Titanic End of an Era - 1998 - Film

[Music] the 20th century swept in on a tide of progress there were great advances in technology and communications popular newspapers and magazines gramophone recordings moving pictures seen at Baia scopes and early picture houses created a new awareness of what was happening around the world transport of all types was at a key stage of evolution steam was being surpassed by electricity for public transport systems the internal combustion engine demonstrated its versatility for private and public vehicles in America as in Europe Society was still class ridden the well-to-do wanting the middle and working classes to know their place in the early years of the century Britain was still building 50% of the world's merchant ships a shipbuilding and railway engineering were unsurpassed throughout the world and her worldwide possessions made the British Empire the greatest the world had ever seen seemingly the empire on which the Sun would never set the most lucrative trading route was that with North America and the North Atlantic became both the major sea route and the most important for passenger trade at that time there were no restrictions on emigrants from Europe entering the new world and many thousands made the crossing Britain was in competition chiefly with Germany to build the biggest fastest and most luxurious liners and so capture both the well-to-do travelers and the bread and butter immigrant trade by 1906 Germany had both the largest liner the Kaiser in August Victoria at 24,000 581 tonnes and the fastest liner the kaiser wilhelm ii with a speed of twenty three point six knots written out on them both in 1907 with the canard liners Lusitania and Mauretania both at 32,000 tons and speeds of over 26 knots they were built with subsidies from the Admiralty who wanted to regain British prestige and prevent Cunard from being taken over by an American combine the international Mercantile Marine company the IMM the subsidy also meant the two liners could be adapted in time of war as armed merchant cruisers already under American financial control was the oceanic Steam Navigation Company more popularly known as the White Star Line since the early 1890s white star had given up its quest to attain the fabled blue ribbond which relied on the expensive and often uncomfortable luxury of high speed instead a policy of comfort and safety was adopted leaving the quest for speed to the other lines with the takeover by IMM cash was readily available for even larger ships and the advent of the Mauritania and Lusitania provided the spur for white star to produce a series of ships that would dazzle the world the American backing enabled the company to embark on an ambitious plan to produce a trio of liners to provide a weekly Atlantic service they would be the largest most luxurious and safest ships in the world 50% larger than the Cunard Giants they were to be called Olympic Titanic and gigantic the last eventually named Britannic on July the 1st 1907 the order for the first two ships was placed with Harland & Wolff of Belfast they were given the shipyard numbers 400 and 401 major changes were needed at the Queen's Island shipyard three existing slipways were demolished and two new ones laid in their place these were straddled by a gantry giving clear spaces of a hundred feet between rows of supporting towers the eight hundred and forty feet long gantry was surmounted by a mobile crane with a span of a hundred and thirty-five feet and lifting capacity three tons six mobile frames each carried 10 radial cranes with lifts and ramps to transport men and materials to the various levels of construction a large floating crane was purchased from Germany and the construction of a new drydock was commenced the number of employees at the shipyard doubled to eleven thousand three hundred during the building and fitting out of the two immense liners the designer of the ships was Thomas Andrews he was the nephew of Lord Peary the chairman of Harland and Wolff and was a well-connected member of Irish society he worked with his deputy Edward Wilding using a drawing office full of draftsman and a huge model of the proposed class of ship the keel of the Olympic was laid on January the 1st 1909 and that of the Titanic on March the 16th the construction of the two massive hulls progressed a pace with the Olympic a few months ahead of the Titanic to ease pressure on the shipyard production shops on October the 20th 1910 the Olympic was launched she was painted gray to allow press photographers better views of the liner and the launch took just 62 seconds she was then towed to the new deepwater key for fitting out leaving the black painted Titanic still caged in her surrounding gantry this is the Lido at Ruislip near London it's hard to imagine now but key scenes were made here for arguably the biggest British film of the 1950's it was a night to remember a night to remember remains the finest and most accurate film account of the Titanic disaster and I'm here in London to talk to the film's producer William acquittee