“THE TITANIC WAS KNOWN AS ‘UNSINKABLE’”
Submerged nearly four kilometres beneath the surface of the icy North Atlantic Ocean lies the red-rusted remains of the magnificent ocean liner the RMS Titanic. This iconic passenger vessel is remembered as the unsinkable ship, but did anyone at the time really believe this to be true? Evidence suggests that while passengers and crew did feel they were aboard an exceptionally safe vessel, there had been no advertising of the liner as being ‘unsinkable’.
This phrasing only came from the White Star Line after the Titanic had sunk. When reports of the sinking ship reached America on the morning of the 15 April 1912, Philip Franklin (the vice president of the company) announced,
“There is no danger that Titanic will sink. The boat is unsinkable and nothing but inconvenience will be suffered by the passengers.”
Previous to the sinking of the Titanic, the only known record of someone saying the ship was unsinkable came from a crewmember to calm the nerves of the passenger Mrs Sylvia Caldwell. It’s reported he said to her, “God himself could not sink this ship!” The belief that the Titanic was ever seen as the unsinkable ship is a result of latter-day myth making and sensationalism.