The pumps couldn’t remove this amount of water.
At first, no one was concerned about the collision. However, after an inspection, 20 minutes after midnight, it was known that the ship would sink in an hour and a half.
Radio operators immediately sent SOS and CQD signals, intended to request help. The crew launched flares. Sixteen kilometres from the Titanic was the Californian. However, it didn’t arrive. The crew spotted the flares, but they thought that the passengers were partying. The radio operator was asleep, so he didn’t hear the signals from the Titanic.
The closest ship that responded to the signal was the Carpathia, 93 kilometres from the Titanic. It could arrive in four hours.
There were too few lifeboats, because there were only 20. The first people who got into the lifeboats were women and children. There could be 40 to 60 people in each of them. However, the Titanic’s greatest disaster was that the lifeboats were launched with fewer people. One had 43 people, others had 25, 36, or even 12! When people realized the Titanic was really sinking, a battle for the lifeboats began. Everyone wanted to survive. Of the 1,150 people who could have been saved, only 686 survived.
The Titanic sank in total darkness. The ship sank at 2:22 AM on April 15, 1912, and now it is 3.8 kilometres underwater. A ship that was never meant to sink.
Sixty-eight percent of passengers and crew died. Of the about 2,208 people, around 1,496 died, and only 712 survived the disaster. Most of those people who weren’t in the lifeboats died not from drowning but from hypothermia. The water temperature then was -2°C. In such cold water, the body cooled in just 10–15 minutes. Almost none of the lifeboats returned. Only Fifth Officer Lowe returned, but it was too late. He only rescued a few people from the water, out of over a thousand. Seventy-five percent of the crew died, along with the entire orchestra, which played until the end, 40% of the first-class passengers, 56% of the second-class passengers, and 75% of the third-class passengers. The captain sank with his ship.
The wreck of the Titanic was discovered in 1985. The person who lived the longest and who survived the disaster died 21 years later.
The ship is expected to disappear due to corrosion between 2040 and 2060. Today, the wreck of the Titanic remains a grave. Most of the bodies have never been found.
Asia Strug (1a)
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ciekawe słownictwo: unsinkable – niezatapialny maiden voyage – dziewiczy rejs / pierwszy rejs luxurious – luksusowy claimed (lives) – pochłonął / odebrał (życie) appointed – mianowany / wyznaczony heading directly into – kierować się prosto w spotted – dostrzegli / zauważyli pouring into – wlewać się do launched – wypuszczono / zwodowano responded (to the signal) – odpowiedział (na sygnał) remains (a grave) – pozostaje / nadal jest
