Titanic: The Real Story Behind the Movie

Welcome back to Learn English with Podcasts! Sarah, I watched Titanic again last weekend. Three hours, and I cried again.欢迎回到 Learn English with Podcasts！Sarah，我上周末又看了一遍《泰坦尼克号》。三个小时，我又看哭了。

Both. But after the movie, I kept thinking. Jack and Rose were not real. Yet the ship was real. So what really happened that night?都哭了。但电影结束后，我一直在想。Jack 和 Rose 是虚构的。但那艘船是真的。那一晚到底真实发生了什么？

Let us start with the ship itself. RMS Titanic was British. At that time, it was the largest passenger ship in the world.先从这艘船本身说起。RMS 泰坦尼克号是英国的。当时，它是世界上最大的客运轮船。

Close. It was 882 feet long. It cost 7.5 million dollars to build. On April 10, 1912, it left Southampton, England for New York. About 2200 people were on board.差不多。它长882英尺。造价750万美元。1912年4月10号，它从英国南安普顿出发去纽约。船上大约有2200人。

Partly. It had 16 watertight compartments. Engineers said even with four flooded, it could still float. So people started to believe nothing could sink it.有一部分是。它有16个水密隔舱。工程师说，即使四个进水，它还能浮着。于是人们开始相信，没有什么能让它沉没。

Exactly. On April 14, other ships sent ice warnings. At 9:40 in the evening, one ship reported an ice field ahead. At 10:55, a nearby ship called Californian said, we are stopped and surrounded by ice.没错。4月14号，其他船发来了冰山警告。晚上9点40，一艘船报告前方有浮冰区。10点55分，附近的加州人号说，我们停下了，被冰包围了。

No. The captain kept near full speed. The radio operator was busy sending passenger messages. He even told Californian to shut up. And that night, the sea was unusually calm.没有。船长保持接近全速。报务员忙着发乘客的电报。他甚至让加州人号别吵。那晚，海面异常平静。

For finding icebergs, calm is bad. With no waves, there is no white water breaking at the base of the ice. It is much harder to see. And the lookouts lost their binoculars.对发现冰山来说，平静是坏事。没有海浪，就没有拍打在冰山底部的白色水花。冰山更难被看见。而瞭望员还弄丢了望远镜。

Yes. At 11:40 at night, lookout Frederick Fleet saw a tall iceberg right ahead. He rang the bell three times. The ship turned left, but too late. Ice cut open five compartments.对。夜里11点40，瞭望员 Fleet 看到正前方一座高高的冰山。他敲了三下钟。船向左转，但太晚了。冰划开了五个隔舱。

The designer Thomas Andrews knew right away. He was on board for the first trip. He checked the damage and said the ship had only one to two hours left. Water would spill from one compartment to the next.设计师 Thomas Andrews 马上就明白了。他当时就在船上做首航测试。他检查了破损，说船只剩一到两个小时了。海水会从一个隔舱漫到下一个。

No. There were only 16 wooden lifeboats plus four collapsible ones. Together they could hold only about half the people on board. The old law only required even fewer.没有。只有16艘木救生艇加四艘折叠艇。加起来只能装船上一半左右的人。而旧法律要求的数量更少。

About 1500 people died, and about 705 survived. First-class passengers had the highest survival rate, about 62 percent. Many crew members and third-class passengers never made it out.大约1500人遇难，大约705人获救。头等舱乘客存活率最高，大约62%。很多船员和三等舱乘客没能出来。

The richest man was John Jacob Astor. He owned big hotels in New York. He was traveling with his young wife Madeleine. She was 19 and pregnant. He helped her into a lifeboat and stepped back.最富有的是 John Jacob Astor。他在纽约拥有大酒店。他和年轻的妻子 Madeleine 同行。她19岁，怀着孕。他把她送上救生艇，自己退了回来。

No. He was last seen smoking on the deck. His wife survived. He could have climbed into an early boat, but he did not.没有。人们最后看到他在甲板上抽烟。他的妻子活了下来。他本可以早早上艇，但他没有。

