Historical Planet

Friday, 1 November 2019

George Washington Facts

why do people call him that? Let me tell you how he got this name. Many years ago, on the twenty-second of February, in the year 1732, a little baby was born in a comfortable-looking old farm-house down in Virginia. This baby was named George Washington.

Father of George Washington

His father was a farmer, who planted and raised and sold large crops of tobacco in the fields about his house. These fields were called plantations, and George Washington's father was what is called a planter.

Mother of George Washington

The name of George's father was Augustine Washington. His mother's name was Mary Washington. She was a very wise and good woman and George loved her dearly. When George was a very small boy, his father died, and he was brought up by his mother in a nice, old farm-house on the banks of the Rappahannock River, just opposite the town of Fredericksburg. Ask someone to show you just where that is on the map.

George Washington Personality

George was a good boy. He was honest, truthful, obedient, bold and strong. He could jump the farthest, run the fastest, climb the highest, wrestle the best, ride the swiftest, swim the longest, and ''stump" all the other boys he played with. They all liked him, for he was gentle, kind and brave; he never was mean, never got " mad," and never told a lie.

Young George Washington Riding a Colt

His mother had a sorrel colt that she thought very much of, because it came of splendid stock, and, if once trained, would be a fine and fast horse. But the colt was wild and vicious, and people said it could never be trained. One summer morning, young George, with three or four boys, were in the field looking at the colt, and, when the boys said again that it could never be tamed.

George said: You help me gel on his back and I'll take him." After Lard's work, they got a bridle-bit in the colt's mouth and put young George on its back. Then began a fight. The colt reared and kicked and plunged and tried to throw George off. But George stuck on and finally conquered the colt so that he drove it about the field. But in a last mad plunge to free itself from this determined boy on its back, the colt burst a blood-vessel and fell to the ground dead.

Then the boys felt worried, you may be sure. But while they were wondering what George's mother would say, the boy went straight to the house determined to tell the truth. Mother," he said, "your colt is dead."

"Dead!" said his mother shocked. "Who killed it?" I did," said George in an honest way, and then he told her the whole story. His mother looked at him a moment, then she said: " It is well, my son. I am sorry to lose the colt; it would have been a fine horse, but I am proud to know that my son never tries to put the blame of his acts upon others, and always speaks the truth."

So, you see, that early in his life, this boy was one to be depended upon. This story, too, shows you that besides his being so truthful and honest, young George Washington did not give up trying to do a thing until he had succeeded. He was bound to tame that fierce sorrel colt, and he stuck to it until he had conquered the animal, instead of letting it conquer him.

George Washington Facts

He loved the woods, and he loved the water. He wanted to be a sailor, but when he saw that his mother did not wish him to go away to sea, he said: " All right, mother," and he stayed at home to help her on her farm. When he was sixteen years old, he gave up going to school and became a surveyor. A surveyor is one who goes around measuring land so that men can know just how much they own and just where the lines run that divide it from other people's land.

This work kept George out of doors most of the time and made him healthy and big and strong. He went off into the woods and over the mountains, surveying land for the owners. He lived among Indians and bears and hunters and became a great hunter himself. He was a fine-looking young fellow then. He was almost six feet tall. He was strong and active and could stand almost anything in the way of out-of-door dangers and experiences.

He had light brown hair, blue eye, and a frank face, and he had such a nice, firm way about him, although he was quiet and never talked much, that people always believed what he said, and those who worked with him were always ready and willing to do just as he told them. When he was a boy it took a brave man to be a surveyor. He had to live in the forests, in all sorts of dangers and risks;

he had to meet all kinds of people, and settle disputes about who owned the land, when those who were quarreling about it would be very angry with the surveyor. But young George Washington always won in the end, and his work was so well done that some of his records and measurements have not been changed from that day to this.

He liked the work because he liked the free life of the woods and mountains. He liked to hunt and swim and ride and row, and all these things and all these rough experiences helped him greatly to be a bold, healthy, active and courageous man when the time came for him to be a leader and a soldier.

People liked him so much that when there was trouble between the two nations that owned almost all the land in America when he was a boy, he was sent with a party to try and settle a quarrel as to which nation owned the land west of Virginia, in what is now called Ohio.

These two nations were France and England. Their Kings were far over the Atlantic Ocean. Virginia and all the country between the mountains and the sea, from Maine to Georgia, belonged to the King of England. There was no President then; there was no United States.

George Washington went off to the Ohio country and tried to settle the quarrel, but the French soldiers would not settle it as the English wished them to. They built forts in the country and said they meant to keep it all for the King of France.

So, George Washington was sent out again. This time he had a lot of soldiers with him, to drive the French away from their forts. The French soldiers would not give in, and Washington and his soldiers had a fight with the French and whipped them. Then the French King sent more soldiers and built more forts, and the English King sent more soldiers, and there was war in the land. War is a terrible thing, but sometimes it must be made.

The King of England was very angry with the French, and he sent over soldiers from England to fight the French. They were led by a British general whose name was Braddock. He was a brave man, but he thought he knew how to do everything, and he would not let anyone else tell him how he ought to act. But he had never fought in such a land as America, where there were great forests and Indians, and other things very different from what he was used to.

George Washington knew that if General Braddock and the British soldiers wished to whip the French and the Indians, who were on the French side, they must be very careful when they were marching through the forest to battle. He tried to make General Braddock see this, too, but the British General thought he knew best, and he told Washington to mind his own business.

