Titanic Myths
Titanic Quotes
Real or Fake?

It's widely believed that inside the Titanic's rusting hull lies a fortune in jewels and millions of dollars in gold bullion. But like other Titanic legends, this one is also false.

The Titanic's cargo manifest was actually rather nondescript. There were no gold or silver shipments, though there were two unusual items: a be-jeweled copy of The Rubiyat of Omar Khayyam and a Renault automobile. Neither was saved. As for the jewels, most left with their owners. When the ship began to list, most of the ladies headed for the Purser's office to fetch their jewels. In fact, the Purser sent crew members to remind passengers to retrieve their valuables. Apparently, he was tying up loose ends. Successfully, too, it would seem. When his safe was salvaged and opened on a 1987 TV spectacular, it was empty.

Titanic Curse

Sometime after the sinking several New York newspapers revealed the truth behind the Titanic's demise. The real reason for the disaster, they claimed, lay within Titanic's hold. There, inside a sarcophagus, was a mummified body of an Egyptian pharaoh being shipped to America for a private collector. The mummy was cursed, and when the unthinkable happened, the collector bribed the crew to put the mummy in a lifeboat. Safely in America, the mummy brought such bad luck to the collector that he shipped it back to Europe on the ship Empress of Ireland--which sank with the loss of hundreds of lives. Somehow, the mummy was saved again. The owner now decided to return it to Egypt on a third ship, the Lusitania, which was torpedoed by a German submarine. Presumably, the pharaoh is now sleeping undisturbed at the bottom of the Irish Channel.

But no mummy sailed on the Titanic. Nor was it onboard the other ships. The story, no doubt, reassured people seeking a reason for such a senseless disaster, and though it adds allure to the Titanic legend, the mummy's curse remains fiction.

What a Drag

The legend of a man dressing up as a woman to get on one of the Titanic's lifeboats is untrue. The story was concocted by reporters about survivor William T. Sloper, who had spurned their request for an interview. After disembarking from the Carpathia, a tired Sloper was in no mood to talk to the press, and he forcibly ejected several newsmen from his room at the Waldorf Astoria. The journalists took their revenge by printing a story that had Sloper dressing up in women's clothes to get off the Titanic. Convinced a libel suit would be more profitable for his lawyers than himself, Sloper never sued. Instead he spent the rest of his life debunking the allegation.

Uncanny Coincidence

English writer Morgan Robertson wrote Futility, an imaginary account of a collision between a large trans-Atlantic oceanliner and an iceberg on her maiden voyage to New York. He called his ship the Titan. Many other things were similar. The Titan was 800 feet and the Titanic was around 800 feet too. The Titan also didn't have enough lifeboats. Did he cash in on the disaster? Hardly. Robertson published his book in 1898--14 years before the Titanic sank.

Robertson later wrote a book, Beyond the Spectrum, that described a future war fought with aircraft that carried "sun bombs". Incredibly powerful, one bomb could destroy a city, erupting in a flash of light that blinds all who look at it. The war begins in December, started by the Japanese with a sneak attack on Hawaii. . . .

Molly Who?

"Molly" Brown is the famous woman-hero that sailed on Titanic. She saved many people from Hypothermia in the lifeboats because she made sure that everyone got a chance to row, and keep warm. However, no body ever called her Molly, they knew her as Margaret. It wasn't until many years after her death when people started calling her Molly because of the broadway show, "The Unsinkable Molly Brown".

Iceberg Cocktails?

According to several witnesses, when the Titanic hit the iceberg, chunks of ice fell onto well deck C (between forecastle and bridge). As dramatized in the film A Night to Remember, passengers saved pieces as souvenirs and, in fun, dropped it in their drinks.

However, it's unlikely the ice came from the iceberg. Emergency lifeboat #1 would have certainly been destroyed if the berg was that close. Instead, it was launched in perfect condition and showed no damage. The ice probably came from the ship's rigging when jolted by the collision.

Moreover, many survivors told of the iceberg's foul odor. Icebergs often reek of freshly thawed and decaying vegetable and animal matter--a funk not at all suitable for Scotch on the rocks.

Was Inferior Steel to Blame?

In 1994 metallurgists gathered pieces of the Titanic's hull retrieved from the wreck site. The steel edges appeared jagged with no evidence of bending. Upon testing, the metal proved far more brittle than modern steel.

When the Titanic was built, shipbuilders tested only for tensile strength, not flexibility. Scientists speculate that if the builders had been concerned with embrittlement, the hull would have absorbed more shock and suffered less damage. The Titanic might have remained afloat long enough for the Carpathia to rescue her.

Adding to the brittleness was the water temperature of 28 degrees Fahrenheit. For high-quality modern steel to shatter as the Titanic's hull did, the water temperature must reach 130 degrees below zero.