On the night of 14 and 15 April, the The RMS Titanic sank in the North Atlantic, after a collision with an iceberg. Over 1,500 passengers and crew died, with only 710 survivors. This ship's sinking has become one of the most famous events of the 20th Century, with numerous books and films made about the disaster.

In the 100 years since the sinking, many myths have arisen about the Titanic, some of which are true, others not.

All figures are believed to be as accurate as possible, however completely accurate records were not kept and the exact numbers of survivors and victims etc are disputed between historians.

No vessel like the Titanic had been seen before

False

In fact the Titanic was the second ship of her class, after the Olympic. Titanic was only larger in regards to her gross tonnage, 46,328 tons rather than 45,323. The two ships were so identical that the Titanic never had its own plans, the ones for the Olympic were re-used.

The Titanic was longer than the height of the world's tallest building

True.

The Titanic was 882 feet, 9 inches long while the world's tallest building was the 700 feet tall Metropolitan Life Tower in New York. However, the construction of tall buildings and ships is completely different.

The Titanic was fine when she left Belfast

True.

In fact, she was magnificent. Scientific research into the 'Big Piece' of the Titanic raised from the seabed show that despite rumours she was strongly built and able to withstand almost anything, with sole exception of side-swiping injuries from rocks or icebergs. It is possible that more of the rivets could have been made stronger, of steel rather than iron, but that would not have made much difference.

The Titanic's home port was Liverpool

Technically Liverpool was the Titanic's Port of Registry, although she never actually went there. A Port of Registry is not necessarily a port which a ship sails from or visits.

Titanic was built and launched in Belfast, but the only port she was berthed in was Southampton, mooring outside both Cherbourg and Queenstown. Although Liverpool had been White Star Lines' principal port, from 1907 the White Star Line sailed from Southampton, although it still had its headquarters in Liverpool. Southampton was closer to London, the docks were owned by the London South Western Railway which made travel to and from London easier, Southampton had a deep-water channel and several drydocks, including what was at the time world's largest¹. However over a hundred White Star employees from Liverpool were onboard the Titanic.

The sinking was all Bruce Ismay's fault

False.

Joseph Bruce Ismay was chairman and managing director of the White Star Line after the death of his father in 1899. He had ordered the construction of the Titanic and her two sisterships. However, early in his life, he made the mistake of inadvertently making an enemy of powerful American newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst², a man who knew how to hold a grudge. There are unsupported claims that he requested that Captain Smith maintain full speed, however no evidence for this has survived. Ismay, when the ship was sinking, spent 90 minutes getting women and children into lifeboats before being urged into collapsible boat C, the penultimate lifeboat launched, when there were no women or children in the vicinity. If he had not done so, there would simply have been another empty seat on a lifeboat and one more victim, yet Hearst was determined to blame Ismay for the disaster in every newspaper he owned.

The Titanic was going too fast

True.

There are reports that the Titanic was speeding across the Atlantic in an attempt to make a record crossing. This is untrue. The crew were well aware that Titanic was too large a ship to compete with Cunard's smaller and faster Mauretania and Lusitania in terms of speed, which routinely travelled at 26 knots. Similarly from February 1912 there was a coal strike. Although this had ended four days before Titanic set sail, new shipments of coal had yet to reach Southampton where 17,000 men had lost their jobs because of the strike. To provide enough coal for the voyage, other ships' sailings were cancelled, including the, RMS Majestic, RMS Adriatic, RMS Oceanic and SS Philedelphia, whose passengers were transferred to the Titanic. Similarly, several of the ship's boilers were left unlit to save coal. For the Titanic to cross the Atlantic, the preciously-small amounts of coal needed to be conserved.

Second Officer Lightoller stated at the enquiry that 'for the first 12 months [in service] the ship never attains her full speed' to avoid straining engines before they had settled and that he believed the Titanic could comfortably travel in excess of 24 knots and was, at the time, doing about 21½.

Over all, though, the Titanic would have been able to manoeuvre out of the iceberg's way had she been travelling slower. Lightoller stated that throughout the 14th there had been warnings of icebergs, but none lay on their course, so largely ignored. However there had been a message from the SS Mesaba regarding icebergs directly on the Titanic's course, a message which was never passed to the bridge. Lightoller believed that Captain Smith, had he received the message, the Titanic would have slowed down and, according to Lightoller, 'More than likely, in fact almost certainly, he would have stopped the ship altogether entirely and waited for daylight to feel his way through.'

