L'histoire réelle du Titanic : des faits surprenants révélés

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Transcript

00:00:00On April 10, 1912, crowds gathered on the beach of Southampton to celebrate the departure of what was at the time the largest and most prestigious ship in the world, the RMS Titanic.

00:00:14The price of the most expensive first class ticket was $4,350, or about $70,000 in current value.

00:00:23But just five days after its departure, the ship was swallowed up by the Atlantic Ocean.

00:00:30So, let's go back to see what really happened on that fateful night.

00:00:35The captain wanted to set a speed record for the ship's inaugural voyage and arrive in advance.

00:00:42The ship was considered unsubmersible.

00:00:45It sailed at full speed in the dark waters of the Arctic.

00:00:49After having spotted the iceberg, the crew desperately tried to move the ship away and avoid collision.

00:00:57The Titanic was moving too fast and the iceberg tore the side of the ship, creating a huge opening in the hull.

00:01:04It was not a single and unique breach, because the damage occurred in several places.

00:01:10In total, the damage spread over an area of 90 meters.

00:01:15But the ship's designers had prepared for the prospect of a collision and had added waterproof compartments on each side of the ship to act as protection areas.

00:01:25Four of these compartments could be pierced and the ship would still remain afloat.

00:01:30But as the iceberg tore the side of the Titanic, it made holes in six compartments.

00:01:35The compartments did not extend over the total height of all the bridges and were not really sealed at the top.

00:01:42This is why, when more than four of them were flooded, the water reached the top of the cliffs and filled the remaining compartments,

00:01:49dragging the ship's wreck into the ocean.

00:01:52Imagine water overflowing from an iceberg.

00:01:55But if the collision had been frontal, would it have flowed as well?

00:01:59Ships are designed to take collision risks into account, and most ships are equipped with anti-collision locks at the front.

00:02:07In fact, it's like the bumper or the deformation zone of your car.

00:02:11It's a safety element that can withstand a direct impact.

00:02:15The wreck could have absorbed some of the impact.

00:02:19And some experts have estimated that in the event of a frontal collision, only two to four of the sealed compartments would have been flooded.

00:02:26In theory, the Titanic would therefore not have sunk and could even have continued to sail towards its final destination at a much slower speed.

00:02:34However, the impact force would have been enormous.

00:02:38But although the passengers would have been injured by the collision,

00:02:42they could have stayed on the ship to wait to be rescued by other ships rather than be forced to dive into the icy waters of the Atlantic.

00:02:50However, one of the designers of the Titanic, Edouard Wilding, suggested that the impact force may not have been so important.

00:02:58He told the British Inquiry Commission that many people had barely felt the collision,

00:03:04and he estimated that the ship would not have sunk if it had hit the iceberg with full force.

00:03:09The ship was also designed with sealed doors remotely controlled between all compartments,

00:03:15so that any flood could have been quickly contained.

00:03:19Given that the Titanic had six breaches following the lateral collision,

00:03:24and that it occurred so quickly,

00:03:27the closing of the doors would not have changed anything since it was practically impossible to save it at this stage.

00:03:33The ship immediately began to flood.

00:03:36The water was overflowing at a rate of about 7 tonnes per second, 15 times faster than it could be pumped.

00:03:43If we can imagine that the Titanic would have survived if the ship had hit the iceberg with full force,

00:03:48this idea also raises some problems.

00:03:51First of all, the collision walls were designed to survive a crash with another ship,

00:03:57not with a giant iceberg.

00:03:59If two ships collided, they would absorb some of the impact in their cloisons,

00:04:05thus sharing the impact and probably remaining afloat.

00:04:09But an iceberg is static,

00:04:11which means that the Titanic must have absorbed most of the energy of the collision.

00:04:17If the Titanic had been hit in the head first,

00:04:20because of the speed at which it was moving,

00:04:23the impact would probably have crossed the entire body of the ship.

00:04:27Imagine a ship weighing 46,000 tonnes moving at about 20 knots, 37 km per hour.

00:04:33At some point, it hits an iceberg that can weigh more than 100,000 tonnes.

00:04:38This collision would most likely create a powerful force that would significantly damage the ship.

00:04:45It is possible that the joints will tear, that the stairs will collapse,

00:04:49and that the shores will burst into all the ships.

00:04:52All this could potentially flood even more compartments.

00:04:56This could make the Titanic sink in a few minutes rather than a few hours.

00:05:00But this is only the visible part of the iceberg.

00:05:03As we all know, most of it is hidden underwater.

00:05:07So, if the Titanic had sailed head-on,

00:05:10it is likely that it would have first hit the part of the iceberg located underwater,

00:05:14which would have made it deviate from its trajectory.

00:05:17Hitting an iceberg is not like hitting a brick wall.

00:05:21In this case, the ice underwater would have torn the bottom of the ship and caused damage to the sides.

00:05:26Icebergs are not flat and solid objects either.

00:05:30If it was a simple collision, the ship could have remained afloat,

00:05:34but icebergs have very different shapes and sizes,

00:05:37ranging from domes to peaks.

00:05:40Studies have also been carried out on the steel used to make the Titanic,

00:05:45and the tests show that the metal was about ten times more fragile than the steel we use today.

00:05:52The ship was built before we understood the effects of low temperatures on the steel.

00:05:57The old steel used to make the ship did not bend in the face of glacial temperatures, but broke.

00:06:04The pieces recovered from the plates of the Titanic's hull show that the hull simply broke during the impact.

00:06:11A frontal shock would also cause a very violent and brutal stop,

00:06:16so that even if the ship had not sunk, it would still have had major problems.

00:06:21Imagine a moment when you suddenly brake your car,

00:06:24or when a bus stops while you are walking in the alley and you are projected forward.

00:06:29Passengers would also have been projected across the ship,

00:06:32and as the shock took place at night, most people were sleeping

00:06:36and could not have prepared properly for any impact.

00:06:40This would have caused injuries to most people on board.

00:06:44The consequences would have been particularly serious for the people located at the front of the ship,

00:06:49where the firemen, greasers and mechanics on leave were located.

00:06:53But even if the passengers and crew members had been thrown out of bed,

00:06:58there would have been many more survivors than in the original scenario.

00:07:02Many ships have suffered frontal collisions and have managed to regain the coast.

00:07:07Few people know that the Titanic actually had two twin ships.

00:07:12The White Star Line, the company that built the Titanic,

00:07:15also built ships called the British and the Olympic.

00:07:19Commanded by Edward G. Smith, who would later lead the Titanic,

00:07:23the Olympic left for its inaugural voyage in June 1911.

00:07:28But as with its twin ship, disaster was coming.

00:07:32During its fifth commercial voyage, the Olympic collided with a ship of the Royal Navy, the HMS Oak.

00:07:41While the Olympic was damaged on the side, the Oak suffered a frontal and full-wing impact.

00:07:47The Oak's bow was completely crushed by the collision.

00:07:51But as the ship had waterproof compartments,

00:07:54it managed to survive the shock and return to land safely to be repaired.

00:07:59Another case study is that of the SS Andrea Doria,

00:08:03an Italian shipyard that made headlines in 1956.

00:08:07Like the Titanic, the Andrea Doria was heading for New York

00:08:11for its 101st voyage when the disaster struck.

00:08:15On July 25, the ship collided with a 160-meter Swedish ship, the Stockholm.

00:08:22The latter hit the ship with full force,

00:08:25but the impact point of the Andrea Doria was on the side.

00:08:29The front of the Stockholm was completely destroyed,

00:08:32but as the impact occurred on its hull, it was able to get out.

00:08:36The Andrea Doria unfortunately sank,

00:08:39the collision taking place on the side of the ship.

00:08:42These cases could therefore suggest that the Titanic might have survived

00:08:46if it had hit the iceberg in front.

00:08:49But we must not forget that the Titanic hit the iceberg at full speed,

00:08:53while the Olympic and the Andrea Doria were traveling slower.

00:08:59An electric beam of light pierces the darkness

00:09:02above the calm waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

00:09:07The Titanic would quietly make its way through the waves,

00:09:10its passengers asleep,

00:09:12when suddenly a monstrous white shape

00:09:16detaches in the light beam.

00:09:18The fateful iceberg is about to tear the legendary ship's flank.

00:09:26It is April 14, 1912,

00:09:28just two days before someone takes a picture

00:09:31of a gigantic, elliptical-shaped iceberg.

00:09:35It turns out that this iceberg was probably formed

00:09:39from snow that had fallen more than 100,000 years ago.

00:09:42Researchers used computer simulations to determine its origin.

00:09:47They entered data from 1912

00:09:49and added some information about winds and ocean currents.

00:09:53What they concluded was that the iceberg

00:09:56was probably part of a small group of glaciers

00:09:59in the southwest of Greenland.

00:10:02Today, it is possible to calculate the itineraries of these icebergs

00:10:06for each past year.

00:10:08Thus, the sadly famous piece of ice

00:10:10was on its way from Greenland

00:10:12to a region further south of Cornwall.

00:10:15If the ship had passed through this region only two days later,

00:10:19the iceberg would obviously have moved away from the point where they met.

00:10:23At first, the iceberg's weight, the most famous in the world,

00:10:26was 75 million tonnes.

00:10:29Over time, it began to melt slowly.

00:10:32And when the Titanic sank,

00:10:34its weight was only 1.5 million tonnes.

00:10:37At the time of the collision,

00:10:39it had probably started to melt months ago.

00:10:42But it was still a real colossus.

00:10:44When the Titanic sank, the iceberg was 120 metres long

00:10:48and emerged from the water at more than 30 metres in height.

00:10:53Some people think that it was a supermoon

00:10:56that caused the Titanic to sink.

00:10:59That night, a rare lunar event occurred,

00:11:02which had not happened for 1,400 years.

00:11:05Under normal conditions, such an iceberg

00:11:08could not have ventured so far south without melting

00:11:11and losing most of its mass.

00:11:13But this supermoon could have been the result of an unusually high tide

00:11:18that moved the iceberg away from the glacier much faster than usual.

00:11:22There is a specific type of bacteria

00:11:25that slowly consumes the remains of the Titanic.

00:11:28Saline corrosion, ocean currents, glacial temperatures

00:11:32and finally, this microorganism that eats rust

00:11:35could eventually consume the entire wreck.

00:11:38American actress Dorothy Gibson was on board the Titanic.

00:11:42She survived and when she arrived in New York,

00:11:45she almost immediately started shooting a film called Rescued from the Titanic.

00:11:50This film was released only a month after the sinking of the iceberg

00:11:54and Gibson was forced to wear the same shoes

00:11:57and the same clothes she had during the disaster.

00:12:00The film was a great success at the time,

00:12:03but the only known copy of it ended up being destroyed in a fire.

00:12:08A new film called Futility was published 14 years before the sinking of the Titanic

00:12:14and it seemed to have predicted the whole incident.

00:12:17The plot was centered on a fictional ship

00:12:20with the predestined name of Titan, which sank during its crossing.

00:12:24The Titan was almost the same size as the Titanic

00:12:27and both sank in April.

00:12:29And the reason was, for one and for the other,

00:12:32that they had hit an iceberg.

00:12:34The two ships, real and fictitious, were described as insubmersible

00:12:39and both, however, had the legally required number of lifeboats

00:12:43which, as it turned out later, were far from being enough.

00:12:47We saw it well in the film,

00:12:49but real love stories also took place on the Titanic.

00:12:53Thirteen couples even crossed it as part of their honeymoon.

00:12:58One of these couples was even the owner of the large Macy's store in New York.

00:13:03When it became obvious that the Titanic was sinking rapidly,

00:13:06the wife refused to board a lifeboat without her husband,

00:13:10but he did not want to join her

00:13:12as long as there were still women and children who, according to him,

00:13:15should have left first.

00:13:17His wife then gave up her coat to her servants

00:13:19and she insisted that she take her place in the lifeboat.

00:13:23The lady, on the other hand, decided to stay with her husband until the end.

00:13:29Some people think that the Titanic sank because of a mummy

00:13:32and not because of an iceberg.

00:13:34It all started nearly a thousand BC

00:13:37with a mysterious woman who lived then in Egypt, in the city of Thebes.

00:13:41We knew little about her,

00:13:43but we deduced that she was a priestess.

00:13:46Her mummy had been placed in a wooden sarcophagus

00:13:49and covered with a heavy lid

00:13:51adorned with her face and some mystical inscriptions.

00:13:54The location of her tomb had remained secret

00:13:57until the first half of the 19th century

00:13:59when a group of inhabitants accidentally fell on it,

00:14:02putting an end to millennia of tranquility.

00:14:05No one knows how,

00:14:07but the mummy disappeared that day without a trace.

00:14:10A few decades later,

00:14:12a group of rich English friends who had gone to Egypt

00:14:15found the famous sarcophagus of this mummy,

00:14:18whose dark eyes seemed to contemplate eternity.

00:14:21They decided to buy it,

00:14:23but the buyer disappeared the very night before they could conclude the case.

00:14:27All the members of the group have had accidents on their side.

00:14:30The sarcophagus was passed from hand to hand several times

00:14:34until it ended, as some think, on the Titanic.

00:14:40It took more than 70 years for a submarine robot

00:14:43to find the ruins of this legendary ship.

00:14:46The wreck lies 4,000 metres below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean,

00:14:50split in two halves.

00:14:52Why did the sarcophagus break?

00:14:54No one knows exactly.

00:14:56Some think it happened because of the water that infiltrated inside

00:15:00when the ship collided with the iceberg.

00:15:03The pressure was so strong

00:15:05that it split the Titanic in two,

00:15:07starting with the lower structure of the ship.

00:15:10Others say that it was the ribs of the hull that were responsible.

00:15:14They had a high concentration of metallic scurry,

00:15:17the fusion residue,

00:15:19and this is something that can weaken the metal.

00:15:22The ship had many flaws in general,

00:15:25starting with its design.

00:15:27The water lids were not completely sealed on the top.

00:15:31This allowed water to circulate between the compartments

00:15:34and, in the end, to flow all over the ship.

00:15:37The iron of the ribs and the steel of the hull

00:15:40were put to the test

00:15:42because of their strong sulfur content,

00:15:44ice temperatures and high speeds.

00:15:47The steel broke and the ribs detached quite easily.

00:15:51Because of this, the Titanic flowed 24 times faster

00:15:55than it would have done otherwise.

00:15:57And if the ship had hit the iceberg with full force

00:16:00instead of hitting it with flanks,

00:16:02it would probably have stayed afloat.

00:16:04How come the crew members didn't have binoculars?

00:16:07This would have surely helped them to spot the iceberg in time

00:16:10and perhaps even to avoid the disaster.

00:16:13But the Titanic's optical instruments

00:16:15were locked in a storage compartment.

00:16:18Only one crew member had the key

00:16:20and he had been transferred from the ship just before his departure.

00:16:24He later admitted that he had not thought of returning this key.

00:16:27But even without binoculars,

00:16:29the ship could have had time to change course

00:16:31and avoid the collision if the crew had been warned in time.

00:16:35And that's the problem.

00:16:37Someone had indeed warned them.

00:16:39About an hour before the incident,

00:16:41a ship that was relatively close to the Titanic,

00:16:44the SS Californian,

00:16:46sent a message to inform them

00:16:48that it had stopped because of a dense ice field.

00:16:51But the warning never reached the captain of the Titanic.

00:16:55Some experts think it's because the radio operator

00:16:58simply didn't realise the emergency.

00:17:01And later, the SS Californian

00:17:04declared that it had not received a call

00:17:06from the Titanic in return

00:17:08because their operators were not in service.

00:17:10Some believe that the Titanic's crew

00:17:13could not have spotted the iceberg in time

00:17:15because of an optical illusion.

00:17:17The atmospheric conditions of that night

00:17:19would have caused a super refraction,

00:17:21which could have camouflaged the iceberg.

00:17:24After all, no one really saw the iceberg

00:17:27until it was too close to the ship

00:17:29to be able to avoid the collision.

00:17:31It didn't even take an entire minute

00:17:33between the moment they spotted the iceberg

00:17:36and the crash itself.

00:17:3837 seconds to be precise.

00:17:40And it took the Titanic 2 hours and 40 minutes

00:17:43to disappear under the ocean.

00:17:45They were on their way to the New World

00:17:47when a collision with an iceberg

00:17:49destroyed all their dreams and hopes.

00:17:51It was panic.

00:17:52There were tears and heartbreaking goodbyes,

00:17:54like those of Jack and Rose.

00:17:56But is it true?

00:17:58Let's see if you know the true story of the Titanic.

00:18:03The love story of Jack Dawson

00:18:05and Rose DeWitt Booketer

00:18:07is inspired by real events.

00:18:09What do you think?

00:18:10Is it a myth or a reality?

00:18:18The most moving love story of the Titanic

00:18:21was in fact entirely invented

00:18:23by the screenwriter and director of the famous film

00:18:25James Cameron.

00:18:27Some of the passengers in the film

00:18:29did exist.

00:18:30And, pure coincidence,

00:18:32there was a J. Dawson on board.

00:18:34But his name was Joseph, not Jack,

00:18:36and he worked as a steward.

00:18:39The most expensive object that disappeared with the Titanic

00:18:42is a painting by Pablo Picasso.

00:18:44Is it true in your opinion?

00:18:47Yes.

00:18:52It's a myth, once again,

00:18:54invented by the screenwriter of the film.

00:18:56The most precious object that disappeared with the Titanic

00:18:59is probably a painting by Mary Joseph Blondel

00:19:01made in 1814.

00:19:04Among the other valuables

00:19:06was a violin belonging to Wallace Hartley,

00:19:09the musician who insisted on playing until the very last moment.

00:19:13There was also a 1912 Renault type CB Coupe de Ville

00:19:16which today would cost millions of dollars.

00:19:19A manuscript by Joseph Conrad.

00:19:22First editions of books by Francis Bacon.

00:19:25Five great Steinway pianos.

00:19:27And, of course, plates and cups in fine porcelain

00:19:29and jewellery by first-class passengers.

00:19:34The Titanic was the largest and most luxurious ship of its time.

00:19:39Is it true in your opinion?

00:19:47Yes, it's absolutely true.

00:19:49In April 1912,

00:19:51the Titanic was the largest ship ever built.

00:19:55It was 270 meters long

00:19:57and had a maximum capacity of 2,435 passengers.

00:20:03This is not much compared to the largest cruise ship today,

00:20:06the Symphony of the Seas.

00:20:08It is just a little longer than the Titanic

00:20:10but can accommodate more than twice as many people.

00:20:14But no ship has ever beaten the Titanic in terms of luxury.

00:20:20Its construction today would have cost more than 200 million dollars.

00:20:24Tickets were quite expensive.

00:20:26Yes.

00:20:29In first class, you had to pay the equivalent of 1,700 dollars

00:20:34and up to 50,000 dollars for one of the two most beautiful suites.

00:20:38Second class tickets cost 700 dollars today.

00:20:42A third class seat cost between 170 and 460 dollars today.

00:20:49Most of the passengers of the insubordinate ship survived.

00:20:53True or false?

00:21:02Unfortunately, it's false.

00:21:04Only 37% of the passengers survived the terrible collision.

00:21:09About 61% of first class passengers,

00:21:1242% of second class passengers

00:21:16and 24% of third class passengers survived.

00:21:22The Titanic crossed the Bermuda Triangle

00:21:24when things went wrong.

00:21:26And that's probably why it sank.

00:21:28What do you say? Myth or reality?

00:21:39It's a 100% myth.

00:21:41The Titanic never even approached the Bermuda Triangle.

00:21:45The boat sank about 645 km south of Terre-Neuve,

00:21:49which is very, very far north of the Bermudas.

00:21:51The sadly famous area where ships and planes disappear without a trace.

00:21:56The moon may be responsible for the shipwreck of the Titanic.

00:21:59True or false?

00:22:08That's true.

00:22:10The moon strongly affects the earth's tides.

00:22:13The closer the moon is to the earth,

00:22:15the stronger the tides are due to the increasing gravity of our satellite.

00:22:20In 1912, the moon was so close

00:22:22that it caused the rupture of several glaciers in Greenland.

00:22:26The huge pieces of ice detached from the glaciers

00:22:29began to drift south.

00:22:31The supermoon appeared just 6 minutes after a big tide.

00:22:35The alignment of the moon, the sun and the earth

00:22:37caused their combined gravities to reach their maximum,

00:22:40twice a month.

00:22:42The day before, our planet got closer to the sun,

00:22:45making the gravity even stronger.

00:22:49This combination of events led to one of the most powerful tides in history.

00:22:55The icebergs detaching from the Greenland glaciers

00:22:58drift to the coastal waters of Labrador and Terre-Neuve,

00:23:01where they often dry up.

00:23:03To continue, they must either melt and become lighter,

00:23:06or take advantage of a high tide that will drag them further.

00:23:09The 1912 tide was as high as possible.

00:23:12Several sea routes were therefore moved south

00:23:15because of the exceptional amount of icebergs.

00:23:18But not that of the Titanic, of course,

00:23:20because it was believed to be unsinkable.

00:23:24It took 4 hours and 40 minutes for the Titanic to sink.

00:23:27True or false?

00:23:29False

00:23:35False. If you know about it,

00:23:37you certainly know that it actually took 2 hours and 40 minutes.

00:23:42It is rather slow given the damage caused by the iceberg.

00:23:45It is its modern construction that prevented it from sinking quickly.

00:23:49There were 16 waterproof compartments in the lower part of the ship.

00:23:53They had to protect it in case of a waterway.

00:23:55When the iceberg crashed on the hull,

00:23:57it broke 6 of the compartments.

00:23:59The Titanic could have continued to float

00:24:01if only 4 of them had been damaged.

00:24:04The water filled the first 6 compartments in 1 hour.

00:24:07This led to a slight inclination of the ship on the right side.

00:24:11Once these compartments were filled,

00:24:13the water began to overflow into the 7th.

00:24:16And from that moment on, the shipwreck began to accelerate.

00:24:20The bow of the ship sank into the water and the stern rose.

00:24:25The destroyers played an important role in the tragedy of the Titanic.

00:24:29True or false?

00:24:31What do you think?

00:24:39It's true.

00:24:41When a ship sinks, the crew members have to send red destroyers.

00:24:45This indicates to all ships nearby that a ship is in danger.

00:24:49But for some unknown reason,

00:24:51someone had put white lights in the wreck of the Titanic.

00:24:54When the ship crashed against the iceberg,

00:24:56the crew members therefore launched white rockets.

00:24:59Another ship, the California SS, was not far at the time.

00:25:03Its captain knew that the Titanic was crossing a dangerous zone.

00:25:07The California SS crew did not see the Titanic sink into the darkness,

00:25:11but its white rockets were visible.

00:25:13Radio communication between the two ships did not work.

00:25:17The operator had turned off his receiver.

00:25:21The captain of the California SS then sent a message

00:25:24using a Morse signal lamp.

00:25:27But it was too late.

00:25:29The ship was already under water.

00:25:31No one could answer.

00:25:34Another ship, the Samson, was sailing very close to the Titanic.

00:25:38It was advancing with all lights off to chase the seal,

00:25:41an illegal practice.

00:25:43When its captain saw the Titanic's white rockets,

00:25:46he thought they were coast guards.

00:25:48The Samson then moved away as quickly as possible.

00:25:51They realized that they had abandoned the passengers

00:25:54to their tragic fate after arriving in Iceland.

00:25:57In 1996, an expedition managed to bring the Titanic back up from the bottom of the ocean.

00:26:03Is it true or false according to you?

00:26:10If you say false, you are right.

00:26:12Different ideas have been proposed on how to bring the Titanic back up.

00:26:15Using compressed air, a mesh cover, liquid nitrogen

00:26:19or using very powerful magnets.

00:26:22The only real attempt took place in 1996

00:26:26and it failed spectacularly.

00:26:29The goal was to lift a part of its hull, which weighed about 21 tons.

00:26:34This piece would have been the largest to see the light of day,

00:26:37if the operation had been successful, of course.

00:26:41Four large buoys filled with diesel were lowered to the bottom of the ocean

00:26:45and attached to the hull.

00:26:48Then the buoys began to lift a piece of plate.

00:26:52It was only 60 meters from the surface when the weather suddenly deteriorated.

00:26:56The expedition members then decided to pull the plate to calmer waters

00:27:00about 130 kilometers away.

00:27:02But long before they reached this destination,

00:27:05the plate broke in two and part of it went back down to the bottom of the sea.

00:27:08Two of the buoys seem to have detached and the hull sank.

00:27:12The Titanic would probably fall to the ground

00:27:15if we tried to get it back up again.

00:27:18So, how many good answers did you get?

00:27:21Tell me everything in the comments below.

00:27:24Staying for a long time in water at 15 degrees Celsius

00:27:27is neither very pleasant nor good for your health.

00:27:30But water at 10 degrees Celsius is a real nightmare.

00:27:34It seems much colder than air at the same temperature.

00:27:37The passengers of the Titanic were in water at less than 2 degrees Celsius.

00:27:41Can you imagine how cold it was?

00:27:44Even the iceberg that the Titanic hit was warmer.

00:27:48The water did not freeze because of its strong salt content.

00:27:51But what would have happened if the temperature had been higher?

00:27:54What if the Titanic had sunk in hot water,

00:27:57let's say 49 degrees Celsius?

00:28:00In theory, this could have happened if the waters of the North Atlantic

00:28:03had encountered a hot sub-current

00:28:06coming from the southern part of the ocean on the day of the disaster.

00:28:09But this heat would not have been enough.

00:28:12The ocean area is too vast and the temperature is too low at night.

00:28:15The hot sub-current alone would not have made a difference

00:28:18for the people who were in the water.

00:28:21But if the Titanic had sunk somewhere else at a precise moment,

00:28:24then all the people could have been saved

00:28:27thanks to an incredible natural phenomenon.

00:28:30And now, everyone on board,

00:28:33our journey in a parallel universe begins.

00:28:36It's a moonless night from the 14th to the 15th of April.

00:28:39The Titanic hits an iceberg.

00:28:42The icy water floods the lower decks.

00:28:45The captain sends a distress signal.

00:28:48The closest ship, the Carpathia,

00:28:51is 93 km from the Titanic and is sinking.

00:28:54At maximum speed, the Carpathia will reach it in 4 hours.

00:28:57The journey is quite long, even in warm tropical waters,

00:29:00since your body loses heat anyway.

00:29:03The Titanic begins to sink.

00:29:06The crew lowers the lifeboats.

00:29:09Some of the passengers jump overboard.

00:29:12The boat is sinking.

00:29:15There are no more lifeboats, so you jump with the other passengers.

00:29:18You feel like you have entered a huge iceberg.

00:29:21The water is so cold that it is difficult for you to move.

00:29:24There is no air in your lungs.

00:29:27But at that moment, you feel a pleasant heat coming from the depths.

00:29:30The heat rises above your knees and your waist,

00:29:33then reaches your neck.

00:29:36Finally, you regain control of your muscles and you can breathe deeply.

00:29:39You notice that all the other passengers feel the same heat.

00:29:42The water warms up.

00:29:45It makes you happy.

00:29:48But in an instant, horror replaces pleasure.

00:29:51The Titanic begins to sink.

00:29:54And not because of the high temperature,

00:29:57but because something rises from the bottom of the ocean.

00:30:00You hear a heavy and deep sound coming from the depths.

00:30:03It is not the Titanic that is sinking, but something bigger.

00:30:06You can see a huge iceberg nearby.

00:30:09It is melting and a huge piece comes off.

00:30:12A million bubbles appear on the surface.

00:30:15Then you feel something hit your leg.

00:30:18Strangely light waves rise from below.

00:30:21There are also massive plates among them.

00:30:24People use them as lifeboats.

00:30:27You climb on one of these rocks and look at the deck.

00:30:30It no longer flows as all the water boils and pushes it up now.

00:30:33You grab one of the stones and you understand everything.

00:30:36It's sandstone.

00:30:39An underwater volcano has awakened just below the ship.

00:30:42Thousands of tons of volcanic rocks float on the surface.

00:30:46When it erupts, its magma shakes the whole space,

00:30:49heats up the water and destroys the seabed.

00:30:54But this does not cause any destruction on the surface.

00:30:57The enormous pressure of hundreds of millions of liters of water

00:31:00cancels the power of the volcano.

00:31:03The molten rocks of the earth's crust are pressed against the seabed

00:31:06and the sandstone rises to the surface.

00:31:09This is why it happens.

00:31:12The upper part of the earth is made up of many solid parts,

00:31:15the tectonic plates.

00:31:18These plates collide with each other and divide.

00:31:21When one part separates from the other, the magma rises immediately.

00:31:24And each volcano is one of these unstable fault sites.

00:31:27If the Titanic had sailed above one of these areas during an eruption,

00:31:30many passengers would have been saved.

00:31:33Back in our parallel universe,

00:31:36you notice that the Titanic is starting to flow again.

00:31:39The water is no longer bubbling.

00:31:42The volcano has extinguished.

00:31:45In a few seconds, the ocean becomes glacial again.

00:31:48Fortunately, you have your lifeboat in stone.

00:31:51That's enough to wait for the rescuers.

00:31:54But let's imagine a situation without an underwater volcano

00:31:57and without an iceberg.

00:32:00A situation where the water was hot from the start.

00:32:03One of the turbines in the engine compartment of the ship breaks down.

00:32:06Several pipes burst due to the increased pressure

00:32:09and there is now a crack in the ship's body.

00:32:12The water fills the lower decks.

00:32:15The ship sinks.

00:32:18The passengers are evacuated on lifeboats.

00:32:21There is less panic because the night is hot and no one is cold.

00:32:24Each passenger receives a life jacket.

00:32:27The ship breaks. You understand that you have to jump.

00:32:30The Titanic sinks under the water.

00:32:33Your body is horrified.

00:32:36It dives into the dark ocean and immediately rises to the surface.

00:32:39Panic and total chaos immediately take over.

00:32:42The ship disappears into the darkness and finally everything is silent.

00:32:45A few minutes pass and you notice that the panic is over.

00:32:48The water is hot.

00:32:51Almost all passengers have life jackets.

00:32:54Someone floats on some boards from the boat.

00:32:57After a few hours, the water no longer seems as comfortable.

00:33:00The ocean absorbs the heat of your body.

00:33:03To warm up, the passengers swim closer to each other

00:33:06forming a tight circle.

00:33:09It is now quite possible to wait two more hours for the rescuers to arrive.

00:33:12The people on the lifeboats approach

00:33:15and take on board those who are cold.

00:33:18The passengers get up.

00:33:2120 minutes in the water, then 20 minutes in a canoe.

00:33:24It is essential not to take off your clothes.

00:33:28When it seems that everyone is saved, someone shouts.

00:33:31A girl in a canoe looks frightened.

00:33:34She trembles with fear and points her finger at the dark water.

00:33:37The passengers try to see what is there

00:33:40and notice a triangular ring.

00:33:43One, two, three, there are so many!

00:33:46The sound of the sinking boat has attracted a band of sharks.

00:33:49And now they turn around the survivors

00:33:52in the hope of satisfying their hunger.

00:33:55They swim slowly.

00:33:58It looks like they are not going to attack.

00:34:01But you have to keep your eyes open

00:34:04because these fish are among the most aggressive and dangerous sharks in the world.

00:34:07They are bulldog sharks.

00:34:10They can be agile, fast and unpredictable.

00:34:13They do not swim in the cold waters of the Atlantic

00:34:16but the water of this parallel universe is perfect for them.

00:34:19Sharks are strong and robust.

00:34:22They are called bulldog sharks

00:34:25because of their short and muscled muzzle like that of one of these dogs.

00:34:28And they like to hit their targets or other sharks with their forehead.

00:34:31Several of them take the canoes.

00:34:34Someone falls into the water.

00:34:37Fortunately, others help him to get back on board.

00:34:40The sharks do not retreat.

00:34:43Chaos and panic resume.

00:34:46People shout and slam the water with chopsticks to make the fish run away.

00:34:49The shark opens its mouth and clings to a canoe.

00:34:52At this moment, you notice other sharks nearby.

00:34:55A group of big white sharks arrives at the party.

00:34:58They are among the most dangerous animals on the planet.

00:35:01They are big, fast and strong

00:35:04and their triangular triceps, aligned on several rows,

00:35:07are sharp as razor blades.

00:35:10The big whites swim around the canoes and make the bulldog sharks flee.

00:35:13You fall off a canoe and you see a big shark approaching you.

00:35:16Fear awakens the survival instinct that sleeps in you.

00:35:19You do your best to swim as far as possible from the shark.

00:35:22Of course, it is useless because the shark is much faster

00:35:25and will certainly catch you.

00:35:28You feel your foot touch the shark's nose.

00:35:31The other foot enters its mouth.

00:35:34You scream in horror.

00:35:37After a second, the shark lets you go.

00:35:40The big white sharks rarely attack people.

00:35:43They are just there to taste you.

00:35:46After all, the shark's favorite prey is the seal.

00:35:49They are simply disinterested in you if they realize you are not a seal.

00:35:52But if the shark is hungry, the type of prey you are

00:35:55does not matter to it.

00:35:58Fortunately for you, it is not.

00:36:01The survivors in the canoes have almost nothing to fear either.

00:36:04The big white sharks do not attack them.

00:36:07They can push the canoes slightly, but only to test them.

00:36:10The big white shark moves away from you while swimming.

00:36:13But a bulldog shark reappears.

00:36:16And it looks like it is hungry.

00:36:19It swims towards you, opens its mouth and ...

00:36:22A strong horn of retentive ship.

00:36:25It is the RMS Carpathia who has come to the rescue.

00:36:28All sharks retreat, frightened.

00:36:31All passengers are saved.

00:36:34In fact, back in our reality, another ship that was nearby

00:36:38No one could have imagined that the insubmersible Titanic

00:36:41would collide with an iceberg.

00:36:44With the exception of one man, William Thomas Stead.

00:36:47Well, not like that all of a sudden, of course.

00:36:50It's not like he woke up in a hurry on a beautiful day

00:36:53imagining the disaster of the Titanic.

00:36:56He rather wrote a new edifying article entitled

00:36:59How the Postal Paquebo will sink in the middle of the Atlantic

00:37:02by a survivor on March 3, 1886.

00:37:05That is, 26 years before the shipwreck of the Titanic.

00:37:08Let's recap briefly.

00:37:11The Titanic went to Southampton, New York,

00:37:14across the North Atlantic in April 1912.

00:37:17The ship hit an iceberg and less than three hours later

00:37:20it was completely submerged.

00:37:23Of the 2,208 people on board, only 706 survived

00:37:26due to the limited number of lifeboats and frozen water.

00:37:29Another passenger ship, the Carpathia,

00:37:32heard its distress call, picked up the survivors

00:37:35and brought them back safe and sound to New York.

00:37:38The news written by William Stead tells the story of Thomas,

00:37:41a British sailor who boards a boat to the United States.

00:37:44At one point, the protagonist realizes

00:37:47that there are not enough lifeboats for everyone on board the ship

00:37:50in case something happens.

00:37:53A few days later, a thick fog hides all visibility.

00:37:56The ship is clearly unlucky

00:37:59and it collides with a wandering ship,

00:38:02just like the Titanic hit its iceberg.

00:38:05Only 200 of the 916 passengers manage to reach the United States safe and sound.

00:38:08The main character nevertheless manages to survive

00:38:11by jumping into the water and climbing into one of the lifeboats.

00:38:14One might think that this story would have encouraged

00:38:17all the sailors to add additional lifeboats

00:38:20on the ships, but unfortunately

00:38:23it received very little attention during its publication.

00:38:26William Thomas Stead was on board the Titanic when it sank

00:38:29and he did not survive.

00:38:32Survivors who had met Stead mentioned

00:38:35that he was a friendly man who liked to talk a lot during meals.

00:38:38He admired the ship's design and praised its robustness.

00:38:41Witnesses also reported that he had shown himself worthy of praise

00:38:44while the ship was sinking,

00:38:47helping his life jacket to another passenger.

00:38:50A professional journalist, he went to New York for a ceremony.

00:38:54One of his most important contributions to modern journalism

00:38:57was the use of illustrations in each of his articles.

00:39:00He also introduced press interviews

00:39:03which are still used today, as well as illustrations.

00:39:06But this story was not the only work

00:39:09to have predicted such a disaster.

00:39:12Morgan Robertson was an author and a former ship captain

00:39:15who wrote news and novels.

00:39:18His most remarkable work is The Shipwreck of the Titanic.

00:39:21It is also known as Futility.

00:39:24The book was written in 1898,

00:39:27that is, 14 years before the Titanic.

00:39:30It is a fiction about the adventure of the Titan,

00:39:33a shipwreck similar to the Titanic that crosses the North Atlantic.

00:39:36By an incredible coincidence, the Titan is as fast as the Titanic

00:39:39and shares many other similarities with it,

00:39:42such as its size or design.

00:39:45The book describes it as insubstantial

00:39:48and as a ship that never sank.

00:39:51This is also what we said about the Titanic.

00:39:54Another strange similarity is the limited number of lifeboats it has.

00:39:57The story takes place in April,

00:40:00and it was at this moment that the Titanic started its journey

00:40:03and hit an iceberg.

00:40:06The story of the Titan also mentions that almost no one survived the horrible accident.

00:40:09Unlike the story of Stead,

00:40:12Robertson's protagonist takes a different path.

00:40:15He is somewhere in the middle of the book.

00:40:18So, after the disaster, the main character continues his life.

00:40:21This book is back on the front of the scene after the disaster of the Titanic.

00:40:24How could someone describe with such precision

00:40:27the events that would take place almost 10 years later?

00:40:30Many began to believe that Robertson could guess the future,

00:40:33but in reality, Robertson simply knew about ships.

00:40:36It would have been easy for him to describe the smallest details

00:40:39without doing additional research.

00:40:42In fact, one of the biggest threats for ships of the time

00:40:45was to hit an iceberg or collide with other ships.

00:40:48The following story seems a little mysterious.

00:40:51One day, Alex McKenzie heard a voice

00:40:54warning him not to board the Titanic.

00:40:57But when he turned around, there was no one.

00:41:00As he continued to walk, the voice spoke to him again,

00:41:03but this time it was stronger and more distinct.

00:41:06He took the warning seriously

00:41:09and decided to cancel his trip

00:41:12and return to Glasgow in Scotland, his hometown.

00:41:15His grandparents were not very happy to find him on the boat

00:41:18rather than on board the Titanic.

00:41:21After all, the ticket was very expensive.

00:41:24This disappointment quickly dissipated

00:41:27when they learned that the ship had hit an iceberg.

00:41:30John Coffey was a member of the Titanic crew,

00:41:33but he decided to give up the trip

00:41:36and stay in his hometown of Queenstown, Ireland.

00:41:39His inner voice told him to leave the ship, which he did.

00:41:42He was only 23 at the time,

00:41:45and for someone his age, it could have been a major boost

00:41:48to his career and an opportunity to flourish.

00:41:51However, this horrible tragedy did not prevent our man

00:41:54from signing on board the RMS Mauritania

00:41:57just a few months after the shipwreck of the Titanic.

