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There have been several legends and myths surrounding the RMS Titanic over the years. These have ranged from the myth about the ship being unsinkable, to the myth concerning the final song played by the ship's orchestra. [1]
Contrary to popular mythology, Titanic was never described as "unsinkable", without qualification, until after she sank. [2] [3] Three trade publications (one of which was probably never published) described Titanic as practically unsinkable prior to her sinking. Many survivors recalled in video interviews as well as in testimony that they had considered the ship "unsinkable." Shipbuilder Harland and Wolff did not claim she was unsinkable, but a promotional item from the White Star Line stressed the safety of Olympic and Titanic, claiming that "as far as it is possible to do so, these two wonderful vessels are designed to be unsinkable". [4] Claims by trade publications that vessels were unsinkable or being practically unsinkable were not unique to the Olympic class liners or other White Star ships. Similar claims were made about the Cunarders Lusitania and Mauretania, and German liners Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse and Kaiser Wilhelm II. Advanced safety features on these liners were heavily publicized, de-emphasizing the likelihood of these ships' sinking in a serious accident.
The Titanic was designed to comply with the Grade 1 subdivision proposed by the 1891 Bulkhead Committee, meaning that it could stay afloat with any 2 adjoining out of its 16 main compartments open to the sea. The height of the bulkhead deck above the water line in flooded condition was well above the requirements, and the vessel would have been able to float with 3 adjoining compartments flooded in 11 of 14 possible combinations. [6] The subdivisions could be sealed from communication with each other with cast iron watertight doors. To somewhat lower the chance of a sailor being caught in them, a geared system dropped the doors gradually, over 25 to 30 seconds, by sliding them vertically on hydraulic cataract cylinders. [7]
The first unqualified assertion of Titanic's unsinkability appeared in The New York Times on 16 April 1912, a day after the tragedy. Philip A. S. Franklin, vice president of the International Mercantile Marine Company (White Star Line's holding company) stated after being told of the sinking, "I thought her unsinkable, and I based my opinion on the best expert advice available. I do not understand it." [8] This comment was seized upon by the press, and the idea that the White Star Line had previously declared Titanic unsinkable (without qualification) gained immediate and widespread currency. [9]
An often-quoted story that has been blurred between fact and fiction states that the first person to receive news of the sinking was David Sarnoff, who would later lead media giant RCA. In modified versions of this legend, Sarnoff was not the first to hear the news (though Sarnoff willingly promoted this notion), but he and others did staff the Marconi wireless station (telegraph) atop the Wanamaker Department Store in New York City, and for three days, relayed news of the disaster and names of survivors to people waiting outside. However, even this version lacks support in contemporary accounts. No newspapers of the time, for example, mention Sarnoff. Given the absence of primary evidence, the story of Sarnoff should be properly regarded as a legend. [10] [11] [12] [13] [14]
Despite popular belief, the sinking of Titanic was not the first time the internationally recognised Morse code distress signal "SOS" was used. The SOS signal was first proposed at the International Conference on Wireless Communication at Sea in Berlin in 1906. It was ratified by the international community in 1908 and had been in widespread use since then. The SOS signal was, however, rarely used by British wireless operators, who preferred the older CQD code. First Wireless Operator Jack Phillips began transmitting CQD until Second Wireless Operator Harold Bride half jokingly suggested, "Send SOS; it's the new call, and this may be your last chance to send it." Phillips then began to intersperse SOS with the traditional CQD call. [15]
There are reports that, in 1936, a ham radio operator named Gordon Cosgrave claimed to be receiving long delayed echo SOS messages from the Carpathia and Titanic 24 years after their transmission. [16] [17]
One of the most famous stories of Titanic is of the ship's band. On 15 April the eight-member band, led by Wallace Hartley, had assembled in the first-class lounge in an effort to keep passengers calm and upbeat. Later they moved on to the forward half of the boat deck. The band continued playing, even when it became apparent the ship was going to sink, and all members perished. [18]