who has personal recollections of the great ship herself my first contact with the Titanic was in 1911 when I saw a team of 20 draft horses struggling to pull one of the great anchors through the college streets of Belfast from the foundry down to the shipyards howling wolves and in the shipyard this huge mountain of a ship was rising and I watched her rise every day and I said to my father how on earth can they get this huge ship into the sea and he said they lay the keel on the slipway and then they build the ship on the keel and when the day for the launching comes they grease the slipway with tons of tallow and train oil and soap and they give the ship a gentle push and the ship slides down to the water these new vessels were designed to have a service speed of 21 knots the engines generated 55,000 horsepower Cunard had opted for marine turbines to propel their wreck breakers but Harland and Wolff adopted their favorite combination reciprocating engines to drive the 223 feet 6-inch diameter outer propellers the steam from which then exhausted into a low-pressure turbine which turned the a head only sixteen feet six inch center propeller providing steam for the engines were twenty four double and five single ended boilers containing a hundred and fifty nine furnaces seven months after her launch the Olympic was ready and after two days of successful sea trials she finally left Belfast on May the 31st 1911 this was a brilliantly timed publicity exercise as the Titanic herself was finally launched on the same day for this occasion the land would end of the building gantry was decked with one Union Jack and one stars-and-stripes with a white star pennant in the center below which code flags spelled out success the whole of ow star was excited this was the biggest ship in the world and they're all excited about the launch and everybody in the can turned up and all the ships in the harbor and there's a great crowd the launching platforms and three stands were erected Ron and I remember that enormous noise Marines went off Rockets went off and signals were given to stand clear and just as my father said the chocks were not doing and the hydraulic rams gave the gentle push and I didn't believe it was going to move and it didn't move for quite a long time and then I felt the suddenly that I was moving backwards but of course it was the ship was moving forward and it went faster and faster and was pulling there great tons and tons of anchor chain and for attached to the ship so the Trinity to stop it gathering too much speed and where these chains meant enormous round and they were dragged on and she went receive the tremendous splash and all the sirens and everybody has great rejoicing and I felt very proud of this and thought also that my birthday was the 15th of May 1905 and the ship's launch was also May the 31st of May so I had a great kinship for that ship about a hundred thousand people watched as just after quarter past noon the liner urged on by hydraulic rams slid backwards into the river lagan it was little ceremony as was the White Star custom later when the Britannic was launched a retired shipyard worker recalled they just builds them and Chuck's them in in just 62 seconds she slid into the water and was brought to a halt by the tons of drag chains attached by cables along her hull the following day June the first her sister ship anchored in the mercy of Liverpool the traditional home and port of registration of the White Star Line it was her only visit to the Mersey for the she headed for Southampton the lines main port since 1907 where the London and South Western Railway had built a new large dock to accommodate this new class of wonder ship twice the size of the 20,000 tonne liners the port had become used to the dock known as the white star dock until the late 1920s his 1700 feet long 400 feet wide enclosing 16 acres of water it was later to be used by such liners as the Queen Mary the Queen Elizabeth and eventually the new qe2 Harland and Wolff had built a ship repair works at Southampton but major repairs would have to be done in the new drydock back at Belfast the Olympic set sail on her maiden voyage at noon on Wednesday June the 14th her captain was Edward John Smith their premier Atlantic captain and destined for command of her sister ship also on board was J Bruce Ismay the company's managing director he was preparing a meticulous report on the ship's layout fittings and service and many alterations to these provisions were subsequently made on the Titanic the biggest changes were to be on bridge deck B with luxurious parlor suites extending to the ship's side thus removing the promenade for much of its length and increasing the gross tonnage by a thousand and four tons [Music] there was a reception hall by the AFT grand stairway a large restaurant with sea views and a cafe Parisien complete with trellis work and growing ivy both ships had electric lifts they had swimming baths the first to float and there were Turkish baths squash courts and gymnasium but the Titanic acquired the reputation of being more