Yes, Isidor and Ida Straus. He owned Macy's department store. Ida was offered a seat, but she refused to leave her husband. Witnesses said they sat together on deck till the end.有，Isidor 和 Ida Straus。他拥有梅西百货。Ida 本可以上艇，但她拒绝离开丈夫。目击者说，他们一直并肩坐在甲板上直到最后。

Margaret Brown from Denver. She was 44. People later called her the Unsinkable Molly Brown. In lifeboat number 6, she helped row. She also shouted to go back and save more people.有，来自丹佛的 Margaret Brown。她44岁。后来人们叫她永不沉没的 Molly Brown。在6号救生艇上，她帮忙划船。她还大喊要回去救更多人。

Not right away. It was dark and freezing, and people were afraid. But after the sinking, her boat was one of the few that rowed back to look for survivors. On the rescue ship, she spoke French, German and Russian to help others. She later raised almost 10000 dollars for poor survivors.没有马上回去。天黑水冷，人们很害怕。但船沉后，她的艇是少数几艘划回去找幸存者之一。在救援船上，她用德语、法语和俄语帮别人。她后来为贫困幸存者募了将近10000美元。

Yes, that part is true. There were eight musicians. The leader was Wallace Hartley, 33, a violinist. He loved new music and carried the latest songs on board. After the crash, they played ragtime to keep people calm.对，这部分是真的。一共有八位乐手。领队是 Wallace Hartley，33岁，小提琴手。他热爱新音乐，带了很多最新曲子上船。撞船后，他们演奏爵士乐让大家冷静。

Many survivors said yes. They moved from the lounge to the open deck. No lights, no chairs, freezing cold. They played till water took the ship. All eight died. About 30000 to 40000 people came to Hartley's funeral.很多幸存者说是的。他们从休息厅走到露天甲板。没有灯，没有椅子，冻得刺骨。他们一直演奏到海水吞没大船。八人全部遇难。Hartley 葬礼来了大约3到4万人。

Yes, and this is the most painful part. Californian was only 5 to 10 miles away, according to the British inquiry. But its radio operator turned off the radio at 11:35 and went to sleep. The crew saw rockets but did not understand they were distress calls.有，这是最痛的部分。按英国调查，加州人号当时只有5到10英里远。但它的报务员11点35分关掉电台去睡觉了。船员看到了火箭信号，却没意识到那是求救。

Investigators said Californian might have saved many, if not all, lives. Instead, rescue came from Carpathia. Its captain Arthur Rostron raced at full speed through the same ice field. He arrived at about 4 in the morning. By then, the sea was full of lifeboats and silence.调查者说，加州人号本可能救下很多人，甚至所有人。最后来的是 Carpathia 号。它的船长 Rostron 全速穿过同一片冰区赶来。凌晨4点左右才到。那时，海面上只剩救生艇和寂静。

Many did not. The water was below freezing. Those in lifeboats waited in the dark, listening. Those in the water had only minutes. Carpathia saved all 705 survivors. There was no one left to save after that.很多人没熬过来。水温在零度以下。在艇上的人在黑暗里等着，听着。在水里的人只有几分钟。Carpathia 救起了全部705名幸存者。之后再也没有可救的人了。

A lot changed. New rules required lifeboat space for every person on board. Ships had to keep 24-hour radio watch. Crews had to hold lifeboat drills. An international ice patrol started watching icebergs in the North Atlantic.改变了很多。新规则要求每艘船的救生艇位要够船上每个人。船只必须24小时守着电台。船员必须做救生艇演练。国际冰区巡逻队开始在北大西洋盯着冰山。

That is exactly what stayed with me. The ship was called unsinkable, but it sank in less than three hours. What really floated that night was smaller: a song, a seat given away, a wife refusing to leave, a woman rowing back.这正是我忘不了的。那艘叫永不沉没的船，不到三小时就沉了。那晚真正浮起来的，是更小的东西：一首曲子，一个让出的座位，一位不愿离开的妻子，一位划回去的女人。

Beautifully said. Thanks for listening to Learn English with Podcasts. Have you watched Titanic? Which real story touched you most? Tell us, and see you next time.说得真好。感谢收听 Learn English with Podcasts。你看过《泰坦尼克号》吗？哪个真实故事最打动你？告诉我们，下期见。