18 Titanic Questions That Are Still Not Answered

the titanic story is one that will live on for ages having inspired movies documentaries and exhibitions you might think you know everything there is to know about the great unsinkable ship that was sent to a watery grave by an iceberg [Music] but did you know it had two sister ships or that events leading up to and the day of its maiden voyage actually sealed the ship's fate rms titanic was built by a british shipping company called white star line they focused on building comfortable and reliable ships however they found themselves in heavy competition with a north based company called canard which had built the most sophisticated and luxurious ships at the time the mauritania and the lusitania the mauritania set a speed record that it held for 22 years and the lusitania was renowned for its luxurious interiors white star line had their work cut out for them if they wanted to beat their rival so in order to crush the competition the chief executive of white star line joseph bruce ismey commissioned the creation of three enormous ships the olympic the titanic and the gigantic masses of workers started building the titanic at a belfast ireland shipyard in march 1909. and managed to complete it three years later rms titanic at 882 feet long and as tall as a 17-story building was the largest movable human-made object of the time people marveled at its creation and 100 000 people attended the unveiling the ship was the height of luxury its interior was inspired by the ritz hotel in london it had all the amenities a gym a pool a turkish bath a barber shop and its own newspaper it's modest by today's cruise ship standards but keep in mind that it's really impressive for the early 1900s the wealthiest passenger was john jacob astor iv who had a net worth of around 2 billion dollars by today's standards and his wife came along for the ride there was also industrialist benjamin guggenheim the heiress margaret molly brown and macy's department store co-owner isidor strauss and his wife ida they probably paid a pretty penny for their trip given that the most expensive tickets would be about ninety seven thousand dollars today most of the passengers were third class though there were around seven hundred of them and they paid just twenty dollars to make the transatlantic crossing the ship was big beautiful and innovative for its time however there were some logistical mishaps that could have been prevented the titanic only carried 20 lifeboats which altogether could hold 1178 people that meant there were seats available for only a third of the people on board to us today having enough lifeboats for everyone is a no-brainer but the titanic actually carried four more boats than was required by law back then even if you ask a ten-year-old they'll tell you exactly what took down the gigantic ship however some survivors of the sinking legend would beg to differ here's one of their stories and surprise it has nothing to do with an iceberg armenian publicist vodkanock byrate was 25 years old in the spring of 1912. he described what happened on his journey to america on the most famous ship in the world in his memoirs vodka nach lived a long and happy life and as a great storyteller he shared what happened to him many times interestingly he's never mentioned an iceberg hitting the titanic and always spoke about an explosion if what he said was true something must have caused that huge explosion it could have been a fire and quite a lot of people actually believed that theory saying that coal was burning in the ship's hall that fire would have started long before the ship's departure and there was simply no way to put it out titanic must have left with the fire still ongoing and the flames weakening the hull so much it couldn't survive its meeting with the iceberg supporters of this theory used pictures of the titanic leaving the docks for evidence pointing to a huge dark mark on the hull even if that's true though it's still not obvious whether the fire led to an explosion and supporters of this theory don't deny there was an iceberg another theory that explained the explosion claimed that there was a german u-boat involved in the sinking of the titanic the armenian rider was in fact not the only survivor who mentioned they heard explosion sounds coming from somewhere deep in the bowels of the ship and they'd also claim they'd seen a searchlight coming from some ship shortly after titanic had sunk it wasn't a vessel hurrying to the rescue so it could have actually been a submarine that surfaced to see what it had done to the legendary ship this theory is highly unlikely though for several reasons first of all as you know the titanic sank in 1912 which was still a time of peace no country in the world would dare to kill thousands of people and provoke other countries for no reason secondly a u-boat from europe couldn't have gone that far in those times and it couldn't have been stationed in that region either it simply wouldn't have survived there for a long time [Music] finally hitting a target that's moving quickly at nighttime is still a challenge for submariners even today and it was basically impossible in 1912 it's hard to tell what could have made a man who survived such a tragedy remember things that did or didn't happen let's hope that in the future scientists will be able to explain all the mysteries surrounding the titanic if you saw james cameron's famous 1997 film based