luxurious because of the many improvements richly carved paneling stained glass windows deeply piled carpets and many other fitments of both luxury and necessity were bringing the Titanic to completion she would be a floating palace [Music] but completion and ultimately the date of her maiden voyage was delayed owing to the return of the Olympic to Belfast following a collision near Southampton with the cruiser HMS Hawke on September the 20th the Hawke's bow was badly damaged the hole in the Olympic was 40 feet high and extended eight feet into the ship there was a second hole at the waterline caused by the cruisers beak-like ram some witnesses claimed the huge bulk of the liner caused an undertow which sucked the smaller ship into her side this phenomenon was later to cause a near accident on the Titanic's departure from Southampton the Olympic was taken to the new drydock at Belfast and men were taken off from fitting out the Titanic to speed the repairs on February 24 1912 Olympic returned again for repairs to a propeller eventually following these delays and 11 months after her launching the Titanic was at last ready for sea trials one final modification had been to enclose and glaze her forward promenade on a deck on Olympic this section of promenade was prone to wetting Bryce pray this gave the Titanic a visual feature distinguishing her from her sister the other kinship I had for it was that I wanted to leave Belfast I wanted to see the world I'd been reading the boys on paper and the wide world magazine and the one thing I wanted to do was to see the world and I thought of this huge ship can escape as he says this then a little creature like he might manage to slip through and get out into the wide open world that is what I wanted to do we lived at Bangor which is 12 miles from the ship down and there we watch the Titanic on her trials and she went up and down the lock and she was so big she made the lock look small it's almost like a toy ship and a toy sea and I thought again this Belfast law connects this ship with every sea in the world with every country in the world and if I can get out why I'm going to see them too and then on the 2nd of April 1912 we watched her go out for her first voyage trials began on April the 2nd in the Irish Sea under the command of her captain Edward John Smith who'd left the Olympic in Southampton and traveled to Belfast he'd taken his finest and final command and took the ship on to Southampton [Music] in Southampton the ship was thoroughly inspected by a Board of Trade Representative the brand-new lifeboats were lowered and rode around in the dock to the inspectors satisfaction before being hauled back on board they were maneuvered by the Welland type of davit and although these could each handle several boats in succession during an emergency the actual number of lifeboats fitted on the Titanic complied to a Board of Trade ruling made 20 years earlier this stated that a ship of 10,000 tonnes or over a large ship in the late 19th century should carry 16 lifeboats but Titanic was 46,000 tons white star in fact provided for extra in the form of Engelhard collapsible boats with planked bottoms and collapsible canvas sides the number of passengers was not considered just the letter of the law in fact this was only half the number of lifeboats required to accommodate a full complement of passengers and crew in the event of a disaster Captain Smith was the white stars senior captain for many years he'd taken the white star vessels on their maiden voyages he was born on the 27th of January 1850 in Hanley's stoke-on-trent he was the son of Edward Smith a Potter and later a greengrocer and Catherine Smith he was educated at at Rory a British school one of the first day schools in the Potteries one of his first Jobs was as a steam hammer operator at at Rory a forge but he left the area at the age of 21 to join the Mercantile Marine his progress was so Swift that he captained his first ship when he was 24 years old in an outstanding career he eventually became commander and Commodore of the White Star Line his employers had absolute faith in his skill and judgment his career had been unblemished by any accident apart from the incident on the Olympic he was a tall distinguished quietly spoken man and coming up to retirement the Titanic was to be the pinnacle of his career [Music] since January 1912 Britain had been in the grip of a coal strike causing many liners to be laid up and putting 17,000 men out of work in Southampton by April the strike was on its last legs but to enable the Titanic to set sail coal had to be taken off other ships laid up in the docks the white stars oceanic and majestic and the New York Philadelphia st. Louis and some pall of the American line on Wednesday April the 10th hundreds of passengers and crew men boarded the Titanic it was a bright sunny day the boat train from London brought the well-to-do including the millionaire Benjamin Guggenheim and we instead editor of the Pall Mall Gazette who was going to America on the invitation of President Taft to deliver a