00:42:00Additional information has been revealed

00:42:04The builders insisted that the ship was unsinkable,

00:42:07but many people then hypothesized

00:42:10that the ship's steel plates were too fragile

00:42:13for the Atlantic's icy waters.

00:42:16This could have caused the shores to jump,

00:42:19allowing the water from the ocean to infiltrate inside.

00:42:22Another theory is that a fire broke out under the Titanic's bridges,

00:42:25which would have been raging for three weeks before the trip.

00:42:28This fire could have softened the steel,

00:42:31and torn it apart like a knife in butter.

00:42:34Some pictures taken before the ship left for the trip

00:42:37show black marks on the hull, which could have been caused by the fire.

00:42:40In any case, the iceberg would have caused major damage,

00:42:43whether there was a fire or not.

00:42:46Some people also blame the Titanic's designers.

00:42:49The ship had been built with large joints at its base,

00:42:52which probably broke easily during the collision.

00:42:55Of course, these are just theories,

00:42:58but we know with certainty that the iceberg

00:43:01was the main antagonist of this tragedy,

00:43:04and that the work of Stead and Robertson must have been taken seriously.

00:43:07In any case, this will serve as a lesson for the future,

00:43:10and will help to avoid similar tragedies.

00:43:13By the way, there would be no passenger boats and ships

00:43:16without Thomas Newcomen.

00:43:19In 1712, he invented a steam engine so powerful

00:43:22that it could produce enough energy

00:43:25to propel a ship.

00:43:28And it was a century later, in 1819,

00:43:31that the first steamboat crossed the Atlantic Ocean

00:43:34to Liverpool in the United Kingdom.

00:43:37It only took it 29 days to cross the ocean.

00:43:40The maritime industry of passenger transport

00:43:43flourished in the early 1900s,

00:43:46when it became easier for people to emigrate to America

00:43:49or go on vacation.

00:43:52Nowadays, it is quite rare for a passenger ship

00:43:55to collide with anything in the open sea.

00:43:58Modern technologies allow to detect

00:44:01anything that could be a threat,

00:44:04and even to predict storms.

00:44:07Nowadays, cruise ships are giants

00:44:10compared to the Titanic ships of the time.

00:44:13Today's ships can carry almost twice as many passengers

00:44:16and have equipment that people of the time could only dream of.

00:44:19Most of our cruise ships offer several restaurants,

00:44:22several pools and playrooms where to relax.

00:44:25If you are in the mood to have fun,

00:44:28you can even attend shows.

00:44:31And let's not forget the possibility of welcoming helicopters.

00:44:34No reason to worry in case of discomfort.

00:44:37On-board doctors are always there to help the passengers

00:44:40who need them.

00:44:43And these ships will only grow in the future.

00:44:46Today, a modern cruise ship is almost comparable

00:44:49to that of a Corgi and a Doberman.

00:44:52At the time, the Titanic was the largest and most avant-garde ship

00:44:55that could be dreamed of.

00:44:58So, who knows what the future of cruise ships has in store for us?

00:45:01It could even end up sheltering entire cities.

00:45:04Hmm, that would make a very big ship.

00:45:07You know SOS, right?

00:45:10Three dots, three dots and three other dots.

00:45:13That means Save Our Souls or Save Our Ship.

00:45:16Save our ship.

00:45:19The crew of the legendary Titanic desperately tried to send this signal

00:45:22for two hours on the night of April 14, 1912.

00:45:25There were other ships not far from the place

00:45:28where the iceberg destroyed the powerful sea titan.

00:45:31But the call for help seems to have disappeared before it could reach them.

00:45:34The SS Man Temple passenger ship

00:45:37did pick up a signal and tried to respond.

00:45:40But the Titanic never received a response.

00:45:43So, what reduced the call for help to the ship to silence?

00:45:46A triangle of unknown bermudas in the North Atlantic?

00:45:49Consider this.

00:45:52Witnesses have said that the sky was illuminated by a brilliant aurora borealis

00:45:55during this cold, fateful night.

00:45:58Magnificent, yes, but that day, the aurora borealis

00:46:01may have sealed the fate of the Titanic for good.

00:46:04You see, the aurora borealis is formed by geomagnetic storms.

00:46:07It's complicated, but it's essentially the fluctuation of the Earth's magnetic sphere.

00:46:10And it's the sun itself that causes them.

00:46:13The magnetosphere is like a protective bubble that surrounds our planet.

00:46:16It prevents harmful solar rays, winds and other cosmic dangers from reaching us.

00:46:19Without it, life on our planet would not be possible.

00:46:22The Earth would look more like Mars.

00:46:25We must also thank the compasses pointing north.

00:46:28Experts know that the Earth's magnetosphere

00:46:31affects navigation equipment or disturbs them.

00:46:34Which brings us back to the Titanic.

00:46:37Recently, a researcher in meteorology, Mila Zinkova,

00:46:40proposed a theory according to which solar eruptions

00:46:43that caused a geomagnetic storm could have played a major role

00:46:46in the premature disappearance of the Titanic.

00:46:49Solar eruptions occur on Earth all the time.

00:46:52Some people are particularly sensitive to the magnetic storms they cause.

00:46:55They may feel weakness, fatigue,

00:46:58headaches and even mood swings.

00:47:01On normal days, the pressure is the same on both sides.

00:47:04The magnetosphere blocks all the bad things.

00:47:07And we are all happy.

00:47:10But sometimes explosions occur in the sun.

00:47:13They can be massive, the size of the Earth.

00:47:16These eruptions project a wave of charged particles

00:47:19that collide with the magnetosphere at high speed.

00:47:22Our protective bubble then defends itself.

00:47:25It shrinks, deforms and pushes these particles to the poles.

00:47:29In the north, we know these lights under the name of aurora borealis.

00:47:32In the south, aurora australis, or the lights of the south.

00:47:35When the magnetosphere pushes these solar and cosmic particles

00:47:38to the poles, they collide with molecules of different gases.

00:47:41That's why you have this range of colors.

00:47:44For example, oxygen can be green or red depending on the distance.

00:47:47And nitrogen is blue or purple.

00:47:50What several people, including the second officer

00:47:53of the rescue ship Cappartia, saw that night

00:47:57was exactly this phenomenon.

00:48:00The officer noted it in the log before receiving the distress call from the Titanic.

00:48:03But wait, I'm going a little too fast.

00:48:06The auroras are a visible sign of a geomagnetic storm.

00:48:09Now let's talk about navigation equipment.

00:48:12This applies to satellites and radio frequencies.

00:48:15Remember that at the time of the Titanic, there was no iPhone.

00:48:18So the average citizen could not notice that his gadgets were out of order.

00:48:21But the navigation and telegraph devices

00:48:24still existed and were actively used.

00:48:27Flashback to the Middle Ages, when sailors noticed

00:48:30that some days their compasses were missing.

00:48:33The arrows then turned in all directions, and people at the time did not know why.

00:48:36It was only in the 18th century that French scientists

00:48:39discovered that these problematic days occurred at the same time

00:48:42as the appearance of black spots on the sun.

00:48:45Solar eruptions. The mystery was solved.

00:48:48But the Titanic had the most advanced and most famous radio equipment of the time.

00:48:51They tested it in detail to make sure it worked

00:48:54over distances of up to 3,200 km.

00:48:57The Titanic passed all the tests.

00:49:00On April 10, 1912, the huge boat left Sossumton and set off for New York.

00:49:03The next day, the crew began to receive the first reports

00:49:06on the icebergs and drift ice fields.

00:49:09They put dots on the map to mark the coordinates

00:49:12and breathed a sigh of relief.

00:49:15All the problematic points were north of the route planned for the Titanic.

00:49:18But after a few days, the warnings began to move

00:49:21more and more to the south, dangerously approaching the majestic ship.

00:49:24On April 14, 1912,

00:49:27Captain Edward Smith decided to change course to the south

00:49:30in the hope of bypassing the ice.

00:49:33This turned out to be a huge mistake, penetrating directly into the magnetic storm.

00:49:36If the navigation equipment was out of order,

00:49:39if only by a small error of half a degree,

00:49:42the captain could be wrong by bringing the ship straight to an iceberg.

00:49:46Even worse, the radio operators ignored the warnings

00:49:49coming from other ships.

00:49:52This or they simply forgot to transmit them to the captain.

00:49:55As a contractor, hired by the radio company,

00:49:58they were more interested in the telegram transmission

00:50:01paid by the passengers of the luxurious ship.

00:50:04The radio transmitter was left out of service that evening,

00:50:07probably because of all this small private traffic.

00:50:10When it was finally reactivated,

00:50:13the ship was brought back to California at 10.30 p.m.

00:50:16Their operator tried to warn Phillips of the iceberg coordinates

00:50:19on the drift, but he didn't pay attention.

00:50:22He was nervous and in a hurry.

00:50:25Was the magnetic storm responsible for his fragile nerves and bad mood?

00:50:28We can only speculate.

00:50:31But as you know, some people are more sensitive to this kind of thing.

00:50:34The weather was pleasant, the ocean was calm,

00:50:37the water was perfectly smooth.

00:50:40The Titanic was sailing at a maximum speed of more than 40 km per hour.

00:50:43An hour later, the Titanic collided

00:50:46with the infamous iceberg.

00:50:49On April 15, at midnight, in the middle of the night,

00:50:52the Titanic's operators began to transmit

00:50:55the first emergency signals.

00:50:58The California SS was sailing only 32 km from the Titanic.

00:51:01He could have easily come to his rescue.

00:51:04But 10 minutes before the disaster,

00:51:08he was the only one on the ship to understand the Morse code.

00:51:11According to this new theory,

00:51:14magnetic anomalies may have blocked messages from the Titanic to other ships.

00:51:17For example, the steam ship SS La Provence

00:51:20did not receive any signal from the ship in distress.

00:51:23However, it was still receiving transmissions from another giant, the Olympic,

00:51:26which was 800 km from the Titanic.

00:51:29That night, the signals were strange.

00:51:32They simply got lost somewhere in space,

00:51:35and they were like a complex puzzle, impossible to solve.

00:51:38The SS Mount Temple received a message

00:51:41and rushed to the Titanic's rescue.

00:51:44But fate wanted the lifeboat to be stuck in the ice.

00:51:47It arrived at the last known coordinates of the Titanic,

00:51:50but the luxurious deck was not visible.

00:51:53Were the coordinates correct?

00:51:56The steam ship Carpathia was about 100 km away.

00:51:59At 12.30, their radio operator told the Titanic's crew

00:52:02that they needed help.

00:52:05The Carpathian, the ship famous for coming to its rescue, was sailing at full speed.

00:52:08But here is the strangest part.

00:52:11At first, they went to the wrong place.

00:52:14The magnetic storm could have disrupted the equipment.

00:52:17The good news is that the boat ended up in the right place

00:52:20when they saw the lifeboats full of passengers.

00:52:23It is interesting to note that once back at the port,

00:52:26no problem was detected with the Carpathian's equipment.

00:52:29The Titanic's radio operator was accused of blocking the signals.

00:52:32Today, we may have another clue.

00:52:35Zinkova explains that at the time, he did not know exactly how

00:52:38and to what extent the sun influenced the Earth.

00:52:41No one could have guessed that the sun could alter the navigation equipment

00:52:44of these huge ships,

00:52:47especially the one that had the most ultra neck of its time.

00:52:50There is another theory according to which the Moon could have played a role.

00:52:53Some researchers say that in January 1912,

00:52:56our natural satellite was closer to Earth than normal.

00:52:59It caused very strong tides and raised the sea level.

00:53:02Every year, icebergs come off Greenland

00:53:05and stop around Newfoundland.

00:53:08But not this year.

00:53:11The increase in water flow pushed them further for three months.

00:53:14And in April, they found themselves right on the way of the transatlantic ships.

00:53:17Unfortunately, it was a set of disastrous circumstances for the Titanic.

00:53:21April 14, 1912.

00:53:24The black night is filled with the awful sounds of a giant metal ship

00:53:27breaking in two.

00:53:30The largest ship of the time collided with an iceberg

00:53:33that was on its way, the Titanic.

00:53:36One of the greatest tragedies of the 20th century

00:53:39that people still talk about.

00:53:42The starboard side of the giant ship hit the iceberg.

00:53:46It was 11.40 p.m. when things started to go wrong.

00:53:49This iceberg caused enough damage

00:53:52for at least five watertight compartments

00:53:55of the hull to begin to fill with water.

00:53:58The crew immediately launched a brief investigation

00:54:01to see if they could do something to repair the damage.

00:54:04There was no one to count on.

00:54:07Alone in the darkness of the cold night,

00:54:10far from all land, in the middle of nowhere,

00:54:14in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean,

00:54:17about 600 km south of Terre-Neuve,

00:54:20they needed time to figure out how to put the passengers

00:54:23in safety.

00:54:26And they had time, but not enough.

00:54:29If you watched the film, you know that the ship did not sink

00:54:32immediately after the meeting with the iceberg occurred.

00:54:35The whole process lasted 2 hours and 40 minutes.

00:54:38But the situation was delicate.

00:54:41There were 2,200 people to take care of,

00:54:44including the crew and the passengers,

00:54:47and the chaos reigned on board.