on these events then you might remember the character molly brown being one of the first to make it out on a lifeboat and trying to convince the quartermaster that they should row back to get more survivors well molly brown was in fact a real person and there are accounts that she actually did do this the brave and selfless woman earned herself the nickname the unsinkable molly brown and after the ship went down she tried her best to get as many passengers as she could into the lifeboats but the philanthropist's good work didn't end there after surviving the catastrophe and being rescued by the rms carpathia brown got together with other first class survivors and put together an organization to help second and third class survivors with counseling and other basic needs she also campaigned for education of the poor and for women's rights in 1914 she even ran for the senate and after the first world war the missouri native went to help rebuild war-torn france she was truly a remarkable and inspiring woman there was also author journalist and teacher lawrence beasley beasley was a second class passenger from the uk who was busy reading a book in his cabin when the ship hit the iceberg he asked a steward what had happened and the steward tried to assure him that it was nothing to worry about luckily beasley decided to go up to a deck and since there were no women or children around he was told to jump into lifeboat number 13 just before it was launched he later wrote a book that brought him a lot of success called the loss of the ss titanic in this book beasley talks about his experience in great detail another survivor was violet constance jessup who was a stewardess on the ship jessup hadn't planned to work on the titanic until her friends convinced her to apply for the job she was in her cabin almost asleep in her bunk when the titanic hit the iceberg she was immediately ordered to go and help on deck she was then put into lifeboat 16 along with a baby to take care of after eight hours afloat in the ocean another ship saved the passengers of this lifeboat and the baby was reunited with its mother jessup's survival skills were put to the test yet again when she was on board the hmhs britannic which also sank four years later in 1916. ironically this was a sister ship of the titanic and also owned by white star line the actress dorothy gibson most famous for her role in the 1912 movie saved from the titanic was actually one of the survivors of the catastrophe she and her mother were coming back to the us on board the titanic after vacationing in europe the two had been playing bridge with some friends when the ship struck the iceberg they escaped together in the half empty lifeboat number seven but nearly sank again when one of the other survivors noticed a hole in the boat luckily they were able to plug it up with some clothes not long after gibson arrived in new york aboard the carpathia her agent convinced her to star in a movie about the titanic sinking she wrote the script herself and wore the same clothes in the movie that she did on the night of the disaster the film came out just a month after the tragedy dorothy later gave up her acting career to work in the metropolitan opera she spent her last years in paris what a life one of the most heartbreaking outcomes of the titanic sinking was that it tore families apart the navrato brothers master michael marcel and master edmund roger were just toddlers when they boarded the titanic with their father as the titanic was sinking he put his boys in the last lifeboat with the final words my children when your mother comes for you as she surely will tell her that i loved her dearly and still do tell her i expected her to follow us so that we might all live happily together in the peace and freedom of the new world unfortunately little michael and edmund didn't speak english at all so it took quite some time to find their relatives their mother eventually saw them in the newspaper and the family reunited a month after the sinking the brothers grew up to have completely different lives michael married his colleague sweetheart became a professor of philosophy and spent the rest of his life in montpelier edmond also got married and worked as an architect and builder ava miriam hart was only seven years old when she boarded the titanic with her parents according to ava her mother couldn't sleep at all the whole time she was on board because she'd had a really bad premonition about the trip while the titanic was sinking ava's father ran to their cabin wrapped ava in a blanket and placed his wife and daughter in lifeboat number 14. the last thing he told ava was hold mommy's hand and be a good girl ava went on to do many things throughout her life she was a singer in australia and a very outspoken activist when it came to the whole titanic ordeal she even wrote an autobiography called shadow of the titanic a survivor story after the titanic sank many new procedures were established with the hope of preventing similar disasters one of the first was the establishment of regular ice patrols in that region of the north atlantic in the early days this meant guys with binoculars freezing their noses off in boats and planes but fortunately today is not 100 years ago another reason today is better than a century ago is that our iceberg detection has gotten a lot more sophisticated the united states coast guard and canadian eye service regularly patrol the area with radar-equipped