speech at the world peace conference on April the 22nd all levels of society were represented on this palace ship some lucky passengers were transferred from the laid up IMM ships [Music] at noon the ropes holding the liner to the key were cast off and six tugs slowly pulled her away from the key there were cheers from the assembled crowd the waving of handkerchiefs and the shouting of last-minute messages between ship and shore the Titanic moved out into the river tests and began to move under her own steam her three screws powerfully pushing her forty six thousand tons slowly forward but she displaced such an amount of water in the channel that the line in new york moored alongside the oceanic broke her moorings and drifted out Stern woods towards the great ship captain Smith and pilot George Bowyer stopped the central propeller and ordered the outer propellers to be set at full astern this stopped the New York when she was only 12 feet from the Titanic Stern and brought the great ship herself to rest the tug Vulcan placed herself between the vessels had ropes thrown onto the New York and as the Titanic now moved backwards a little towed the New York round the dock head corner into the river each in and out of trouble this near collision was seen by many as a bad omen and put another if only slight delay in her departure the liner proceeded down Southampton water she passed highs to starboard and western shore Netley with its ruined Abbey and huge military hospital to port [Music] she passed the mouth of the river ham ball and finally rounded cow shot spit and then into the Solent [Music] [Music] in glorious sunshine the Titanic sailed out past cows and the Isle of Wight and into the open sea towards Cherbourg [Music] [Music] she was to arrive at 6:30 p.m. to take on more bags of mail and passengers these included more billionaires such as John Jacob Astor and his wife and various socialites Astor was one of the richest men in the world millionaire Benjamin Guggenheim was already on board major Archibald but was president Taft's ADA Kong mr. and mrs. Isidor Straus were there they'd risen from a small business in Philadelphia to make Macy's a national institution many of these first-class passengers saw the maiden voyage of the Titanic is a good way to end their European holiday [Music] now she turned westwards through the English Channel to call at Queenstown now Cove in Ireland just before noon on April the 11th more mail bags were taken on and some mail and passengers delivered to the Irish port [Music] [Applause] [Music] remaining on board the Titanic worth 322 first-class passengers 277 second class and 709 third-class making her about half full and 898 crew members 3814 sacks of mail had been loaded and this would partly be sorted in the Titanic's own post box she weighed anchor at 1:30 p.m. and headed out into the Atlantic towards New York life on board an ocean liner consisted of eating and occupying ones time between meals as best one could the first class passengers had the ship's five-man band led by Wallace Hartley to entertain them Hartley had previously played on the Mauretania another prestigious liners the band played everything from Strauss and off embark for the stately Jacobean room to ragtime and cake wars for afternoon dances a separate trio played in the restaurants reception room and cafe Parisien a piano was provided for the use of third-class and an Irish Piper and fiddler would play for their communal dancing ballgames in the forward and aft well decks were popular with the third class these could be seen by spectators from the other classes on the tiers of decks above them these others had space enough for deck tennis shuffleboard or promenades around the wide boat deck inside there were first and second class libraries and games rooms to cater for over 2,000 people at sea for six days head chef mr. C Proctor had stored in board 75,000 pounds of various meats 25,000 pounds of poultry including quail pheasant chicken turkey and plover 15,000 bottles of beer 1,000 of wine a thousand pounds of tea 2,200 pounds of coffee and tons of fruit vegetables jams and other items in third class the food was basic but plentiful people said that third class on the Titanic was as good as first class on any other liner there were two dining rooms for first class the jacobian room and the ala carte restaurant with the adjoining cafe Parisien the latter two being run by Monsieur Gotti and his staff on behalf of the White Star Line a bugler sounded the call for dinner in the evening during the voyage the weather remained fine the sea calm but with a chilling breeze it was to get colder on Sunday April the 14th in the radio room ship-to-shore contact was made possible again as the ship came in range of Cape Race and the operators were kept busy with current messages and the backlog which had built up through a breakdown of the system two days before ice warnings had been received during Sunday by the two Marconi operators in the radio room Jack Phillips and his assistant Harold bride their prime job was to transmit and