So, the British soldiers marched through the forest just as if they were parading down Broadway. They looked very fine, but they were not careful of themselves, and one day, during the forest, the. French and Indians, who were hiding behind trees waiting for them, sprang out upon them and surprised them, and surrounded them and fired guns at them from the thick, dark woods. The British were caught in a trap.

They did not know what to do. General Braddock was killed, so were many of his soldiers, and they would all have been killed or taken prisoners if George Washington had not been there. He knew just what to do. He fought bravely, and when the British soldiers ran away, he and his Americans kept back the French and Indians and saved the British army. But it was a terrible defeat for the soldiers of the King of England.

George Washington Crossing Delaware

He had to send more soldiers to America and fight for a long time. But at last his soldiers were successful, and, thanks to Colonel Washington, as he was now called, the English lands were saved, and the French were driven away. After the war was over, George Washington married a wife. All American boys and girls know her name. It was Martha Washington. They went to live in a beautiful house on the banks of the Potomac River, in Virginia. It is called Mount Vernon.

It was Washington's home all the rest of his life. The house is still standing, and people nowadays go to visit this beautiful place, just to see the spot that everyone thinks so much of because it was the home of Washington. Perhaps, someday, you will see it. You will think it a beautiful place.

While Washington was looking after his great farm at Mount Vernon, things were becoming very bad in America. The King of England said the people in America must do as he told them, and not as they wished. But the Americans said that the King was acting very wrongly towards them and that they would not stand it. They did not.

Life of George Washington

When the King's soldiers tried to make them do as the King ordered, they said they would die rather than yield, and in a place called Lexington, in Massachusetts, some of the Americans took their guns and tried to drive off the British soldiers. This is what is called rebellion. It made the King of England very angry, and he sent over ships full of soldiers to make the American's mind.

But the Americans would not. The men in the thirteen different parts of the country called the thirteen colonies got together and said they would fight the King's soldiers, the King tried to make them do as he wished. So, they got up an army and sent it to Massachusetts, and there they had famous battle soldiers, called Bunker Hill. The leading men in the colonies saw that they must put a brave man at the head of their army.

There was but one man they thought about this. Do you know who is George Washington? He rode all the way from Mount Vernon, in Virginia, to Cambridge in Massachusetts, on horseback because you know, they had no steam cars or steamboats in those days. As he was riding through Connecticut with a few soldiers as his guard a man came galloping across the country telling people, had been fought.

The British soldiers had driven the Americans from the fort and said they had won. But it had been hard work for the soldiers of the King. Washington stopped the rider and asked him why the Americans had been driven out of the fort. " Because they had no powder and shot left," replied the messenger. "And did they stand the fire of the British guns as long as they could fire back?" asked Washington. "That they did," replied the horseman. "They waited, too, until the British were close to the fort before they fired.

That was what Washington wished to know. He felt certain that if the American farmer boys who stood out against the King's soldiers did not get frightened or timid in the face of trained soldiers of the king what they would be the kind of soldiers he needed to win with. He turned to his companion Then the liberties of the country are safe, he said and rode on to Cambridge to the command of the army.

If ever you go to Cambridge, in Massachusetts, you can see the tree under which Washington sat on horseback, when he took command of the American army. It is an old, and old tree now, but everybody loves to look at it and to think of the splendid-looking soldier, in his uniform of buff and blue, who, on a July day, long, long ago, sat his horse so gallantly beneath that shady elm, and looked at the brave men who were to be his soldiers, and by whose help he hoped to make his native land a free and independent nation.

So, at his camp at Cambridge, he drilled his army of farmers and fishermen, and when he was ready he drove the British away from Boston without a battle, when all the American leaders met in the City of Philadelphia and said they would obey the King of England no longer but would set up a nation of their own.

They called this new nation the United States of America, and they signed a paper that told all the world that the men of America would no longer obey the King of England, but would be free, even if they had to fight for their freedom. You know what this great paper they signed is called the Declaration of Independence.

The day that they decided to do this is now the greatest day in all of America. You remember it every year and celebrate it with fire-crackers and fire-works and flags, and no school. It is on the fourth of July. Well, the King of England was very angry at this. He sent more ships and soldiers over the sea to America, and there was a long and bloody war. It was called the American Revolution.

There was fighting for seven years, and, through it all, the chief man in America, the man who led the soldiers and fought the British, and never gave up, nor ever let himself or his soldiers grow afraid, even when he was beaten, was General George Washington. If the British drove him away from one place, he marched to another, and he fought and marched, and kept his army brave and determined.

Even when they were ragged and tired, and everything looked as if the British would be successful. When the British whipped him in the Battle of Long Island, at Brooklyn, and thought they had caught all the American army, Washington, one stormy night, got all his soldiers safely across the river to New York, and the. British had to follow and fight. And, again, when it looked as if the Americans must surely give in, Washington took his soldiers, one terrible winter's night, across the Delaware river and fell upon the British, when they were not expecting him, and won the battle of Trenton.

There were many hard and bitter days for George Washington through these years of fighting. One winter, especially, was very bad. The British soldiers seemed victorious everywhere. They held the chief cities of New York and Philadelphia, and the weak American army was half-starved, cold and shivering in a place in Pennsylvania, called Valley Forge.

Washington was there, too, and it took all his strength and all his heart to keep his soldiers together and make them believe that, if they would only "stick to it," they would beat the British at last. But when their log huts were all covered with snow, and they had hardly clothes enough to keep them warm, or food to keep them from being hungry, it was not easy for the soldiers to see victory ahead, and, if it had not been for Washington, the American, army would have melted away, owing to that dreadful winter at Valley Forge.

