泰坦尼克号背后的10个秘密

　　人们一直以为，泰坦尼克号会“打破大西洋航行传奇记录”。其实1909年9月，卡纳德公司的毛利塔尼亚号时速早已达到26海里，20年来无出其右。而泰坦尼克号从法国瑟堡到昆士敦最大时速也不过23海里。

　　5. Not a treasure ship

　　并非藏宝无数

　　Despite a passenger list including titans of industry, wealthy families and even a movie actress, Titanic was not filled with priceless jewels. Philadelphia’s Eleanor Widener dropped her celebrated pearl necklace, insured for $100,000, into her pocketbook before boarding her lifeboat. First-class women retrieved their checked jewelry from the purser’s office as evacuation began. A "priceless" jeweled copy of "The Rubaiyat," the Omar Khayyam book of poems, had sold at a London auction for a mere $2,000 — less than half its asking price.

　　虽然泰坦尼克号的乘客不乏工业巨亨、富家子弟、乃至电影明星，但船上并没剩下多少无价之宝。费城的埃莉诺·威德纳已为一条珍珠项链投保了10万美金;船一失事，头等舱女士们就从事务办公室取回了自己的珠宝。唯一“价值连城”的是奥马·海亚姆的《鲁拜集》，伦敦拍卖会上却只卖了2000美元——连竞拍价一半都不到。

　　Cargo also was ordinary. The ship’s stowage plan shows the specie room contained only "opium parcels." The rest was typical commercial shipments ranging from shoes to William Carter’s 35-horsepower Renault sports car, oak beams and an early airplane engine.

　　船上的货物也很普通。从储物单上看，仓库有些鸦片，其余便是一般商品了：鞋子、威廉·卡特的35马力雷诺跑车、橡木梁，还有老式飞机引擎。

　　6. No 300-foot gash

　　裂缝没有300英尺大

　　If the iceberg’s damage had been continuous over a 300-foot length, as depicted in many 1912 publications, the ship would have sunk in minutes. At the British inquiry into the disaster, naval architect Edward Wilding calculated that the damaged area totaled 12 square feet, extending intermittently along the starboard side.

　　如果冰山撞下的豁口真有当时报道的那么大(300英尺)，泰坦尼克号几分钟就玩完了。在英方调查下，造船工程师爱德华·威丁计算出豁口总共12平方英尺，零星分布在船舷边上。

　　7. Locked below?

　　三等舱乘客被锁在下面?

　　Every Titanic movie depicts third-class passengers trapped behind floor-to-ceiling gates. Careful examination of available plans of Olympic and Titanic reveals no such gates in passenger areas. U.S. immigration regulations required segregation of third class from first and second. On Titanic, waist-high gates separated classes. Stewards nearby prevented gate-jumping. Eventually, they left to help in the evacuation, leaving gates unguarded, explaining a surge of third-class passengers onto the boat deck after most lifeboats had left. One author plotted more than 20 paths from third-class areas to the boat deck.

　　几乎每部泰坦尼克号电影都展现了三等舱乘客被锁困在下面的场景。后来，人们仔细检查了奥林匹克号和泰坦尼克号构造，发现乘客区根本没有这种隔离门。泰坦尼克号上只有齐腰高的隔离门，边上有乘务员防止乘客随便穿越。但大撤离时，门边上没人看守。救生艇腾出来后，大批三等舱乘客都涌到了甲板上。有作家甚至计算过，从三等舱到甲板，至少有20条通道吧。

　　8. One wrong turn

　　愚蠢的“左满舵”命令

　　As Titanic’s grand staircase ascended to the boat deck, it divided into left and right halves. First-class male passengers who chose the left side were doomed; Second Officer Charles Lightoller strictly enforced the "women and children first" rule on the port side, allowing just one male passenger into a boat to help with rowing. Those who turned to the right at the top of the staircase had a chance to survive; First Officer William Murdoch enforced a policy of "women and children first, but men when there were no women."

　　泰坦尼克号一直延伸到甲板的大楼梯将船分成了左右两部分。失事后，头等舱男乘客只能呆在左舷等死;二副查尔斯·耐特罗严肃表示“妇孺优先”，只留一名男乘客上救生艇摇船。而那些爬上右舷楼梯顶的乘客尚有一线生机;可是，大副威廉·默多克强硬表示：“妇孺优先，所有妇女全都上救生艇后，才有男人的份。”

　　9. More boats?

　　多一点救生艇?

　　Despite certifying Titanic’s capacity as 3,547 passengers and crew, the British government determined the ship needed lifeboat space for 960.