THE mayden voyage of the TITANIC.

Pre-reading task

1. Do you know the facts about the “Titanic” disaster? In a few words tell about the event.

2. Did you see the movie “Titanic” (1997)? Did you like it? What impressed you most?

A team of American and French scientists have discovered the Titanic at last! They have found the lost ship 2.5 miles deep on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, 400 miles south of Newfoundland. There it has been lying since the night of April 14th 1912, when it hit an iceberg and sank. At 10 pm Captain Smith stood on the bridge of the Titanic with First Officer Murdoch. "Tell everyone to watch carefully for icebergs," he said "I'm going to sleep for an hour or two." The great ship was sailing across the Atlantic on her way from Southampton to New York. It was her very first voyage. This was her fourth day at sea; New York was only two days away now. At 11.40 pm Murdoch was still on the bridge. There was no sign of any icebergs yet. It was a beautiful night. The air was cold, and the sea was like dark glass. Suddenly there was a shout from one of the men. "Iceberg straight ahead, sir!" Where? Murdoch couldn't see anything. But he knew what todo im­mediately. "Stop engines!" he ordered. " Full speed astern!" He still couldn'tseethe iceberg. Moments later there was a strange noise below the water. The ship rolled a little but sailed on. Soon after Captain Smithranonto the bridge. "What's the matter?" "We've hit an iceberg, sir!"

Now they could both see it. It was a giant iceberg. Not white at all, but dark grey in colour, almost black.' Some of the passengers heard the noise, and a few of them came up on deck to see what was wrong. "Oh, look! We've hit an iceberg." — "How interesting. I've never seen one before!" — "Can anyone get me a piece of ice for my drink?" They were not worried. The Titanic was unsinkable, they all knew. With her 16 watertight compartments, she was the safest ship in the world. People only had to read the papers to know that. She was also the biggest, most modern passenger ship that ever sailed. Britain was proud of her. The passengers knew there could be no danger, even if an iceberg made a hole in her side. But they did not know about the SOS signals that the Titanic was sending out. Captain Smith knew now that five of the watertight compartments had water in them. The ship could sail on safely with water in four of them. But water in five was enough to sink the ship. Smith knew that there were over 2,200 people on board – and that there were lifeboats for only half that number. When he gave the order, "Everyone on deck with lifebelts", people still did not worry much. Even the crew did not realize yet that the ship was sinking. They got the lifeboats out and by 12.30 the first one was ready.

"Women and children first!" Murdoch and the other officers shouted.

A lot of the women were in their night clothes. Others were wearing expensive dance dresses. It was cold out on deck. They looked at the life­boats, and the dark icy sea all around, and did not know what to think. It all seemed so silly. Everyone knew how safe the Titanic was! Mrs Caldwell, an American passenger, remembered her question to one of the crew at Southampton: "Is the Titanic really unsinkable?" And she remembered the answer: "Yes, lady. God himself could not sink this ship." So the first lifeboat left with only 20 people in it, although it was big enough to take 66. But soon people began to realize that they were in danger. Husbands pushed their wives into the lifeboats. Some women wanted to go back on board when they saw that their husbands were not allowed to come with them. Others kicked and screamed as the crew carried them into the life­boats. Women and children in first and second class got off the Titanic first. But the third class passengers were not allowed to come up on deck. Many of them were emigrants on their way to a new life in America. When at last they, too, were allowed to come up, most of the lifeboats were al­ready gone. The end came fast. Soon after 2 am the stern of the ship rose up out of the water. The music of the ship's band stopped. A moment later the players started again, but this time the music they played was a slow hymn. The music went on until 2.20, when the deck slipped away and the Titanic sank down into the dark icy waters of the Atlantic. With her went Captain Smith, First Officer Murdoch, and most of the other officers and crew. Altogether 1,503 people lost their lives.

full speed astern - повний назад

watertight compartments – водонепробивні відсіки

SOS signals - сигнали СОС

deck - палуба

Your task

Work in pairs. Make up as many hypothetic statements as possible using the past unreal conditional sentences.

Example:
If there had been more lifeboats on board the ship more passengers could have been saved

If the ship had not sailed so fast it would have been possible to stop it and avoid the collision

with the iceberg.

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