The conclusion of the British enquiry into the disaster was that the Titanic was lost 'due to collision with an iceberg, brought about by the excessive speed at which the ship was being navigated'.

The Titanic did not have enough lifeboats

Unarguably true.

She did carry four more than the Board of Trade required (20 rather than 16), and the lifeboats themselves were capable of carrying more passengers (up to 65) when full. 14 boats could carry 65 people, two extra could carry forty and four collapsible boats could carry up to 47 each, a total of 1,178 lifeboat places for the 2,208 onboard (47% of the passengers and crew), with the Board of Trade regulations specifying only 1,060 lifeboat places, although only 710 made it to the lifeboats. At the time of her construction pressure was on ship-builders to make ships less likely to sink and provide water-tight bulkheads, rather than build ships likely to capsize equipped with plenty of lifeboats.

The designers had built the lifeboat davits, the devices which lowered the lifeboats to the water, capable of lowering up to four lifeboats on each pair of davits, however only one lifeboat per pair of davits was onboard Titanic.

Most of the passengers were in steerage

False.

There were no steerage passengers onboard Titanic. 'Steerage' is a term used to describe passengers held within the ship's hold in a large, shared dormitory accommodation onboard ships, all within one room, with no privacy, few toilets and usually no food provided, often without drinking water³. All passengers on Titanic had 4 or 6 man cabins, even in third class, with good meals served. White Star prided itself on having eliminated steerage and having single men and women's accommodation at opposite ends of the ship, single women at the stern, single men at the bow, with family accommodation in the middle. Despite this, the term 'Steerage' has stuck.

Most people in Third Class on the Titanic were Irish

False

This is an image perpetrated by films on the Titanic. People from 31 different countries were onboard, however more people in Third Class were British, followed by Irish⁴, who only just outnumbered Third Class Swedish passengers. Of the 113 Irish Third Class passengers, only 47 survived. Only 18 of the 118 British Third Class passengers survived. 23 of the 104 Swedish passengers in Third Class survived.

The majority of people in First Class were American. Across all classes, of the four predominant passenger nationalities onboard, 58% of the 306 Americans survived, 32% of the 327 British passengers, 35% of the 120 Irish and 24% of the 113 Swedish passengers survived.

Titanic was a luxurious liner

True.

In First Class, a Parlour suite cost £870, now the equivalent of £63,110, while a cabin would cost £30, now £2,210. First Class areas included the Verandah and Palm Court, A La Carte Restaurant, Café Parisien, dining saloon and galley. Additionally there was a First Class Smoking Room, First Class staircases and lifts, open promenade on A deck, lounge, and a gymnasium equipped with rowing machines, electric camel, electric horse, electric back-rubbing machine, electric vibration machine and bicycles, First Class barber, squash court and Turkish baths⁵. She was the first ship designed to have a heated swimming pool⁶ six feet deep. Most cabins, though not all, had baths⁷.

Second Class cabins cost £12, now about £867. Cabins came with own washbasins, but shared baths and toilets. Second Class passengers had their own enclosed promenade, smoke room, library, a dining saloon capable of seating up to 2,400 people, barber and a second class lift.

Third class cabins cost between £3-8, now £221-£568. Facilities included general rooms, smoking room, an outside promenade on the aft well deck, a galley and a dining saloon capable of holding 475, with three sittings expected. Cabins were shared between four or six people, with curtains for privacy. Washbasins were provided in each cabin, but third class only had two baths between them all, one male one female. This, though, reflected contemporary attitudes; among the poorest people at the time there was a perception that bathing was unhealthy and caused pneumonia. Attitudes in Third Class that being engulfed in water would lead to death cannot, in hindsight, be argued with.

The third class passengers were locked up

True.

It was an American immigration policy that third class passengers were to be separated from the rest of the passengers for health reasons. It appears that during the sinking some, though not all, of these gated barriers remained in place in the early stages of the ship's sinking, although investigation of the wreck by submarine has shown that all these barriers were open at the time the Titanic sank underwater.

Further problems the third class passengers experienced during the sinking included the unfamiliarity with where the lifeboats were, none of which were located on the third class promenade on the aft well deck. Third Class passengers also did not know how to get to the outside of the ship in the ship's complex maze of identical corridors⁸ and that instructions from the ship's personnel were only given in English, which were not always understood.

