THE TITANIC
THE LEGENDARY 1912 SHIPWRECK—AND THE MOVIE THAT BROUGHT IT TO LIFE 25 YEARS AGO—STILL HAUNTS OUR IMAGINATIONS. PARADE LOOKS BACK AT THE CATASTROPHIC VOYAGE AND THE EPIC 1997 FILM.
here is a reason the tale of the mighty Titanic and its catastrophic single voyage is so universally known and so often retold: It has, basically, everything. Life and death struggles, heroic rescues and cowardly deeds, magnificence and pathos and possibly the most spectacular illustration ever of a biblical proverb: “Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”
This month, a quarter century after James Cameron’s blockbuster debuted in 1997, offers yet another moment to contemplate why and how one shipwreck mattered so much—and to revisit the popular film (a remastered version will be re-released in theaters early next year). Beyond the personal dramas and tragedies enacted on board that night, and reenacted in rigorously true-to-life form in Cameron’s film starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, the loss of the Titanic cast a global shadow. It was the first disaster to play out almost in real time around the world (thanks to new wireless telegraph technology), and served as a larger-than-life example of the ways industry could be toppled by the ancient power of nature. Ultimately, it marked the end of an era of cultural progress and eye-popping wealth, an era that exploded into chaos just two years later with the first world war.
Today, 13 years after the death of the ship’s last survivor, there is still more to learn about the Titanic catastrophe and the film. And now you can actually visit (for a price) the shipwreck, dine off of replicas of the ship’s china and explore full-scale reproductions of the ship. So, if you’re thinking you know everything there is to know about the Titanic film and the fabled ship and its one and only voyage? Read on. You may discover some startling details.
TBY MICHELLE STACEY
It sounds like fiction but in the 1890s, a novel called From the Old World to the New follows the transatlantic crossing of a White Star ship called the Majestic—a real ship, helmed from 1895 to 1904 by none other than Captain E.J. Smith, who died piloting the Titanic in 1912. In the book, mid-ocean, the crew rescues the lone survivor of a wreck caused by an iceberg. Even more eerily, that book’s author, William T. Stead, was a firstclass passenger on the Titanic 20 years later—and went down with the ship.