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Titanic True Story

How Much Of The Movie Is Real

By Aswin DPublished about a year ago 4 min read
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The RMS Titanic, a luxury steamship, sank in the early hours of April 15, 1912, off the coast of Newfoundland in the North Atlantic after sideswiping an iceberg during its maiden voyage. Of the 2,240 passengers and crew on board, more than 1,500 lost their lives in the disaster.

Titanic continues to be one of the most impressive cinematic achievements and a story that viewers constantly revisit, but how much of the movie is based on a true love story? James Cameron became a widely known and respected name in the film industry thanks to The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day, but he drew a lot more attention in 1997 with Titanic, a romance-disaster movie based on the accounts of the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912, which was his biggest and most ambitious project up to that point.

Titanic told the story of Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet) and Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio), two passengers from different social classes who fell in love aboard the famous ship during its ill-fated maiden voyage. Titanic was a big success with both critics and viewers, becoming the highest-grossing movie ever at the time (later surpassed by Cameron’s Avatar in 2010 and then by Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame). It was praised for its visuals and performances, though some criticized Rose and Jack’s love story. Still, Titanic has a special place in the hearts of many and continues to be one of Cameron’s best works.

The Real-Life Inspiration Behind Rose

Titanic’s main characters, Rose and Jack, were not based on real history. Therefore, there was no such romance between a first-class woman and a third-class man. They were inspired, to an extent, by some real-life people, though Rose’s inspiration has no connection to the Titanic. As revealed by Cameron, American artist, Beatrice Wood was the inspiration behind Rose, as Cameron was reading her autobiography during Titanic’s development. Wood was a painter, sculptor, writer, and actress who came from a family of wealthy socialites. As he was reading Wood’s book, Cameron said that he realized it described “almost literally” the character of “Old Rose." The movie’s Rose is “only a refraction of Beatrice, combined with many fictional elements.” Surely, Rose and Beatrice Wood have some similarities, as are their love of art and their wealthy family background, but Wood had no connection with the real Titanic. Therefore, there is no Rose in Titanic's true story.

The Titanic Really Hit An Iceberg

Of course, the sinking of the Titanic after hitting an iceberg is unequivocally true. On April 14, 1912, at 11:40 p.m. (ship’s time), the crew spotted an iceberg and alerted the bridge. First Officer Willaim Murdoch ordered the ship to be steered around the iceberg and the engines to be stopped, but there wasn’t enough time, and the ship's starboard side hit the iceberg. The hit created a series of holes below the waterline, and though the hull was not punctured, it was dented and allowed water to seep in. According to survivors, as depicted in the movie, pieces of the iceberg landed on the promenade deck.

Titanic's real crew was not prepared for an emergency of this magnitude, and as ships were seen as unsinkable back then, the Titanic only had enough lifeboats to carry half the passengers on board. The crew didn’t know how to properly carry out an evacuation either and launched many lifeboats barely half-full, with third-class passengers left behind, causing many of them to become trapped below decks as the ship continued to fill with water. A little over two and a half hours after the Titanic hit the iceberg, the boat deck dipped underwater, and the sea poured in through open hatches and grates, and as its unsupported stern rose out of the water, the ship broke into two pieces.

Passengers Were Rescued From The Water

As seen in Titanic, the true story of two of the 16 lifeboats returned to pick up survivors from the water, but the shock and more were too much for some, and they died on the boats. The boats that returned were Lifeboat 4, led by Quartermaster Perkis, who reportedly pulled five people from the water (of which only three survived), and Lifeboat 14, headed by Fifth Officer Harold Lowe (played by Ioan Gruffud in Titanic), who with the help of a working crew of six men, picked up four people from the water.

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