You may have gotten over the shock of discovering that the sinking of the Titanic was a real historical event. Now brace yourselves: not everything that the movies tell you about it is accurate. Some of what people think to be true about the Titanic isn't at all, such as that the owners claimed that the ship was unsinkable:
Link -via Joe Carter | Image: Paramount
But this is perhaps the biggest myth surrounding the Titanic, says Richard Howells, from Kings College London.
"It is not true that everyone thought this. It's a retrospective myth, and it makes a better story. If a man in his pride builds an unsinkable ship like Prometheus stealing the fire from the gods... it makes perfect mythical sense that God would be so angry at such an affront that he would sink the ship on its maiden outing."
Contrary to the popular interpretation the White Star Line never made any substantive claims that the Titanic was unsinkable - and nobody really talked about the ship's unsinkability until after the event, argues Howells.
Link -via Joe Carter | Image: Paramount
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In regard to Titanic being an unsinkable ship: It was long standing tradition that Captain Smith would sail the maiden voyages of the ships of the White Star Line. On the maiden voyage previous to Titanic, Cpt. Smith was interviewed. He stated that he could not foresee any event that could sink the modern ships of the day. He felt that ship building and maritime sciences had come so far as to make the ships unsinkable.
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You mean the Titanic was a REAL ship?
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Many, including the White Star Line, did claim that the Titanic was unsinkable. On April 15, 1912, The New York Tribune quoted the vice-president of International Mercantile Marine. He claimed that the Titanic was "absolutely unsinkable." On the same day, the Washington Times printed a story entitled "White Star Lines Director Insists the Titanic is Unsinkable." In the article, the White Star Line said "We cannot state too strongly our belief that the ship is unsinkable, and that the passengers are perfectly safe." These are just two of the many examples. It wasn't until April 16, 1912, that newspapers in the United States reported that the Titanic had sunk.
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