I’m a Titanic expert – there are huge flaws in film’s iconic scenes… from dramatic way ship sunk to steamy car romp

IT’S one of the biggest grossing movies of all time – but how true is Titanic?

The 1998 James Cameron classic – which turns 25 today – centres on the doomed romance between society beauty Rose, played by Kate Winslet, and working class lad Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) on the ill-fated liner’s maiden voyage.

But Swedish historian Claes-Göran Wetterholm, who has spent a lifetime studying Titanic – which sank on April 15, 1912, killing 1,500 – says many of the film’s iconic scenes stray from the facts of the fateful night. 

“This is the best Titanic movie ever made about what never happened,” he says. “The whole story of Titanic is packed with wishful thinking.”

Here he reveals the moments based on fact – and those embellished with a big dollop of artistic licence.

How it sunk

The harrowing moment the huge liner breaks in two and plunges into the icy Atlantic is an incredible feat of film-making. 

But Claes claims the stern couldn’t have broken off as it did in the movie – and even rowed with director Cameron over it.

“Cameron came to our exhibition and I walked him through. I told him the stern breaking off and falling into the ocean never happened,” he recalls.

“It is impossible because it would have caused a wave, but he insisted it did and that there was a wave. 

“I just couldn’t hold back, and I said, ‘This is bulls***. If the stern had fallen there would have been a tsunami which would have swamped the heavily loaded lifeboats, 13 and 15, and they wouldn’t have had a chance. 

“But there wasn’t a ripple on the water and some said they’d never seen the North Atlantic so calm. 

“He didn’t change his mind then, but I read this week that he now says that Titanic didn’t sink as it does his movie.”

Locked gates

As the ship goes down in the film, third class passengers are condemned to a watery grave by locked gates that stop them fleeing.

But Claes insists it was more a case of mental barriers that prevented the third class passengers from saving themselves.

“The iron gates in the film went from floor to ceiling but there were no such gates,” he says. 

“The gates on the Titanic only reached up to half a metre – but the gates inside people’s heads, so to speak, were higher. 

“If you see signs saying ‘no trespassing’, you stand there and wait and don’t do anything until it’s too late.

“Also first and second class passengers could easily come up on the boat deck to get into the lifeboats, but third class didn’t know how to find their way. When they did come up, it was too late. 

“Statistically, you can find third class passengers in the last four boats – 13, 15, 14 and 16 – but the majority never made it to the boats.”

Car sex scene

The film’s steamiest scene – literally – saw Rose and Jack romp in a car on the cargo deck, but Claes says there’s a simple reason that never could have happened.

“In the cargo manifest, it says ‘one case automobile’ which means the only car on board was actually just a base and a chassis,” he explains.

“There wasn’t much to make love on – and if they had done it on the real car it would have been a very greasy affair.” 

The elderly couple 

One of the most heartbreaking moments in the movie centres on an elderly couple who die in each other’s arms, instead of trying to save themselves.

Tragically, this is based on the true story of Isidor Straus, the 67-year-old owner of New York store Macy’s, and his wife Ida, 63.

“As it was women and children first, Ida was told to go to the lifeboats on the port side, but her husband wasn’t allowed,” says Claes.

“She stepped back and somebody heard her say to him, ‘We have been together so long. Where you go, I go’. 

“The last anyone saw of them they were sitting on two deck chairs. His body was found but hers was never recovered.”

The boozy baker

As chaos reigns around him, a baker is seen hanging from the ship’s rail and swigging whisky from a flask.

This cool-headed drunkard is based on the chief baker, Charles Joughan, who Claes says was “marinated in alcohol” and “worked on the principle it’s better to have alcohol in the body than outside”.

He explains: “Charles was supposed to be in charge of a lifeboat, but when the stern started coming up out of the water, he climbed on the starboard side railing and used it as a ladder. 

“When he was asked, in the enquiry, what he did as the ship sank, he said, ‘I moved a couple of things from this pocket to the other and tightened my belt.’

“He later tried to get onto an upturned lifeboat but was pushed off and hung on.

“He was a unique example of somebody who actually survived a very long time in the water and experts say that it couldn’t be because of the alcohol, but we don’t know.”

