The Rough Guide
to the Titanic
Did the makers of the Titanic claim that she was unsinkable? Did her passengers believe her to be unsinkable?
Only the faintest of pre-tragedy references to the Titanic’s supposed unsinkability have been discovered. Describing the system of watertight compartments used in both the Titanic and her sister ship, Titanic,Rough Guide Titanic,Rough Guide to the Titanic,Titanic book review,Titanic books,Titanic book,Titanic best book,Titanic latest book,Titanic new book,Titanic newest book,Titanic good book,Titanic cheap book,Kindle,Titanic Kindle,Titanic e-book,Titanic Amazon,Titanic Amazon book,Rough Guide,Rough Guides,Lonely Planet,DK Titanic,Dorling Kindersley Titanic,Penguin Titanic,A Night to Remember book,A Night to Remember movie,A Night to Remember YouTube,Belfast,Californian,Captain Smith,Captain Smith film,Captain Smith footage,Captain Smith movie,Captain Smith photo,Captain Smith YouTube,Cherbourg,DiCaprio Titanic,Duff Gordon,Harland & Wolff,history titanic,HMS Titanic,iceberg,Ismay,It was sad when that great ship went down,J. Bruce Ismay,Jack Dawson Titanic,James Cameron Titanic,James Cameron’s Titanic,James Cameron’s Titanic re-release,John Jacob Astor,Julian Fellowes,Julian Fellowes Titanic,Julian Fellows,Kate Winslet Titanic,Lady Lucile Duff Gordon,Leo DiCaprio Titanic,Leonardo DiCaprio Titanic,Lightoller,Liverpool,Nearer My God To Thee,Night To Remember Titanic,Olympic and Titanic,Olympic sister ship,Olympic Titanic,real story titanic,real titanic,RMS Titanic,Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon,SOS Titanic,Southampton,SS Titanic,true story titanic,true titanic,Unsinkable,Unsinkable Molly Brown,Titanic 1912,Titanic 2012,Titanic anniversary,Titanic answers,titanic artefacts,titanic articles,titanic artifacts,titanic auction,Titanic author,titanic band,titanic books,titanic built,Titanic Californian,Titanic Carpathia,titanic cast,Titanic centenary,titanic characters,titanic college,Titanic collision iceberg,Titanic conspiracy,titanic conspiracy,Titanic conspiracy theories,titanic crash,Titanic dead,Titanic death,Titanic disaster,titanic discovery,titanic documentary,Titanic Downton Abbey,titanic encyclopedia,titanic engines,Titanic essay,titanic exhibit,titanic experience,Titanic expert,titanic facts,titanic facts and figures,titanic film,titanic first-class,titanic free,titanic fun facts,titanic gifts,Titanic Greg Ward,Titanic history,titanic hits iceberg,titanic how it sank,titanic how many,titanic hymns,Titanic iceberg,titanic images,titanic information,Titanic interview book,Titanic Julian Fellowes,Titanic Julian Fellows,titanic kate winslet,titanic kids book,titanic launch,titanic learn,titanic lesson plans,Titanic Louise Patten,titanic movie,titanic movie facts,titanic music,titanic musicians,Titanic myth,titanic necklace,titanic news,titanic newspaper,titanic on tv,titanic online,titanic online free,titanic passengers,titanic photographs,titanic photos,titanic pictures,titanic plot,titanic posters,Titanic questions,titanic questions answered,titanic quick facts,titanic quiz,titanic quotes,Titanic radio book,titanic re release,titanic read,titanic real facts,titanic real story,titanic re-release,titanic review,Titanic sample answer,Titanic sample essay,titanic school,titanic second-class,Titanic shipwreck,Titanic sinking,titanic sinking,titanic sister ship,Titanic statistics,Titanic steerage,Titanic story,Titanic student,Titanic study aid,titanic summary,titanic survivors,titanic telegraph,titanic the experience,titanic the movie,titanic theme,Titanic theories,titanic third-class,titanic timeline,Titanic tragedy,titanic trailer,titanic true,titanic true story,titanic tv,titanic tv programme,titanic underwater,titanic unsinkable,Titanic victims,titanic victims,titanic voyage,titanic what happened,titanic what really happened,titanic what year,titanic wireless,Titanic wreck,Titanic writer,titanic year,Titanic YouTube,Greg Ward,
Did the makers of the Titanic claim
that she was unsinkable?
Did her passengers believe her
to be unsinkable?
Only the faintest of pre-tragedy references to the Titanic’s supposed unsinkability have been discovered. Describing the system of watertight compartments used in both the Titanic and her sister ship, the Olympic, a 1911 White Star Line brochure explained how in the event of an accident the captain could close the watertight doors, thereby “practically making the vessel unsinkable”.
In the Shipbuilder magazine, later that year, the crucial phrase became “practically unsinkable”. Far from singling out the Titanic, however, the author referred to the watertight compartments as “usual in White Star Lines”.
On the very day the Titanic sank, the word “unsinkable” seemed to rise to the surface. The man largely responsible was White Star vice president Philip A.S. Franklin. When the first rumours of the sinking reached New York, he responded “We place absolute confidence in the Titanic. We believe that the boat is unsinkable”. He later told the New York Times “I thought her unsinkable, and I based [my] opinion on the best expert advice. I do not understand it”.
The arrogance of imagining any ship to be unsinkable tied in perfectly with the notion of the Titanic being destroyed by hubris. Early reports of the disaster were peppered with the word, and survivors swiftly started to use the term. Less than a month later, J. Bruce Ismay testified at the British inquiry that “I think the position was taken up that the ship was looked upon as practically unsinkable; she was looked upon as being a lifeboat in herself”. Colonel Archibald Gracie, who was on the deck of the Titanic as its fate became horribly apparent, described the male passengers as seeking to “reassure the ladies” by repeating “the much advertised fiction of ‘the unsinkable ship’”.
In his fascinating book, The Myth of the Titanic, Richard Howells concluded that the idea was “an essentially retrospective invention”. He argued that the Olympic was all but identical to the Titanic, built in the same shipyard at the same time, and sailed on her maiden voyage less than a year earlier, on the same route and even with the same captain. At no time however was she hailed as being unsinkable; only the Titanic became known as the “unsinkable ship”, precisely because she did in fact sink. No one would dispute that the Titanic’s passengers, and for that matter her captain and crew, thought they were aboard an exceptionally safe ship. Few appreciated that she was in fact considerably less safe than such predecessors as the Great Eastern.
While that over-confidence may not have caused the collision itself – racing at breakneck speeds towards dangerous icefields was pretty much standard practice at the time – it did ultimately cost lives, because it was surely the main reason why so few passengers came forward to board the earliest lifeboats.
Only once the Titanic sank, perhaps, did people realise quite how invulnerable they had imagined themselves to be, a blind faith they then simply articulated by using that one small word – “unsinkable”.
for the full story, read the Rough Guide to the Titanic . . .
To read more about the Titanic, click here, or on the links below:
• What really happened on the night the Titanic went down?
• Did the band play on as the ship was sinking?
• Were the third-class passengers locked below decks, unable to escape?
text © Greg Ward, images Library of Congress archives
