When it was first launched, the RMS Titanic was seen as a breakthrough in marine engineering. The uniquely designed vessel was thought to be indestructible. However, it ended up being a tragic lesson in hubris (the specific type of pride that goes before a fall). Nowadays, we remember the Titanic as a ship beset by massive misfortune in the early part of the 20th century.

On April 10, 1912, The magnificent Titanic departed from the waters of Southampton, England, carrying thousands of passengers from all classes of society and hundreds of ship staff. Indeed, there were enough workers to run a small city!

Despite its massive size, the Titanic was brought down by a single iceberg. The gargantuan vessel sank 12,500 feet to the ocean floor that now serves as a deathbed for the hundreds of people who were trapped on board. 

The icy Atlantic waters flowed through every hallway and cabin of the maiden ship. The steel supports of the Titanic were irreparably damaged by the iceberg collision, and there was nowhere to go but down.

Planned and made truly magnificent by wealthy businessmen were three Olympic-class Ocean Liners. The RMS Titanic was one of those three. It was launched second to Olympic and before Britannic. Indeed, the Titanic seemed like a sure thing at that time.

When competitors try to steal your shine, you have to find a way to outclass them. That was the ethos of J. Bruce Ismay, chairman of the White Star Line Company. He decided to level up the business by rebranding their ships as big and lavish enough for the first-class market.

Her massive size came with many impressive details. Engineering and constructing this ship took a long time – and for good reason! In March 1909, Harland and Wolf started the job at a shipyard in Belfast. Amazing though this may sound, the ship’s structure contained 2,000 steel plates, each weighing three tons, with dimensions of six by thirty feet.

As promised, rich people were assigned to the first-class cabins and facilities, enjoying the fanciest experience aboard. Roasted duckling, pâté de foie gras, and peaches in Chartreuse jelly were among the sumptuous dishes they could enjoy in Café Parisien. Some other classy facilities they enjoyed were the gym, the swimming pool, and a Turkish bath.

As a magnificently huge ship, the Titanic had some stunning dimensions and characteristics. With four huge propellers powered by 29 boilers, this ship weighed 52,310 tons! It measured about 175 feet from its bottom to its highest point and 880 feet from bow to stern!

The Titanic tragedy was an unforeseen event for both the passengers and the White Star Line company. Sixty-four wooden lifeboats were supposed to be available to accommodate the passengers and staff on board. The launching gear was there, but sadly, the lifeboats were not.

The Titanic was launched on the River Lagan in Belfast, Ireland, on May 31, 1911. One hundred thousand people witnessed her become the largest man-made object to float on the water. With the help of 22 tons of soap and animal fat, the enormous ship slid into the river within 62 seconds!

After sliding into the River Lagan, the ship had yet to set sail. However, the construction of the Titanic was nearing its end, with just a few interior designs left. This was the time when they added intricate details to the ship’s interior.

To decide if it was ready to sail, they put the ship through trials in the Irish Sea for eight days, starting from April 2, 1912. As expected, the ship was deemed ocean-worthy and ready to embark on a historical voyage with thousands of passengers and crew on board.

Around 885 staff were on the maiden ship. Sounds like a lot, right? Given the vast dimension of the ship, it needed a large workforce to handle all the operations inside the majestic ship. Led by senior captain of White Star Line, Edward Smith, the Titanic was set for the most luxurious voyage.

The Titanic departed on her voyage, carrying a total of 1,317 paying passengers. They were men, women, and children of all ages, all hoping to have a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The overwhelming majority were in third-class, with around 284 in second-class and around 324 in first-class.

Only 1,317 passengers joined the Titanic on its doomed maiden voyage. However, this was not the original number of people who were supposed to sail. Before the Titanic launched, there were debates and protests about the ship’s coal consumption in the UK. 

The ship was bathed in luxury and populated by some of the richest people in town. On the voyage with his wife, Madeleine, was the very wealthy John Jacob Astor IV. There was also Benjamin Guggenheim, an American tycoon, with his mistress Léontine Aubert and her maid, chauffeur, and butler.

Bruce Ismay survived the freezing tragedy. How? He was able to join the others on the ship’s last wooden lifeboat. For this reason, he was called a coward. Was it cowardice or just his privileged luck? The owner of White Star – J.P. Morgan – was supposed to join the voyage but canceled his plans at the last minute. Lucky!

At around 11:40 PM on April 14, 1912, a crewman named Frederick Fleet noticed an iceberg in the vessel’s path. The solution seems simple – steer the ship away – but there wasn’t enough time to correct course. The ship wasn’t able to avoid the iceberg collision, and the breached bow started to sink into the water.