But he held it together, and when spring came, marched away from Valley Forge. Part of his army was attacked by the British at a place called Monmouth Court House and was almost beaten and driven back when General Washington came galloping up. He stopped the soldiers who were running away; he brought up other soldiers to help them, and he fought so boldly and bravely and was so determined, that at last he drove off the British, and won the important battle of Monmouth. You see, would not give in when people told him he would have to. and that the British get all the cities and, towns.

He said that the country was large, and, that sooner than give in, he would go with his soldiers into the mountains and keep up the war until the British were so sick of it that they would finally go away. So, he kept on marching and fighting, and never giving in, even when things looked worst, and, at last, on the 19th of October, in the year 1781, he captured the whole British army, at a place called Yorktown, in Virginia, and the Revolution was ended. So, the United States won its freedom.

They have been a great nation ever since, and every American, from that day to this, knows that they gained their freedom because they had such a great, brave, noble, patriotic, strong and glorious leader as General George Washington. After the Revolution was over, and Washington had said good-bye to his soldiers and his generals, he went back to Mount Vernon and became a farmer again.

But the people of America would not let him stay a fanner. They got together again in Philadelphia, and, after much thought and talk, they drew up a paper that said just how the new nation should be governed. This is called the Constitution of the United States. The Constitution said that, instead of a king, the people should pick out elect is what they called it one man, who should be the head man of the nation for four years at a time.

He was to preside over things, and so he was called the President. When the time came to elect the first President, there was just one man in the United States that everybody said must be the President. Of course, you know who this man was — George Washington. It was a great day for the new nation when he was declared President.

This is what we call being " inaugurated." All along the way, as he rode from Mount Vernon to New York, people came out to welcome him. They fired cannon and rang bells and made bonfires and put up arches and decorations; little girls scattered flowers in his path and sang songs of greeting, and whenever he came to a town or city, everyone turned out and marched in procession, escorting Washington through their town.

When he came to New York, after he had crossed the bay in a big rowboat, he went in a fine procession to a building called " Federal Hall," on Wall Street, and there he stood, on the front balcony of the building, in face of all the people, and, with his hand on an open Bible, he said he would be a wise and good and faithful President.

Then the Judge, who had read to him the words he repeated, lifted his hand and cried out: "Long live George Washington, President of the United States!" A flag was the run-up to the cupola of the hall, cannon boomed, bells rang, and all the people cheered and cheered their hero and general, whom they had now made the head of the whole nation. So, George Washing- ton became President of the United States.

He worked just as hard to make the new nation strong and great and peaceful as he did when he led the army in the Revolution. People had all sorts of things to suggest. Some of those things were foolish, some were wrong, and some would have been certain to have broken up the United States and lost all the things for which the country fought in the Revolution. But Washington was at the head.

He knew just what to do, and he did it. From the day when, in the City of New York, he was made President — that is what we call his inauguration — he gave all his thought and all hi? Time, and all his strength to making the United States united and prosperous and strong. And, when his four years as President were over, the people would not let him give up but elected him for their President for another four years.

Wife of George Washington

When Washington was President, the Capital of the United States was first in New York and afterward at Philadelphia. Washington and his wife, whom we know of as Martha Washington, lived in fine style and made a very noble-looking couple. They gave receptions occasionally, to which the people would come to be introduced and see the man of whom all the world was talking. Washington must have been a splendid-looking man then.

He was tall and well built. He dressed in black velvet, with silver knee and shoe buckles; his hair was powdered and tied up in what was called a 14 queue." He wore yellow gloves and held his three-cornered hat in his hand. A sword in a polished white leather sheath hung at his side, and he would bow to each one who was introduced to him.

He had so good a memory, that, if he heard a man's name and saw his face at one introduction, he could remember and call him by name when he met him again. But though he was so grand and noble, he was very simple in his tastes and his talk and desired to have no title, but only this — the President of the United States.

PI is the second term as President was just as successful as his first four years had been. He kept the people from getting into trouble with other countries; he kept them from war and danger, and quarrels and loss. But it tired him all out and made him an old man before his time. He had given almost all his life to America. When his second term was ended, the people wished him to be President for the third time. But he would not.

Washington's Farewell Address

He wrote a long letter to the people of America. It is called "Washington's Farewell Address." He told them they were growing stronger and better, but that he was worn out and must have rest. He told them that if they would be wise and peaceful and good, they would become a great nation; that all they had fought for and all they had gained would last, if they would only act right, and so they would become great and powerful. So, another man was made President, and Washington went back to his farm at Mount Vernon.

He was the greatest, the wisest and the most famous man in all of America. People said it was because of what he had done for them that their country was free and powerful and strong. They said that George Washington was "The Father of His Country." I think he was very glad to get back to Mount Vernon. He loved the beautiful old place, and he had been away from it for eight years.

He liked to be a farmer, with such a great farm to look after as there are in Virginia. He found very much to do, and he mended, built and enlarged things, rode over his broad plantations, or received in his fine old house the visitors who came there to see the greatest man in all America. There came a time when he thought he would have to give up this pleasant life and go to be a soldier once more. For there came very near being a war between France and the United States, and Congress begged Washington to take command of the army once more.

He was made lieutenant-general and commander in chief and hurried to Philadelphia to gather his army together. Fortunately, the war did not occur, and the new nation was saved all that trouble and bloodshed. So, he went back again to his beloved Mount Vernon. But he did not live long to enjoy the peace and quiet that were his right.

Death

For, one December day, as he was riding over his farm, he caught a cold and had the croup. He had not the strength that most boys and girls must carry him through such a sickness. He was worn out, and, though the doctors tried hard to save his life, they could not, and in two days he died. It was a sad day for America — the twelfth day of December, in the year 1 799.

All the world sent condolence letters with deep grief and sorry. Entire the world had come to look upon George Washington as the greatest man of his time. Kings and nations put on mourning for him, and, all over the world, bells tolled, drums beat, and flags were dropped to half-mast when the news came that Washington was dead.

When you grow up and go to Mount Vernon, as every American boy and girl should do someday, you will see his tomb. It is a plain and simple building, just as plain and simple as he was, and it stands close to his house, on the green banks of the beautiful Potomac River he loved so much. Then, sailing up the Potomac, or riding on the steam-cars, you will come to the beautiful city that is named for this great man Washington, the capital of the United States.

Then you will see the great white dome of the splendid Capitol, the building in which the American people make laws for the nation that Washington founded. There is the White House, where all the Presidents since his day have lived, there is the tall, white monument, the highest in the world.

That the American people have built to honor his memory and his name. And in the cities and towns in America are statues and streets and parks and schools and buildings named after him. And built because all the world knows that this great American general and President was the best, the noblest and the bravest man that ever lived in all America George Washington.

First in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen." Love him, children. Never forget him. Try to be like him. Thus, may you grow to be good men and women, and. Therefore, good Americans.

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Wednesday, 30 October 2019

Titanic History - A Miserable Night to Remember

In the early part 19th century, the only means of transportation for travelers and mail between Europe and North America was by passenger steamship. By 1907, the Cunard Steamship Company introduced the world's largest and fastest steamers in the North Atlantic service, the Lusitania and Mauritania. Each had a gross tonnage of 31,000 tons and a maximum speed of 26 knots.

In that year, Lord William James Pirrie, managing director and controlling chair of the Irish shipbuilding company Harland and Wolff, duly met with J. Bruce Ismay, (MD) managing director of the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company, better identified as the White Star Line (a name taken from its pennant).

During this meeting, the plans were made to construct three giant new White Star liners to compete with the Lusitania and Mauritania on the North Atlantic by establishing a three-ship weekly steamship service for passengers and mail between Southampton, England, and New York City.

Sister Ships of RMS Titanic Inc.,

This decision required the construction of a trio of luxurious steamships. The first two built were the RMS Olympic and the RMS Titanic; a third ship, the RMS Britannic, was built later (the fate of the sister ships is described as below.

The RMS Olympic made more than 500 round trips between Southampton and New York before it was retired in 1935 and was finally broken up in 1937. In 1919, it became the first large ship to be converted from coal to oil. On May 15, 1934, as the Olympic approached New York, it struck the Nantucket lightship during a heavy fog, cutting it in half. Of the crew, four were drowned, three were fatally injured, and three were rescued.

The third ship of the series, the Britannic, had a short life. While it was being constructed, the Titanic was sunk. Immediately, the design was changed to provide a double hull and the bulkheads were extended to the upper deck. Before the Britannic was completed, World War I broke out, and the vessel was converted into a hospital ship.

On November 21, 1916, it was proceeding north through the Aegean Sea east of Greece when it struck a mine. Because the weather had been warm, several of the portholes had been opened, hence rapid flooding of the ship occurred. The ship sank in just 50 minutes with a small loss of life; one of the loaded lifeboats was drawn into a rotating propeller.

The Construction of RMS Titanic

The three White Star Line steamships were 269.1 meters long, 28.2 meters maximum wide, and 18 meters tall from the water line to the boat deck (or 53 meters from the keel to the top of the funnels), with a gross weight of 46,000 tons. Because of the size of these ships, much of the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland, had to be rebuilt before construction could begin; two larger ways were built in the space originally occupied by three smaller ways.

A new gantry system with a larger load-carrying capacity was designed and installed to facilitate the construction of the larger ships. The Titanic under construction and designed to provide accommodations superior to the Cunard ships, but without greater speed. Therefore, the first on board swimming pools were installed as was a gymnasium that included an electric horse and an electric camel, a squash court, several rowing machines, and stationary bicycles, all supervised by a staff of professional instructors.

The public rooms for the first-class passengers were large and elegantly furnished with wood paneling, stained-glass windows, comfortable lounge furniture, and expensive carpets. The decor of the first-class cabins, furthermore to being luxurious, differed in style from cabin to cabin. As an extra feature on the Titanic, the Café Parisienne offered superb cuisine.

The designed speed for these ships was 21–22 knots, in contrast to the faster Cunard ships. To achieve this speed, each ship had three propellers; each outboard propeller was driven by a separate four-cylinder, triple-expansion, reciprocating steam engine. The center propeller was driven by a low-pressure steam turbine using the exhaust steam from the two reciprocating engines.

The power plant was rated at 51,000 I.H.P. To provide the necessary steam for the power plant, 29 boilers were available, fired by 159 furnaces. In addition to propelling the ship, steam was used to generate electricity for various purposes, distill freshwater, refrigerate the perishable food, cook, and heat the living space. Coal was burned as fuel at a rate of 650 per day when the ship was underway. Stokers moved the coal from the bunkers into the furnaces by hand.

The bunkers held adequate coal for a ten-day voyage. The remodeled shipyard at Harland and Wolff was large enough for the construction of two large ships simultaneously. The keel of the Olympic was laid on December 16, 1908, while the Titanic ‘s keel followed on March 31, 1909. The Olympic was launched on October 20, 1910, and the Titanic on May 31, 1911.

In the early 20th century, ships were constructed using wrought iron rivets to attach steel plates to each other or to a steel frame. The frame itself was held together by similar rivets. Holes were punched at appropriate sites in the steel-frame members and plates for the insertion of the rivets. Each rivet was heated well into the austenite temperature region, inserted in the mated holes of the respective plates or frame members, and hydraulically squeezed to fill the holes and form ahead.

Three million rivets were used in the construction of the ship. The construction of the Titanic was delayed due to an accident involving the Olympic. During its fifth voyage, the Olympic collided with the British cruiser, HMS Hawke, damaging its hull near the bow on the port. This occurred in the Solent off Southampton on September 20, 1911.

The Olympic was forced to return to Belfast for repairs. To accomplish the repairs in record time and to return the ship to service promptly, workmen were diverted from the Titanic to repair the Olympic.

On April 2, 1912, the Titanic left Belfast for Southampton and its sea trials conducted in the Irish Sea. After spending two days at sea, the Titanic, and its crew and officers arrived at Southampton and tied up to Ocean Dock on April 4, 1912. During the next several days, the gigantic ship was provisioned and prepared for its maiden voyage aiming to create history.

Titanic Start the Journey

The Titanic started its maiden voyage to New York just before noon on April 10, 1912, from Southampton, England. So, two days later at 11:40 P.M., Greenland time, it struck an iceberg that was three to six times larger than its own mass, badly damaging the hull so that the six forward compartments were ruptured.

The flooding of these compartments was enough to cause the ship to sink within two hours and 40 minutes, with a loss of more than 1,500 lives. The scope of the tragedy, coupled with a detailed historical record, has fueled endless fascination with the ship and debate over the reasons as to why it did in fact sink.

A frequently cited culprit is the quality of the steel used in the ship’s construction. A metallurgical analysis of hull steel recovered from the ship’s wreckage provides a clearer view of the issue.

The Voyage

On the morning of April 10, 1912, the passengers and remaining crew members came to Ocean Dock to the board and viewing the ship for its maiden voyage. However, shortly before noon, the Titanic cast off and scarcely avoided colliding with a docked passenger ship, the New York (which broke its mooring cables due to the surge of water as the huge ship passed), before proceeding down Southampton Water into the Solent and then into the English Channel.

After stopping at Cherbourg, France, on the evening of 10, April 1912, and a second stop at Queenstown (now Cobh), Ireland, the next morning to take on more passengers and mail, the Titanic headed west on the Great Circle Route toward the Nantucket lightship 68 kilometers south of Nantucket Island off the southeast coast of Massachusetts. The Irish coast was left behind about dusk on April 11.

During the early afternoon of April 12, the French liner, La Touraine, sent advice by radio of ice in the steamship lanes, but this was not uncommon during an April crossing. This advice was sent nearly 60 hours before the fatal collision. As the voyage continued, the warnings of ice received by radio from other ships became more frequent. With time, these warnings gave more accurate information on the location of the ice fields and it became apparent that a very large ice field lay in the ship’s course.

Based on several reports after the accident, it was estimated that the ice field was 120 km long on a northeast-southwest axis and 20 km wide; there is evidence that the Titanic was twice diverted to the south in a vain effort to avoid the fields. The ship continued at a speed of about 21.5 knots. On the moonless night of April 14, the ocean was very calm and still. At 11:40 P.M., Greenland time, the lookouts in the crow’s nest sighted an iceberg immediately ahead of the ship; the bridge was alerted.

The duty officer ordered the ship hard to port and the engines reversed. In about 40 seconds, as the Titanic was beginning to respond to the change in course, it collided with an iceberg estimated to have a massive gross weight of 150,000 – 300,000 tons. The iceberg struck the Titanic near the bow on the starboard right side about 4 m above the keel.

During the next 10 seconds, the iceberg raked the starboard side of the ship’s hull for about 100 m. The iceberg damaging the hull plates and popping rivets, thus opening the first six of the 16 watertight compartments formed by the transverse bulkheads.

Therefore, inspection shortly after the collision by captain Edward Smith and Thomas Andrews, a managing director, and chief designer for Harland and Wolff and chief designer of the Titanic. They revealed that the Titanic had been fatally damaged and could not survive too long. The sad demise happened at 2:20 A.M., on April 15, 1912, when the Titanic sank with the loss of more than 1,500 lives leaves many mysteries.

The Sinking

Initial studies of the sinking proposed that a continuous gash in the hull 100 m in length was created by the impact with the iceberg. More recent studies indicate that discontinuous damage occurred along the 100 m length of the hull. After the sinking, Edward Wilding, design engineer for Harland and Wolff, estimated that the collision had created openings in the hull totaling 1.115 m2, based on the reports of the rate of flooding given by the survivors.

This damage to the hull was enough to cause the ship to sink. The computer calculations by Hackett and Bedford using the same survivor’s information but allocating the damage individually to the first six compartments. The total damage area of 1.171 m2, which is a slightly larger area than the estimate by Wilding. At the time of the accident, there was disagreement among the survivors as to whether the Titanic broke into two parts as it sank or whether it sank intact.

Titanic Uncovered

On September 1, 1985, Robert Ballard found the Titanic in 3,700 m of water on the ocean floor. The ship had broken into two major sections, which are about 600 m apart. Between these two sections is a debris field containing broken pieces of the steel hull and bulkhead plates, rivets that had been pulled out, dining-room cutlery and chinaware, cabin and deck furniture, and other debris.

The only items to survive at the site are those made of metals or ceramics. All items made from organic materials have long since been consumed by scavengers, except for items made from leather such as shoes, suitcases, and mail sacks; tanning made leather unpalatable for the scavengers. The contents of the leather suitcases and mail sacks, having been protected, have been retrieved and restored.

The Steel Composition

During an expedition to the wreckage in the North Atlantic on August 15, 1996. The researchers brought back steel from the hull of the ship for metallurgical analysis. After the steel was received at the University of Missouri-Rolla, the first step was to determine its composition. The first item noted is the very low nitrogen content.

This indicates that the steel was not made by the Bessemer process; such steel would have a high nitrogen content that would have made it very brittle, particularly at low temperatures. In the early 20th century, the only other method for making structural steel was the open-hearth process.

The high oxygen and low silicon content mean that the steel has only been partially deoxidized, yielding semiskilled steel. The phosphorus content is slightly higher than normal, while the sulfur content is quite high, accompanied by a low manganese content.

This yielded a very low ratio by modern standards. The presence of relatively high amounts of phosphorous, oxygen, and sulfur tends to embrittle the steel at low temperatures. Davies has shown that at the time the Titanic was constructed about two-thirds of the open-hearth steel produced in the United Kingdom was done in furnaces having acid linings.

There is a high problem ability that the steel used in the Titanic was made in an acid-lined open-hearth furnace, which accounts for the high phosphorus and high sulfur content. The lining of the basic open-hearth furnace will react with phosphorus and sulfur to help remove these two impurities from the steel.

It is likely that all or most of the steel came from Glasgow, Scotland. Including the compositions of two other sheets of steel, that is used to construct lock gates at the Chittenden Ship Lock between Lake Washington and Puget Sound at Seattle, Washington. Moreover, the composition of modern steel, ASTM A36 and ship lock was built around 1912, making the steel about the same age as the steel from the Titanic.

Metallography

Standard metallographic techniques were used to prepare specimens taken from the hull plate of the Titanic for optical microscopic examination. After grinding and polishing, etching was done with 2% Nital. Because the earlier work by Brigham and severe banding in a specimen of the steel, specimens were cut from the hull plate in the transverse and longitudinal directions, the microstructure of the steel.

In both micrographs, it is apparent that the steel is banded, although the banding is more severe in the longitudinal section. In this section, there are large masses of MnS particles elongated in the direction of the banding. The average grain diameter is 60.40 mm for the longitudinal microstructure and 41.92 mm for the microstructure in the transverse direction.

In neither micrograph can the pearlite be resolved. There is a micrograph of ASTM A36 steel, which has a mean grain diameter of 26.173 mm. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) micrograph of the polished and etched surface of steel from the Titanic. The pearlite can be resolved in this micrograph.

The dark gray areas are ferrite. The very dark elliptically shaped structure is a particle of MnS identified by energy-dispersive x-ray analysis (EDAX). It is elongated in the direction of the banding, suggesting that banding is the result of the hot rolling of the steel. There is some evidence of small nonmetallic inclusions and some of the ferrite grain boundaries are visible.

Tensile Testing

The steel plate from the hull of the Titanic was nominally 1.875 cm thick, while the bulkhead plate had a thickness of 1.25 cm. Corrosion in the saltwater had reduced the thickness of the hull plate so that it was not possible to machine standard tensile specimens from it.

A smaller tensile specimen with a reduced section of 0.625 cm diameter and a 2.5 cm gauge length was used.10 The tensile-test results are given in Table III. These data are compared with tensile-test data for an SAE 1020 steel, which is similar in composition. The steel from the Titanic has a lower yield strength, probably due to the larger grain size. The elongation increases as well, again due to larger grain size.

Charpy Impact Tests

Charpy impact tests were performed over a range of temperatures from –55°C to 179°C on three series of standard Charpy specimens. A series of specimens machined with the specimen axis parallel to the longitudinal direction in the hull plate from the Titanic, a series machined in the transverse direction, and a series made from modern ASTM A36 steel.

A Tinius Olsen model 84 universal impact tester was used to determine the impact energy to fracture for several specimens at the selected test temperatures. A chilling bath or a circulating air laboratory oven was used to prepare the specimens for testing at specific temperatures. The specimens could soak in the appropriate apparatus for at least 20 minutes at the selected temperature.

Pairs of specimens were tested at identical test temperatures. An SEM micrograph of a freshly fractured surface of a longitudinal Charpy specimen tested at 0°C. The cleavage planes, in ferrite, are quite apparent. There are cleavage plane surfaces at different levels that are defined by straight lines. They were connecting parallel cleavage planes; the edges are parallel to the direction.

The crystallographic surfaces of the risers are the plane. In addition, there are curved slip lines on the cleavage planes. Particles of MnS identified by EDAX can be observed. Some of the MnS particles exist as protrusions from the surface. These protrusions were pulled out of the complimentary fracture surface. In addition, there are the intrusions remaining after the MnS particles have been pulled out of this fracture surface.