receive private messages known as Marconi grands Stock Exchange information and news these private messages bringing the company its revenue official messages received for the ship indicated that there was pack ice and large and small icebergs in the shipping lanes although it wasn't appreciated that these warnings represented one huge ice field messages to the ship itself were pinned on a notice board for the information of the navigating officers but not all the ice warnings were posted an 11:00 a.m. warning had read America passed two large icebergs in 41 degrees 27 minutes north 50 degrees 8 minutes west on the 14th of April a message received from the Mesaba at 9:40 p.m. stated ice report in latitude 42 degrees 241 degrees 25 minutes north longitude 49 degrees 250 degrees 30 minutes west so much heavy pack ice and great number large icebergs also filled ice weather good clear assistant operator Harold bride was off-duty but chief operator Jack Phillips was snowed under with sending and receiving private messages he put this later message to one side for subsequent delivery to the bridge he was not to know that this message warned of ice directly in the path of the Titanic at 11:00 p.m. the Leyland liner Californian was not far away stopped and blocked in by ice during the course of the evening Phillips had rebuked the Marconi operator on the Californian for interrupting his calls to Cape Race later as he came off duty the Californians wireless operator switched off his set and turned in for the night captain Smith had been to a dinner party held in his honor in the restaurant he returned to the bridge at 9:00 p.m. he discussed the weather and ice warnings with second officer Charles Herbert Lightoller after 20 minutes he went into the chart room leaving instructions for him to be called if conditions deteriorated Lightoller went off duty at 10 o'clock handing over to first officer Murdoch Lightoller went to bed just before 11:30 after making his rounds of the ship up in the crow's nest lookouts Frederick fleet and Reginald Lee were looking ahead in the bitterly cold wind at 11:40 p.m. fleet rang the Crowsnest Bell three times and picked up the telephone connecting him with the bridge iceberg right ahead he called he described what he saw the burg came ever closer the ship then responded to Murdoch's emergency instructions hard a-starboard full astern hard a-port the prow spunks slowly across and the iceberg passed along the starboard side of the ship before disappearing aft it seemed like a near miss but the iceberg had bumped along the ship's hull below the waterline shearing off rivet heads penetrating parts of the hull and opening overlapping plate seams a series of poachers over some 300 feet had been made below the waterline along the front part of the starboard hull the whole impact had taken only 10 seconds many people on board didn't even notice the event others reported feeling a slight vibration some people came up on deck to see why the ship was now stopping and on the third-class deck men were seen playing football in the forward well deck with some of the ice which had fallen from the towering Berg as she passed there was no clue to the imminent disaster captain Smith had rushed to the bridge and checked that all the electrically operated emergency watertight doors below had been closed and he ordered a quick inspection of the ship it was only then that the enormity of the damage to her hull became apparent the Titanic was divided into 16 watertight compartments and can float with any two possibly three or four of them completely flooded but this long glancing blow meant that the six forward compartments were flooding the bulkheads this far from the prow only reached up to the saloon deck some lower still and as the ship was weighed down with the seawater flooding in and began to sink by the head the water would rise above these compartments to fill the next and the next and so on it was inevitable that the Titanic would sink thomas andrews the ship's designer confirmed this to captain smith but still the passengers were unaware of their imminent peril I'd been in my berth about ten minutes when I felt a slight jar but it was not sufficiently large to cause any anxiety to anyone however nervous they may have been the engines however stopped him immediately afterwards I went to one deck in my dressing gown and I found only a few people there who'd come up in the same way to inquire why we had stopped but there was no sort of anxiety in the mind of anyone now gradually began the general alert runners called through the ship for passengers to put their lifejackets on and proceeded up onto the decks some still thought this was merely a safety practice even at near midnight what distinguished this operation in its early stages was the quiet orderliness with people remaining on the whole quite calm it was a cold clear starlit night as people filled the decks those in the upper classes arriving before the great numbers of third-class passengers who were birthed furthest away from the boat deck the sea was a flat