~What you don't see in the movie~
* There are a couple of photos of icebergs that presumably sunk Titanic. The background image of this page is one of them. The right side of the iceberg is broken, and it may be where the great ship
had found her dark fate. (From this article.)
* The 3rd class accomodations were above the average steerage accomodations at that time, and so it was a privilege to even be in steerage on Titanic.
They had heat, electricity, and meals - all of which were covered by the ticket price.
* That night was cloudless but MOONLESS. The stars were brilliant and beautiful, but not enough to make it easier to see in the pitch dark.
* One of the survivors, who had been to sea for 26 years, recalled that he had never seen such a calm night.
* A ship which was much closer to the Titanic than "Carpathia", watched Titanic founder and did nothing. She was close enough to get to Titanic before she sank. This is known
as the "Californian" Controversy.
* In water that is 31 degrees, one would not be able to survive beyond five minutes!
* There are three remaining survivors of Titanic today, but none of them remember it, as they were infants back then.
The last survivor who vividly remembered everything was Eva Hart, who died in 1996.
* A spooky fact about Titanic, is that many, many people had premonitions and bad feelings about it as much as 15 years
before it happened. Many of these people had no knowledge at all of Titanic.
* Only 300 bodies were recovered from the ocean out of 1500. This is because the calcium in bones disintegrates in the
water pressure of 6,000 pounds per square inch.
* The ship sunk not only because of the iceberg - other factors were involved. "Bad luck" is a better word for it.
* Right after the ship hit the ocean floor, torn in half, the water that was trailing behind it impounded it with the speed of 40 mph, crushing the decks one on top of the other, and making the wreck look as if though it exploded from within.
* John Jacob Astor, the wealthiest man onboard the ship who went down with it, wrote a science fiction book about life on other planets in the year 2000.
* The most expensive material object which went down with the ship was a copy of Omar Khayyam, a Persian poet, which at the time cost $2,000. Two years were spent in making this book. Over one thousand precious stones and the luxurious design made it
one of the most sumptuous books of the era. The front cover showed a group of peacocks, made with a dozen richly colored leathers; the back cover showed a field of poppies with a basilisk growing from the eye of a skull; and the insides of the covers
each had a separate design wrought with exquisite embroidery. The book was enclosed in a carved casket of rare oak. (From New York Times of 04/21/1912)
* Robert Ballard, the person who first discovered Titanic in 1985, Charles Pellegrino, a scientist and author of "Her Name, Titanic", and others who were lucky to see Titanic 2 miles below the surface of the ocean, have been affected by inexplicable
"mini nervous breakdowns" which cause great emotional upheaval and uncontrollable tears. The same cannot be said for any other shipwreck.
* The story of Titanic is wrought with cruel irony all the way through. One of the most flamboyant ones is this one, printed in an editorial in the Belfast Morning News, on June 1st, 1911 (A year before!!):
"It is difficult to understand why the owners and builders named this ship Titanic. The Titans were a mythological race who came to believe they'd conquered nature, who thought they'd achieved power and learning greater than Zeus himself, to their ultimate ruin. He smote the strong and daring Titans with thunderbolts; and their final abiding place was in some limbo beneath the lowest depths of the Tartarus, a sunless abyss below Hades."
* Every year on April 15th, wreaths and flowers are thrown over the gravesite of the Titanic in rememberance.