![]() ![]() The company considered dropping dynamite on the wreck to dislodge bodies which would float to the surface, but finally gave up after oceanographers suggested that the extreme pressure would have compressed the bodies into gelatinous lumps. The lack of submarine technology at the time as well as the outbreak of World War I also put off such a project. The project was soon abandoned as impractical as the divers could not even reach a significant fraction of the necessary depth, where the pressure is over 6,000 pounds per square inch (40 megapascals), about 400 standard atmospheres. The families of several wealthy victims of the disaster – the Guggenheims, Astors, and Wideners – formed a consortium and contracted the Merritt and Chapman Derrick and Wrecking Company to raise the Titanic. However, the wreck is too fragile to be raised and is protected by a UNESCO convention.Ĭlass=notpageimage| Location of the wreck of the Titanic in the North Atlantic.Īlmost immediately after the Titanic sank on 15 April 1912, proposals were advanced to salvage it from its resting place in the North Atlantic Ocean, despite her exact location and condition being unknown. Many schemes have been proposed to raise the wreck, including filling it with ping-pong balls, injecting it with 180,000 tons of Vaseline, or using half a million tons of liquid nitrogen to encase it in an iceberg that would float to the surface. The wreck has been the focus of intense interest and has been visited by numerous tourist and scientific expeditions, including by the submersible Titan, which imploded near the wreck in June 2023, killing all five aboard.Ĭontroversial salvage operations have recovered thousands of items from the Titanic, which have been conserved and put on public display. In 1985, the wreck was finally located by a joint French–American expedition led by Jean-Louis Michel of IFREMER and Robert Ballard of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Numerous expeditions unsuccessfully tried using sonar to map the sea bed in the hope of finding the wreckage. The Titanic sank in 1912, when she collided with an iceberg during her maiden voyage. The bodies of the passengers and crew would have also been distributed across the sea bed, but have since been consumed by other organisms. A debris field around the wreck contains hundreds of thousands of items spilled from the ship as she sank. ![]() In contrast, the stern is completely ruined. The bow is still recognisable with many preserved interiors, despite deterioration and damage sustained hitting the sea floor. It lies in two main pieces about 2,000 feet (600 m) apart. ![]() The wreck of the Titanic lies at a depth of about 12,500 feet (3,800 metres 2,100 fathoms), about 370 nautical miles (690 kilometres) south-southeast off the coast of Newfoundland. Some have blamed the increase in icebergs on exceptional high spring tides that year, or low sunspot activity, and certainly the weather at the time played a significant role: a dominant high pressure system resulted in days of northerly winds, and combined with the ocean's Labrador Current, many icebergs travelled further south than normal.The Titanic 's bow, photographed in June 2004ģ70 nmi (690 km) south-southeast of Newfoundland, North Atlantic OceanĤ1☄3′32″N 49★6′49″W / 41.72556°N 49.94694°W / 41.72556 -49.94694 But 1912 was an unusual year, with 1038 icebergs crossing this latitude line, nearly 400 of them in April. During an average year only a few hundred icebergs make it south of 48°N, before melting away. The Titanic struck her berg at just over 41°N. Now new research reveals that the disaster may have been triggered by unusual weather in 1908. Despite desperate avoidance efforts the ship struck the iceberg, and in just over two and half hours the entire ship had sunk, with the loss of 1514 lives. All had been well until 11.40pm on 14 April 1912, when the crow's nest lookouts sighted a large iceberg, 500m ahead. It was a cold and moonless night when the Titanic sank. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |