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This article is not about the real RMS Titanic ocean liner, because the wiki is not dedicated to the shipwreck, but rather the film.
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Titanic

The RMS Titanic was the world's largest passenger steamship to ever be bulit by man. On April 14, 1912, the Titanic collided with an iceberg, causing it to subsequently sink during the early hours of April 15 1912. It was the main setting of James Cameron's film, Titanic.

Ships Common Information

Construction

The idea of the luxury liner was first conceived of in 1907, but the Titanic construction did not actually begin until March 31, 1909 in Belfast (Ireland). The construction of the Titanic was handled by Harland and Wolff.

796px-Olympic Titanic Belfast

Titanic being constructed in 1909 with it's twin sister Olympic

The luxury liner and her sister ships made up the 'Olympic class' vessels of the White Star Line and were designed to cater to the most elite of passengers. From the beginning, the Titanic was designed to be the largest ship to ever take to the seas.

As such, the White Star Line was determined that no expense would be sparred in the Titanic construction. It took 3 years for building of the Titanic to be completed and in the end it cost $7.5 million dollars for the ship to be finished. More than 3000 men were employed in building the Titanic during that time span.

In the months, and even years, leading up to the maiden voyage of the Titanic; the White Star Line published numerous marketing materials claiming that the ship was 'designed to be unsinkable.'

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At the time, the construction methods used in the building of the Titanic were considered to be second to none. Titanic construction included sixteen compartments that were reported to be watertight. Builders of the Titanic had included steel doors that were supposed to have been capable of being shut in 25 seconds or less; thereby enclosing any water that might have seeped in to threaten the safety of the ship and her occupants. Of course, we now know from the photographs taken of the ship's wreckage, that in all likelihood many of the nearly 3 million rivets that were employed to hold the ship's hull plates together popped loose when the vessel struck a massive iceberg.

Titanic sinking

Survivors watch as The Ship Of Dreams sinks.

Without the rivets to hold the plating together, they quickly buckled, allowing water to seep into the ship. New theories have suggested that the iron used in the Titanic construction may have been less than the best quality, containing high degrees of sulfur, which made the hull plates particularly susceptible to the icy cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

Builders of the Titanic can hardly be blamed for the iron's contribution to the tragic sinking, however. The iron used in the construction of the Titanic was standard for the first part of the 20th century. While the high sulfur content in the iron may have surely played a role in the tragic history of the Titanic, it was not the sole reason the ship sank.

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Reports from surviving crew members indicate that the ship had been ordered to proceed through the waters of the Atlantic Ocean faster than safety allowed. There has been debate regarding whether or not the owner of the White Star Line, Bruce Ismay, instructed Captain Smith to attempt to break a speed record in the Trans-Atlantic crossing.

Regardless of whether or not he gave those orders, following the sinking of the Titanic, which he survived, he was asked to step down from his role in the company's management.

Numerous other vessels had reported the presence of several ice floes in the area on the day the ship sank, yet the Titanic made no effort to slow down her speed. When it became obvious that the ship was about to collide with a huge iceberg, crew members attempted to turn the ship, hoping to avoid the berg all together.

They were unsuccessful, however, and the ship sustained numerous gashes along the hull. Some theories speculate that had the ship hit the iceberg head-on, the damage to the ship would not have been nearly so traumatic and the Titanic and her passengers would have been able to complete their journey.

It is quite possible that no one will ever positively be able to lay the blame of the Titanic's destruction on one single factor; however, the history of Titanic and the fate of her passengers will forever live on.

Maiden Voyage
Titanicdaylight

The last time that the RMS Titanic ever saw daylight.

At noon on April 10, 1912, the RMS Titanic set sail from its port in Southampton, England and was headed to New York, U.S.A. The ship stopped once in Cherbourg, France and again in Queenstown, Ireland. There after, it headed straight for America.



Known Passengers and Crew

Here is a list of known passengers who were on board the ship when the Titanic sank:

'Survivors'

'Perished:'

Here is a list of known crew members and other important people who worked aboard the ship:

'Survivors'

'Perished:'

The Horrific sinking

It is only days after the Titanic set sail, people where either still up and having fun on the ship and suddenly the ship hit an iceberg and made a fatal gash on the bowl of the ship. The collision caused a great amount of damage, so bad that Thomas Andrews said in the film "Titanic will sink with in 1hr and 20 mins to 2 hrs". Then Captain Smith suggested they use the pumps though that will only give them a few mins grace, so they started boarding the passangers in the lifeboats.

As the ship was sinking, the ship snapped in half due to too much pressure that was put on the ship, the ships head was the first part to flounder all the way to the bottom the Atlantic Ocean, and minutes later the bowl followed and as it when down the ships bowl start to flake a part. It was proven in a documentry that James Cameron did not make a precise estimation on how the historic ship sank beneth so many feet. As from today many families are still scarred from the accident that left many families to lose loved ones.

It was insisted that women and children be allowed to board the lifeboats and escape the ship first, and so that was what was allowed. There weren't enough lifeboats, though, and not all of the passengers were able to fit into the lifeboats and escape. At 2:20 A.M, on April 15, 1912, the ship completely sank.

There were very few survivors due to the lack of lifeboats and low number of lifejackets. Only one lifeboat out of seven was rescued from the shipwreck, and six were saved from the water, because Fifth Officer Harold Lowe was able to board the RMS Carpathia and save any survivors. There were an unbelievable amount of deaths in the shipwreck, such as Jack Dawson, Fabrizio De Rossi, and Captain Edward Smith. Several other passengers and crew also died of hypothermia.

