Titanic (1953 Film) - Historical Inaccuracies

Historical Inaccuracies

During the film, many inaccuracies occur, such as:

• There was no horn section in Titanic's band.
• Several times throughout the film first class passengers are seen dancing in the first class dining saloon. The Titanic did not have a dance floor at all aboard ship and in addition public dancing was would have been viewed as inappropriate among the middle and upper classes in 1912.
• The interiors of the Titanic in the film are highly inaccurate as opposed to the real ship.
• Many hairdo's and outfits in the film reflect that of the 1950s rather than 1912.
• Madeline Astor, as played by Frances Bergen, is portrayed as a blond buxom women in her late twenties or early thirties. In reality Madeline Astor was just barely eighteen years old when she married John Jacob Astor, and was a rather slender brunette.
• The boilers on Titanic did not explode, but in the film they do several times.
• The Titanic was not booked solid as stated in the film, she was just over half-full for her maiden voyage.
• A general alarm, consisting of a siren and a public address system, is portrayed as informing the passengers about the collision. No such system, though, existed on the Titanic; passengers in all three classes were informed about the sinking through stewards knocking on their cabin doors.
• Crewmembers on the Titanic did not wear British Navy uniforms.
• The film portrays a man named Harold Sanderson as the chairmen of the White Star Line who disembarks in Cherbourg, France before the ships heads for the open Atlantic. Harold Sanderson was indeed a senior official with the White Star Line in 1912, however, he was not company chairmen. In reality J. Bruce Ismay was the actual White Star chairmen and did sail on the ship. However, he was omitted from the film altogether.
• The ship is portrayed as heading for the open Atlantic after its port of call at Cherbourg. In reality the ship recrossed the English Channel to make a port of call at Queenstown, Ireland before heading for New York.
• The passengers did not stand up on deck and sing a chorus of Nearer My God To Thee. It is disputed whether the band played it on their instruments, but passengers were all rushing about. No one stood and sang.
• People are seen easily pulling a small raft down from the roof of the officers' quarters. The collapsible life boats stored there were quite unwieldy, having boat-like lower hulls and having room for 47 passengers each.
• At the beginning, a steward asks about the Astor cabin. They say it is A-54. There was no A-54, only A1-A37, and the Astors' cabin was C62-64, a deluxe parlor suite.
• When the ship is going under you can see the ensign on the stern flagstaff. The ensign was only flown during daylight hours.
• Supposedly the Sturges family comes from Mackinac, Michigan; however, they all pronounce the name of the place incorrectly. It should be pronounced "Mak-i-naw" not "Mak-i-nak".
• Right at the start of the film a valley glacier iceberg is shown splitting away and falling into the sea. The Titanic was hit by an Arctic iceberg, carried by the Gulf Stream southward during the summer when the frozen edge of the Arctic Ocean started to melt.
• The stern of the Titanic rose while it sank. It didn't reach 30 degrees at the very end, it reached 30 degrees a reported 10 minutes before it broke in two and then made its final plunge.
• The ice warning first received was not delivered to the bridge.
• There was no shuffleboard on RMS Titanic nor did the ship have its own tailor shop. Additionally the ship is portrayed as having a traditional type of bar were passengers would come to get drinks. In reality passengers on the ship would order drinks through waiters and stewards who would then deliver them to the passengers.
• None of the First or Second Class children died in the sinking, except for Loraine Allison, who stayed on deck with her parents.
• The Titanic did not hit the iceberg on its port side.
• The Titanics funnels fell off as the ship sank.
• The watertight doors on Titanic did not slide horizontally.
• At least one collapsible lifeboat was not launched before Titanic sank, but was floated off, upside down, allowing Lightoller and others to survive. The film incorrectly shows them all having been successfully launched.
• The Titanic is shown sinking with lights in her portholes. In reality the electrical power failed a few seconds before she went down.
• The film narrative states that 712 people in 19 lifeboats survived. The ship, however, was equipped with 20 boats all of which were utilized during the sinking. Additionally the final count of survivors has been disputed, due to inconsistencies in passenger lists.
• At one point, a World War II-era lifeboat is seen being launched into the water.
• The Titanic did not sink as quickly as shown in the film but rather took as much as ten minutes to make her final plunge into the Atlantic..
• The film shows men being effectively prevented from getting in lifeboats, thus leading to only few men surviving. In reality on the night of the sinking men were indeed prevented from entering port side lifeboats, however, officers loading the starboard boats were allowing men in the them if no more women were willing to go, thus leading to a significant amount of male passengers surviving then the film portrays.
• The 'crows-nest' where crew looking out for possible obstructions or threats to the ship, such as ice-bergs, was not mounted to the forward funnel as depicted in film. It was actually attached to its own pole toward the front of the ship.
• In the scene just before the ship strikes the iceberg a photo of the RMS Queen Mary can be seen behind Edmund Purdom, The Queen Mary had not been built yet at the time of the Titanic.
• The lifejackets are 1950's style when in the real disaster they were long, skinny, 1900's style lifejackets.