00:54:50Chief Engineer Thomas Andrew quickly realized

00:54:53that he could not stay afloat.

00:54:56At midnight, the whole crew began to prepare

00:54:59the lifeboats for the inflow.

00:55:02They had 20 canoes with room for only 1,178 people,

00:55:05which barely represented more than 50% of the people on board.

00:55:08The order was to put the women and children

00:55:11in safety first.

00:55:14Crew members were there to row and guide the canoes.

00:55:17During the next 2 hours,

00:55:20things began to intensify gradually.

00:55:23Crew members were tasked with waking the passengers

00:55:26and warning them that something serious

00:55:29was happening.

00:55:32They wanted to put them in a rescue fleet as soon as possible.

00:55:36At 8.15 p.m., crew members sent a distress signal.

00:55:39A steamboat called the Frankfurt

00:55:42was among the first to receive this message and respond to it,

00:55:45but it was about 274 km away.

00:55:48Other ships also received the message

00:55:51and offered their help,

00:55:54but unfortunately they were too far away.

00:55:57At 8.20 p.m., the ship Capartia of the Cunard company

00:56:00received a distress signal from the Titanic

00:56:03and immediately changed course.

00:56:06They were then 58 nautical miles away,

00:56:09or 107 km, and it would take them more than 3 hours to arrive.

00:56:12One minute later,

00:56:15the crew descended the first rescue canoe.

00:56:18It only carried 27 passengers,

00:56:21while there was room for 65.

00:56:24Many of the rescue canoes that were launched first

00:56:27were filled well below their capacity.

00:56:30Many of the crew members were worried

00:56:33that the cranes could not bear the weight of a fully loaded rescue canoe.

00:56:36And then, at first, many passengers were simply too scared to leave the ship.

00:56:39They still thought that the Titanic was insubservient

00:56:42and could not imagine the scenario

00:56:45that was going to happen 1 to 2 hours later.

00:56:48The crew pulled the first of the 8 distress rockets,

00:56:51without success.

00:56:54No one was close enough to help them.

00:56:58At 1h20, they had lowered 10 rescue canoes.

00:57:01The 8th contained only 28 people.

00:57:04One of the passengers on the 10th was little Milvina Dean,

00:57:079 weeks old.

00:57:10She would later become the last of the survivors,

00:57:13having lived until 2009 and reached the canonical age of 97 years.

00:57:16Two o'clock in the morning already,

00:57:19three folding canoes were the last remaining rescue boats.

00:57:22The bow of the ship had sunk very low

00:57:25and had tilted far under the surface.

00:57:28People who were not far away could now clearly see

00:57:31the propellers of the bow above the water.

00:57:34The crew members were lowering the folding rescue canoe D

00:57:37from the officers' quarters,

00:57:40with more than 20 passengers inside.

00:57:43As the bow of the ship sank,

00:57:46the water carried the canoe A far from the bridge.

00:57:49These 20 people were struggling because their boat was partially filled with water.

00:57:53While the crew members were trying to free the folding canoe B,

00:57:56it fell.

00:57:59Before they could get it up again,

00:58:02the water carried it far from the ship.

00:58:0530 passengers still managed to get on the overturned rescue canoe.

00:58:08At 2h17, the ship's radio telegraphist

00:58:11decided to transmit one last distress call.

00:58:14A minute later, the ship's lights finally went out.

00:58:17The Titanic and all those who remained on board

00:58:21plunged into the darkness.

00:58:24The bow continued to sink and the stern rose higher above the surface,

00:58:27which exerted great pressure on the central part of the ship.

00:58:30Horrible sounds filled the night.

00:58:33The Titanic, this huge legendary ship

00:58:36in which so many people had placed their hopes,

00:58:39broke in half between the third and the fourth chimney.

00:58:42According to reports,

00:58:45it took about 6 minutes to sink.

00:58:49The stern fell back on the water

00:58:52before rising again in a vertical position.

00:58:55It stayed in this position

00:58:58until it finally disappeared into the ocean.

00:59:01At 2h20, the stern had apparently retained air inside

00:59:04and the pressure of the water crushed it as it descended.

00:59:07The stern landed about 600 meters from the stern.

00:59:10People considered the Titanic

00:59:13as the fastest boat in the world

00:59:16because four of its compartments could be flooded

00:59:19and this would still not cause a critical loss of flotability.

00:59:22But his life would have been problematic from the start.

00:59:25As the ship left the port,

00:59:28he scratched the New York deck

00:59:31a few times.

00:59:34He managed to get through without a hitch,

00:59:37which was a huge relief for all the passengers

00:59:40who sat on the deck of the ship.

00:59:44The Titanic was launched on April 10.

00:59:47Its first voyage consisted of crossing

00:59:50the very competitive road of the Atlantic.

00:59:53On launch day, the Titanic became

00:59:56the largest mobile object in the history of mankind.

00:59:59269 meters long, 28 meters wide.

01:00:02Not so big if you compare it to today's ships.

01:00:05The largest cruise ship in the world

01:00:08is currently the Royal Caribbean's

01:00:11which is about five times the size of the Titanic.

01:00:14If you put this ship in a vertical position,

01:00:17it would be almost as high as the Empire State Building

01:00:20which is 380 meters high without an antenna.

01:00:23But the Titanic was a huge attraction at the time.

01:00:26At one point in their voyage,

01:00:29it made a stop in France

01:00:32after which it made another stop in Ireland.

01:00:35Once the last passengers boarded,

01:00:38the Titanic left at full speed

01:00:41for its final destination, New York.

01:00:44Four days after the start of its voyage,

01:00:47the Titanic failed to deviate

01:00:50its trajectory from a huge iceberg.

01:00:53The story we all know.

01:00:56Only 700 people survived

01:00:59and most of them were women and children.

01:01:02The night was extremely cold.

01:01:05The survivors were not even sure

01:01:08that someone was coming to save them.

01:01:11Finally, they saw the light.

01:01:14It was the Carpathian who was coming to them.

01:01:17They came to look for the people

01:01:20in the lifeboats.

01:01:23The crew got them on board

01:01:26and took a handful of other passengers out of the water.

01:01:29Many ships tried to contact the Titanic

01:01:32but when an investigation was carried out,

01:01:35they found out that the boat

01:01:38was less than 30 km away

01:01:41when the Titanic sank.

01:01:44But the crew did not hear the distress signals

01:01:47coming from the Titanic

01:01:50because their radio operator was not in service.

01:01:53The countries on both sides of the Atlantic

01:01:56were shocked and horrified

01:01:59by the changes to the operations of the ships,

01:02:02the rules that would help to avoid such events in the future.

01:02:05They organized the first international convention

01:02:08for the safeguarding of human life at sea

01:02:11where they adopted rules

01:02:14so that each ship had enough lifeboats

01:02:17for all passengers on board.

01:02:20In addition, lifeboats were made mandatory.

01:02:23They also decided to create

01:02:26an ice rink.

01:02:29Its main role was to monitor the icebergs

01:02:32in the navigation routes of the North Atlantic.

01:02:35The ships should also ensure a 24-hour radio watch.

01:02:38The Titanic was not built alone.

01:02:41Due to the size of this magnificent ship

01:02:44and all the new equipment it needed,

01:02:47it would have been too expensive to build it in one copy.

01:02:50So the company built the Titanic

01:02:53and both had busy lives.

01:02:56The Olympic RMS was ready first.

01:02:59It was launched in 1910 and for a whole year

01:03:02it was the largest lifeboat in the world.

01:03:05The Titanic was another twin ship

01:03:08that sailed for a while

01:03:11before ending up at the bottom of the ocean.

01:03:14But only the Titanic has become a legend

01:03:17and one of the most fascinating stories in modern history.

01:03:20It was the largest ship ever built at the time

01:03:23and it was supposed to be unsinkable.

01:03:26But a few days after starting its first voyage,

01:03:29in 1912, the Titanic disappeared

01:03:32far below the pitiful waves of the North Atlantic.

01:03:35Of the 2,200 passengers and crew members

01:03:38who were on board,

01:03:41only 706 survived that terrible night.

01:03:44A smaller ship would have resisted better

01:03:47in the same situation.

01:03:50Was the size of the iceberg a key element in the drama?

01:03:53The decision to change course at the last minute

01:03:56to try to avoid the impact

01:03:59did not make it a fatal mistake in the end?

01:04:02Here are several scenarios.

01:04:05We know that the Titanic was considered

01:04:08a marvel of engineering at the time.

01:04:11Designed by Thomas Andrews

01:04:14and built in 1929,

01:04:17it was a little over 270 metres long

01:04:20and 53 metres high.

01:04:23The space was enough to house 840 cabins,

01:04:26a pool, a squash court, a gym and two dining rooms.

01:04:29But it was under the deck

01:04:32that one of its most impressive new features was located.

01:04:35The Titanic's hull was divided into 16 compartments

01:04:38designed to be waterproof.

01:04:41In case of a breach,

01:04:44the other 12 helped to keep the damaged ship afloat.

01:04:47It was thanks to these compartments

01:04:50that the ship was considered unsubmersible.

01:04:53According to the rumour,

01:04:56Philippe Franck, Vice-President of White Star Line,

01:04:59would even have said,

01:05:02there is no danger that the Titanic is sinking.

01:05:05The ship is unsubmersible

01:05:08and the other 12 showed the opposite.

01:05:11When the ice tore the ship's hull,

01:05:14several of the watertight compartments gave way.

01:05:17It took only two and a half hours for the Titanic to sink.

01:05:20Did the size of the iceberg seal the fate of the wreck?

01:05:23Icebergs have a wide variety of shapes and sizes.

01:05:26These pieces of ice have separated from glaciers

01:05:29or the Arctic or Antarctic bank

01:05:32and float on the ocean until they melt completely.

01:05:35The largest iceberg ever discovered would have easily eclipsed the Titanic.

01:05:38Discovered in 1957,

01:05:41it was 168 metres high,

01:05:44almost as high as the Washington Monument.

01:05:47Imagine a ship hitting something so massive.

01:05:50However, smaller icebergs can be just as dangerous.

01:05:53Some of them are about the size of a house.

01:05:56These are iceberg fragments.

01:05:59Others, closer to the size of a car,

01:06:02can be much more difficult to locate

01:06:05and therefore to avoid for ships.

01:06:08Although smaller, they can cause a lot of damage in the event of a collision.

01:06:11It is essential to remember

01:06:14that icebergs are always bigger than they seem at first glance.

01:06:17Most of their mass is covered under the surface.

01:06:20In fact, it is nearly 80% of the volume of an iceberg

01:06:23that hides under the water.

01:06:26Most of these sharp and dented edges are not visible.

01:06:29If you get too close,

01:06:32you risk damaging the hull of your ship.

01:06:35As the crew of the Titanic had no idea what awaited them,

01:06:38an iceberg, even smaller and approached from the same angle,

01:06:41could have made this powerful ship sink.

01:06:44Conversely, if it had been bigger,

01:06:47it might have been spotted early enough

01:06:50to carry out the necessary manoeuvres in time and thus avoid the impact.

01:06:53But missing this iceberg in particular

01:06:56was the Titanic's weakness.

01:06:59It sailed in a particularly dangerous part of the Atlantic

01:07:02called the Iceberg Alley.

01:07:05It is located 400 km east and southeast of Newfoundland in Canada.

01:07:08An iceberg can hide another,

01:07:11flee another and so on.

01:07:14The crew on board should have been very careful

01:07:17to avoid other potential collisions.

01:07:20A smaller boat could be better adapted to such sailing conditions.

01:07:23The size of the Titanic was certainly an obstacle

01:07:26when it came to manoeuvring it.

01:07:29In fact, it had just left its dock in Southampton

01:07:32when it almost collided with another smaller boat,

01:07:35the SS New York, only 60 cm short.

01:07:38The gigantic steamboat

01:07:41was not made to operate quickly in a small space.

01:07:44A boat of this size needs time and space

01:07:47to move.

01:07:50When a boat collides with an iceberg,

01:07:53the size of the boat does not always count.

01:07:56The Islander was a steamboat designed to travel

01:07:59through the interior of Alaska.

01:08:02During the summer of 1901, it hit an iceberg

01:08:05causing a hole in the bow to form.

01:08:08The ship did not sink immediately

01:08:11and the crew tried to drive it safely.

01:08:14Finally, its bow was completely submerged

01:08:17and it took longer to sink.

01:08:20Of the 168 passengers and crew members,

01:08:23128 survived.

01:08:26The accident also caused a loss of 3 million dollars in gold.

01:08:29The Islander had a 73-metre hull,

01:08:32almost a quarter of that of the Titanic.

01:08:35Its reduced size obviously did not play in its favour

01:08:38against the iceberg.

01:08:41And then there was the Hans et Doft in 1959.

01:08:44Whether it was a Titanic or a Danish Titanic,

01:08:47it was considered the most overflowing ship.

01:08:50It was 83 metres long and had 95 people on board.

01:08:53Just like the real Titanic,

01:08:56the Hans et Doft was specially designed

01:08:59to deal with most of the problems the sea could cause.

01:09:02In addition to its steel double bottom,

01:09:05it also had an armored hull and seven waterproof compartments.