There has been much speculation about what their last song was. [19] A first-class Canadian passenger, Vera Dick, and several other passengers, alleged that the final tune played was that of the hymn "Nearer, My God, to Thee". [20] Hartley reportedly once said to a friend if he were on a sinking ship, "Nearer, My God, to Thee" would be one of the songs he would play. [21] But Walter Lord's book A Night to Remember popularised wireless operator Harold Bride's 1912 account (New York Times) that he heard the song "Autumn" before the ship sank. [22] It is considered Bride either meant the hymn tune by François Barthélemon known as "Autumn" or the tune of the then-popular waltz "Songe d'Automne" but neither was in the White Star Line songbook for the band. [21] Bride is one of only two witnesses who were close enough to the band, as he floated off the deck before the ship went down. Some consider his statement to be reliable. Dick had left by lifeboat an hour and 20 minutes earlier and could not possibly have heard the band's final moments. The notion that the band played "Nearer, My God, to Thee" as a swan song is possibly a myth originating from the wrecking of SS Valencia, which had received wide press coverage in Canada in 1906 and so may have influenced Dick's recollection. [2]
There are three, very different versions of the hymn using the lyrics of "Nearer, My God, to Thee": Horbury, written in 1861 by the Rev John Dykes was popular in Britain, and another, Bethany, written in 1856 by Dr Lowell Mason was popular in the U.S. The third tune associated with the hymn, Propior Deo, was written by Sir Arthur Sullivan and was also popular in Britain. [23] Additionally, the British melody might sound like the other hymn ("Autumn"). [21] On 24 May 1912, the seven chief London orchestras performed at a memorial for the musicians who perished, as they played Horbury, two Titanic survivors in the audience became emotional and stated that this was the tune they heard while they were in their lifeboat. The film A Night to Remember (1958) uses the tune Horbury; while the 1953 film Titanic , with Clifton Webb, uses the tune Bethany as does James Cameron's 1997 Titanic. To further complicate things, Horbury was the Anglican version of the hymn, while Propior Deo was the Methodist version. The Titanic's bandmaster, Wallace Hartley was a devout Methodist and son of a Methodist choirmaster leading a band containing several devout Methodists. Propior Deo was not only sung at Hartley's funeral but was also carved into his headstone. [23] Recently, another possibility has been raised. Among items left behind by Hartley's fiancée, Maria Robinson, was the sheet music of a third tune to the hymn written by Lewis Carey in 1902 and made popular by the Australian contralto Ada Crossley. As Crossley performed in both Britain and America, it is possible that this may have been a tune known to passengers on both sides of the Atlantic. [24]
Colonel Archibald Gracie, an amateur historian who was aboard the ship until the final moments, and was later rescued on a capsized collapsible lifeboat, wrote his account immediately after the sinking but died from his injuries eight months later. According to Gracie, the tunes played by the band were "cheerful" but that he didn't recognise any of them, claiming that if they had played "Nearer, My God, to Thee" as claimed in the newspaper, "I assuredly should have noticed it and regarded it as a tactless warning of immediate death to us all and one likely to create panic." [25]
Another oft-cited Titanic legend concerns perished first-class passenger William Thomas Stead. According to this folklore, Stead had, through precognitive insight, foreseen his own death on the Titanic. This is apparently suggested in two fictional sinking stories, which he penned decades earlier. The first, "How the Mail Steamer Went Down in Mid-Atlantic, by a Survivor" (1886), tells of a mail steamer's collision with another ship, resulting in high loss of life due to lack of lifeboats. [26] The second, "From the Old World to the New" (1892) features a White Star Line vessel, Majestic , that rescues survivors of another ship that had collided with an iceberg. [27]
Some believe that there was another ship, the Norwegian sealer Samson, in the vicinity of Titanic when she sank. Proponents of the theory argue either that the Samson was a third ship in the area the night of the sinking, in addition to the Titanic and the Californian, or that the Californian was not near at all and it was the Samson which Titanic passengers spotted in the distance while the ship was sinking. Advocates of Captain Lord's innocence have avidly adopted the latter theory, beginning with Leslie Harrison, the general secretary of the Mercantile Marine Association in the 1960s. [28] [29]
The root of this claim comes from the testimony of one of the Samson's officers, Hendrik Bergethon Naess, who told a Norwegian newspaper in 1912 that his ship had been near a large liner with "many lights" shooting rockets into the sky the morning of April 15th. [29] Because the Samson was seal hunting illegally in territorial waters, the ship's officers decided to move on quickly to avoid detection. This claim seems unlikely as the Titanic was 504 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, well beyond territorial waters in 1912. [30] The ship had no radio, so they wouldn't have received any of the Titanic's distress signals. Naess claimed that the crew only became aware of the Titanic's sinking after they arrived in Isafjordur, Iceland in mid-May. If correct, the coordinates of Samson place her within 10 miles of Titanic's position as the ship was sinking. [31]