The crew manned the lifeboats, and so survived

Although 60% of the deck crew survived, manning and commanding the lifeboats, only 15% of the below-deck crew survived. The rest manned their posts and no engineers, electricians or fitters survived, keeping power working throughout the ship as long as possible to help with the evacuation.

Everyone called the ship 'Unsinkable'

False.

It makes a good story that the engineer who designed RMS Titanic claimed that 'God himself couldn't sink this ship' shortly before the ship sank, but this is not true, just a story. In fact, there's no record of anyone from the White Star Line making the claim that RMS Titanic was 'unsinkable'. The truth is that, in 1911, Shipbuilder magazine published an article describing the construction of the Olympic-class vessels. This stated that when the watertight doors were closed, the ships would be 'practically unsinkable'. This quote has since been taken out of context and attributed to White Star and Thomas Andrews.

In fact, the first ship that was advertised as being 'practically unsinkable owing to the Watertight Bulkhead Doors being hydraulically controlled' in the Shipbuilder magazine was the RMS Mauretania in 1908.

The Titanic disaster resulted in all Harvard students learning to swim

False.

On Harry Elkins Widener's death, his mother donated his book collection to the university to form the Widener Library, also known as the Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library, Harvard. It is true that Harvard used to require all students to pass a swimming test before they could graduate, however this was because of Harvard's Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps programme⁹, not related to the Titanic and not a condition of the Widener donation.

RMS Titanic was the first ship to transmit an SOS distress call

False.

Titanic was the fourth ship to use this new signal, which replaced CQD¹⁰ on 1 July, 1908. The first ship to transmit an SOS distress call was the SS Slavoniaon 10 June 1909. The second was the SS Arapahoe on 14 August 1909 when the ship lost its screw new Diamond Shoals. The SS Arapahoe received an SOS from the SS Iroquois in 1911, the first ship to both transmit and receive a distress call.

Curiously, the inventor of the radio, Guglielmo Marconi¹¹ had originally been invited to be on the Titanic, but his son Giulio was ill. Instead Beatrice and Degna Marconi, his wife and daughter, watched the Titanic depart from the top of Luttrell's Tower¹² on Southampton Water.

The sinking of the Titanic is the greatest peacetime maritime disaster ever

False.

Sadly not, it is the third greatest loss of life at sea. Over 1,500 died onboard when the Titanic sank. On 27 April, 1865 the Mississippi steamboat SS Sultana sank with the loss of 1,800 people near Memphis, Tennessee. On 20 December, 1987 the overcrowded MV Dona Paz collided with an oil tanker, the MT Vector off Mindoro, overturned and sank amongst a raging oil fire, killing 4,500 passengers and crew. Only 26 from both ships survived.

The greatest loss of life at sea occurred on 30 January, 1945 when the German MV Wilhelm Gustloff was sunk by the Soviet submarine S-13 with the loss of over 9,000.

The Captain of the Carpathia was knighted for his actions

True, rescuing the survivors played a part in his knighted.

The Carpathia was 58 miles away heading in the opposite direction when the distress call was heard. Captain Rostron immediately took charge. Although the Carpathia had a top speed of 14 knots and would not arrive at the scene for several hours, Captain Rostron:

• Increased the speed of his ship to 17.5 knots by turning off the heating and nonessential electricity to increase speed, making their arrival time in three rather than the expected five hours.
• Posted extra lookouts to look for icebergs.
• Ordered the ship's doctors to convert dining rooms etc into fully prepared medical stations.
• Stocked all areas with blankets, clothes, food and hot drink.
• Prepared the side of his ship with electric lights, ladders, chair slings and nets to help the survivors.
• His and all officers' cabins were given to the survivors.
• Posted stewards to keep the Carpathia's 740 passengers informed of what was going on, but separate to avoid confusion.
• Arranged all survivor names to be recorded and forwarded by radio.
• Fired rockets every 15 minutes to reassure the Titanic survivors that help was on the way.
• Prepared all lifeboats for immediate launch should survivors be seen in the water.

After rescuing all the lifeboats, Carpathia returned to New York and Captain Rostron was thanked by President Taft, awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the Thanks of Congress and American Cross of Honor. His service record during the Great War was exemplary. He was knighted, becoming a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1926. He died in Southampton in 1940.

Captain Smith was a hero

False.

