Titanic

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Titanic

The largest and most luxurious liner of the time, the R.M.S. Titanic was a wonder of its age. The ship was a vast symbol of the industrial age and an emblem of the power of the British Empire. But the fame of the Titanic before it sailed was nothing compared with what followed. Retold in numerous books, documentaries, and films, the story of the Titanic has become a modern folk tragedy. A warning against pride and overconfidence, it is also a fable of lost dreams, dignified bravery, and greedy self-interest.

The story of the Titanic begins in 1907. J. Bruce Ismay (1862–1937), head of the White Star shipping line, commissioned the shipbuilders Harland and Wolff of Belfast, Ireland, to create three new liners for the North Atlantic crossing. The Olympic, the Titanic, and the Britannic would carry passengers and mail between Britain and the United States. Built alongside the larger second vessel, the Olympic was the first to be finished. But the Titanic was the masterpiece. White Star's ships offered greater stability, luxury, and sheer size than rival Cunard's fleet. The Titanic, then the largest moving object ever made, was launched into the river Langan on May 31, 1911.

The ill-fated maiden voyage of the R.M.S. Titanic (the R.M.S. stands for Royal Mail Steamer) began from Southampton on April 10, 1912. The ship stopped at Cherbourg, France, and Queenstown (now Cobh), Ireland. Then the Titanic left for New York carrying over 2,200 passengers and hundreds of mail bags on April 12. The Titanic struck an iceberg on April 14 and sank off Newfoundland with the loss of 1,513 lives. Considered unsinkable, the ship carried lifeboats for only half its passengers. The inquiries that followed pointed blame in many directions, including at Captain Edward John Smith (1850–1912) for hurrying through dangerous waters, and at White Star for ignoring the need for lifeboats. The sinking led to tougher safety rules for shipping, including instructions for dealing with disasters, and the establishment of the International Ice Patrol.

But while the Titanic disaster had an effect on rules for shipping, its influence on popular culture was profound. Some religious leaders claimed the wreck was a warning from God against the excesses of the "Gilded Age" (the period of rapid industrialization in the late 1900s). Some women survivors were criticized for not staying behind with their husbands. Groups campaigning for women's rights actually complained about the unfair treatment of men left behind on the sinking ship. At a time when the social classes were strictly divided, the Titanic revealed the different experiences of people from different backgrounds. Passengers in the cheaper "steerage" cabins were much less likely to have survived than first-class passengers. It was suspected that lower-class passengers were never meant to be rescued.

Just one month after the disaster, Saved from the Titanic was filmed on the Olympic, starring survivor Dorothy Gibson (1884–1946). Lawrence Beesley (1877–1967) published the first survivor's account of the tragedy, The Loss of the S.S. Titanic, six weeks after the event. Numerous books, magazine articles, and popular songs appeared in the aftermath of the disaster, but by 1913, Titanic mania had eased. Among the most interesting of the many early movies are Atlantic (1929) and Titanic (1943), a German propaganda film. The Titanic enjoyed renewed notoriety in the 1950s. The best of the films from that decade is A Night to Remember (1958). In 1960, there was even a popular Broadway musical telling the story of survivor Margaret Tobin Brown (1867–1932), entitled The Unsinkable Molly Brown. Titanic: A New Musical revived the story for the stage in 1997.

A second revival in the 1970s included the best-selling novel by Clive Cussler (1931–), Raise the Titanic (1976). Many real-life attempts have been made over the years to find and raise the Titanic. One of the more unlikely plans was to freeze the water inside the ship. It would then rise to the surface like, of all things, an iceberg. But it was not until September 1985 that American Robert Ballard (1942–) and Frenchman Jean-Louis Michel finally located the wreck. After much debate about whether the ship should be left untouched as a grave site, artifacts were finally recovered from the wreck. An exhibition of objects from the Titanic went on tour around the world.

In the twenty-first century, a Titanic industry produces everything from models of the ship to reproductions of china and silverware. There is a Titanic Historical Society dedicated to all things Titanic, and there are many small Titanic museums in Britain, Ireland, and America. Perhaps the most lavish tribute to the ship, its passengers, and its crew is the 1997 film by James Cameron (1954–), Titanic, co-starring teen heart-throb Leonardo DiCaprio (1974–). Using near-life-sized models and enhancing them with computer-generated images, Cameron's film was the most expensive ever made. Despite historical inaccuracies, Titanic the movie is as much a wonder of its own age as the ship was in 1912.

—Chris Routledge