Titanic historians have pointed to numerous inconsistencies in Neass' four published accounts. He cited the Samson as returning from seal-hunting south of Cape Hatteras (North Carolina), which is more than a thousand miles away from the cold waters of the Arctic circle where seals live. The Titanic historian Leslie Reade obtained microfilmed Lloyd's List records reporting that the Samson docked in Isafjordur twice that April: on the 6th and the 20th, then on 15 May. The April dates would not have allowed anywhere near enough time for the Samson to be in the vicinity of the Titanic on April 14. [32] [33] Furthermore, the idea that the crew of the Californian spotted the Samson instead of Titanic is illogical since their descriptions are of a large steamer, not a small schooner like Samson. And finally, no other crew member from the Samson ever gave testimony supporting Naess' claim. [29]
Defenders of the Samson theory argue that Neass said Cape Hatteras when he meant they were south of Cape Race, Newfoundland, seal-fishing waters which are physically very close to the site of Titanic's sinking. They argue that the Lloyd's Register dates of arrival in April are invalid because they were merely the expected arrival dates of the Samson, which did not dock until the mid-May date. Such theories have been dismissed by Titanic historians including Leslie Reade, Walter Lord and Edward DeGroot. [29]
When Titanic sank, claims were made that a curse existed on the ship. The press quickly linked "the Titanic curse" with the White Star Line practice of not christening their ships. [2]
One of the most widely spread legends linked directly into the sectarianism of the city of Belfast, where the ship was built. It was suggested that the ship was given the number 390904 which, when reflected, resembles the letters "NOPOPE", a sectarian slogan attacking Roman Catholics, used by extreme Protestants in Northern Ireland, where the ship was built. In the extreme sectarianism of the region at the time, the ship's sinking was alleged to be on account of anti-Catholicism by her manufacturers, the Harland and Wolff company, which had an almost exclusively Protestant workforce and an alleged record of hostility towards Catholics (Harland and Wolff did have a record of hiring few Catholics; whether that was through policy or because the company's shipyard in Belfast's bay was located in almost exclusively Protestant East Belfast—through which few Catholics would travel—or a mixture of both, is a matter of dispute). In fact, RMS Olympic and Titanic were assigned the yard numbers 400 and 401 respectively. [34] [35]
At the time the Titanic sank, the 1 May 1912 issue of The Popular Magazine , an American pulp magazine, was on the news stands. It contained the short story "The White Ghost of Disaster," which described the collision of an ocean liner with an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean, the sinking of the vessel, and the fate of the passengers. The story, by Mayn Clew Garnett (the pseudonym of sea-story author T. Jenkins Hains), created a minor sensation. [36] [37]
In 1898, fourteen years prior to the Titanic disaster, Morgan Robertson wrote a book called Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan . This story features an enormous British passenger liner called the Titan, which, deemed to be unsinkable, carries insufficient lifeboats. On an April voyage, the Titan hits an iceberg and sinks in the North Atlantic with the loss of almost everyone on board. [38]
In 1912, the German Berliner Tageblatt newspaper published a book in serial form that ran from January 9 until April 24. [39] [40] This work of fiction was written by Gerhard Hauptmann, who would receive the Nobel Prize in Literature later that year. [41] One month before the fateful April maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic, the story was published by S. Fischer Verlag as the novel Atlantis. Atlantis is a romantic tale set aboard the fictitious ocean liner Roland, which is coincidentally doomed to a fate very similar to that of the RMS Titanic. This perceived anticipation of the Titanic disaster received considerable attention at the time. [42] A Danish silent film also titled Atlantis was produced by Nordisk Film based on the novel. The film was released less than a year following the actual tragic event. The association became evident, and it was banned in Norway, perceived as being in "bad taste". [43]
A large black Newfoundland dog named Rigel purportedly was responsible for saving many survivors according to stories published in at least one contemporary newspaper [44] and retold many times thereafter, [45] including a book of contemporary accounts by Logan Marshall. [46] Many details differ from known facts, and the stories might be untrue. [47]
Margaret Brown, posthumously known as "The Unsinkable Molly Brown", was an American socialite and philanthropist. She unsuccessfully encouraged the crew in Lifeboat No. 6 to return to the debris field of the 1912 sinking of RMS Titanic to look for survivors. During her lifetime, her friends called her "Maggie", but even by her death, obituaries referred to her as the "Unsinkable Molly Brown". The reference was further reinforced by a 1960 Broadway musical based on her life and its 1964 film adaptation which were both entitled The Unsinkable Molly Brown.
