Facts About the Titanic Tragedy That Are Etched in Memory

The Titanic, one of the largest passenger ship disasters in history… Thousands of deaths and numerous conspiracy theories. So, what really happened?

1. More than half of the ship’s passengers died in the disaster.
   The Titanic carried a total of 2,224 passengers, and 1,500 people lost their lives when it sank.

2. The wreck of the Titanic on the ocean floor is expected to disappear by 2030.

Iron-eating microbes are slowly consuming the rusted hull of the ship. After all these years, the ship will essentially turn to dust and disappear in the ocean currents.

3. The first film about the Titanic was made in the same year it sank, 1912.
The film was titled “Saved from the Titanic” and starred Dorothy Gibson, an actress who survived the sinking. Gibson, a silent film star at the time, wore the same dress she had on the night of the sinking during the filming, leading to an emotional breakdown in front of the entire crew.

4. Another Titanic film was produced in Germany in 1943.
This film, created as anti-American and anti-British propaganda, was banned in both countries. The film portrayed the ship’s sinking as a result of the greed of these nations.

5. The wreck was discovered accidentally during a “Top Secret” Cold War military mission in 1985.

Oceanographer Robert Ballard met with the U.S. Navy to get funding for the technology needed to find the RMS Titanic wreck. However, the Navy was more interested in locating the wrecks of the submarines USS Scorpion and USS Thresher. They agreed to Ballard’s search for the Titanic on the condition that he first locate these submarines. Despite doubts about his success, Ballard found the Titanic on the 12th day of the mission.

6. Only one child passenger from the first class died in the disaster.
Two-year-old Loraine Allison’s body was never found. In 1940, a woman named Helen Kramer claimed to be the lost child Loraine, maintaining this assertion until her death in 1992. However, a DNA test later revealed she was lying.

7. There were so many bodies at the crash site that the embalming fluid on the recovery ship ran out.

The first ship could only bring back 306 bodies.

8. Isidor Straus, co-owner of the famous Macy’s department store chain, was on board.

He and his wife Ida died together because they refused to be separated. A deleted scene in James Cameron’s Titanic shows the Straus couple.

9. In 1986, a proposal was made to raise the Titanic wreck by filling it with 180,000 tons of Vaseline.

Another plan suggested freezing the wreck in liquid nitrogen to bring it to the surface.

10. The shortage of lifeboats and life vests on the Titanic was due to an outdated law.

During the ship’s construction, the British Board of Trade required lifeboat numbers to be based on the ship’s weight rather than the number of passengers. This resulted in only 16 lifeboats on the Titanic instead of the required 32.

11. Benjamin Guggenheim, a member of a famous family, died in the Titanic disaster.

According to reports, Benjamin and his staff dressed in their finest clothes and faced death like gentlemen. They also helped women and children board the lifeboats.

12. The musicians who continued to play as the Titanic sank, as depicted in James Cameron’s film, were real.

In reality, these musicians played high-tempo songs and waltzes amidst the chaos until two hours after the Titanic hit the iceberg.

13. Ann Elizabeth Isham, a first-class passenger, was placed in a lifeboat but returned to the ship to rescue her Great Dane, resulting in both their deaths.

When their bodies were found, the woman was tightly holding onto her dog.

14. Underwater research in 1985 found several pairs of intact shoes at the Titanic wreck site.

The bodies and skeletons had long since disappeared, but the shoes remained preserved underwater.

15. None of the Titanic’s engineering team survived the disaster.

All 35 members of the team stayed on the ship and continued to send distress signals.

16. A month after the Titanic sank, a lifeboat containing three dead bodies was found 500 km from the crash site.

17. According to a study conducted in 2017, the sinking of the Titanic was not solely due to hitting an iceberg.

There was also a fire on the ship that caused significant damage, which the shipbuilding company covered up. Researchers believe the fire started three weeks before the accident and could not be extinguished. The crew was instructed not to inform the passengers about the damage.