Thousands cheer madly as Titanic leaves Southampton on maiden voyage, April 10, 1912.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

At 4:10, note that smoke is coming from only the first three stacks. The fourth stack was for ventilation.

Encyclopedia Titanica, The Fourth Smoke Stack

The fourth funnel provided air ventilation for the galleys as well as a chimney flue for the 1st class smoking room. Smoke and/or steam would emit from the funnel, but would be hardly noticable, especially when compared to the first three stacks, which were connected directly to the boiler rooms. The smokestack did have a ladder to its top, as evidenced by the famous stern-on shot of the Titanic at Queenstown. You can see a stoker poking his head over the top of the 4th funnel.

Dan Cherry, Aug 11, 2000

All the "original footage" clips of the Titanic on YouTube seem to be set to classical music. The sound track in this one is a work by Erik Satie. For example:

RMS Titanic
....

Legacy
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Cultural
....

In a frequently commented-on literary coincidence, Morgan Robertson authored a novel called Futility in 1898 about a fictional British passenger liner with the plot bearing a number of similarities to the Titanic disaster. In the novel the ship is the SS Titan, a four-stacked liner, the largest in the world and considered unsinkable. But like the Titanic, she sinks after hitting an iceberg and does not have enough lifeboats.

Morgan Robertson
....

Futility

Robertson is best known for his short novel Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan, first published in 1898. This story features an enormous British passenger liner called the SS Titan, which, deemed to be unsinkable, carries an insufficient number of lifeboats. On a voyage in the month of April, the Titan hits an iceberg and sinks in the North Atlantic, resulting in the loss of almost everyone on board. There are many remarkable similarities to the real-life disaster of the RMS Titanic. The book was published 14 years before the actual Titanic, carrying an insufficient number of lifeboats, hit an iceberg on the night of April 14, 1912 and sank in the North Atlantic, killing most of the people on board. The similarities between the two has lent credibility to conspiracy theories regarding the Titanic.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

1. Every April 14th, ........

Linda and I get together to watch TITANIC in Blu Ray on my big flat screen. We drink wine, eat munchies that would have been served, and marvel in the Edwardian era. It has been a tradition of ours for 19 years now since we went to the TITANIC exhibit in 1999 and saw pieces of the ship, artifacts found in the debris field, read up about this part of history.

While the film is fiction when it comes to the main story line, the rest is true down to the paint, carpeting lighting, costuming, Social mores, etc. James Cameron's masterpiece has indeed weathered the ravages of time that erodes to this day, the great ship that lies at the bottom of the North Atlantic.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. There's a Titanic Memorial in DC

Bookmarking. I'll come up with more info in a bit. Busy morning.

Such a sad story, after all these years. How many events in world history are known almost universally?

[sdfernando]

6. Which version do you watch?

Most know about the James Cameron 1997 version but there are quite a few others that are good too.

I most like the 1953 Titanic version with Barbara Stanwyck and a very young Robert Wagner. Little known fact: During the filming and for several years after Stanwyck and Wagner were having an affair.

1958s A Night to Remember is probably the most accurate

There are numerous others including a 1943 Titanic version made as Nazi propaganda.

[longship]

7. "A Night to Remember" is the only version that doesn't descend into soap opera.

And you are correct, it is easily the most historically accurate.

Cameron's Titanic is by far the bottom of the heap. The Clifton Webb, Barbara Stanwyck 1950's sudser of the same name is not much better.

A Night to Remember is based on Walter Lord's book of the same name. I imagine that that history remains about the best. I read it in my youth. It's a good read.

The British cast in ANTR is universally very good, with Kenneth More doing his usual good turn as second officer Lightoller, who survived the sinking and saved many lives.

[Wednesdays]

3. Strange censorship on some of the scenes

The shot of Captain Smith, and the ones of the tugboats, have weird squiggly white blobs where someone scratched something out in each of the frames.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

4. I saw that too. I couldn't figure that out.

Product placement?

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. That is where the name of the tug would be.

Have no idea why it would be not shown.

[Wednesdays]

9. Superstition?

Maybe they figured if word got out, no one would serve on a crew on boats associated with disaster?

[dixiegrrrrl]

10. Dunno. Back then, a lot of reasons to chose from, I should think.

NOW, they would most likely want the names to show.

[Girard442]

5. Time travel.

Morgan Robertson was a time traveler who attempted to call attention to the Titanic's vulnerabilities and thus avert the tragedy, but sadly failed.

Yeah, I know. Makes a heckuva yarn though, dontcha think?