Titanic is a film that has lasted decades, and is still something that we’d all watch over and over again, but is it accurately depicting how a vital character died?
Okay, so we all know how the story goes: Rose (Kate Winslet) and Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) meet on the Titanic ship after Rose attempts to take her own life.
The pair quickly fall in love, despite the fact that she’s soon to be wedded to an uber-rich businessman, while Jack is a poor artist.
Anyway, during their love fest, we are introduced to a number of characters who are thought to be based on real-life people who died on the ill-fated RMS Titanic sinking in 1912.
This includes the captain of the ship, Captain Edward John Smith, who refused to leave the vessel as it was sinking, and instead he took hold of the wheel one last time before the water crashed through the glass and killed him.
It was a truly heartbreaking moment in the film, but did it actually happen like that in real-life?
The Titanic sank in 1912 ( History/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
The 1997 film that was directed by James Cameron, who dedicated himself to researching the event extensively, and also visited the ship wreckage several times.
But that doesn’t mean that he stuck to the true-life events for each character he took inspiration from.
According to the Los Angeles Express on April 18, 1912, three days after the sinking, of the ship, it stated on its front page that ‘Captain E.J. Smith shot himself’.
The day after, the Daily Mirror wrote: ‘Captain Smith Shoots Himself on the Bridge’.
According to the Daily Mail, several rumours swirled about the captain after the ship sank, such as his heavy drinking, reckless speeding, and even ignoring warnings for icebergs in the area.
As there was an age-old tradition that captains would go down with their ships, it almost seems like a terrible rumour to suggest that he went against his code of conduct.
But it’s all been settled with the release of a new book by Dan E. Parkes who claims that Smith died in the water with his 1,495 victim passengers.
Edward John Smith was the captain of the ill-fated ‘Titanic’ (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)
The book, which is titled Titanic Legacy: The Captain, The Daughter and The Spy, insists that the captain’s posthumous rumours were absurd.
He shared that three months after the sinking of the, a man from Baltimore claimed Smith had survived and was secretly living in Maryland.
Years later, Life magazine claimed that a ‘down and out’ man in Ohio was claiming to be Smith.
With that, Parkes dismissed all allegations against the mariner, including the rumours of him drinking and being reckless.
Using eyewitness accounts from the survivors, he shared the final moments of Smith.
While there were ‘eyewitness accounts… that did report an officer shooting and suicide,’ Parkes said that the person who shot himself was unnamed, and that passengers heard shots and wanted someone to blame, landing on Smith.
A 3D scanning of the Titanic (YouTube/ National Geographic)
He shared that Robert Williams Daniel, a 27-year-old banker said he ‘saw Captain Smith on the bridge’ as the Titanic sank.
The first-class passenger told the New York Herald that he saw the captain swallowed by the water.
“He died a hero,” Daniel said.
Some survivors also claimed he went down with his ship and tried to save an infant in his final moments.
The 62-year-old was also allegedly joined by his personal steward, Arthur Paintin.
Frederick Dent Ray, a first class saloon steward, testified before a US inquiry that Paintin was ‘last seen on the bridge, standing by the captain’.
Frederick Hoyt, a rich passenger also shared that he bumped into Smith while returning to the deck and shared a drink before the passenger jumped.
Isaac Maynard, a 31-year-old cook, testified in New York: “I saw Captain Smith washed from the bridge, and afterwards saw him swimming in the water. He was still fully dressed, with his peak cap on his head.
“One of the men clinging to the raft tried to save him by reaching out a hand, but he would not let him, and called out ‘Look after yourselves, boys.’ I do not know what became of the captain, for I could not see him at the time, but I suppose he sank.”