The ‘door’ that saved Rose

In the film’s heartbreaking final scenes, Rose lies on a piece of wood – often referred to as a door – in the icy water while frozen Jack slowly slips into a watery grave.

But Claes believes the floating panel wouldn’t have saved either character.

“To start with, it’s not a door,” says Claes. “It is a piece of panelling from the first class lounge which can still be seen in the Maritime Museum in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

“Cameron copied the panel – then it was too small for Kate Winslet, who fell off it, so he had to make it larger.

“Jack wouldn’t have been able to survive because it was below freezing in the water and the panelling is actually very thin.

“Jack would have survived about 15 minutes and Rose not much longer.”

Staircase scene

One of the film’s most touching moments is when Jack waits nervously for Rose to arrive for dinner.

As she sweeps down the elegant staircase in the first class lounge, she looks stunned at his transformation as he kisses her hand.

But Claes claims the scene is “funny” because the staircase is in the wrong place.

“The film is incredibly well done in terms of the interiors and design,” he admits.

“But to those of us that have studied the Titanic, that’s a funny scene because the area they come down from has nothing but a boat deck. 

“So all these people in elegant evening dresses coming down from the polar cold, up there, is impossible. 

“Rose’s suite was below that deck, so she would have come up from beneath. But James Cameron had to remake Titanic’s geography to get more drama into the film. It looks better this way.”

Heroic death

Many of the characters in the film are real, including no-nonsense Molly Brown (Kathy Bates) who unsuccessfully  pleaded with the officer manning her lifeboat to turn around to collect passengers from the water.

JJ Astor, the 47-year-old millionaire, and his young pregnant wife Madeleine, pointed out to Jack by Rose, are also real.

Their love affair caused a scandal in American society and, when he perished in the disaster, she was left with little money due to a prenup she signed, denying her a fortune in the event of his death.

Thomas Andrews, the naval architect who designed the supposedly “unsinkable” ship, is also seen in the film calmly smoking in the lounge as his impending death looms.

This is also true as, according to a steward, “Andrews was in the first class smoking lounge, by the painting,” says Claes. 

“The steward said, ‘Aren’t you going to make a try for it, Mr. Andrews?’ but he didn’t respond. He was already in another world. He had done all he could.  

“In the enquiry, the Achilles heel of the Titanic was found to be the bulkheads, which didn’t go high enough, and the reason for that was that the law didn’t allow them to take them higher.

“Had they done so, the Titanic would have survived and that changed after the disaster.

“The Titanic is the divider in the history of safety at sea because after this it was absolutely clear that you can’t beat nature. 

“From then on, no ships could go out without enough lifeboats, for example.”

Scandal over Officer Murdoch

In a controversial scene from the movie, First Officer William Murdoch (Ewan Stewart) shoots dead Jack Dawson’s friend Tommy, then takes his own life. 

James Cameron recently admitted this is the one scene he most regrets.

Claes reveals he told the director he’d got it badly wrong after the 1998 premiere in Germany.

“William Murdoch is seen to be bribed, shoot a passenger, and then himself, and this never took place,” he says. 

“You can’t use real people and change their history because the Murdoch family were very annoyed by this.

“Fox-Paramount sent the Vice Director to Murdoch’s hometown of Dalbeattie in Scotland, where he met William’s nephew Scott Murdoch, and they donated £5,000 pounds to a fund in memory of Murdoch and gave Scott a plate from the film.

“Considering they’d already made over a billion pounds, that was extremely generous!”

Captain Smith mystery

In the film Captain John Smith is seen in the wheelhouse awaiting certain death, but others believe he jumped into the water and tried to help people into lifeboats before perishing. 

Claes says the truth may never be known.

“There are lots of conflicting witness reports but I think we can assume he stayed on the bridge and died there,” he says.

“There were many stories that sprang up afterwards about Captain Smith – for example, that he never died – and things like this, because he just disappeared.

“He seemed to be very inactive during the sinking. But he wasn’t prepared for this, so I have a feeling that he might have had a mental collapse.

“He didn’t know what to do. He knew the ship would sink in one and a half to two hours, and he knew that there were only lifeboats for half the people on the ship.

“The nearest ship would come in four hours, and the water was so cold that people would live only for 15 to 20 minutes. So, what do you do?”