J. Bruce Ismay, the chairman of the White Star Line, is widely believed to have pressured Captain Edward Smith to increase the Titanic's speed, wanting to arrive in New York ahead of schedule to beat the sister ship Olympic and gain publicity, a claim supported by passenger testimony from Elizabeth Lines, although Ismay never gave a formal order. While Captain Smith made the final decision to maintain speed, the pressure from Ismay is often cited as a contributing factor to the ship's fast pace in an area with ice warnings, despite Ismay's denial and later vilification.
During the congressional investigations, some passengers testified that during the voyage they heard Ismay pressuring Captain Smith to increase the speed of Titanic in order to arrive in New York ahead of schedule and generate some free press about the new liner.
It was faster than he was advised, but not full speed. He was wanting to show off what the ship was capable of.
The Mesaba sends a warning to the Titanic about an ice field that includes “heavy pack ice and [a] great number [of] large icebergs.” Wireless operator Jack Phillips—who works for the Marconi Company—is handling passengers' messages and never passes the warning on to the Titanic's bridge.
No, Captain Edward Smith's body was never recovered after the Titanic sank, and his final moments remain a mystery, with numerous conflicting eyewitness accounts describing heroic acts, him going down with the ship, or even swimming away. While he perished with over 1500 others, his body was lost in the North Atlantic, with many believing he was not wearing a life jacket and sank quickly, preventing recovery.
women: “Jack's death in the movie Titanic is one of the most heartbreaking and saddest scenes in the history of cinema.
Captain Smith having done all man could do for the safety of passengers and crew remained at his post on the sinking ship until the end. His last message to the crew was 'Be British.'"
The Titanic's final wireless messages, sent by operator Jack Phillips as the ship sank around 2:17 AM on April 15, 1912, became increasingly desperate, including "CQD CQD SOS" and fragmented pleas like "Come quick, old man, engine room filling up to boilers," and "We are all going down," before the signals ceased abruptly as the ship's power failed and water flooded the wireless room. The last understandable transmission was to the SS Virginian, with the final signals cutting off as the ship submerged.
Captain Smith's home telephone number at Woodhead was Southampton 1400. As senior commander of the White Star Line, Capt. Smith received an annual salary of $6, 250 plus an additional $41,000 bonus if no ship under his command was involved in any accident during the year.
It took 73 years to find the Titanic because of its immense depth (over 12,000 ft), inaccurate distress signals leading to a vast search area, the challenge of distinguishing wreckage from seabed features with early sonar, strong ocean currents, harsh weather, and the lack of sufficiently advanced technology until the 1980s when Robert Ballard developed towed camera sleds like Argo. The key breakthrough was realizing the wreck broke apart and searching for the long debris field, not just the ship itself.
More notably, Robert Hichens, the quartermaster who was actually at the helm of the Titanic when he tried – unsuccessfully – not to hit the fatal iceberg, served four years for attempted murder later in 1933.
Eliza Gladys Dean (2 February 1912 – 31 May 2009), known as Millvina Dean, was a British civil servant, cartographer, and the last living survivor of the sinking of the RMS Titanic on 15 April 1912. At two months old, she was also the youngest passenger aboard.
On the night of April 14–15, 1912, the Titanic sank into the frigid waters of the North Atlantic. Some 1,500 people perished, and for most of the victims, the cause of death was hypothermia, not drowning. The water temperature was approximately 28 ℉ (−2 ℃), which is below the freezing point of water.
The sinking of the Titanic claimed some 1,500 lives, among them a gallery of early 20th-century A-list celebrities. Captains of industry John Jacob Astor IV and Benjamin Guggenheim both went down with the ship, as did Macy's co-owner Isidor Straus and his wife, Ida, who refused to leave his side.
The wreck of the Titanic wasn't discovered until 1985, and in the years since, no trace of human remains has been found on or near it, most likely due to the sea's inhospitality to flesh and bones.
On the night Titanic sank, the nearest ship to her was the SS Californian, a steamship of the British Leyland Line. However, despite her close proximity, and the distress signals Titanic raised, the Californian took no action – a mystery that resulted in a number of conspiracy theories.
Matthew McConaughey was in contention for the role of Jack Dawson in James Cameron's 1997 blockbuster Titanic, but the role ended up going to Leonardo DiCaprio after he refused to acquiesce to the director's demands.
It is this final act of leadership that has become the most enduring image of Captain Smith. While we cannot know for sure how he spent his final moments, it is known that Captain Edward Smith perished in the North Atlantic along with 1517 others on April 15, 1912. His body was never recovered.
Those who purchased a first-class suite paid 105,000 pounds, or over $130,000. By today's prices, first-class berths would cost $4,591, second-class tickets would be $1,834, and third-class tickets would be $1,071.
Yes, a 7-year-old girl named Eva Hart survived the Titanic disaster, rescued with her mother in a lifeboat while her father perished, and later became one of the most vocal survivors, sharing vivid memories of the sinking and advocating for more lifeboats. Eva was a second-class passenger who recalled her mother's premonition and the terror of the ship going down, becoming a lasting voice from the tragedy until her death in 1996.
The colossal cruise liner had been built with bulkheads in its bow in the event of a collision. If the ship had hit the iceberg head-on therefore, it's predicted that only the first three or four watertight compartments would have been flooded, a less severe alternative to what actually happened.
No, there are no Titanic survivors still alive today, as the last living survivor, Elizabeth Gladys 'Millvina' Dean, died on May 31, 2009, at the age of 97. She was only two months old when the ship sank and was the youngest passenger aboard, making her the final link to the historical disaster.
A recap, for those who don't remember: Smith had been captured by the Indians and was about to have his skull crushed when Pocahontas, one of Powhatan's favorite daughters, threw herself upon the captain and saved his life.
Frederick Fleet (15 October 1887 – 10 January 1965) was a British sailor, crewman and a survivor of the sinking of the RMS Titanic. Fleet, along with fellow lookout Reginald Lee, was on duty when the ship struck the iceberg; Fleet first sighted the iceberg, ringing the bridge to proclaim: "Iceberg, right ahead!"
"I'll Never Let Go, Jack."
One of the most memorable quotes of the film comes in the final scene when the pair is holding onto a plank of wood. The ship is wrecked and sunk by this point, and the floating survivors are waiting for someone to come and rescue them.