calm but captain Smith knew there would only be enough space in the lifeboats for half the people on board down in the Marconi room the captain ordered the operators to stand by then returned a few minutes later at 12:15 a.m. to tell them to send the International distress call cqd the position was estimated as 41 degrees 46 minutes north 50 degrees 24 minutes west at 1225 this was changed to 41 degrees 46 minutes north 50 degrees 14 minutes west the revised signal being picked up by the liner Carpathia nearly 60 miles away she immediately altered course and steamed towards the stricken giant just after 12:30 Captain Smith again came to the wireless room and asked what they were sending cqd Phillips replied Harold bride joked send SOS it's the new call it may be a last chance to send it shortly after the first lifeboat was lowered containing only 19 or 20 people the early boats had many spare places in them but then quartermaster Lowe began firing off distress rockets at five-minute intervals and people were now less reluctant to climb into the lifeboats being prepared for lowering the evacuation of the ship now ceased to be so calm and orderly the ship's band led by Wallace Hartley had been playing inside the liner now they moved out onto the deck and almost incongruously played jaunty ragtime tunes as each lifeboat reached the water it moved away from the ship for fear of the suction should she sink some Road towards the lights of a ship which could be seen just a few miles away but this ship was never properly identified and never reached the Titanic's bow sank lower and lower in the water yet all her lights remained ablaze throughout until very near the end with great courage every one of the liner's engineers stayed at his post in the bowels of the ship to keep the pumps lights wireless and other functions operational women and children first was the rule for the lifeboats but some men were allowed in as boats were hurriedly lowered and no ladies could be seen close by J Bruce Ismay managing director of white star himself stepped into a partially filled boat for this he was to be shamed throughout his life first and second-class passengers were led to the boat deck third-class had to find their own way as best they could many steerage passengers were still locked into their quarters by the barrier gates that enforced strict class distinction at 1:40 a.m. the last rocket was fired the last of the rigid lifeboats was lowered at 1:55 the boat deck now only 15 feet above sea level instead of her usual 62 feet two of the collapsible boats were successfully launched a third was launched at five past two by which time the fo'c'sle was underwater and promenade deck a was awash at about this time thomas andrews who designed this great ship was last seen standing in the first-class smoking room he was standing arms folded lifejacket off staring straight ahead at a painting above the mantelpiece the approach to plymouth harbor by norman wilkinson captain Smith released the wireless operators from their duties but Phillips carried on sending distress messages while the power held out the captain then walked along the deck telling his men it's every man for himself incredibly the light still burned at ten past two she lurched and sank deeper the last collapsible lifeboat and some men were washed off the deck house and this lifeboat be landed upside down in the water with no chance of writing it men clambered to at least stand on the upturned hull the band now played a solemn air some say autumn but popular belief says it was nearer my God to thee [Music] now the stern rose out of the water two four inch diameter cable stay snapped and the forward funnel crashed down to starboard crushing the bridge wing and killing several people in the water the wash it generated pushed the upturned lifeboat away from the ship there were varying reports on how captain Smith met his end one claimed he committed suicide on the bridge with his revolver another that he swam up to a lifeboat with a baby in his arms put the baby in the boat then sank beneath the waves and another that he simply went down with his ship perhaps he too had been killed by the collapsing funnel but others say he swam towards the upturned collapsible lifeboat before turning away and disappearing in the darkness fifteen hundred people were still on board as now the bridge submerged the Stern rose higher in the air those and the lifeboats had the terrible crashing sounds as boilers broke loose from their seedings and crashed down through the vessel along with many tons of coal baggage and all the loose furniture and fittings of the great ship at the same time her lights went out flashed once more and then were finally extinguished now the ship broke her back and at least a hundred feet of her Stern rose to a near vertical position which she held for a considerable time silhouetted against the stars on the calm clear night the visible part of the ship apparently settled back slightly before it too disappeared beneath the sea it was this settling that indicated the ship had broken