As the ship continued to plunge into the water, third-class passengers in the steerage were trapped inside, and many froze to death. At 2 AM, the water flooded the ship’s deck, and in 10 minutes, the Titanic had gone into the depths of the ocean.

It was to the knowledge of everyone that many of the passengers belonged to the top class of society. Of course, with the benefit of wealth, their relatives were willing to fund a search operation to recover the casualties. The diving technology at the time was not advanced enough, but other ideas surfaced.

Argo was the first sub ever controlled by a remote, and it was also the first to visit the Titanic wreckage 70 years after the sinking. As time passed and technology advanced, the remote control subs were replaced by manned subs.

The August 2019 expedition was not a simple matter of dropping the sub 12,500 feet and then driving it around the ship. The Limiting Factor team included skilled divers and experts. After all, great discoveries require great people.

The stunning remains of the magnificent ship were filmed with cameras that exceeded the quality of any that had gone down before them. They discovered that the “captain’s bathtub,” a popular artifact spotted on previous missions, can no longer be seen at the location. Why?

After decades under the ocean exposed to saltwater, bacteria, and ocean creatures, “the Titanic is returning to nature,” as Stephenson told the BBC in 2019.

The Titanic could be a disaster for nature too. Like other ships, it needed a lot of oil, and if the remainder of this oil leaks out, marine life surrounding that wreckage could be hugely affected.

Another ship in a similar predicament captured the attention of scientists – a German vessel called the Franken. It was meant to be a cargo ship, but due to the high demand for U-boats at the height of WWII, construction of the Franken was delayed for two years.

In March 1942, the Franken received its commission and became an oil tanker and a carrier of supplies for some of the German Navy’s ships. It was finally finished after a few years of delays, and it got to work without a moment’s delay.

Another interesting fact is that the Franken was among five Dithmarschen tankers and supply ships built by the Germans. They were built to support naval warfare vessels, and they carried munitions and much-needed supplies.

With the war still raging on, the Franken sailed from two ports. One was in He – a small town on the Hel Peninsula in Poland. The Germans renamed the place Hela following their invasion.

Even after the loss of the peninsula, Polish soldiers continued to fight for their country. In fact, they fought off the Nazis for almost a week before eventually giving up. It was a valiant effort, but the Nazis sadly overpowered them in the end. 

The Franken sailed from two ports, with one situated near the port of Hel. Gdyni was a quiet port before the German occupation. Not much has happened there, and it was of no great interest to anyone. Still, the Germans insisted on renaming it “Gotenhafen.”

The Russians intercepted the fleeing Germans with their submarines and aerial weapons. This was possible because the Soviets had invaded countries the Germans thought they had their grasp. It was a huge blow against the Germans and could well be one of the major reasons they lost the war.

Following a series of German losses to the Russians came the bombing of the Franken tanker. On April 8, 1945, the Franken met its end at the port of Hel. It was taken down by a Russian aerial assault on the location.

Weeks following these events, on May 7, the Nazis announced their surrender. This meant that the war was finally over. However, the results were devastating as multiple vessels were sunk in the Baltic Sea. 30 U boats, three German Destroyers, and one Russian destroyer, to be precise.

It is no surprise that after years of resting at depths of 160 to 250 feet in the waters of the Baltic Sea, the sunken Franken was already disintegrating. Its bow now rests around 2,600 feet away from the other parts of the shipwreck. Germany’s Baltic Sea Conservation Foundation sent an expedition to check on the ship’s current state.

In 2018, Olga Sarna, president of MARE Foundation – an organization involved in marine conservation – told The Sun how much of a risk the disintegrating Franken is. Sunken ships deteriorate due to the effects of salt and bacteria over time.

For almost 75 years, the Franken has resided at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. What could possibly go wrong? As mentioned, saltwater plays a big role in the disintegration of sunken ships. When exposed to saltwater, tanks have a degrading rate of 0.39 inches every decade.

Remember, the Franken is not just an ordinary ship but a cargo ship from WWII. After the Soviets bombed the ship, extensive fuel remained inside as it sank to the bottom of the Baltic Sea. Today, the ship is said to be still carrying 800,000 gallons of fuel at the very least.

After the Second World War, the Franken was in the Polish government’s custody. In April 2019, Benedykt Hac from the Gdańsk’s Maritime Institute talked with Deutsche Welle. In their conversation, he emphasized how expensive it would be for the Polish government to raise the Franken. He gave a rough estimate of $9 million to $23 million if the retrieval operation happens today.

Sarna explained the potential effects of the spill in her conversation with The Sun. Without a doubt, when the Franken fuel load spills into the Baltic Sea, the whole region will suffer the consequences. Marine life will likely perish when this happens.