01:09:08How could such a ship sink?

01:09:11It happened during its first voyage

01:09:14during its return journey to Copenhagen.

01:09:17On 30 January, it hit an iceberg.

01:09:20An SOS was sent, but when the Johannes Kruis arrived for help,

01:09:23the Hans et Doft was nowhere to be found.

01:09:26The only trace of its existence is a lifeboat

01:09:29thrown ashore in Iceland nine months later.

01:09:32Once again, the reduced size of the ship did not benefit it.

01:09:35A smaller Titanic would not have guaranteed

01:09:38a safe voyage in 1912.

01:09:41The last assumption concerns the choice of the last minute

01:09:44once the iceberg is spotted and the alarm is triggered.

01:09:47First, the Titanic could have attempted a complete stop,

01:09:50but this option was not really feasible

01:09:53because the ship needed nearly 800 metres to stop

01:09:56and the iceberg was only 275 metres long.

01:09:59Then, the Titanic could try to avoid the iceberg by moving away.

01:10:02This is what the captain ordered.

01:10:05But the attempt failed,

01:10:08causing a deep dent on the ship's hull.

01:10:11The last option was to hit the iceberg with full force.

01:10:14Would that have made a difference?

01:10:17The answer is intriguing, perhaps.

01:10:20Some think that a frontal collision would have saved the Titanic.

01:10:23In this scenario, the collision would have limited the damage to the front of the ship.

01:10:26Forecasts have shown that in this case,

01:10:29only four compartments would have been pierced,

01:10:32allowing the others to fill their roles and keep the Titanic afloat.

01:10:35It would have probably been stuck on site, unable to move,

01:10:38but it would have remained afloat until the rescue team arrived.

01:10:41This could have given a ship like the Carpathia,

01:10:44which was in the dams, enough time to reach the accident site

01:10:47and put the people on board safely.

01:10:50One of the designers of the Titanic, Edward Wilding,

01:10:53made a statement in this regard during an investigation on the shipwreck.

01:10:56He said that most people would have survived a frontal collision

01:11:00and that the Titanic itself would not have sunk.

01:11:03But other experts do not share this opinion.

01:11:06First of all, the Titanic's special locks were designed

01:11:09to protect the ship from collisions with other ships,

01:11:12not with icebergs.

01:11:15These compartments would freeze during the impact,

01:11:18absorbing part of the force, and the other ship would take the rest of the impact.

01:11:21Even with significant damage,

01:11:24the remaining locks would keep the Titanic afloat.

01:11:27An iceberg does not have the same absorption capacity

01:11:30in the event of a collision with a shipwreck.

01:11:33Most of the force would have been absorbed by the Titanic,

01:11:36which would have caused considerable damage to the ship.

01:11:39Worse still, the impact would have affected its entire length.

01:11:42The ribs would have popped, the seams would have torn.

01:11:45Finally, the compartments would have been quickly flooded

01:11:48and the ship would have sunk even faster,

01:11:51resulting in additional deaths.

01:11:54In any case, as for most of the questions involved here,

01:11:57we will never really know the answer.

01:12:00As tragic as the first and last voyage of the Titanic was,

01:12:03it had the effect of changes

01:12:06that helped make the outings at sea much safer.

01:12:09The conclusions of the audience on the disaster

01:12:12led to the creation of the International Ice Patrol in 1914,

01:12:15an organization that monitors icebergs

01:12:18in the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans

01:12:21to ensure that they can be avoided by ships in the area.

01:12:24In the United States and Great Britain,

01:12:27boats were forced to transport enough lifeboats

01:12:30to accommodate each person on board.

01:12:33Regular training in the use of lifeboats

01:12:36has been made mandatory.

01:12:39The nests of the ships have been raised to better prevent water from entering

01:12:42and the bottoms have been stretched to create double hulls,

01:12:45helping to make the compartments really waterproof.

01:12:48We all know that the Titanic was a terrible tragedy,

01:12:51but the lessons learned from this memorable night

01:12:54have certainly made it possible to avoid many others.

01:12:58April 1912 was marked by one of the most terrible tragedies

01:13:01in the history of the world.

01:13:04A legendary shipwreck, designed to be unsinkable

01:13:07to the point of engineering of its time, the enormous Titanic, sank.

01:13:10On this dark and moonless night,

01:13:13the ship missed several opportunities to save its passengers.

01:13:16Another ship sailing a few kilometers away could have helped it,

01:13:19which was not the case.

01:13:22However, it is not a ghost ship,

01:13:25no more than a legend or a simple theory.

01:13:28It is a documented reality, mentioned in the archives

01:13:31and in the statements of witnesses that confirm it.

01:13:34So why didn't he come to the giant in distress?

01:13:37Let's find out what happened that night

01:13:40by examining these events from three different points of view.

01:13:4423h30

01:13:47The moon is covered with black clouds.

01:13:50Visibility is poor. Everything is quiet on board.

01:13:53Under the direction of the captain, the communication operator

01:13:56stays in contact with the continent by radio.

01:13:59At that moment, an unknown person enters the frequency

01:14:02interrupting the operator's communication.

01:14:05We don't really know what this strange man wants and what he's talking about.

01:14:08The operator doesn't try to understand him.

01:14:1223h40

01:14:2320 minutes later, at midnight,

01:14:26the crew sends a distress signal by radio.

01:14:29Few people understand how serious the situation is.

01:14:32After 20 minutes, at 00h20,

01:14:35we begin to descend the rescue channels with passengers.

01:14:38At 00h25, they receive a response to the distress signal.

01:14:41It's the RMS Carpathia.

01:14:44Their captain reports that they are already sailing

01:14:47at maximum speed towards the Titanic.

01:14:50Unfortunately, they are located 93 km from the accident site,

01:14:53which means they won't arrive before 4 o'clock.

01:14:56At 00h45, the Titanic's crew

01:14:59launches signaling rockets.

01:15:02These rockets are one of the main causes of the terrible fate

01:15:05that awaits some of the passengers on board.

01:15:08But we'll get back to that.

01:15:1190 minutes later, the Titanic's deck breaks

01:15:14and the boat sinks.

01:15:17At 4h10, the Carpathia finally arrives at the shipwreck site.

01:15:20The crew will do everything they can to save the survivors.

01:15:23They recover 705 people on board.

01:15:26That's when another ship appears.

01:15:29It's the California SS.

01:15:33During this time, the Californian remains on site

01:15:36in the hope of finding other survivors in the middle of the debris.

01:15:39Without success.

01:15:42This ship was only a few kilometers away

01:15:45as the Titanic sank into the icy waters.

01:15:48The Californian could have saved lives, but he did otherwise.

01:15:51His captain, Stanley Lord, would have made one of the most intolerable acts

01:15:54that can exist in the eyes of a sailor.

01:15:57He did not rescue a ship in distress.

01:16:00Captain Lord was the target of popular hatred.

01:16:03The charges against him could not be held

01:16:06and he was not convicted during the trial that followed the disaster.

01:16:09However, his career was definitely ruined

01:16:12because no maritime company wanted to hire him after the facts.

01:16:15Despite this, he never admitted his responsibility

01:16:18and that until his death.

01:16:21Shortly before his death, he expressly claimed his innocence.

01:16:24If he is telling the truth, then what happened?

01:16:27Let's see on the Californian's side.

01:16:30It's the night of April 14th.

01:16:33The Californian sails in the icy waters of the North Atlantic.

01:16:36The ship enters an area where there are many icebergs.

01:16:39At 10.20 p.m., Captain Lord decides to stop his ship.

01:16:42It is too dangerous to move in this area

01:16:45because in case of impact, the hull may be damaged.

01:16:48At 11.00 p.m., the Californian begins to drift.

01:16:51Moving in such conditions is extremely difficult,

01:16:54especially with such poor visibility.

01:16:57The captain knows that the Titanic must pass through there.

01:17:00He therefore orders the radio operator to warn the ship of the danger.

01:17:03The radio operator, named Evans, turns on the transmitters

01:17:06and tries to contact the Titanic.

01:17:09After about 30 minutes, the connection is finally established.

01:17:12At this moment, the Titanic's radio operator is in communication with the continent.

01:17:15Evans interrupts the conversation

01:17:18and tries to warn the Titanic of the danger he is running.

01:17:21The operator does not understand what Evans says

01:17:24and is agitated by his stormy eruption on the radio channel.

01:17:27He gets angry, shouts at Evans

01:17:30and ends up cutting the connection.

01:17:33Tired, Evans turns off the transmitter

01:17:36and informs his superiors of the incident.

01:17:39The way the captain reacted to this news remains a mystery.

01:17:42He probably thought the Titanic was aware of the danger.

01:17:45He lets Evans go to bed.

01:17:48If Evans had turned off the radio and stayed awake for another hour,

01:17:51he would have heard the distress signal coming from the Titanic.

01:17:54Difficult, however, to blame him in these circumstances.

01:17:57Indeed, he has no official reason at this stage

01:18:00not to leave his post.

01:18:03He is exhausted and unable to fight the drowsiness.

01:18:06He goes to bed.

01:18:09The Titanic, meanwhile, begins to sink.

01:18:12His captain sends a distress signal.

01:18:15The captain, whose receiver is cut off,

01:18:18the captain lord can not sleep.

01:18:21He feels that something is wrong.

01:18:24The Titanic is sinking into the water and this is going very fast.

01:18:27The captain gives the order to launch the rockets.

01:18:30Error that will prove fatal.

01:18:33The warning lights are not red.

01:18:36For some reason, the crew forgot to load the red rockets.

01:18:39The sky is therefore illuminated by a bright white light.

01:18:42However, to signify a distress situation,

01:18:45the protocol stipulates that red lights must be used.

01:18:48The captain lord sees these lights,

01:18:51but does not perceive them as a call for help.

01:18:54He does not even think that these red rockets

01:18:57that can be found on all ships could come to miss on board a ship like the Titanic.

01:19:00And yet, it is the case.

01:19:03The captain lord thinks that the Titanic is moving away.

01:19:06There may be an unknown reason behind these white lights,

01:19:09but he does not really know.

01:19:12The captain lord therefore has no idea that the Titanic is sinking.

01:19:15He still decides to contact the ship,

01:19:18but this time not by radio.

01:19:21The captain lord does not wake up the operator

01:19:24and sends a signal to the Titanic through a signaling lamp.

01:19:27It is important to understand that many sailors

01:19:30from the old school did not take radio communication seriously.

01:19:33They did not appreciate the value of this technology.

01:19:36This is why the captain lord does not wake up Evans.

01:19:39He sends bright signals, but the Titanic does not respond.

01:19:42Many survivors later mentioned

01:19:45having seen the flash of light in question,

01:19:48but they could not do anything at the time.

01:19:51The crew of the Californian does not hear their calls for help.

01:19:54At 2.20 am, the Titanic sinks completely under water.

01:19:57About two hours later, the radio operator Evans

01:20:00wakes up and turns on the receiver.

01:20:03He hears many rescuers talking about the sunken ship.

01:20:06Evans immediately understands what is happening

01:20:09and reports it to the captain.

01:20:12The Californian immediately heads to the site of the accident.

01:20:15He finds the Carpathian,

01:20:18with the survivors on board,

01:20:21who set out for New York.

01:20:24The Californian continues to look for people to help, but in vain.

01:20:27The Californian returns to the continent.

01:20:30The news about the ship that could have saved the Titanic

01:20:33spreads throughout the country, and the trial begins.

01:20:36Captain Stanley Lord and the crew

01:20:39tell their version of the facts.

01:20:42They say their ship was immobilized.

01:20:45Many people do not believe them, and some of the survivors

01:20:48even claim to have seen the Californian pass.

01:20:51Despite everything, the judge declares them innocent.

01:20:54In 1962, Captain Stanley Lord is a very old man.

01:20:57He calls a notary to make an official confession

01:21:00in which he swears he is not guilty.

01:21:03And if it was not the Californian who had passed

01:21:06near the Titanic at that time?

01:21:09This is where Samson's theory comes into play.

01:21:12This hunting ship sails in the cold waters of the North Atlantic.

01:21:15The crew does not sleep.

01:21:18Its members carefully study the surroundings, not out of fear of icebergs,

01:21:21but because they are terrified of the idea of crossing

01:21:24the American coast guards.

01:21:27The crew of the Samson ship hunts seals, which is illegal.

01:21:30At midnight, the captain of the Samson

01:21:33sees white signaling rockets.

01:21:36The crew is sure that these are coast guards.

01:21:39They then turn off their lights and move away.

01:21:42It is pitch black and they do not notice the sinking Titanic.

01:21:45Once back on the coast of Iceland,

01:21:48they hear about the disaster.

01:21:51They realize that they have abandoned people to drowning.

01:21:54The nephew of one of the crew members of the Samson

01:21:57reads this story in his uncle's newspaper

01:22:00and asks permission to publish his writings.

01:22:03Everyone realizes that Captain Lord

01:22:06was not guilty.

01:22:09Unfortunately, he did not live to see the truth triumph.

01:22:12In fact, it remains difficult to designate a real culprit in this story.

01:22:15Two ships were near the Titanic.

01:22:18Their captain was a competent man.

01:22:21They could have helped save all the passengers.

