Short story of the Titanic

On April 15, 1912, one of the deadliest maritime disaster in history occurred. At 2:45 am on April 15; 5 days after its original departure from Liverpool, England,

the Titanic struck a large iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean. The ship Titanic was the second in a three ship set; the Olympic, Titanic, and Britannica. She was 300 yards long, and weighed several hundreds of thousands of pounds. The great ship, made mostly of metal, was thought to be unsinkable.

Then the impossible happened. Captain Edward John Smith had altered the Titanic’s course slightly to the south, hoping to avoid the icefields that had been spotted and reported by other ships. Unfortunately, the change in course didn’t help much. In the late hours of April 14, the Titanic collided with a large iceberg.

Upon striking the berg, the Titanic's flood compartments, made for just such an occasion, began to fill with water. The titanic could have stayed afloat if only 4 of the compartments were flooded, but the water quickly filled 6, making the bow sink slowly into the 28 °F degree (-2° Celsius degree) water. Many passengers were actually spotted playing soccer with the chunks of ice, unaware of the danger posed to them.

There wasn’t a rush to get into the lifeboats at first, because passengers would rather stay on the warm ship, than go out into the cold and the unknown of the sea in a small boat. The first of the 20 lifeboats simply left with 28 people aboard, although they were designed to hold 65 passengers.

When the danger became apparent, 3rd class passengers were locked down into their 3rd class area, unable to escape to the safety of a lifeboat. 1st and 2nd class passengers got to the lifeboats quicker and easier, because they had boats on their decks. The stewards and stewardesses didn’t lock the 3rd class passengers because they wanted them to die. They locked them until they were given orders. Once the orders were given to let the women and children out first and not let any men out, they unlocked the doors, but had a hard time getting just the women and children out. Desperate men actually dressed as women so they would be allowed to enter a lifeboat. There are undisclosed rumors, still to this day, that say the Titanic's crew shot passengers who wanted a lifeboat. The lifeboats were picked up by the Carpathia.

This is where the Titanic's journey ends. She soon went down "head-first" into the icy depths. Hundreds perished that night, men, women, children, even dogs. One of the passengers describes the ride down with the sinking ship "like an elevator ride". The survivors recall that there were so many dead, they could hardly row through the bodies. Out of the 1523 people in the water, 7 were found alive. Out of the 2228 passengers aboard the ship only 705 survived. All of the men in the engine room died.

On April 17, 1912 the 705 survivors finally reached their destination of New York City.
The Carpathia arrived at 9:35 p.m. and started to unload the survivors. Interviewers swarmed the passengers asking them what had happened. All of them agreed that their lives would never be the same again.


maritime disaster – tengeri katasztrófa
to occur – megesik, megtörténik
to strike, struck, struck - ütődik
unsinkable - elsüllyeszthetetlen
to alter – megváltozat
course - útvonal
slightly - enyhén
to avoid – elkerül, kikerül
to be spotted – észre véve lenni
to be reported – jelentve lenni
to collide with – összeütközik valamivel
compartment - rekesz
to stay afloat – tengeren/vízen maradni
bow – hajó orra
to sink - elsüllyed
chunk of ice – nagy jég darab
unaware of … - nincs tudatában annak, hogy …
rush – rohanás, sietség
lifeboat - mentőcsónak
aboard - fedélzeten
to become apparent – nyilvánvalóvá válik
to be locked down into – bezárva lenni valahova
to be unable to escape – nem képes elmenekülni
deck - fedélzet
to be given orders – utasítást/parancsot kap
to have a hard time doing something – nehéz dolga van
desperate - kétségbeesett
to dress as a woman – nőnek öltözött
to be allowed to - meg van engedve, hogy …
crew - legénység
to be picked up by - felvéve lenni valaki által
icy depth – jeges mélység
to perish – elpusztul, elvész
to describe - leír
to recall - felidéz
to row through - átevez