Harold Sydney Bride was a British sailor and the junior wireless officer on the ocean liner RMS Titanic during its ill-fated maiden voyage.
Edward John Smith was a British naval officer. He served as master of numerous White Star Line vessels. He was the captain of the RMS Titanic, and perished when the ship sank on its maiden voyage.
Atlantis is a 1913 Danish silent film directed by August Blom, the head of production at the Nordisk Film company, and was based upon the 1912 novel by Gerhart Hauptmann. It starred an international cast headlined by Danish matinée actor Olaf Fønss and Austrian opera diva Ida Orloff. The film was the first Danish multi-reeled feature film. The story, which tells the tale of a doctor who travels to the United States in search of a cure for his ailing wife, includes the tragic sinking of an ocean liner after it strikes an object at sea. Released only one year after the sinking of the RMS Titanic, the film drew considerable attention as well as criticism due to similarities to the actual tragedy.
Violet Constance Jessop was an Argentine ocean liner stewardess, memoirist and nurse who is known for surviving the disastrous sinkings of RMS Titanic in 1912 and her sister ship HMHS Britannic in 1916. In addition, she had been onboard RMS Olympic, the eldest of the three sister ships, when it collided with a British warship, HMS Hawke, in 1911.
Joseph Bruce Ismay was an English businessman who served as chairman and managing director of the White Star Line. In 1912, he came to international attention as the highest-ranking White Star official to survive the sinking of the company's new flagship RMS Titanic, for which he was subject to severe criticism.
Wallace Henry Hartley was an English violinist and bandleader on the RMS Titanic on its maiden voyage. He became famous for leading the eight-member band as the ship sank on 15 April 1912. He died in the sinking.
"Nearer, My God, to Thee" is a 19th-century Christian hymn by Sarah Flower Adams, which retells the story of Jacob's dream. Genesis 28:11–12 can be translated as follows: "So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep. Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it..."
A Night to Remember is a 1958 British historical drama film adaptation of Walter Lord's 1955 book, which recounts the final night of RMS Titanic. Adapted by Eric Ambler and directed by Roy Ward Baker, the film stars Kenneth More and features Michael Goodliffe, Laurence Naismith, Kenneth Griffith, David McCallum and Tucker McGuire. It was filmed in the United Kingdom and tells the story of the sinking, portraying the main incidents and players in a documentary-style fashion with considerable attention to detail. The production team, supervised by producer William MacQuitty used blueprints of the ship to create authentic sets, while Fourth Officer Joseph Boxhall and ex-Cunard Commodore Harry Grattidge worked as technical advisors on the film. Its budget of £600,000 was exceptional and made it the most expensive film ever made in Britain up to that time.