01:22:24The problem is that they could not realize

01:22:27the drama that was at play on this dark night.

01:22:30Someone had forgotten the red rockets

01:22:33and what seems to be a very small insignificant detail

01:22:36finally had enormous consequences in this tragedy.

01:22:39In 1854, the Arctic SS,

01:22:42the fastest ship of its time,

01:22:45tried to cross the Atlantic.

01:22:48By sailing through a veil of mist,

01:22:51it slowly disappeared into the unknown.

01:22:54The Collins Line, an American maritime company,

01:22:57was created in 1818

01:23:00and began to do seriously transatlantic trade

01:23:03only in 1835.

01:23:06These steamboats crossed the Atlantic from Liverpool to New York

01:23:09in just 10 days.

01:23:12But at the time, the same journey took several weeks

01:23:15to other ships.

01:23:18Light on the water with their wooden hulls,

01:23:21powerful thanks to a steam engine,

01:23:24these boats were the favorite choice of many high-ranking characters.

01:23:27What could go wrong with such a perfected ship?

01:23:30This is what is reminiscent of the story

01:23:33of another ship that everyone thought insubstantial.

01:23:36But let's go back to the Collins Line.

01:23:39It became a very efficient operator on transatlantic routes

01:23:42with only one competitor, the Cunard's Line.

01:23:45It was a British company

01:23:48that also aimed to be the main force in presence

01:23:51across the Arctic.

01:23:54In 1835, the Collins Line received a new ship

01:23:57that went to Liverpool and returned to New York

01:24:00with the largest cargo ever seen at the time.

01:24:03From that moment on, the company did not stop growing.

01:24:07Unfortunately, these sumptuous ships

01:24:10became expensive to operate.

01:24:13In particular because of the amount of coal used.

01:24:16The massive power and the weak wooden hulls

01:24:19meant that they needed many repairs after each trip.

01:24:22Thus, each trip ended up being expensive.

01:24:25But since the ships were safe and had an excellent reputation,

01:24:28people were ready to pay the price.

01:24:31And the company was absolutely not in crisis.

01:24:34They had achieved something that no one had done before them.

01:24:37Their ships crossed the Atlantic in just 10 days.

01:24:40And Edward Collins, the owner,

01:24:43was determined to keep up with the pace.

01:24:48The five ships of the company easily surpassed those of the Cunard's Line,

01:24:51which only had three.

01:24:54Thanks to its success, it attracted more attention.

01:24:57Although the ships of the Cunard were slower,

01:25:00with their iron hulls, they thought there was still profit to be made.

01:25:04Among Collins' ships,

01:25:07the Arctic, the third to be launched, was the largest.

01:25:10Reaching 87 meters long,

01:25:13with two side-lever steam engines,

01:25:16each with a power of 1,000 horsepower.

01:25:19The 16 high-speed wheels made 16 turns per minute

01:25:22when they were running at full speed.

01:25:25At the time of its launch, the press called it

01:25:28the most amazing ship ever built in the United States.

01:25:31All the glamour and glory did not prevent what was to follow.

01:25:36On September 27, the Arctic made its journey from Liverpool to New York,

01:25:40sailing at a fast pace through the thick fog.

01:25:43It is possible that at that time,

01:25:46after four years of record travel,

01:25:49the crew had taken too much confidence in its navigation and in its ship.

01:25:54Only 80 kilometers from Newfoundland,

01:25:57they recklessly continued their journey in the fog,

01:26:00without sonar or any other way to identify potential obstacles,

01:26:03equipped only with Morse codes.

01:26:08A smaller fishing vessel, the SS Vesta,

01:26:11often operated around Newfoundland.

01:26:14It was passing through the same path as the Arctic

01:26:17and crashed into its flank.

01:26:20Shocked by the collision,

01:26:23the captain of the Arctic offered his help to the Vesta, much smaller.

01:26:26But it quickly became obvious that the damage to the Arctic,

01:26:29especially to the smaller ships, was actually serious.

01:26:32Under the floating line, a hole let water into the hull.

01:26:35It was the flaw of such a light and fast hull.

01:26:40They headed for the mainland, trying to fill the hole.

01:26:43But they couldn't get out of it, and the sea water continued to flow,

01:26:46filling the ship, which was sinking more and more.

01:26:51And finally, once the engine room was full,

01:26:54the boiler rooms went out,

01:26:57leaving the massive power plant for which it was legendary.

01:27:01It continued to sail slowly, before completely stopping.

01:27:04It continued to flow, and the order was given to abandon it.

01:27:08At the time, maritime law allowed the Arctic

01:27:11to transport only 6 lifeboats,

01:27:14capable of saving only 180 people.

01:27:17The crew and some of the passengers managed to make their way to the deck

01:27:20and took most of the seats in these boats.

01:27:23But chaos reigned, and everyone seemed to forget their manners,

01:27:26not letting the women and children board first.

01:27:29It took 4 hours for the Arctic to sink.

01:27:32150 crew members and 250 passengers were on board.

01:27:35Those who failed to find a place on board a lifeboat

01:27:38made a desperate attempt to build their own fortune raft

01:27:41with parts of the ship.

01:27:45Two days later, only three lifeboats arrived safely on the shore.

01:27:49The other three were never found.

01:27:52And believe it or not, the lifeboat team also found people

01:27:55who had been stuck on the wreck for two days.

01:27:59Contrary to the crew, the captain sank with the Arctic,

01:28:02but surprisingly survived.

01:28:05He would only be one of the 85 people who got out,

01:28:08out of the 400 people on board.

01:28:13When the news arrived two weeks later,

01:28:16the public was saddened by the disaster.

01:28:19A great anger quickly followed the lack of security measures

01:28:22against the crew.

01:28:25The press published requests to change the laws

01:28:28and board more lifeboats.

01:28:31It was logical to have enough for each person on board a ship.

01:28:34But these requests were ignored.

01:28:37This negligence was going to lead to other disasters in the future.

01:28:40Sufficient number of lifeboats would not enter maritime law

01:28:43until about 60 years later, after the Titanic disaster.

01:28:46The woman and the two children of Edward Collins

01:28:49were also on board the ship and did not come back.

01:28:52He had a broken heart, but did not stop running his business.

01:28:57The Collins Line still had a reputation to defend,

01:29:00the largest, fastest and most luxurious on the Atlantic.

01:29:03Edward Collins was now going to build

01:29:06an even better ship than all the others.

01:29:09It was called the Adriatic,

01:29:12and it was the largest ship in the world, almost 108 meters long.

01:29:16With two alternative steam engines

01:29:19that had never been built of this size.

01:29:22At the time, these steam engines were the pinnacle of engineering,

01:29:25although today we can only see them in reduced models and toys.

01:29:29With the new addition of two masts,

01:29:32the Adriatic would also be able to sail by sail if necessary.

01:29:35Fortunately, lessons have been learned from the disaster in the Arctic.

01:29:38But before their new ship was built,

01:29:41another disaster occurred.

01:29:44The twin ship of the Arctic also sank.

01:29:48It is thought that Collins desperately wanted to stay

01:29:51in front of the Cunard with this second ship,

01:29:54which ended up hitting an iceberg somewhere during the race.

01:29:57This unhealthy competition cost the lives of 141 people.

01:30:01The despair of Collins and his light hulls

01:30:04pushed the company to bankruptcy in 1858.

01:30:08The Adriatic, newly built,

01:30:11which had cost more than a million dollars,

01:30:14finally made only one trip.

01:30:17And even this trip was considered a disaster.

01:30:20The ship collided with a trailer.

01:30:23It still managed to complete its inaugural journey in time.

01:30:27After the company's bankruptcy,

01:30:30the ship had to be sold for only 50,000 dollars.

01:30:34The large giant engines were removed

01:30:37and replaced by sails only.

01:30:40Although it was once the largest high-sea ship,

01:30:43it was only 30 years later that it was abandoned

01:30:46in a river, called irreparable.

01:30:51The other remaining ships were also sold

01:30:54and were only used for spare parts.

01:30:57Edward Collins completely left the industry,

01:31:00looking rather to work on the mainland.

01:31:03As the Collins Line was no longer in favor,

01:31:06the Cunard rose in power.

01:31:09It dominated the market for the next 30 years.

01:31:12180 years later, after producing hundreds of ships,

01:31:15it still has a constant presence on the seas,

01:31:18offering transatlantic crossings,

01:31:21trips around the world and leisure cruises.

01:31:25To this day, the Cunard Line is the only one

01:31:28to operate ships between Europe and America.

01:31:31And it is a good proof that it is not always the fastest

01:31:34that wins the race.

01:31:39A thick fog rises over the ocean

01:31:42while the sun slowly descends on the horizon.

01:31:45It is difficult to see more than a few tens of meters

01:31:48in front of you, but it is enough to distinguish

01:31:51a skeletal and imposing shape in the distance.

01:31:54As your ship approaches the silhouette,

01:31:57your heart starts to beat faster and finally

01:32:00you guess the contours of another ship,

01:32:03abandoned to be judged by its appearance.

01:32:06This is the case of the MV Royita, for example.

01:32:09It was a luxury yacht, made of wood and built in 1931.

01:32:12It passed from hand to hand for more than 20 years

01:32:15before being bought by a sailor from the Samoa Islands

01:32:18and being transformed into a merchant ship.

01:32:21In 1955, however, the service of the Royita

01:32:24had an abrupt and mysterious end.

01:32:27On October 3, it sailed for a second commercial voyage.

01:32:30This one should not have taken more than 48 hours.

01:32:33The ship was sailing in the sea.

01:32:36While the Royita did not arrive as planned on October 5,

01:32:39we were not worried right away.

01:32:42But it did not arrive the next day either.

01:32:45And we did not detect any distress signal

01:32:48or any sign of the presence of the Royita

01:32:51between its starting and arrival points.

01:32:54A search and rescue team was sent to find the ship

01:32:57and for six days it traveled the area of almost 259,000 km2.

01:33:00In October, the mission returned to the base without finding it.

01:33:03The Royita had disappeared without a trace.

01:33:06It was only a month later that people on board

01:33:09another merchant ship, the Tuvalu,

01:33:12spotted the missing ship, drifting far from its route

01:33:15at high seas and jittering strongly.

01:33:18The sailors boarded the ship and discovered

01:33:21that all its crew, as well as its passengers,

01:33:2425 people in total, had disappeared,

01:33:28its radio was set on the international distress channel,

01:33:31which means that the crew had tried to call for help,

01:33:34but they could not reach anyone because the radio cable

01:33:37had been damaged, limiting its range to more than 3 km.

01:33:40The rescue canoes had also disappeared,

01:33:43which indicates that the passengers had managed to leave the ship.

01:33:46Unfortunately, they had taken the on-board log with them,

01:33:49leaving the rescue crew helpless and without resources

01:33:52for their search.

01:33:55However, the mystery of the MV Royita has not yet been solved.

01:33:58No one knows where the crew and the passengers went,

01:34:01nor what pushed them to leave.

01:34:04The S.V. Carole A. D. Ring is not a ghost ship

01:34:07in the usual sense of the term.

01:34:10It has never been seen at sea.

01:34:13Instead, it was found on a shoreline,

01:34:16but the circumstances of its failure remain a mystery.

01:34:19The Carole A. D. Ring was built in 1919,

01:34:22in the Meil.

01:34:25It was a large ship designed for commercial voyages.

01:34:28Unfortunately, despite its very high cost of construction,

01:34:31it was only used one year before its last voyage.

01:34:34On July 19, 1920,

01:34:37the ship went from Puerto Rico to Rio de Janeiro

01:34:40via Newport News to deliver a load of coal.

01:34:43It was almost halfway to its final destination

01:34:46when the captain fell seriously ill

01:34:49and the crew turned around to drop him,

01:34:52him and his son, and find him a replacement.

01:34:55The trip went without incident,

01:34:58but when they arrived in Barbados in December for resupply,

01:35:01a strange atmosphere reigned within the crew.

01:35:04The second did not seem very happy with the new captain.

01:35:07No one paid attention to it at the time,

01:35:10and perhaps it should have been given more importance.

01:35:13For the last time, the Carole A. D. Ring was seen at sea

01:35:17when a lighthouse boat spotted it off the coast of North Carolina.

01:35:20There was a commotion on the back deck of the ship,

01:35:23where the crew was normally not allowed.

01:35:26Then the passengers of another ship saw it,

01:35:29but there was already no one on the decks.

01:35:32On January 31, the merchant ship was found missing

01:35:35in the Diamond Shoals, a sadly famous site

01:35:38for the many shipwrecks that have occurred there for centuries.

01:35:41When the search and rescue team got on board,

01:35:44they found the abandoned ship,

01:35:47the on-board log and the crew's personal belongings

01:35:50missing with the two lifeboats.

01:35:53We still do not know what happened on board the Carole A. D. Ring

01:35:56in this terrible month of January.

01:35:59According to the most widely accepted version,

01:36:02a mutiny may have taken place.

01:36:05We may never discover the truth.

01:36:08The SS Baichimo is perhaps one of the most remarkable ghost ships in history.

01:36:11It was built in 1914 in Sweden

01:36:14and was in service for more than 16 years,

01:36:17exchanging supplies against depots with the native tribes of Alaska and Canada.