hc-130 aircraft to scan for any icebergs coming too close to major shipping routes with the added assistance of global positioning satellites and reports from passing ships the two agencies can provide daily updates on the position of icebergs in the north atlantic individual vessels also have a much easier time spotting icebergs in their vicinity thanks to technology such as radar and sonar becoming commonplace these advancements have done a great deal to make sea travel a lot safer but they aren't foolproof accidents can still happen so it's a good thing large vessels are now required to carry enough lifeboats for everyone on board and the crews receive training in proper evacuation procedures modern ships are also required to have a radio operator on duty at all times that's good for several reasons one of them being that no one wants to be the guy who slept through a crisis the captain of the californian got fired over missing the titanic's call and he hadn't even been breaking any rules emergency radio calls have been standardized to a greater extent than they were in 1912. additionally gps tracking means that if a ship needs help responders will know precisely where the trouble is going down pardon the pun rescue efforts are also much more coordinated than they would have been in the early 20th century the coast guard maintains a variety of emergency response vehicles ranging from small boats and helicopters to large ships and planes they're also better able to coordinate with and dispatch help from other civilian and military traffic in the area let's see together just what kind of a luxury vessel it was first of all of course just look at the size of her the titanic was one of the biggest ocean liners of her time rivaled only by her sister ships olympic and britannic [Music] even by today's standard she's quite impressive but let's not stay outside for too long and proceed on board [Music] we climb up to the b deck where most of the first class passengers enter the ship it was the second highest deck the gangways were on the port uh left side but entrances mirrored each other on both sides we find ourselves in a foyer with three doors the one on our right opens on a private promenade from which vip passengers could enjoy the ocean view with the comfort of lounge chairs all on our own and the two doors in the front lead to the grand staircase the view immediately stunned everyone and no surprise here the staircase was the pride and glory of the titanic this magnificence was made of oak and wrought iron decorated with intricate patterns all made by hand its centerpiece was simply mesmerizing a masterful wooden carving with a clock in it and above there was a beautiful glass dome meant to create an illusion of daylight the stairs led to other decks but if you didn't feel like walking you could go around a bit for the three elevators they would take you to decks from a to e those were reserved for the first and second class passengers while the third class had most of the f deck and part of g deck for themselves the four doors in the corners of the stairway hall led to the passenger cabins surprisingly the corridors were pretty narrow and people almost had to squeeze as if they met each other on their way to or from their rooms only two persons could go abreast in there let's turn to the right from the entrance and walk down one of the corridors there's something i want to show you first of all on the right is the entrance to the huge suite consisting of three connected cabins this is where the notorious joseph bruce is may lived the chairman of white star line that owned the ship b-52 was a sitting room where he received guests and talked business b-54 and b-56 were two bedrooms with a bathroom between them further down the corridor on both left and right resided other distinguished passengers including benjamin guggenheim in b82 you might remember him from the 1997 movie and when we get to the end of the hallway look to your left familiar isn't it yep titanic had not one but two grand staircases one in the forecastle which we saw earlier and one in the aft now on our left is a reception room where passengers could wait in comfort before the restaurant's door is opened and behind the door right there is cafe parisian decorated with live vines and having big windows it was designed for first and second class passengers to have refreshment while enjoying the wonderful views it was one of the many innovations on the luxury ocean liner right next to the cafe was the restaurant where the wealthier passengers had their meals there were 138 seats overall and passengers could book them in advance the menu hung right before the entrance and guests were also accommodated with coat hangers and hat hooks so they could leave their outerwear in a recess outside the main dining hall each table was decorated with a vase of live flowers and waiters were always at the ready when the guests came in

Channel: BRIGHT SIDE

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Keywords: titanic, titanic wreck, titanic story, titanic secrets, titanic truth, facts about titanic, ship crash, shipwreck, titanic iceberg, modern cruise ships, ocean ships, how the Titanic was built, how ships are built, Titanic size, what if Titanic sank today, Molly Brown, survivors, titanic first class, titanic second class, titanic third class

Id: j3QGiOIYQms

Length: 18min 34sec (1114 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 30 2020