Explosion
Is this the movie where titanic instead of breaking in half sort of explodes?
shareThere is a few places where you hear explosions. I think it is supposed to be boilers exploding.
shareBut can you see it?
shareJust watched the movie yes it was what I have been looking for Titanic with explosions I like this version of Titanic.
shareWhile there is little historical accuracy, this movie has the best story and is one of my favorites too. This movie was never supposed to be anything more than a story set on the Titanic. People shouldn't get so worked up over the history part.
shareSorry to butt in – but don't forget that it was only the publication of A Night to Remember, after this film, which initiated thorough Titanic research. When this film was made there had been no authoritative account of the sinking since 1912. No one even believed that the ship had broken in two until she was found in 1985, although a couple of survivors maintained that she did. So a few historical errors are easily forgiven. It's a jolly good film - infinitely superior to the recent farrago, which I found morally repulsive.
shareAbsolutely correct on all counts. However, the one good thing about the Cameron's version was his SUPERB recreation of the ship's interior and it was in living color. Oh to have been able to have visited the set!! Titanic historian Don Lynch and foremost Titanic artist Ken Marschall was consultants for the film.
shareYes, it was an amazing recreation – I'd love to have seen it too. But what got me mad about Cameron was seeing him on an interview boasting about how accurate the sets were, then seeing the film in which he unjustly depicted Officer Murdoch as a murderer and suicide. Who cares about dead people's reputations, as long as the wallpaper in the first class smoking room is the right colour? Grrrrr.
shareI concur with the Grrrr. Bear in mind that I am not defending Cameron of this, but in the book "A Night to Remember", there was mention of a rumor/myth that Officer Murdoch committed suicide. It didn't mention him shooting anyone. The same rumor of suicide was said of Major Archie Butt (President Taft's military aide) and even Captain Smith. However, the book clearly states that there is no way of knowing what happened to these men. Furthermore, the book doubted the authenticity of the story. Many survivors said they saw something one someone when in fact they were no where near the scene. Everyone had to have their day in the press I suppose.
To me, Officer Murdoch was a gallant and brave man thrust into impossible circumstances. Even if he had to shoot someone in a mob, he wouldn't have done it without justification.
In the end, you are right. Cameron should have been a little more careful.
You're right; I'd forgotten about those passages in A Night to Remember.
shareThe explosions, I think, were meant to be the boilers exploding and/or the remaining bulkheads giving way. It wasn't proven that the ship had broken in two until the wreck was found in 1985. Prior to that some survivors had sworn it had broken in two, while others maintained -with equal sincerity- that it had sunk intact.
Cameron's greatest slander was depicting Murdoch as initially willing to accept a bribe from Cal. The issue of him shooting himself is a little more complicated. In his sequal book The Night Lives On, written in 1987, Walter Lord addresses the subject of an officer shooting himself. Lord quotes the recollections of two survivors, one was a Frenchman from First Class, the other was an Irish immigrant from Third Class. Both of them were close to the bridge as it went under and both swam off and made it to a collapsable boat. Each man wrote down that they had seen an officer shoot himself just before the bridge went underwater. Both of them were writing this account in letters to close relatives (the Frenchman was writing to his wife, the Irishman to his sister), and both wrote these accounts just days after the sinking.
Lord's quotes these letters which describe an almost identical scene. And, as he points out, both were private letters to loved ones, versus stories for the newspapers. As well, each was writing just days after witnessing the event, not years later when popular imagination could have taken over.
Lord concludes that the almost identical similarities in these independent accounts, leads him to believe that an officer most likely DID shoot himself as the ship was sinking. The only question was, which officer was it. Lord believed it was one of the officers lost from the Deck Department (as opposed to a Purser or Engineering Officer). It wasn't Captain Smith, as he would have been easily recognized. The officer -according to each account- said "Every man for himself" before shooting himself. Lord felt this was important, as of the three officers, Sixth Officer Moody didn't have the authority to give such a command. That left either Chief Officer Wilde or First Officer Murdoch. There's good evidence supporting each other one as the officer in question.
Wilde, had been coping with serious personal problems. His wife, had died in a stillbirth on Christmas Eve of 1910, leaving him with their four other children to raise. Many accounts had him still severely depressed over this and there is speculation that the sinking was the final psychological straw for him.
Murdoch, on the other hand, had been in command of the bridge when they struck the iceberg. Thus, it was him who had given the orders which had failed to save the ship. Lord speculated that if his thoughts turned to suicide over what he felt was his own guilt, it would be logical.
