Everybody knows about the Titanic. At least everybody (or as close to everybody as one can get) knows that the Titanic was a really big ship, that it was said to be unsinkable, and that it nevertheless sank on her maiden voyage after hitting an iceberg.
Most people probably know no more about it, but the sinking of the Titanic is certainly among the most famous events of the twentieth century.
The question that this phenomenon raises is (of course) why?
The answer to this question is perhaps a little more complex than some may expect.
When the Titanic did sink in the night from the 14th to 15th April 1912, the immediate impact on the public in England, the USA, and, to a lesser extend, in other countries was enormous.
The death of more than 1,500 people - including the rich and famous, though nowadays mainly famous for having been on the Titanic - not only caused immeasurable grief to their friends and families, it also sent a shock through the countries and provoked a wave of donations and the building of an enormous number of monuments.
During this immediate outburst of emotion, bordering on hysteria on more than a few occasions, following the sinking of the Titanic sermons were preached, poems were written in great numbers (among them some of the worst poetry ever published), songs were composed and only twenty nine days after the event the first film about the disaster, Saved from the Titanic, was released.
Several accounts of survivors were also published in short order, ranging from fictional eye-witness accounts the remarkable books by Archibald Gracie and Lawrence Beesley.
However, the sinking of the Titanic did not shake the world, change society nor was it the end of an era.
The newspapers headlines were dominated by the Titanic for days rather than weeks after the sinking. While the disaster remained newsworthy for some time to come (mainly due to the American Senate and British Board of Trade Inquiries) other topics soon relegated the Titanic to the back pages. In the UK these were Irish Home Rule, Women's Suffrage and the Coal Strike.
Then, the Titanic disaster vanished from the spot-light, not surprisingly, considering that World War I broke out in 1914.
The Making of a Modern Myth
While many events that at first attract great attention are forgotten in time, there are some that become even more famous as the years pass.
It was only in the late 1920s that a new interest seems to have developed in the sinking of the Titanic: the first (at least that I have encountered. If not please let me know!) post war publication that included the word Titanic in its title was oddly enough a German book claiming to be the account of a survivor: H. Hesse's Der Untergang der Titanic. Bericht eines Überlebenden.
The first feature-length film to be called after the famous ship was a German propaganda film Titanic (1943). The first English-language film of this title was released in 1953, starring Barbara Stanwyck, Clifton Webb, Brian Aherne and Robert Wagner.
It was, however, not until the publication of Walter Lord's enormously successful book A Night to Remember in 1955 and the release of the film of the same name in 1958 that the story of the Titanic became a real phenomenon.
When Walter Lord wrote A Night to Remember, forty odd years after the Titanic's sinking, the actual events were distant enough for a whole new generation to be interested in it. Moreover, it was at a time, when the survivors started to become something of a scarce commodity. Fourth Officer Joseph G. Boxhall served as technical advisor, and a large number of survivors visited the set, including Lawrence Beesley who, as a famous anecdote recounts, tried to go down with the ship this time, but was refused because he was not in the actor's union. His participation could have stopped the entire shooting.
While Charles Herbert Lightoller, one of the main characters and hero of the film A Night to Remember, did not live to see either book nor film, the inadvertent antagonist of the story, Captain Stanley Lord [no relation to Walter Lord] did and sued. Interestingly he did so only after the film was released, even though the book hardly presented him in a better light. In fact, Lightoller had already identified the Califorian as the mystery ship that did not come to the Titanic's rescue in his memoirs published in 1935, implicating Captain Stanley Lord personally as well.
For many Titanic enthusiasts A Night to Remember is still the definitive version, though both the book and the film have their fair share of critics, too.
Since then the story of the Titanic has remained one of the most famous stories of the twentieth century. New books on different aspects of the tragedy have been written ever since, some attempting to give as accurate an account of the events of the nights, others focusing on real or imagined conspiracies. Some focus on one aspect of the story, others are lovely picture books. And there were, of course, numerous novels written.
The discovery of the wreck of the Titanic by Robert Ballard and his team in 1985 renewed interest in the lost liner, and solved a few of the remaining questions, perhaps the most spectacular of these was whether the Titanic did break in two. (It did.) New questions were raised as well, not least of all the passionate debate what was to be done with the actual wreck and everything on and surrounding it.
In 1997, James Cameron's enormously successful film Titanic generated a new wave of interest. However, judging from the release date of many Titanic related products, e.g. the computer game Titanic. Adventure out of Time or Beryl Bainbridge's Every Man for himself both published in 1996, there was a considerable fascination with the subject existent before the film was released. (See also the 'Chronological Bibliography')
Variety and Controversy
But what is it about the Titanic that captures people's attention again and again?