in two now there was nothing to do but wait for rescue among those standing on the upturned boat was Harold bride the wireless operator who confirmed to his companions that the Carpathia was on her way just 50 minutes after the Titanic sank the Carpathia was sighted on the horizon firing rockets and at 4:30 she was on the scene the Carpathia arrived with the door [Music] one by one the lifeboats drew alongside the Carpathia survivors had to climb up a rope ladder into a loading bay in the side of the ship children unable to do this were put into sacks placed into cargo nets and hauled up onto the deck 705 people were taken on board and many desperately searched for family members who may also have survived hope turned to despair for most enroute to New York captain roster and only allowed official and personal messages to be sent from the ship by radio newspapers must denied hard copy made up their own fanciful accounts of the disaster [Music] it was only on arrival that the true story became known [Music] memorial services were held on both sides of the Atlantic while the crew were detained under virtual arrest until the official inquiries were carried out their pay having been stopped from the moment of sinking controversy reigned over who was to blame and whether the nearby ship the Californian could indeed have rescued everyone on board if only her wireless operator hadn't closed down his set 20 minutes before the collision with the iceberg the lookouts certainly saw and countered the Rockets but thought these might have been company signals used for identification purposes on ships still not fitted with radio and they also appeared to be too low for a ship reportedly so near the American inquiry placed blame for the disaster on J Bruce Ismay the fact that the Titanic was sailing at virtually full speed 21 knots at the time of the collision knowing there were icebergs in the area and the lack of sufficient lifeboats the English inquiry also cited Captain Smith as a result of the tragedy for positive steps were taken to ensure maximum safety in the Atlantic all ships would have lifeboat places for all onboard there should be lifeboat drills on every voyage there should be 24-hour radio watch and International Ice patrol for the North Atlantic shipping lanes sixty-three percent of Titanic's first-class passengers had survived 42 percent of second-class and 25% of third-class 23 percent of the crew were saved 705 in all leaving 1,500 to perish in the icy seas of the North Atlantic the tragedy had repercussions around the world but soon there were greater concerns as Europe was plunged into World War one and soon both the great Lusitania and Titanic's new sister ship Britannic were sunk by enemy action [Music] [Music] down the years the Titanic disaster became a distant memory it wasn't until after the Second World War that interest was revived by author Walter Lord whose work was to be the basis of William acquittees feature film about the Titanic the war started and I joined the Ministry of Information and I made documentary films but all the time I was thinking about the Titanic and what a wonderful film this would make the opportunity occurred from my wife Betty brought back Miranda youngest child from Queen Charlotte's Hospital together we had a view of water launch book and I'd remember now no film can be better than its script I wish I knew how my interest of the Titanic began I really have no idea I just have always been interested in it I think it's when I was 9 years old I was interested in the Titanic I think perhaps it has something to do with the way little boys catch coal they nobody knows how they do it they just do I think the same thing with my interest in the Titanic I had finished a book on our Civil War and I was looking for another project I thought perhaps about the Civil War again and my editor was a chap I'd worked with in OSS in London said again you were always talking about the Titanic why don't you write a book about it so I began doing it but I'd done most of the research just to satisfy my own curiosity when I went to Princeton other people went to the library to study the classics or French or something that I went to the library to look at the old newspapers on the Titanic also found the hearings there the American hearings and that's a such a wonderful unexplored treasury of material on the ship now I've got all that up - I was at it and then I was pretty much ready to write about the subject whenever whenever it happened I was ready without knowing it I worked out my out of my book of chapter by chapter I then wrote a draft and then the time my editor felt was that that was the time to get in touch with the survivors when I knew as much as I was ever going to know without them and so I thought I began a sort of blitzkrieg of getting in touch with survivors and they they it was difficult in a way because was no survivors Association at the time there's no Titanic Club there's no Titanic interest really it had nothing had been written on it for forty years not since 1913 and so it was a challenge