Thanks for the information. I have been a lifelong student of Titanic and I have always noticed a lack of information about Officer Wilde. He was barely mentioned in "A Night to Remember" and often not even portrayed in many of the films. He had a tragic life near the end. I also read that Lookout Frederick Fleet committed suicide some years after Titanic. He had been discouraged from the death of his wife and he hung himself (or so I read).
share[deleted]
Sorry for my butt in as well- You are correct in stating no authoritative account of the sinking since 1912, since there had been the US and the British boards of inquiry of the USA had no legal authority what so ever, but was authoritative and very in depth.
But there where many eye witnesses that stated they distinctly saw the Titanic split in half. in fact in the book "The sinking of the Titanic and other great sea disasters (1912) by Logan Marshall, published in late April 1912 less than 2 weeks after sinking, before official inquirers. Jack Thayer, a Titanic survivor, a 17 year old American son of a NY Millionaire, actually drew a sketch of the titanic splitting, and even gets the division and point of the split dead on.
When found in 1985, it did not surprise researchers at all, nor most other interested and readers of actual accounts.
here is a link to the picture of john (jack) Thayer re-drawn by a newspaper artist that appeared in the book as well as many newspapers of the day:
http://www.stevenujifusa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Thayer-Sketch.jpg
Eddonnell:
The teenaged Jack Thayer was from Philadelphia. Yes, the ship did split in two . . . the explosions? Well, many witnesses stated they heard them, and many news accounts report this . . . I keep coming across this explosion business . . . yet nobody really investigated that matter . . . I doubt if they were boilers exploding, never heard of such a thing . . .
from wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiler_explosion
Boiler explosions are common in sinking ships once the superheated boiler touches cold sea water, as the sudden cooling of the superheated metal causes it to crack; for instance, when the SS Ben Lomond was torpedoed by a U-boat, the torpedoes and resulting boiler explosion caused the ship to go down in two minutes, leaving Poon Lim as the only survivor in a complement of 54 crew.
"I'll do the masterminding around here." -Sgt. Stryker, "Sands of Iwo Jima"
No, there's something funny with this explosion business . . . very odd . . . it should've been properly investigated by the commissions involved . . . but little was really investigated . . .
shareNo, there's something funny with this explosion business . . . very odd . . . it should've been properly investigated by the commissions involved . . . but little was really investigated . . .
They did.
They asked many, many questions regarding the sounds heard that were thought to be explosions, and they asked about the possibility of the ship breaking in half. The problem is they *believed* the wrong people. Not that it would be illogical for them to believe one of the individuals consulted, Edward Wilding, who employed by Harland & Wolff as a ship designer. Wilding testified that he did not believe Titanic broke in half and explained all the reasons why. He went on to speculate just what is said above, the icy waters hit the red-hot boilers and a series of steam explosions was the result.
Second Officer Lightoller backed this claim by saying the Titanic was most absolutely intact at the time she disappeared from the surface, but if you look at his position as he swam away from the ship he would have been in an odd spot to be able to know for sure what he was seeing. As the bridge went under, Lightoller testified he was washed off the deck and on instinct, just desperate to find anything to lift himself onto to escape the pain of the icy waters, he swam forward, toward the crow's nest, which was directly in front of him at this point. Realizing the futility in trying to reach a descending crow's nest, he swam toward the upturned collapsible, which was immediately off the port side, where the wing bridge would have been only moments before. I personally thing one of two things happened here: Either Lightoller was too close to the ship to be able to tell for sure if it broke in half as it sank or not, and since he didn't see it happen he didn't believe it. Or...he towed the company line, acted in what he believed would be in the best interest of his employer, and flat out lied.
Wilding may well have truly believed the Titanic couldn't have broken in half, but he too had much skin in the game. And it's interesting to note that the only people who went on record saying they saw Titanic tear itself apart as it went down were passengers, while at the same time the only people who flat out denied such an event ever happened were members of the crew, or employees of Harland & Wolff/White Star Line.
In the end, both inquiries done on both sides of the Atlantic chose to believe the 'expertise' those with the most skin in the game. Bad enough the company flagship was now at the bottom of the Atlantic, but imagine what people would think if it snapped in half also!
Anyway, that's the story. I'm sure I left out some details, but that's the gist of it. share
eddonnell, your statement about the U.S. Congressional inquiry into the sinking of that Titanic, that
the USA had no legal authority what so ever
is not accurate. The White Star Line was owned by International Mercantile Marine, which was an American corporation controlled by J. P. Morgan. Thus, every White Star liner was technically an American-owned vessel, though they flew the British flag and were registered in Britain. In short, by 1912 White Star was an American company.
Therefore, the U.S. Congress did indeed have every right to investigate the sinking, and in fact that inquiry was as you indicate far more extensive and honest than the whitewash conducted by the British Board of Trade in its biased "inquiry". share