Titanic Movie Facts

James Cameron's Titanicmovie (released in December 1997) took the world by storm, much as the original ship earned the world's awe before her untimely demise. How many oscars did the Titanic movie win? The Titanic earned its place as the most nominated movie in film history. In total, the film was nominated for a whopping 14 Oscars and managed to bring home 11 of the coveted awards. No other film in history had won that many awards.

Movie-goers around the world were so taken by the movie's main characters, Jack Dawson and Rose DeWitt Bukater, that the Titanicearned Oscar nominations for Best Actress and Best Picture. Surprisingly, there was no Oscar nomination for Leonardo DiCaprio, who played the role of the ill-fated Jack Dawson. While the movie went on to snag the Oscar for Best Picture, along with a host of others, Kate Winslet failed to take home the Oscar for her portrayal of Rose.

The Titanic's sound effects contributed to much of the film's success and were responsible for two of the Oscar nominations and wins: Sound and Sound Effects Editing. Titanic also won awards for Original dramatic score and Original song.

For the most part, the production team, script writers and actors of the movie strived very hard to make sure that the film portrayed the tragedy of the original ship's story as accurately as possible. "Were Rose and Jack Dawson real passengers on the Titanic?" is a question I get a lot from readers. I hate to disappoint you, but there was no one aboard the ship with the same names as the movie's leading characters. However, a number of real characters were portrayed in the movie, including:

  • Thomas Andrews: the builder of the Titanic.
  • Molly Brown: 'The Unsinkable Molly Brown", in real life she took control of her lifeboat and rescued several survivors out of the water.
  • Edward Smith: the captain of the Titanic.
  • John Jacob Astor: a first-class passenger.
  • Wallace Hartley: the Titanic's band leader who's band kept on playing music during the sinking. The last song played is called "Nearer, My God, to Thee".

The main (fictional) story is of course the love story between Jack and Rose, two passengers from entirely different social classes.

  • Jack Dawson (played by Leonardo DiCaprio): Jack is a 20-year old poor man from Wisconsin who has been traveling in Europe (mainly Paris). He wins 2 third class tickets for the Titanic in a poker game and boards the ship with his friend Fabrizio.
  • Rose DeWitt Bukater (played by Kate Winslet): Rose is a 17-year old woman from Philadelphia. Rose boards the ship with her fiancee, Cal (played by Billy Zane), and her mother, Ruth.

Rose is pushed into a marriage by her mother for financial reasons. Rose is not happy with that and attempts to commit suicide. Jack saves her and the romance and stories begin.

Of course, Cal forbids Rose to see Jack, but, of course, she doesn't listen and falls in love. The romance goes on until the Titanic collides with the iceberg. They want to warn Cal and Rose's mother, but Jack gets framed by Cal and is imprisoned. While the Titanic is sinking, Rose helps Jack to escape and they return to the top deck.

Cal manages to persuade Rose to get in a lifeboat for a short while until she realizes she can't leave Jack. She leaves the lifeboat and meets Jack in the first-class stairway. Jack and Rose are being chased by Cal, who has a gun. Cal runs out of ammunition and manages to board a lifeboat.

Jack and Rose take refuge on the vertical stern, but eventually they are washed into the freezing Atlantic Ocean. They manage to grab a floating door, which unfortunately has only space for one person. Jack dies from the cold in Rose's arms. Rose is picked up by the RMS Carpathia, where she names herself Rose Dawson. There she sees Cal for the last time, looking for her.

One of the major conflicts in the film centers around the location of an expensive diamond necklace, referred to as the 'Heart of the Ocean'. In Titanic, the gorgeous jewel was presented to Rose by her fiancee. The necklace had never been recovered and one of the last scenes in the movie reveals a much older Rose (Gloria Stuart), returning the necklace of the depths of the ocean.

In reality, while such a necklace did actually once exist, its location has remained a mystery since the one time owner of the necklace, King Louis XVI, died. There are no reports to indicate that the original Heart of the Ocean necklace wound up on board the Titanic.

The Making of Titanic

Poster
James Cameron started the production of the movie in 1995. He began by making footage of the wreck of the real RMS Titanic. A reconstruction of the Titanic ship was made in Baja, California. Computers and scale models were used to create the images of the sinking. All this made the Titanicthe most expensive movie of its time (about $200 million). Luckily, the film was a commercial success and grossed almost $2 billion worldwide in box office sales. The 1997 box office smash hit, while extremely popular, was not the only movie to have been made about the tragic sinking of the ship that had been labeled 'unsinkable.' In 1959, 'A Night to Remember' was released. The rights to this film were purchased by James Cameron, director of Titanic, in order to use details from the older movie without fear of copyright problems.

Titanic 3D ship April 4 poster

Poster for 3D rerelease

The Titanic soundtrack was a gigantic success, the best-selling US album of 1998. The soundtrack, composed by James Horner, is mainly orchestral with some singing done by Celine Dion and Norwegian singer Sissel Kyrkjebø.

The Titanic theme song, called "My Heart Will Go On" is written in secret because James Cameron didn't want vocals in the music. James Horner persuaded Celine Dion to sing and presented the song to James Cameron when he was in a good mood. After hearing it a couple of times, James gave his approval. The song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

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