There is not one answer to this question, which in turn is already one reason for the continuing popularity. There are so many different aspects of the Titanic disaster people find interesting: Some are entranced by the passengers, be it the glamour of the first class, the drama (hope for a better life leading to tragedy and death) of steerage or the often ignored 2nd class. For some people it is the ship itself that holds their fascination. Some see in the events a morality play of human hubris brought low by nature or god. There are a multitude of facets of the story that can grip one's imagination or provoke one's curiosity into trying to find more about it.
Another point that raises the interest value of the Titanic tragedy is that while there are enough facts known about it to reconstruct the broad sequence of events that night, there are also some significant points where controversy continues. This is not an open and shut case. The sinking of the Harold of Free Enterprise is never going to attract the attention the Titanic receives because there is nothing mysterious or even complex about the causes of the ferry's sinking, it happened in broad daylight and right in front of everybody's noses: the door was left open and the ship sank. End of story.
While there is a certain consensus of the events in the night the Titanic sank, there are a number of points that are unclear and cause some lively and even acrimonious debates. These range from the not particularly incendiary question of whether the last song the band played was 'Nearer my God to Thee' or 'Autumn' or who was put into which boat and by whom - not that these questions are not discussed intensely and in detail, too - to the big questions on the fundamental issues of navigation, negligence and nearness:
Why does the position Boxhall calculated for the distress call differ so much from the location the wreck was found? And why did the Carpathia still find the survivors?
Where were the lookouts' binoculars? And would it have made any difference if they had had them?
Was Murdoch's decision to port round the iceberg the right one? If not, what would have been the 'right' decision?
Was the fact that several ice warnings were not taken to the bridge a significant factor in causing the collision?
Was the Californian really the mystery ship seen from the Titanic?
These and many other questions have been and will be discussed a great length, in detail and with enough passion to occasionally turn into outright fights between Titanic enthusiast, while those who are not interested in the intricacies of the Titanic story will only shake their heads, not understanding why anybody could take this so serious. But, I think, the controversies surrounding the story of the sinking are a large part of the Titanic's appeal.
Several law-suits were fought over these controversies. The lawsuit of Captain Lord against A Night to Remember was already mentioned. When C. H. Lightoller published his memoirs in 1935, the Marconi company sued, because Lightoller places some blame for the disaster on the fact that several ice warnings had not been taken to the bridge. The book was recalled and this is one reason why it is so difficult to get hold off. (At least that's how I understand it.)
Some years ago, I tried to explain to the brother of a friend why she was so very much into the Titanic and why this fascination held for such a long time. I said 'Obsessions need to be fed,...' Unfortunately, the young man did not let me finish the sentence because he was of the opinion that obsession ought not to be fed. What I wanted to say was 'Obsessions need to be fed, otherwise they starve and die.' In case of the Titanic there is enough 'food' out there to feed an obsession for a life-time.
Moreover, the Titanic enthusiast can not only passively consume, he or she can participate. Not only is there a huge array of different ready-made things Titanic out there, one can join in discussion boards, do one's own research, write fiction or non-fiction, paint, go on Titanic-themed vacations, have Titanic-parties or create your own webpage about that particular aspect that one finds interesting and nobody else has done so before, for example the Titanic in fiction and film with a particular emphasis on the fictional Officers.
Obviously, this last aspect (of actively engaging in your obsession, not writing webpages about fictional officers) is also true for many other subject people get enthusiastic about, if only by writing fan fiction for example.
Titanic sells
Fact is: the Titanic sells.
This has been true from the very beginning. The first film, already mentioned above, Saved from the Titanic includes the name of the ship in its title as do the majority of other films and books. Some have even been republished to include the marketable word: Ice Falls became Titanic. A Love Story and the title of Stenson's biography of C. H. Lightoller also picked up the magic word between the first and the second edition.
Far be it from me to insinuate that the people who write books or make films about the Titanic only do so to cash in on its popularity. Most of the writers/artists/filmmakers do have a genuine interest in the Titanic. What I do think is that a story set on the Titanic may find a publisher easier than the same story set elsewhere.
There are also those books where the reader cannot shake the feeling that the only reason the Titanic was chosen as the setting is that it is marketable.
One could say that by now the story of the Titanic has reached the stage where its fame is self-perpetuating. The prominence of the disaster means that books are written, films or documentaries are made which in turn will interest new people and so forth.
The intensity of the public interest grows and diminishes over the years, but the Titanic is and will remain to be part of our popular culture, a modern myth.
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