Five Titanic myths spread by films

lionking said:
Ah, sad to see that the band really didn't play "Nearer my god to thee". A magic moment in the movie.
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What is equally puzzling is the existence of a memorial to the band in Broken Hill Australia. As far as I am aware no one has ever figured out any connection to the band and a town thousands of miles from the sea on the edge of a desert

http://www.pottsoft.com/titanic/broken_hill.html

Bride - one of the radio operators reported the band played a rag time song then a waltz called Autumn. He is always considered a reasonable witness because we know he was among the last to get of the ship alive
 
catsmate1 said:
[somewhat offtopic]
Does anyone else find the amount of Titanic 'memorabilia' being hawed somewhat tacky?
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Not really there had been an active auction market for Titanic memorabilia since at least the 1950's. Many dealers will not accept items recovered from the wreck site since Ballard's discovery
 
MG1962 said:
What is equally puzzling is the existence of a memorial to the band in Broken Hill Australia. As far as I am aware no one has ever figured out any connection to the band and a town thousands of miles from the sea on the edge of a desert

http://www.pottsoft.com/titanic/broken_hill.html

Bride - one of the radio operators reported the band played a rag time song then a waltz called Autumn. He is always considered a reasonable witness because we know he was among the last to get of the ship alive
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He and Jack Phillips (the senior wireless operator) stayed until the very last minute, trying to get out distress signals and communicate with other vessels in the area, and were among the last to see Captain Smith alive. Phillips died of hypothermia in the water before rescue.

Once on Carpathia, despite being injured and frostbitten Bride went back to work, hopping on the wireless to help survivors communicate with their loved ones.

Generally he's considered to be one of the "good guys" of the tragedy.
 
Cleon said:
He and Jack Phillips (the senior wireless operator) stayed until the very last minute, trying to get out distress signals and communicate with other vessels in the area, and were among the last to see Captain Smith alive. Phillips died of hypothermia in the water before rescue.

Once on Carpathia, despite being injured and frostbitten Bride went back to work, hopping on the wireless to help survivors communicate with their loved ones.

Generally he's considered to be one of the "good guys" of the tragedy.
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Particularly in the American inquiry he came across as a real average Joe, who stepped up and simply did his job well above and beyond any real expectations
 
commandlinegamer said:
"God himself could not sink this ship" I recall from Walter Lord's book, A Night to Remember which up until the discovery in the 80s, was pretty much the definitive work on the sinking. I had that book re-issued from the library constantly.

Claims it was unsinkable were about at the time:

http://www.snopes.com/history/titanic/unsinkable.asp
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If a challenge to God made him sink it, here's all I have to say about that:

jesustitanic2ca2-1.jpg
 
Lamuella said:
Quite right. This is a thread for myths spread by films, not ones spread by songs.
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So because black people didn't own movie studios, they can't be discussed in this thread on Titanic myths?

Report me to the mods for a rules violation then.
 
Folks...please stay on topic (ie. Rule 11). This thread is about myths spread by film re the Titanic. If you wish to discuss racial issues wrt the Titanic, you are welcome to start a new thread on that topic.
Replying to this modbox in thread will be off topic  Posted By: Locknar
 
I note that no mention was made of Rudy Ray Moore's account of the disaster, so I can therefore assume events occurred exactly as he relates here:

 
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Lamuella said:
Quite right. This is a thread for myths spread by films, not ones spread by songs.
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The OP article:


"If you go back to the genesis of where that came from, it goes back to William Randolph Hearst, the big newspaper magnate in the US. He and Ismay had fallen out years before over Ismay not cooperating with the press with regard to an accident that happened to a White Star Line ship."

Ismay was almost universally condemned in America, where the Hearst syndicated press ran a vitriolic campaign against him, labelling him "J Brute Ismay". It published lists of all those who died but in the column of those saved it had just one name - Ismay's.
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The issue with the steerage passengers will remain confused in a lot of cases as we have the cold hard fact a disproportionate number died, but none who survived were called to give evidence at any of the enquiries (if memory serves).

As for the band various witnesses claim that differeing hymns or rag time tunes were played at the last moment, but the concesus is that they were still playing among almost all witnesses. This reminds me of the conflicting stories about a band playing at Auswitchz. We have no viable evidence that can ever confirm or disprove it, so the myth lives on.
 
Locknar said:
Folks...please stay on topic (ie. Rule 11). This thread is about myths spread by film re the Titanic. If you wish to discuss racial issues wrt the Titanic, you are welcome to start a new thread on that topic.
Replying to this modbox in thread will be off topic  Posted By: Locknar
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Hey, does that mean my reference to the (in)famous alleged Press & Journal headline is yellow carded!?!

:p
 
I especially hate the myth that the boat flipped upside down and a group of passengers was saved by a priest questioning his faith.
 
rjh01 said:
Done a bit of googling and found this reference Titanic Steerage Passengers Left to Die, Says Girl It does not say they were locked, just no-one told them the ship was sinking.

If anyone is interested in the topic the entire site is worth looking at.
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In fairness, it should be noted that the ship had no public-address system, and the ratio of stewards to passengers in third class was far smaller than in first or second class.

ETA: Also, many third-class immigrants didn't speak English.
 
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azzthom said:
Don't forget the one about Titanic actually being her sister ship Olympia.
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SpitfireIX said:
FTFY. Had the two ships been owned by Cunard, they would have been named Olympia and Titania. :D
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Dammit... You are correct. The sister ship was Olympic. The third, and largest, of the three ships was Brittanic. She became a hospital ship in World War I, and sank after striking a mine.

Olympic had been badly damaged in a collision, and the myth began that Titanic was actually Olympic, and she had been sent off to sink in some sort of insurance scam. As another poster pointed out, the screw numbers were examined and showed the idea to be nonsense.

On a slightly related note, is this woman a jinx?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violet_Jessop
 
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