The charm of the Titanic that attracted the submersible Titan

From its construction to its disastrous discovery more than 70 years after its departure, the Titanic – icon of decadence and nobility, which attracted nobles and commoners – sparks interest in people all over the world.

With so many cultural productions (and even life-size replicas of the Titanic) about such a fateful disaster, the event that involved the Titanic is a portrait of its grandeur through the greed and ambition of society that had its lives weakened by seeing so many others are lost. The majestic mark of the ship's luxury was its glass dome, the Grand Staircase.

The construction of the Titanic

The Titanic was built in the shipyards of Sir Thomas Andrews. It was the largest ship ever built at that time, with impressive dimensions, measuring 349 m long, 53 m wide, and 65 m high. It was considered at the time the most luxurious ship ever built, with state of the art decoration, entertainment, facilities and accommodation.

The ship was truly a masterpiece of naval engineering, and had one of the most powerful engines in the world. era. The vessel received a lot of press coverage at the time of its construction, and there were great expectations that the Titanic would become one of the greatest symbols of technology at that time.

In addition to the ornate decorations, the Titanic featured an immense hall of first-class dining, four elevators and a swimming pool.

As for safety elements, its hull was made up of approximately two thousand steel plates held together by more than 3 million rivets. In addition, the Titanic had 16 watertight compartments that included floodgates that could be closed remotely from the bridge to contain water if the hull was breached.

The system led many to claim that the Titanic was unsinkable, or as the naval engineer responsible for building the ship said: “not even God can sink the Titanic.”

The story of the trip

On April 10, 1912, the ship left Southampton, England. Many were on board, around 2200 passengers and crew. Its destination was the city of New York, in the United States, where many people who boarded would be looking for a better life than the one they had in Europe.

The Titanic departed on its maiden voyage, from Southampton, England , bound for New York, in the United States. An iceberg warning was received by radio operators but was never passed to the bridge.

First Officer William Murdoch ordered a sudden turn and the engines to go into reverse. The Titanic began to turn, but was too close to avoid a collision. The starboard side of the ship scrapes along the ice mountain on April 14, 1912.

If the Titanic had collided with the iceberg head on, rather than side on, the damage would have been much less, and the ship would have been unlikely to have suffered the fate it did. The ship was too far from everything and everyone to receive help at the time of the sinking. Just three hours after the Titanic commander's call for help, when the ship had already sunk, the boat Carpathia arrives, at its maximum speed, in a risky manner, to rescue the adrift survivors.

There were around 2,200 people on board the Titanic. Of these, only around 700 survived, many were not even aware that the ship would sink and were thrown into the freezing sea at a temperature of -2°C. Women and children were evacuated first, while some crew members worked to maintain lights and power for the ship's radio.

The legendary orchestra, which tried to overshadow even the sound of the shots that were fired by the sailors to try to maintain order, would play until the last moment, as none of the musicians would survive the sinking. Meanwhile, amidst the chaos, Officer Smith released the crew, saying “it's every man for himself.”

On April 18, the Carpathia arrives in New York, the original destination of the Titanic.

The discovery of the Titanic

Many years have passed since its departure, and no one knew for sure where the ship was. On September 1, 1985, American adventurers Robert Ballard and Jean-Louis Michel discovered what appeared to be the wrecked ship, located 3,800 meters deep in the Atlantic Ocean. While the bow is clearly recognizable, the stern section has been severely damaged.

Divers descended to the location of the ship and were able to observe the full extent of the disaster. It was clear that the ship had been cut in half by the force of the water, and that the luxury and beauty that had once been the ship's hallmarks had disappeared.

The wreckage of the Titanic was taken over by microorganisms that consume iron, which leads scientists to believe that the ship will disappear completely in the coming decades.

The investigations

British authorities began an investigation to understand what could have caused the ship to sink. They discovered that the large iceberg was visible from some distance away, but the ship was unable to reduce speed to avoid a possible accident.

Additionally, it was determined that there were not many lifeboats available to carry everyone passengers and crew. Few lifeboats were launched, and very few were used properly. Many lives were lost as a result.

Titan and Titanic: two ignored warnings

There were risks in both expeditions, both in 1912 and in 2023, and the crew of both trips (or at least some of them) were aware of the risks.

A warning that there was an iceberg in the path of the RMS Titanic was given, but it was not passed on to the conning tower.

Already on the Titan's journey, OceanGate president Stockton Rush was warned by employees years before that the capsule would not withstand underwater pressures at such high depths. Despite the warnings, the CEO intended to execute a gigantic technological breakthrough in this experimental expedition.

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