Maritime Topics On Stamps :

  The Titanic - Disaster


Titanic 1
The TITANIC for 5 days Queen of the Ocean!

Here only some facts, no legends and myths:
launch
launch
Build 1909 to 1911 on the dockyard of Harland and Wolf at Belfast
Length 269 meters, width 28 meters, draft 18 meters
Deplacement 46329 tons, 7 decks
Passengers: 2435 in 3 classes (735, 674, 1026)
Crew 885 men
Shipping company: White Star Line
Steamship, machines 46000 HP, 3 propellers, highest speed 23 -24 knots.
maiden voyage
Start maiden voyage and last voyage: 10th April, 1912 from Southampton
After a collision with an iceberg the TITANIC sunk in the morning of the 15th April, 1912 south off the ' Newfoundland Banks'.


Titanic
Titanic
The radio-operators got many warnings about icebergs!
Some they send to the bridge, some they ignored because they had to send telegrams!

The air-temperature sunk from 8 to 0 degree Celsius
The water-temperature were -1 degree Celsius
The look-outs had no binoculars but that was normally to that times.
The binoculars were aboard but were closed

Titanic 6
Titanic 7
After the alarm 'Iceberg ahead' the chief-mate tried to evade to port-side and tried to stop the engine
Both were wrong, if the TITANIC would hit the iceberg with the bow she never would sunk
So the TITANIC was slit at 6 places on starboard-side and 6 sections were hit.
The TITANIC was able to swim with water in the first 4 sections

On board the Titanic were round about 2007 people.

Titanic 9
The TITANIC had 20 life-boats for 1178 peoples, 4 more than the international regulations of that time!
Only 712 people were saved on 18 boats! 1500 died!
Only 4 boats left the TITANIC with full capacity, in the other 14 boats were place for 500 people!
Titanic 10
The weather was calm, the sea smooth and even, no one believed that the TITANIC was sinking.
The master Edward J. Smith did his job careless without any responsibility,
he had had 3 times ground-contact and one collision before on other ships.
Up to today no one knows how many people were aboard the TITANIC
The number is 2201 to 2239 people
Also the number of saved people differs between 705 to 712
Some left Europe under a wrong name, some didn't reach the vessel in time, some ...?
Under the survivors were 90 people whose names were not on the passengers-list!

2 hours and 40 minutes after the crash the TITANIC sunk. The survivors heard the cries of the dying people, but only 2 boats tried to help.


Titanic captain
Titanic 10
The wireless-operator send the message 'CQD' and SOS', you see on the stamp below.
SOS was the abbreviation for 'save our souls',
CQD, the elder form of this message means 'come quick danger'.
But the wireless-operator send a wrong position. Maybe the speed-calculation was wrong,
maybe the 4th mate forgot a timeshifting of 23 minutes during the 8 to 12 pm watch.
Additional the Titanic shot signalrockets

13 vessels had heard the radio-signals of the TITANIC

Titanic
Titanic
The bulkcarrier CALIFORNIAN, 5 to 8 miles off saw the signalrockets of the TITANIC and passes without help!
Additional an norwegian vessel SAMSON saw the lights and rockets of the TITANIC,
but they were catching illegal seals and so they went secret off!
This was the 'mystery' or 'ghost' ship some people saw on the TITANIC.

The Cunard-Liner CARPATHIA, 52 nautical miles off, reached first the position and took 712 people aboard. 1503 people died.


On the following stamp you see the TITANIC and the CARPATHIA with their wireless-rooms.

Titanic 4
To the question of guilt: There were two investigations, one in America and one in England.
    Generally one stated:
  • the TITANIC sailed too fast in dangerous waters
  • place in the lifeboats were approximately only for the half of the passengers and crew members
  • the SS CALIFORNIAN which was the closest to the scene of an accident couldn't come to help because her radio operator was off-dutily and had gone to sleep.
This knowledge resulted in a long list of new regulations. So for every person on a ship there must be a place in the lifeboats and all persons have to practice with lifeboats before the departure. Furthermore a radio guard duty occupied round-the-clock at sea was introduced.
Some persons were held responsible for the catastrophe particularly in the society and also in large parts of the literature. These is Stanley Lord, captain the CALIFORNIAN, William M. Murdoch, first officer the TITANIC and Joseph Bruce Ismay, managing director the White Star Line.


In 1980 the search for the wreck of the Titanic starts.
In the following years many expeditions tried to find the wreck.

1st September 1985 the US-Navy research-vessel KNORR discovered the wreck of the TITANIC.
The depth was 3800 meters, the vessel were broken in 3 parts,
bow and stern lay seperated by 600 meters, some parts were scattered over 1 mile
Many expeditions from different companies followed and disputes at the US-Court too.
An american company, a french company, a canadian-russian crew with a submarine, etc. etc. ...

In 1987 an expedition started to the position of the wreck. During 32 diving-trips 1800 pieces of the TITANIC was brought to the surface, thousands meters of films and many photos were shot.

The last expedition in 1996 tried to bring up a 17 tons part of the ship but they had no success.
Up to today round about 5000 pieces were brouht up and round about 2500 were preserved.

Titanic 5

The Myth and the Legends of the TITANIC lives:
  • Different exhibitons go round the world
  • About 3000 books tells truth and many legends and myths
  • A Broadway-Musical has NO success - (a 'Musical', what a foolish world!!).
  • About 36 films describes the desaster.
  • We have 11 Titanic-Societies round the world.
  • 360 monuments / memorials were build in 21 countries.
  • Business men want to build a new TITANIC to make good money.


  • Titanic card
    04/15/1912 - 04/15/1998,
    Anniversary of the Sinking of the 'Titanic'


    Titanic movie
    Titanic museum
    One word to the 'Titanic-Stamps': This page was created December 1997 with some stamps, which were enable to that time. In the meantime many new stamps were thrown on the market. The sensational success of the last film animated many countries to 'make money' with such stamps. Under them countries with no relations to the sea or to this ship. The design of many stamps was made 'quick and dirty', blocks are huge and terrible, different things like the colour of the funnels, lights or the list of the ship were really wrong. So, many stamps are bad and not worth to collect.
    Titanic rescue
    ******** Notice, June 2004 **********
    After Great Britain now the United States have signed a contract to protect the wreck of the 'Titanic' against looting and destruction. Both countries hope that Canada, France and Russia will follow sign the contract.



    © 1998 - 2007 Bjoern Moritz, all rights reserved.


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