Current research reveals new details about the sinking of the Titanic
A scan of the wreck of the Titanic has been analyzed again. This revealed previously unknown details. There are also new findings on the cause of the accident.
Wreck of the Titanic
(Image: Atlantic Productions/Magellan)
Even after 113 years, the sinking of the Titanic still fascinates people. Two years ago, the British company Magellan published a high-resolution 3D model of the wreck. It was analyzed in detail for a documentary. Details were discovered that had previously only been known from eyewitness reports.
The scan is assembled from 700,000 individual images and was published by the BBC in 2023. The scan shows a complete picture of the wreck for the first time and makes it possible to track down details that cannot be seen in earlier images.
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For example, the scan shows a porthole with broken glass. It was presumably destroyed by the iceberg during the collision. Until now, only reports from survivors were known, who said that ice had been found in some of the cabins. Objects belonging to the passengers can also be seen scattered on the seabed.
(Image:Â Daniel AJ Sokolov)
"It's like a crime scene: you need to see what the evidence is, in the context of where it is," Parks Stephenson, who was involved in the new project, told the BBC. "And having a comprehensive view of the entirety of the wreck site is key to understanding what happened here."
The boilers were under steam until the very end
The evaluation was able to verify another eyewitness report: Survivors have said that the lights on board were burning right up until the moment the ship sank. The scan shows the engine room, which is located at the point where the ship broke apart when it sank. Some of the boilers are concave, leading analysts to conclude that they were in operation when the ship sank. An open valve was also found on the stern, indicating that the generator was still being supplied with steam.
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Some of the crew shoveled coal into the boiler until the end, ensuring that the lights on board did not go out. As a result, the deck was illuminated and the lifeboats did not have to be launched in complete darkness. "They kept the chaos at bay for as long as possible, and all of that is symbolized by this open steam valve that just stood at the stern of the ship," Stephenson says. The workers were killed, but their heroic actions saved the lives of many.
For the documentary, a team led by Jeom-Kee Paik took another close look at the cause of the accident. "We used advanced numerical algorithms, computational modelling and supercomputing capabilities to reconstruct the Titanic sinking", the scientist from University College London told the BBC.
The simulation shows that the ship only grazed the iceberg. This tore a series of comparatively small holes in the hull. The ship was designed in such a way that it was still able to float even when four chambers of the hull were full of water. However, according to the findings of the London team, six compartments were damaged.
Holes not large, but too numerous
"The difference between Titanic sinking and not sinking are down to the fine margins of holes about the size of a piece of paper", said Simon Benson, a shipwright at Newcastle University. "But the problem is that those small holes are across a long length of the ship, so the flood water comes in slowly but surely into all of those holes, and then eventually the compartments are flooded over the top and the Titanic sinks." The damage cannot be seen as the lower part of the bow is hidden in the seabed.
At the time, the Titanic was the world's largest ship at sea and was intended for the liner service between Southampton and New York. On her first voyage across the Atlantic, she collided with an iceberg and sank on April 15, 1912, around 650 kilometers off the Canadian coast. The ship broke into two parts, about 600 meters apart at a depth of 3,800 meters. Of the estimated 2,224 people on board, more than 1,500 perished. This makes the Titanic the most serious shipwreck in peacetime to this day. While half of the children and three quarters of the women survived, 80 percent of the men died. First-class passengers and female crew members had the highest survival rates.
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Help for the Titanic came from the Nova Scotian capital Halifax in particular in 1912. In view of the large number of bodies, the Canadians had to invent a system to manage them. Since then, slips of paper have been attached to the toes of corpses for identification purposes. Halifax is also home to most of the Titanic graves. The shipwreck itself was not found until 1985.
The documentary Titanic: The Digital Resurrection was produced by National Geographic and Atlantic Productions and is due to be broadcast on National Geographic's US program on 13 April. The exhibition Titanic: An Immersive Journey is currently on show in Cologne. It opens in Hamburg on April 17.
"The Titanic is the last surviving eyewitness to the disaster, and she still has something to tell," says Stephenson. "She only ever reveals a piece of her story. Each time she leaves us wanting more."
(wpl)