One of the pearlite colonies lying in the fracture surface is oriented so that the ferrite and cementite plates have been resolved. The fractured lenticular MnS particle that protrudes edge-on from the fractured surface. There are slip lines radiating away from the MnS particle. The plot of the impact energy versus temperature for the three series of specimens.

At higher temperatures, the specimens prepared from the hull plate in the longitudinal direction have substantially better impact properties than for the transverse specimens. At low temperatures, the impact energy required to fracture the longitudinal and transverse specimens is essentially the same.

The severe banding is certainly the cause of the differences in the impact energy to cause fracture at elevated temperatures. The specimens made from ASTM A36 steel have the best impact properties. The ductile-brittle transition temperature determined at an impact energy of 20 joules is –27°C for ASTM A36, 32°C for the longitudinal specimens made from the Titanic hull plate, and 56°C for the transverse specimens.

It is apparent that the steel used for the hull was not suited for service at low temperatures. The seawater temperature at the time of the collision was –2°C. Comparing the composition of the Titanic steel and ASTM A36 steel shows that modern steel has a higher manganese content and lower sulfur content, yielding a higher MnS ratio that reduced the ductile-brittle transition temperature substantially.

Furthermore, the ASTM A36 steel has a considerably lower phosphorus content, which will also lower the ductile-brittle transition temperature. Though, Jankovic has found that the ductile-brittle transition temperature for the Chittenden lock gate steel was 33°C.

The longitudinal specimens of the Titanic hull steel made in the UK and those specimens from the Chittenden lock steel made in the United States have nearly the same ductile-brittle transition temperature.

Shear Fracture Percent

At low temperatures where the impact energy required for fracture is less, a faceted surface of cleaved planes of ferrite is observed, indicating a brittle fracture. At elevated temperatures, where the energy to cause fracture is greater, a ductile fracture with a shear structure is observed.

The plot of the shear fracture percent versus temperature. Titanic steel is better than transverse specimens. However, the bending is more important in the result of the impact energy experiments as compared to with sheer fracture percent.

Conclusion

So, the steel used in the construction of RMS Titanic was perhaps the best plain carbon ship plate available in that period of 1909-1911. But it would not be acceptable at the present standards for construction purposes and particularly not for ship construction. Whether a ship constructed of modern steel would have suffered as much damage as the Titanic in a comparable accident seems problematic.

Moreover, the exit of the navigational aid now that did not exist in 1912. Hence iceberg would be sighted at a much greater distance allowing more time for evasive action. If the titanic had not collided with the iceberg. It could have had a career of more than 20 years as the Olympic had. It was built of similar steel in the same shipyard and from the same design. The only difference was a big iceberg.

Shah Abbas – The Great Safavid King of Persia

Shah Abbas (1571 - 1629) the Great became the 5th Safavid king, Empire in1588. The King 41 years reign marked one of the golden age of Persian culture. In order to reinforce his army, Shah Abbas sought out advance European weapons and technology. To fulfill his dream, he invited Western visitors to his capital Isfahan, even allowing Christian missionaries to come and preach.

Shah Abbas empowerment and his competence in producing refocus, which led to the development of Iranian in many aspects, made him the ultimate authority in all affairs. He was the third son of Shah Muhammad Khodabanda generally considered the strongest ruler of the Iranian dynasty.

In the following selection, Father Simon, a Carmelite missionary, reports on the customs of the Safavids and on the rule of Shah ‘Abbas. The country which I saw is sporadically inhabited, for the most part of all flat, with very little water and abundance of uncultivated land. However, the cultivated area has a great abundance of all sorts of produce, such as we have in Italy, and cheap.

For less than a real seven pounds of white bread could be had in Isfahan, and at the time there was a scarcity. There is plenty of wine, rice, melons, grapes, and other fruits and vegetables all-year-round fresh can be seen of meat and oxen sufficiently so. The Persians do not eat the flesh of cows and calves, but mutton to a vast extent and horseflesh, which is the most respected and by the nobles.

The climate is very temperate – and last winter there was little cold. In Isfahan, where I was, with no snow fell, but a little at the end of February. The heat of the summer is not great - and on account of the clemency of the climate all sleep in the open on the roofs, and those who are sick likewise. Although, the Persians have very little doctors, yet there are many old men among them. Their garb is a long garment, different from that of the Turks - they tie shawls around their waists, and almost all of them go clothed in cotton stuff of various colors in imitation of the king.

Their main food is rice with meat, and they do not use such variety, nor dainties as in these countries of Europe: and they are frugal and pleased with little food. At their banquets, they display great sumptuousness, both in the great number of viands, as in the preparation and serving of them. Allah Virdi Khan, a captain-general of the king of Persia, in a banquet he gave to certain Kurdish ambassadors, put on the table lavishly 3,000 dishes all of gold with lids of the same. As I was informed by some Turks who were present. Almost all of them drink wine: they sit and eat on the ground.

On the rich red carpets, the houses are of stone, amazing inside for the great amount of stucco work ornamenting the ceilings and the walls. So, they do not employ tapestries. On the street side, they have no windows. So that their women should not be seen - and thus, the streets are not attractive, nor is the city fine. The Persians are white (skinned), of fair stature, courteous, friendly towards foreigners and tractable. Therefore, they set store on the nobility of birth, which the Turks normally do not do.

They are very ceremonious and use many forms of graciousness after their own fashion. There are some of them, who profess to be philosophers and mathematicians, almost all of them to be poets. And they frequently have books in their hands. They have numerous large mosques, where they go to offer their prayers, and they allow any nation whatsoever to enter them.