01:36:20But on October 1, 1931,

01:36:23the Baichimo was caught in the dock.

01:36:26At first, the crew thought they just had to wait

01:36:29and that they could continue on their way,

01:36:32because the ship was released in a few days.

01:36:35But less than a week later, it failed again,

01:36:38and a rescue team was sent to recover 22 members of the Baichimo crew,

01:36:41while 15 others would remain on board

01:36:44to wait for winter to pass and return with the ship.

01:36:47But a month later, after a powerful blizzard,

01:36:50the sailors left their shelters

01:36:53to discover that the ship had disappeared.

01:36:56Luckily, an indigenous hunter told them

01:36:59shortly after that the Baichimo was not yet lost.

01:37:02They had seen it about 72 km from the place where they were stationed.

01:37:05They managed to find it,

01:37:08but decided that the ship would not survive the winter,

01:37:11so they took what was most precious in the cargo and abandoned it.

01:37:14They were wrong, however.

01:37:17The SS Baichimo survived this winter,

01:37:20and the many others who followed.

01:37:23When the ice broke, it took the sea alone,

01:37:26drifting along the shores of Canada and Alaska.

01:37:29Several people saw the ghost ship,

01:37:33and several times people tried to get on board and recover it,

01:37:36but the weather conditions and the lack of equipment

01:37:39prevented them each time.

01:37:42The SS Baichimo was last seen by Alaskan natives in 1969,

01:37:4538 years after its abandonment.

01:37:48What happened next, no one knows.

01:37:51The story of the SS Ouran Medan

01:37:54is one of the most confusing and heartbreaking of the 20th century.

01:37:58No one knows for sure if this ship ever existed.

01:38:01It was not recorded in the Lloyd's Register,

01:38:04the international register of ships.

01:38:07So either it's a story to sleep on,

01:38:10or the ship was never officially recorded,

01:38:13for rather creepy reasons.

01:38:16In any case, there are many stories about the fate of the Medan.

01:38:19According to most testimonies,

01:38:22it was carrying a cargo in the Indonesian waters

01:38:25by another ship nearby.

01:38:28The service officer heard a SOS message,

01:38:31but its content varies according to the versions.

01:38:34The message did not repeat itself,

01:38:37and the Medan crew did not respond to any attempt to contact.

01:38:40The ship, which received the distress call,

01:38:43rushed to its rescue,

01:38:46but only reached the ship the next day,

01:38:49when it was already drifting slightly.

01:38:52When they got on board,

01:38:55they found that no member of the crew had survived.

01:38:58However, a lifeboat was missing,

01:39:01which means that at least one member of the crew had managed to escape.

01:39:04What happened to the rest of the people on board

01:39:07remains a mystery to this day.

01:39:10We still don't know anything concrete about this story,

01:39:13and we may never know if the SS Ouran Medan

01:39:16really existed or if it's just a fiction.

01:39:19The Zebrina was a sailing barge,

01:39:22built in 1873 for three months

01:39:25to make commercial voyages to Flavio in South America.

01:39:28It served for more than four decades,

01:39:31proving its solidity and reliability.

01:39:34It was then transferred to Europe,

01:39:37where it continued its service in an exemplary way.

01:39:40But in October 1917, the Zebrina took to sea for an ordinary voyage,

01:39:43and was found to fail a few days later.

01:39:46Curiously, given that the ship was perfectly intact,

01:39:49the crew of five people, as well as the captain, had disappeared.

01:39:52There is no direct testimony

01:39:55or any concrete facts on what really happened that day.

01:39:58The most convincing theory is that the crew

01:40:01was carried away by an underwater explosion

01:40:04and that the ship then took to sea without them.

01:40:07But the truth, as always, remains uncertain.

01:40:11Here is Arthur John Priest.

01:40:14No, he is not a famous painter,

01:40:17and he has not discovered a lost treasure for a long time.

01:40:20He did not invent sophisticated gadgets,

01:40:23nor beat a world record.

01:40:26No, Arthur John Priest is simply famous for being insubstantial.

01:40:29Proving that we can be both lucky and unlucky,

01:40:32Priest participated and survived several sea adventures,

01:40:35including the fateful inaugural voyage of the Titanic.

01:40:38Priest was not a rich man sailing for pleasure.

01:40:41He was part of the working class,

01:40:44employed as a steward or driver,

01:40:47stuck for hours in the hot bowels of large steam ships.

01:40:50His work was painful and difficult.

01:40:53He was in charge of keeping the stoves on

01:40:56by feeding them with coal so that the steam produced

01:40:59was enough for the engines to work.

01:41:02He had to be careful not to overheat the system

01:41:05or set the ship on fire.

01:41:08He had to be closely monitored and constantly fed.

01:41:11He breathed all his polluted air,

01:41:14working and struggling in sweat and dirt.

01:41:17Often bare-chested because of the heat,

01:41:20he was always covered in black coal dust.

01:41:23And when he finally had a break,

01:41:26his common living quarters were very close,

01:41:29in the same part of the ship.

01:41:32He had to be gifted because he never had any trouble finding work.

01:41:36The first incident was in Benin.

01:41:39When he was young, Priest worked for the RMS Asturias.

01:41:42The ship sank for the first time in 1907

01:41:45for a voyage linking Southampton

01:41:48to the United Kingdom and Buenos Aires in Argentina.

01:41:51During this inaugural voyage,

01:41:54the ship suffered a small collision.

01:41:57The damage was significant enough for it to return for repair.

01:42:00Fortunately, no serious injuries were reported.

01:42:04Priest, undisturbed, simply went to work on another ship.

01:42:07But his bad luck pursued him aboard the Asturias.

01:42:10In 1914, the Asturias became a hospital ship,

01:42:13a naval aide caring for the care and transport of the sick

01:42:16in European waters and, if necessary,

01:42:19to their homeland in England.

01:42:22But in March 1917, around midnight,

01:42:25the ship was hit by a foreign body.

01:42:28Its hull was pierced and the engine room was flooded.

01:42:32The captain ordered everyone to abandon the ship

01:42:35by sending the crew, patients and medical personnel

01:42:38into the lifeboats.

01:42:41The ship was still moving,

01:42:44propelling itself into the water because the main controls

01:42:47located in the submerged engine room could not be extinguished.

01:42:50The captain refused to leave the ship

01:42:53while people were still trying to escape.

01:42:56He was able to steer the Asturias towards Bolthead

01:42:59without sinking.

01:43:02The remaining lifeboats were lowered

01:43:05and the last survivors were safe.

01:43:08When they studied later the damage caused by the ship,

01:43:11the Asturias was considered a total wreck.

01:43:14It would be exaggerated to attribute the occurrence of this disaster

01:43:17to the passage of Priest on board.

01:43:20After all, he was not even on the ship at the time.

01:43:23But it would seem that many of the boats on which he served

01:43:27His bad luck accompanied him to his next post

01:43:30on the Olympic RMS, a huge lifeboat.

01:43:33The Olympic was really very large.

01:43:36Moreover, it had been designed and built within the same fleet

01:43:39as the Titanic.

01:43:42But this large size involved sacrifices.

01:43:45The Olympic was perfect for sailing straight in a given direction,

01:43:48but very difficult to handle when it came to turning.

01:43:51In September 1911, the Hawkey,

01:43:54a smaller ship that was sailing nearby,

01:43:57did not leave enough room for the large ship to maneuver.

01:44:00The Olympic tried to change its course,

01:44:03but both hit each other.

01:44:06The Hawkey, which was designed to face possible sea confrontations,

01:44:09its reinforced bow tore the hull of the Olympic.

01:44:12Two large splinters appeared on the side of the deck.

01:44:15The propeller shaft was severely twisted.

01:44:18Worse still, the ship began to take water.

01:44:21One way or another, the Olympic managed to reach the coast

01:44:24without sinking, and no one was seriously injured.

01:44:27Priest then had no idea that this was just a foretaste

01:44:30of what the future had in store for him.

01:44:33He then found a job on a brand new ship,

01:44:36an extraordinary deck,

01:44:39an insubstantial marvel that was said to be the largest ever built.

01:44:42Yes, he was going to work on the Titanic.

01:44:45And what a job!

01:44:48No less than 29 boilers to run,

01:44:51requiring 850 tons of coal per day

01:44:54to produce the amount of steam sufficient for its propulsion.

01:44:57Priest was one of the 150 subs

01:45:00working day and night in the bow of the ship

01:45:03to maintain the furnace day and night,

01:45:06which cost him about $30 a month.

01:45:09But on April 14, 1912, he found himself

01:45:12projected from extreme heat to thundering cold.

01:45:15Around 11.35 p.m., the crew spotted an iceberg.

01:45:18The Titanic tried to avoid it,

01:45:21but the alarm was triggered too late.

01:45:24Five minutes later, the collision occurred.

01:45:27The iceberg tore the hull,

01:45:30and the interior compartments, designed to be waterproof,

01:45:33were seriously damaged.

01:45:36The cold Atlantic water invaded the ship, which began to sink.

01:45:39Signals of distress were sent,

01:45:42but the closest ship, the Carpathia,

01:45:45was sailing for more than three hours.

01:45:48In the darkness of the night, stuck in the middle of nowhere,

01:45:51the crew and passengers began to panic.

01:45:54Those who could, rushed to the lifeboats.

01:45:57Others jumped into the icy waves.

01:46:00In total, only 706 people survived that terrible night.

01:46:03At the time of the collision,

01:46:06Priest was in the lower quarters of the ship.

01:46:09He was relaxing after a hard day's work.

01:46:12And while the ship was sinking,

01:46:15he was doing the same for his chances of survival.

01:46:18He and his colleagues were in the part of the ship

01:46:21that was at that time the most dangerous.

01:46:24They had to make their way through a maze of corridors and bridges,

01:46:27some of which were flooded, in a crazy race to the upper bridges.

01:46:30Then they had to face the icy water,

01:46:33dive and swim desperately to a safer place.

01:46:37The ocean was so cold that Priest suffered from frostbite

01:46:40before finally finding a way to reach one of the lifeboats.

01:46:43He was one of the 44 lifeboats that survived that night.

01:46:46After such an experience,

01:46:49most people would probably never set foot on a ship again.

01:46:52But Priest needed to work.

01:46:55His next job also revealed a chaotic experience.

01:46:58He was offered a job on the HMS Alcantara.

01:47:01The ship sank in 1975.

01:47:04The ship sank in 1916,

01:47:07and Priest was once again one of the few to make it out,

01:47:10although seriously injured during the incident.

01:47:13But he continued to push his luck,

01:47:16and the next job must have seemed strangely familiar to him.

01:47:19He had to go aboard a ship built by the same engineers

01:47:22who had designed the Olympic and the Titanic.

01:47:25And this ship, called the Britannic, was the largest of the three.

01:47:28It was also considered a more advanced ship,

01:47:31equipped with new safety devices

01:47:34installed following the sinking of the Titanic.

01:47:37For example, it had 48 open lifeboats,

01:47:40of which 46 were the largest ever designed for a lifeboat.

01:47:43Two of them were even motorized

01:47:46and equipped with special communication devices.

01:47:49Good news, the Britannic survived

01:47:52its first trip without incident.

01:47:55Already a performance that the Titanic could never achieve.

01:47:58However, on November 21, 1916,

01:48:01the Britannic was hit by a strong explosion

01:48:04as it was sailing in the canal of Kea in the Aegean Sea.

01:48:07The hull was damaged,

01:48:10and part of the compartments began to fill with water.

01:48:13Unlike the Titanic, the Britannic

01:48:16had been precisely prepared for such an emergency.

01:48:19It was equipped with five waterproof gaskets,

01:48:22which, while remaining intact,

01:48:25could hold water for a much longer period of time.

01:48:28But there was a problem.

01:48:31The lower decks of the hulls had been negligibly left open.

01:48:34When the ship tilted,

01:48:37the hulls allowed water to enter,

01:48:40flooding the Britannic and precipitating its descent to the bottom of the sea.

01:48:43This had made the waterproof gaskets completely useless.

01:48:46The ship sank rapidly,

01:48:49much faster than the Titanic.

01:48:52Thirty-five lifeboats were successfully launched,

01:48:55saving most of the people on board.

01:48:58Of the 1,066 passengers and crew members,

01:49:011,036 survived.

01:49:04Priest, still in his prime,

01:49:07was of course one of them.

01:49:10And yet, he had not yet finished his life at sea.

01:49:13He took on a new post of support on the Donegal.

01:49:16It was a small cruise ferry converted into a hospital boat.

01:49:19In April 1917, he was hit by an unidentified object,

01:49:22while fleeing a dangerous situation.

01:49:25Although he suffered a head injury,

01:49:28Priest was safe and sound.

01:49:31It took Priest two collisions and four shipwrecks

01:49:34before he was finally ready to retire.

01:49:37In reality, he would even have explained having stopped

01:49:40only because no one wanted to sail with him anymore.

01:49:43But can we really blame him?

01:49:46He lived the rest of his life on the mainland,

01:49:49in Southampton, England,

01:49:52with his wife Annie and their three sons.

01:49:55But we will always remember Arthur John Priest

01:49:58as the insurmountable support.

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