Titanic: It is now available in colour | Life & Knowledge
It is April 14, 1912, 11:40 p.m., 550 kilometers southeast of Newfoundland. The largest ship in the world collides with an iceberg and sinks in just over two and a half hours. Almost 1,500 people drown, only about 700 survive.
The sinking of the Titanic. To this day, there are many legends surrounding the disaster. Hollywood burned the drama into our memories in 1997 with Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio in the blockbuster Titanic. But now there are new, spectacular images. They are real. And they are in color!
The British broadcaster “Channel 4” searched the archives for a new documentary and found photographs showing the construction, passengers and departure of the ship of the “White Star” line.
The broadcaster had the black and white photos carefully colorized. And we can now marvel at them in color (even though the documentary itself is currently only available in Great Britain).
The Titanic in color
Here the Titanic is towed to Southampton for its maiden voyage
This is what the private suites on board looked like
There was even a gym on board. Trainer TW McCawley can be seen here on the rowing machine, electrician William Paar sits at the back on a mechanical horse. Neither of them survived the accident
A total of 3,000 workers are involved in the construction of the “Titanic“ and her sister ship “Olympic”. It will take five years until she is ready for use.
The “Titanic”, like the “Olympic” (pictured here), had three large bronze propellers for propulsion
The dimensions of the record-breaking steamer: 269 meters long, 28 meters wide and 53 meters high. The technology, the equipment: everything on and around the “Titanic” had to be of the highest quality.
The maiden voyage starts in the port of Southampton (England) and ends in a catastrophe: from April 14 to 15, 1912, the supposedly unsinkable ship sinks in the North Atlantic.
The iceberg that sank the Titanic. The photo was taken by Captain Wood of the SS Etonian on April 12th – two days before the disaster
The Titanic was not equipped with enough lifeboats. Not enough to save all 2220 passengers
1514 people died when the then largest ship in the world sank just five days after setting off on a iceberg collided. The ship was supposed to reach its original destination, New York, on April 17.
Belfast (Ireland): While the Titanic was being built on the left, her slightly smaller sister ship, the “Olympic”, was ready for use a year earlier (1911)
A portrait of Frederick Fleet. The then 25-year-old was part of the ship's crew and was the first to see the iceberg. He survived the accident, but took his own life in 1965
When the great disaster occurred at 11.40 p.m. on April 14, 1912, it took more than two hours for the ship to actually sink. At 2.17 a.m. the lights went out. The ship broke into two pieces. A few minutes later the stern disappeared into the water.
The disaster shook the world
The passenger ship “Carpathia” is the first to arrive at the scene of the accident and collects survivors from the lifeboats. The merchant ship “Californian” also rushes to help, but does not reach the “Titanic” until the morning hours.
Charlotte Collyer and her seven-year-old daughter Marjorie survived the shipping accident. Charlotte's husband drowned
Of the 1,514 passengers who died in the accident, only about 330 could be rescued. Sea swell and storms scattered the bodies in the icy water.
Only in 1985 – more than 60 years later – the wreck was Seabed of the Atlantic Ocean. One year later, the first exploratory dive took place there.