The RMS Titanic has played a prominent role in popular culture since her sinking in 1912, with the loss of over 1,500 of the 2,200 lives on board. The disaster and the Titanic herself have been objects of public fascination for many years. They have inspired numerous books, plays, films, songs, poems, and works of art. The story has been interpreted in many overlapping ways, including as a symbol of technological hubris, as basis for fail-safe improvements, as a classic disaster tale, as an indictment of the class divisions of the time, and as romantic tragedies with personal heroism. It has inspired many moral, social and political metaphors and is regularly invoked as a cautionary tale of the limitations of modernity and ambition.
Eva Miriam Hart MBE was a survivor of the sinking of the RMS Titanic on 15 April 1912.
Edith Haisman was one of the last remaining and oldest survivors of the sinking of RMS Titanic in April 1912. She was the last survivor born in the 19th century, although seven younger survivors outlived her.
Atlantic (1929) is a British black-and-white film directed and produced by Ewald André Dupont and starring Franklin Dyall and Madeleine Carroll. Originally, two versions were made, the English and German-language version Atlantik were shot simultaneously. Subsequently, the production of a French version (Atlantis) began in spring 1930 using different footage and partially an altered storyline. The fourth version was released as a silent film.
The RMS Titanic sank in the early morning hours of 15 April 1912 in the North Atlantic Ocean, four days into the ship's maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City. The largest ocean liner in service at the time, Titanic had an estimated 2,224 people on board when she struck an iceberg at around 23:40 on Sunday, 14 April 1912. Her sinking two hours and forty minutes later at 02:20 on Monday, 15 April, resulted in the deaths of more than 1,500 people, making it one of the deadliest peacetime marine disasters in history.
A total of 2,208 people sailed on the maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic, the second of the White Star Line's Olympic-class ocean liners, from Southampton, England, to New York City. Partway through the voyage, the ship struck an iceberg and sank in the early morning of 15 April 1912, resulting in the deaths of 1,503 people.
RMS Titanic was a British passenger liner operated by the White Star Line that sank in the North Atlantic Ocean in the early morning hours of 15 April 1912, after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City. Of the estimated 2,224 passengers and crew aboard, more than 1,500 died, making the sinking one of modern history's deadliest peacetime commercial marine disasters. RMS Titanic was the largest ship afloat at the time she entered service and was the second of three Olympic-class ocean liners operated by the White Star Line. She was built by the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast. Thomas Andrews, chief naval architect of the shipyard at the time, died in the disaster.
The TitanicMusicians' Memorial is a memorial in Southampton, United Kingdom, to the musicians who died in the RMS Titanic disaster on 15 April 1912. The original Titanic Musicians' Memorial was unveiled by the Mayor of Southampton, H Bowyer on 19 April 1913, and was located in the old Southampton library. This library along with the memorial were destroyed during World War II. A replica was erected in 1990. The plaque features a musical inscription, the opening bars of the 19th century hymn, 'Nearer, My God, to Thee' by Sarah Flower Adams, carvings showing a grieving woman and an iceberg, and an inscription with the names of the musicians on the Titanic, including bandleader Wallace Hartley, all of whom died.
Titanic Lifeboat No. 1 was a lifeboat from the steamship RMS Titanic. It was the fourth boat launched to sea, over an hour after the liner collided with an iceberg and began sinking on 14 April 1912. With a capacity of 40 people, it was launched with only 12 aboard, the fewest to escape in any one boat that night.
RMS Titanic has a rich legacy in films, books, memorials and museums.
Dickinson H. Bishop was an American businessman who traveled on board the ill-fated maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic while on his honeymoon with bride Helen, née Walton. They both survived the sinking of the Titanic on 15 April 1912.
The phrase 'unsinkable ships' is certainly not one that has originated from the builders
It’s more likely that they played a French waltz called ‘Songe d’Automne.’ The most reliable accounts I’ve heard mention that song," Gowan said. "Wallace Hartley once told a friend that if he was on a ship going down, the best thing he could do would be to play a hymn like 'Nearer, My God, to Thee,’" Turner said. "One of the most convincing accounts I read, by one of the sailors, was that at the end, there was a lone violinist playing ‘Nearer, My God, to Thee.’ I suspect that was Wallace Hartley.