Captain Smith was originally from Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent but had lived in Southampton for some year at the time he took command of the Titanic. He was appointed captain not because of his ability to captain a ship but because of his ability to socialise with first class passengers. He held ultimate responsibility for his ship, the number of lookouts and the speed it was going, though not the number of lifeboats onboard. He was also responsible for loading the lifeboats, most of which left without being filled. Had the lifeboats been better loaded, more passengers would have survived.

The exact details of his death are unknown, only that he did indeed go down with the ship. Initial newspaper reports stated that he had a fight with his officers as the ship sank and then shot himself on the bridge. There are conversely legends that he dashed around saving children and his last words to his crew were 'Be British', neither of which are verifiable and are likely to be stories. When compared with the captain of the Costa Concordia, there is no denying that Captain Smith met his end with brave dignity.

Curiously, in the immediate aftermath Captain Smith was considered anything but a hero in his hometown. Although he was from Hanley, Stoke-On-Trent, the statue to him stands in Beacon Park, Lichfield. This is because it was paid for by public subscription to a fund dedicated to erect a statue to him, but Stoke-On-Trent's council refused to allow a statue of the disgraced captain to be erected within the city limits. Lichfield was the nearest place to his hometown prepared to accept the monument.

The final song played was 'Nearer, My God, to Thee'

Possibly True.

Bandleader Wallace Hartley's father Albion Hartley was the choirmaster at Bethel Independent Methodist Chapel, and 'Nearer, My God, to Thee' was his favourite hymn¹³. 'Nearer, My God, to Thee' was sung by the doomed crew and passengers of the SS Valencia as it sank off Canada in 1906. The press may have simply recycled this story for the Titanic, but it was known at the time among ocean liner musicians that this was an appropriate hymn for when a ship sank. A friend of Hartley who also worked for White Star through the Black Talent Agency¹⁴ claims to have discussed this hymn with Hartley, and that Hartley had said that if he was onboard a sinking ship he would play that hymn, especially as it had family connections. Other survivors state that the last song they heard was 'Songe d'Automne', also known as 'Autumn'. As none of the band survived, the truth will never be known.

The Titanic sank in perfect weather

The weather was calm, but not perfect.

It is known that the Titanic sank in a calm, moonless night when the sea was 'as calm as a millpond'. Had the sea been more turbulent, with foam crashing at the base of the berg, or the moon been out, the iceberg would have been easier to spot. It is known that April 1912 had the fourth most icebergs recorded in shipping lanes in the 20th Century. These icebergs are brought into the north Atlantic by the icy Labrador Current.

In 1912, all ships were required to measure temperature and weather and record them in logbooks. One recent theory on the sinking has examined the logbooks for the North Atlantic for the time and area of the Titanic's sinking and discovered that the Titanic sank where the icy Labrador Current met the warm air of the Gulf Stream. In these conditions of hot and cold air mixing, visual distortion called 'refraction' takes place. This distortion, also known as a 'mirage', could conceivably have changed the lookout's perception, giving the impression of water where ice lay ahead, preventing them from seeing the iceberg until it was too late.

The Carpathia was not the closest ship to the disaster

True.

The closest ship was the SS Californian which was north-east of the Titanic, although exactly how far is still fiercely contested. The Titanic did not sink where her SOS message claimed she was, and was found 10 miles away from where she was expected, further away from the Californian. Reports of how far apart they were range from 5 to 20 miles. When the Titanic sank, the Californian's only radio operator was asleep¹⁵. Distress rockets were seen onboard the Californian, but ship flares' use in distress situations had not been established and these were interpreted as 'company signals' such as would be fired whenever two ships of the same fleet crossed paths. The Californian and Titanic appeared to be visible to each other and both tried signalling each other using Morse lamps, however neither ship was able to interpret any message sent by the other. Although the crew of the Titanic reported seeing a ship's lights which appeared to be about five miles away, which they believed to be the Californian, when the lifeboats tried to row towards the lights no lifeboats made it to the Californian and they did not appear to be getting any closer. It has been suggested that the Californian's apparent proximity may have been an illusion caused by refraction and atmospheric conditions.

The crew of the Titanic were all fired the instant that the ship sank

True.

This meant that the widows of the crew had to rely on public donations or get re-married quickly in order to survive. Public appeals to raise money for the widows and orphans were set up, especially by the Salvation Army, and eventually White Star contributed to this after public pressure.

