Why is the titanic still important today
How Did the 'Unsinkable' Titanic End Up at the Bottom of the Ocean? | National Geographic
it took three years to build in less
than three hours to sink the most iconic
shipwreck in history the Titanic held as
the most beautiful and luxurious boat of
her time the Titanic set sail once and
for all
from Southampton England to New York
City on April 10th 1912
she weighed a record-breaking 46,000
tons and was built by some 15,000 people
ironically the ship boasted many of the
best safety features of its day a
prestigious journal the shipbuilder
magazine called the Titanic practically
unsinkable the popular opinion quickly
grew that the Titanic was indestructible
an ominous consequence of this
overconfidence during its voyage there
were no passenger safety drills to give
instructions on where to go or which
lifeboats aboard in case of emergency
but there weren't enough lifeboats to
begin with only 20 available which was
enough to carry about half of the total
passengers and crew Bruce Ismay the
owner thought having 64 lifeboats enough
for everyone on board would make the
ship look too cluttered
this emphasis on elegance didn't stop
with Titanic's outward appearance inside
when top-notch luxuries the grand
staircase running the height of six days
a heated swimming pool a
state-of-the-art gym for restaurants and
two barber shops so how much did the
Titanic cost about seven point five
million dollars at the time or over four
hundred million dollars today now over a
hundred years later the Titanic has been
hidden in darkness lying over 12,000
feet deep in the Atlantic Ocean so how
exactly did she sing we do know that on
April 14 1912 the boat entered a region
of icebergs six warning messages were
sent to Captain Edward John Smith he
adjusted Titanic's course southward but
didn't slow down by the time lookouts
spotted an iceberg it was too late
the official 1912 accident report
suggests that the iceberg tore a
gigantic 300-foot gash on the ship's
starboard side
ripping over 1/3 of her entire hole but
eyewitnesses say it took over two hours
to sink which confuses experts who
believed a hole that size would have
caused the Titanic to sink much faster
investigations confirm that the iceberg
created smaller punctures below the
waterline and not a large gash which
were enough to trigger the tragedy in
1985 using state-of-the-art sonar
National Geographic Explorer Robert
Ballard in French oceanographer Jean
Louie misho found the infamous shipwreck
about 400 miles southeast of
Newfoundland extensive surveys have
located artifacts that reveal the human
side of the tragedy a notebook was found
780 feet from the stern it belonged to a
17-year old passenger
pencil writing that's still legible with
new technology we can see and study the
Titanic like never before which is good
because our fascination in this tragedy
has not relaxed a bit perhaps it's the
iconic tale of the Titanic that's truly
unseen
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