So, you thought you knew just about everything there was to know about the sinking of the Titanic. Here are a few facts that might be new to you.
The overall survival rate for men was only 20%. Survival rates for women and children were 74% and 52% respectively.
The first news reports about the sinking stated that all the passengers were saved.
** No, not so much.
A lifeboat drill was scheduled for the day Titanic sank but was canceled by Captain Edward John Smith for unknown reasons.
On April 14th, 1912, radio operators about the Titanic were warned about drifting ice in the North Atlantic Six times.
The SS Californian was fewer than 20 miles from Titanic when she hit the iceberg. Multiple distress signals had gone out, but by that time the radio operator had already gone to bed.
A passenger who had survived a terrible fire and sinking of a ship in 1871 faced his fears and boarded the Titanic. He went down with the ship.
The rust eating bacteria that is devouring the hull of the Titanic has been named Halomonas titanicae. It will finish consuming the Titanic in about 20 years.
** This is a photo of the iceberg presumed to have sunk the Titanic. It was taken one day after the sinking by a steward on another ship. This man was not at the time aware of the sinking of the Titanic but noticed red paint smeared along the base of the iceberg indicating a ship had impacted it in the past several hours.
** This is the last lifeboat launched from the Titanic. April 15th, 1912
** These are French brothers Michel (left, age 4) and Edmond Navratil (right, age 2). They were traveling on the Titanic with their father. He did not survive the sinking, they did. A month after they had arrived in New York their mother (who had stayed in France and not boarded the ship) noticed the photo of her children in a newspaper. The three were shortly reunited.
No comments:
Post a Comment