Much of the fund was collected in Southampton, the town hardest hit. Ensign Palmer of the Salvation Army wrote

'On Saturday the 20th, I spent three and a half hours [in Southampton] collecting for the Relief Fund, and never want to live again through such an experience. Thousands wept with us. We collected £30 10s, £20 in copper, and many hundred of halfpennies were given by the poorest of the poor.'

On the other hand, although there were claims for $16million worth of insured items by wealthy passengers, White Star only paid $600,000.

The names of who in the crew survived were not published in Southampton until three days after the list of surviving first class passengers were announced in London. Even then, the names were published only by surname, so although it was announced that, for example, 'Smith' survived, families had no way of knowing whether it was their 'Smith' or not.

The Titanic's loss caused a mutiny

True.

On 24 April, nine days after the Titanic disaster, 285 of sister ship Olympic's crew, members of the Seafarer's Union, refused to sail from Southampton, going on strike. 35 extra collapsible lifeboats had been quickly placed onboard following the Titanic disaster; however this was reduced to 24. A rumour passed round that these collapsible boats were being removed as they were not sea-worthy. These 285 men refused to work unless the collapsible boats were replaced by conventional lifeboats. Non-Union replacements for these 285 were transported from Sheffield, many of whom were coal-miners, however this caused the remaining 600 or more crew to strike also, which Captain Haddock of the Olympic labelled mutiny. 53 men were arrested and sent to court for mutiny, the case going to trial in Portsmouth. An investigation declared the collapsible lifeboats seaworthy, however the judge decided it would be inappropriate to fine or imprison the mutineers. The Olympic eventually sailed on 15 May.

The loss of the Titanic had been predicted

True.

In Britain, the man whose death onboard the Titanic was reported most was author, journalist and spiritualist William Thomas Stead, who was rumoured to be about to win the 1912 Nobel Peace Prize. On 22 March 1886 he published a fictional article 'How the Mail Steamer Went Down in Mid-Atlantic, by a Survivor' about a ship that sank in the Atlantic which did not have enough lifeboats. The last line of which was

'This is exactly what might take place and will take place if the liners are sent to sea short of boats.'

In 1892 he wrote a story, From the Old World to the New about a fictional ship, the Majestic, rescuing the survivors of a ship that hit an iceberg in the Atlantic.

Most famous is the novella 'Futility', after 1912 published as 'Futility: or the Wreck of the Titan' by American author Morgan Robertson, written in 1898. It features a ship driven by three propellers 800 feet long called the Titan which everyone considers to be unsinkable which could carry up to 3,000 passengers that struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic at midnight and many people drowned as the ship only carried 24 lifeboats. The Titanic was driven by three propellers, 882 feet 9 inches long and could carry almost 2,500 passengers and equipped with only 20 lifeboats. It struck an iceberg at 11:40pm in the North Atlantic.

The Titanic was carrying a cursed Egyptian mummy

False.

Journalist and author William T Stead is known to have entertained his fellow passengers a ghost story on the night of the 12th April, a story he had already sold for publication, about a cursed Egyptian Mummy, the Priestess of Amun Ra¹⁶. The gist of the story was that all who touched the mummy's coffin were supposed to have died shortly afterwards and, after several deaths in the British Museum, the mummy had been sold to an American collector and was travelling onboard the Titanic.

The truth is that the coffin nicknamed the 'Priestess of Amun Ra' is exhibit EA 22542, on display in Room 62 of the British Museum. The Titanic's manifest mentions no Egyptian artefacts in the cargo hold.

The Titanic disaster was a conspiracy

False

Like most famous world events, several conspiracy theories have been suggested over the years, including suggestions that the ship was sunk on the orders of the Pope.

The most common theory is that the Titanic was really her sister ship Olympic in disguise, a ship which had already suffered a collision with HMS Hawke. The theory is that while the Olympic was in Belfast being repaired when Titanic was being constructed, the White Star Line had the ship names swapped over and arranged for the Olympic, now disguised as the Titanic, to sink in order to get insurance money. The problem with this theory is that there were numerous differences between the two ships, porthole and vent locations, sheltered promenades etc, that to change their identity would require a vast workforce working in secret on two vessels towering over the city of Belfast and hoping that no-one noticed. Not only this but the Titanic was under-insured by over $2.5 million, so in fact the White Star Line lost a fortune in the sinking, many of their most loyal and talented employees and customers as well as their international reputation. Why they would do this on purpose has not been adequately explained.

The Titanic disaster improved maritime safety

True.