Five times daily, morning, noon, evening & night, they offer prayers. First, they wash, then they spread a carpet or their outer garment on the ground, placing on it a stone and they make many prostrations. They make a profession of cleanliness with respect to their bodies, clothes and in everything. Almost all the women who are to be seen in the squares, both in the clothes they wear and in other matters, comport themselves with much diffidence.

In addition, the long dresses wear a kerchief of white linen which covers them completely and they never let their faces or their hands be seen. Hence, the rest go to about and ride through the city. The Persians were previously very irrational and abhorred Christians as if these latter were a foul race. Thus, they would not eat with them, nor from the vessels from which a Christian had eaten, nor did they allow them to tread on their carpets, north touch them. If a Christian were to touch the garment of one, the man would take it off and have it washed.

These days, because the Abbas Shah shows great regard for Christians, passes his time with them and sets them at his table. They have abandoned all this and act towards them as they do towards their own people: only in some distant districts and among the common folk is it kept up.

The king, Shah ’Abbas is 34 years old of medium height, rather thin than fat, his face round and small, tanned by the sun, with hardly any beard. He was very vivacious and alert so that he is always doing something or other. He is sturdy and healthy, accustomed to much exercise and toil. Many times, he goes about on foot, and recently he had been forty days on pilgrimage, which he made on foot the whole time.

He has extraordinary strength, and with his scimitar can cut a man in two and a sheep with its wool on at a single blow and the Persian sheep are of large size. He has done numerous other feats and has found no one to come up to him in them. In his food, he is frugal, as also in his dress. He set an example to his subjects and so, in public he eats very little else than rice, and that cooked in water only.

His the normal dress is of linen, and very plain, likewise, the nobles and others in his realm, the following suit. While, formerly they used to go out dressed in brocade with jewels and other fripperies. If he sees anyone who is overdressed, he takes him to the task, particularly if it be a soldier. But in private time, he eats whatever he likes.

A curved Asian sword sagacious in mind likes fame and to be esteemed, he is courteous in dealing with everyone and at the same time very serious. For he go through the public streets and he likes eat from whatever they are selling at that time. The other things speak at ease freely with the lower classes, reason his subjects to continue sitting while he himself is standing or will sit down beside this man and that.

Shah Abbas says that is how to be a king, and that the king of Spain and other Christians do not get any pleasure out of the ruling. Because they are obliged to comport themselves with so much pomp and majesty as they do. He causes foreigners to sit down beside him and to eat at his table. With that and accompanying all such condescension he requires that people shall not want in respect towards him and, should anyone fail in this regard, he will punish the individual severely.

So, the more he demonstrates kindness to his subjects and the more familiarly he talks with them, they tremble before him. Even the greatest among them, for, while joking, he will have their heads cut off. He is very strict in executing justice and pays no regard to his own favorites in this respect. While we were at his Court, he caused the bellies of two of his favorites to be ripped open, because they had behaved improperly to an ordinary woman.

From this it comes about that in his country there are very few murderers and robbers. In all the time I was at Isfahan, i.e. 4 months, there was never a case of homicide. He is very speedy in dispatching business: when he gives audience, which he does at the gate of his palace, in the Maidan, he finishes off all the cases that are brought to him.

The parties stand present before him, the officers of justice and his own counsel, with whom he consults when it pleases him. The sentence which he gives is final and is immediately executed. If the guilty party deserves death, they kill him at once: to this end, when he gives the audience, twelve dogs and twelve men, who devour men alive, are kept ready: he keeps them in order to use the greater severity.

Apart from the officials, once the sentence is given, it is not permitted to anyone to make any reply: for the person is at once driven off with blows of the sticks of some 30 to 40 royal farrashes, who stand ready to do this. When he wants to stop giving audience, he causes it to be proclaimed that no one, on pain of death, may bring him petitions, and, when he wants to go out of doors unaccompanied, that no one should follow him.

The like speed in dispatching business is practiced by his officials. His Wazir, or chancellor, who has charge of all the royal revenues, the dispatch of ambassadors, and all other affairs, Who is the first person after the Shah Abbas, used to dispatch 200 petitions in a morning and after having sat and given a hearing for 6 to 7 hours would go out as serene? If he was coming from taking his horse for a walk

He must be obeyed absolutely: anyone failing in the slightest will pay for it with his head. And so he has had most of the old nobles of Persia killed off and put in their stead low-bred persons whom he has aggrandized. Because of the great obedience they pay him, when he wills to have one of the nobles killed, he dispatches one of his men to fetch the noble’s head: the mangoes from servants in charge of the living quarters off to the grandee and says to him: “The Shah wants your head.”

The noble replies: “Very well,” and lets himself be decapitated otherwise he would lose it and, with it, all his race would become extinct. But, when they i.e. the grandees allow themselves to be decapitated, he aggrandizes the children. He is very valiant and has a great liking for warfare and weapons of war, which he has constantly in his hands. We have been eye-witnesses of this because, when-ever we were with him.

He was adjusting scimitars, testing arquebuses and to make him a present that will give him pleasure is to give him some good pieces of arms. Indeed, this was very great experience which he has got of warfare over so many years. That he makes it in person and from the first it has made him a fine soldier and very skilled.

His men so dexterous that they are little behind our men in Europe. He has introduced into his militia the use of and esteem for arquebuses and muskets, in which they are very practiced. Therefore, it is that his realm has been so much extended on all sides.