just to find them and I didn't have much money I worked in the advertising business at the time as a writer so I my solution was to write letters to the editor and place as editors of various newspapers to place these letters in their letters column and I tried to depict the cities where there might be most survivors from what I knew for instance Chicago was a place where a lot of them are going who are going to settle in the Middle West of our country New York was an obvious place some of the most prominent came from Philadelphia so that was another place then there was a Belfast papers of course she was built in Belfast and then there were the London papers with British papers and of course the Southampton echo and those coastal took papers all I said hours of these lives out each of them of them informal and personal not just a form of India grassman is a letter I sent them a personal letter to the editor and asked whether they would run it an amazing number did and then the survivors but the letters have said to get in touch with me at my New York address and then they began writing in and then of course once you got a few of them they would lead to others and in the end I had over 60 64 I think but that was the way it was done and on a very low budget of just a number of postage stamps I managed to get in a very rich harvest of Titanic survivors it just came to me I can even show you the spot in the city of New York where inspirations educated this book should be called the night to remember it was at the corner of 38th Street and Park Avenue oh there were certain people the publishing business however who thought that you've got to write about is the Titanic how could you not put the Titanic on the cover there's this but the night remembers it was published here it doesn't it has a picture of the ship of the cover it doesn't explain who she is it's just running right at the iceberg in Britain they weren't as brave Longman's green who did a beautiful job of promote publishing and promoting it never less on the jacket they'd call it a night to remember and there's no subtitle or anything but there is a life ring which says Titanic was a life ring was going down into the sea so they got around by prohibition that way and I trumenba had its premiere and Leicester Square Theatre on it was a wide success it got the finest reviews that any film ever got it was the best film and the most expensive that the rank organisation has ever made and I was sent off to America to open it there the survivors were brought to New York by the junior high rank company for the premiere of the film which was here on Times Square well the big movie series I had a chance to meet them and and to talk with them that day and they seemed to me this was a gold mine come true to have all that so many of the survivors right here incidentally well I found maybe sixty four survivors wait the junior terrain companies found Bill mcclenney found another seventy and so the survivors list kept growing and growing and growing and then after the film came out still more survivors popped up I think we must have been in touch with just about everybody by the time the film was made we got rave reviews in America we got the Golden Globe Award their top award and we got other awards and Christopher reward and several others and there's no doubt about it then the people who understand films accepted it as being terrific film this is not just another shipwreck this is an end of an era the steerage passengers paid twelve times the stateroom passengers paid eight hundred and seventy five pounds this is for a five-day trip she was the biggest ship in the world she was brand-new she would never called unsinkable by Halden rules but unsinkable was the pattern that followed her and the arrogance of the people on board the arrogance of the difference between 875 pounds and 12 pounds for a five-day voyage they weren't paying with extra money because they got all that difference in accommodation of food they were paying it because they were arrogant they traveled first-class and today many of these ships I've got one class I mean the people in the steerage were people and should have been accepted as such and this is coming not now this was the beginning this was the end of the era of this idea that by paying money are dressing up in fancy clothes you could be superior to someone else [Music] [Applause] you

Channel: Titanic & Historical Films by Mark

Views: 130,002

Rating: 4.8164558 out of 5

Keywords: Titanic, Titanic Documentary, Titanic End of an Era, save the titanic, RMS Titanic, Titanic 1998, titanic wreck, titanic sinking, titanic facts, titanic movie, titanic unsinkable, titanic passengers, Molly Brown, Titanic disaster, Titanic sunk maiden voyage, Harland & Wolff, Kate Winslet, Leonardo DiCaprio, James Cameron, RMS Olympic, HMHS Britannic, White Star, RMS Queen Mary, Captain Edward Smith, Robert Ballard, Isidor Ida Straus, Thomas Andrews, raise the titanic

Id: 9MbvLzDN_vI

Length: 58min 50sec (3530 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 14 2020