In April 1913 thirteen nations agreed to SOLAS, the International Convention for the Safety Of Life At Sea, which is now ratified by 160 countries worldwide. This created the International Ice Patrol and ships are required to maintain a 24-hour radio watch. Provisions for lifeboats for all passengers and the importance of lifeboat drills were also introduced, and the use of flares in emergencies clarified.

The Titanic disaster could never happen today

False.

Although the invention of sonar and radar and laws regarding the provision of lifeboats etc have increased maritime safety, there is no way of eliminating all risk. Perhaps demonstrating this, shortly before the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, the MS Costa Concordia sank in January 2012, with the loss of 34 lives.

If the Titanic had not sank, she would still be afloat today

Probably not.

Many of her contemporaries sank soon after:

• HMHS¹⁷Britannia - Titanic's sister ship – torpedoed/mined 1916
• SS Californian - The closest ship to Titanic - torpedoed 1915
• RMS Carpathia - The ship that rescued the survivors - torpedoed 1918
• RMS Lusitania - Rival Cunard liner - torpedoed 1915
• SS Mesabi - The ship that issued an ice warning to the Titanic that was not passed to the bridge - torpedoed 1918
• La Provence - French liner, first vessel to receive Titanic's distress call – torpedoed 1916

Although both RMS Olympic¹⁸ and RMS Mauretania survived the Great War, they were scrapped soon after. During the Great War Titanic would certainly have been commandeered for war work, and become a tempting target for any U-Boat. If the Titanic hadn't sunk in 1912 it may well have sunk within six years, but not introduced the international safety laws that her loss created. Only one White Star vessel, the tender Nomadic, survives today. If Titanic had not been sunk in the war, she probably simply have been scrapped at the end of her career.

Survival Rates: Women, Children and First Class first?

It is true that 75% of the female passengers survived, compared to 20% of the male passengers. It really was 'women and children first', although more men from First class survived than children from Third class. 49 of the 50 children who died were from Third Class. The youngest, Sidney Leslie Goodwin, was only 19 months old.

One child survivor, six year old Douglas Spedden, slept through the whole sinking. Sadly when aged 9 he was killed in a car accident, one of the first car fatalities in Maine.

'Survival' itself is a very loose term. 23-month old survivor Maria Nackid died of meningitis on 30 July, 1912, 75 days after being rescued. Colonel Archibald Gracie survived but suffered from hypothermia from being in the icy water and died a few months later. Eight 'survivors' later committed suicide, including Frederick Fleet, the lookout who spotted the iceberg. He was buried in an unmarked grave in Southampton until 1994, when a gravestone was placed by the Titanic Historical Society.

• 38% of First Class passengers died:
• 119 men died, 54 lived
• 11 women & children died, 145 lived.
• 59% of Second Class died:
• 142 men died, 15 lived
• 24 women & children died, 104 lived
• 75% of Third Class died:
• 417 men died, 69 lived
• 119 women & children died, 105 lived
• 77% of Crew died:
• 682 men died¹⁹, 194 lived
• 3 women died, 20 lived

More Third Class men survived than second class. However two Third Class families in particular were hard hit. John and Annie Sage had nine children onboard, Fred and Augusta Goodwin had six. None of either family survived.

Three of the nine dogs onboard survived.

The Titanic In Film & Television

Many of the myths that have arisen about the Titanic have been created or perpetuated by film and television. Many films are likely to have been inspired by the disaster, such as The Poseidon Adventure twice, however the Titanic story has itself been frequently dramatised.

The impact of these films can be measured in the fact that standing at the front of a ship and holding your arms out was unknown in 1996, however since 1997 it has become accepted and expected behaviour for those boarding ships and ferries for the first time.

It is not only film and television that have entered into the public consciousness surrounding the Titanic. In 1912 author Thomas Hardy, famed for Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Far from the Madding Crowd wrote a poem entitled 'The Convergence of the Twain (Lines on the loss of the Titanic', which includes the words:

And as the smart ship grew

In stature, grace and hue

In shadowy silent distance grew the Iceberg too.

In 1997 a Broadway musical at the Lunt-Fontaine Theatre won five Tony Awards, with the set tilting during the production.

The Titanic has become synonymous with doomed ships. Its name is now used to signify any doomed vessel, including spacecraft, inspiring computer games such as Douglas Adams' Starship Titanic and the Doctor Who Christmas special Voyage of the Damned and appearing in films such as Time Bandits and Ghostbusters II.