Titanic: the world's enduring fascination with the famous shipwreck

The general public's interest in the Titanic began even before the ship was built

Titanic, flagship of The White Star Line. Getty

In 1898, a book was released about the world’s largest and supposedly unsinkable ship, which hit an iceberg on its maiden voyage and sank with great loss of life.

The novella – ironically titled The Wreck of the Titan: Or, Futility – was a total flop at the time.

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“It was just too unrealistic,” Titanic expert Dr Rudi Newman told The National.

But 14 years later, after the Titanic sank, the book, by Morgan Robertson, became an overnight hit.

“Suddenly it became true,” he said. “And the irony is the name of the fictional ship was the Titan.”

More than a hundred years since the Titanic sank, global fascination with the ship continues. A search for a missing submersible containing adventurers attempting to view the wreck is ongoing. The underwater vessel had five people on board at the time of its disappearance.

Titanic intrigue began even before the ship was built, said Dr Newman, a former honorary secretary of the British Titanic Society.

“In its day, the Edwardian era, there was a race between companies building bigger, better, more luxurious ships,” he said. “And people were very interested in that.

“As far as all these companies were concerned, first class was nice and fancy but not where the real money was. The Titanic was above all an emigrant ship.”

But on the night of April 14, 1912, Royal Mail Ship Titanic, the supposedly unsinkable vessel, went down only four days into its maiden voyage with the loss of more than 1,500 lives.

The disaster sparked a long-standing fascination, partly because, according to Dr Newman, the event was the first large-scale disaster covered internationally by the world’s media in real time.

Titanic at Southampton, 1912. PA

“The event happened like a film but in real life,” Dr Newman said.

“People make comparisons to the likes of 9/11. It was a game changer and a shocking development that people didn’t really see coming.

“And I think more broadly it’s the fact of pride coming before a fall.”

The first film about the Titanic came out only months after the disaster.

“It starred a survivor who was in the silent film industry,” Dr Newman said.

The interest has endured, for several reasons, he said.

Films, countless books, articles and even a Lego model have focused on the disaster and the resulting wreck, which was discovered in 1985 and has been visited many times – mainly by remotely operated vehicles.

“The tourist side is somewhat new. I believe this is only actually the third expedition that this company and vessel has done.”

Unveiling the 'unsinkable'

The RMS Titanic, built by the White Star Line and completed on March 31, 1912, was constructed in Belfast over a span of three years. It was about as long as three football fields.

On April 10, 1912, Titanic embarked on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York, stopping at Cherbourg, France, and Queenstown, Ireland, for additional passengers.

Titanic was filled with more than 2,200 people, including 900 crew members. Passengers of various social statuses journeyed on the ship, some seeking a fresh start in America.

Billed as “Queen of the Ocean” and “unsinkable”, the Titanic's hull was made up of 16 separate sections designed to withstand damage and water intake.

A catastrophic collision with an iceberg late into the voyage tore holes in at least four of the sections, leading to a devastating sink.

A severe shortage of lifeboats, only enough for half of the ship's capacity, led to a hasty and chaotic evacuation, leaving many to jump into the sea.

The RMS Carpathia was the first to respond to Titanic's distress signals but arrived an hour after it had sunk, rescuing about 705 survivors from the lifeboats and transporting them safely to New York.

The disaster claimed more than 1,500 lives, with 300 bodies recovered from the site in the following days.

The Titanic's wreck was discovered in 1985, 70 years after the disaster, by oceanographer Robert Ballard.

Several expeditions have salvaged more than 6,000 artefacts from the wreckage, which are now displayed in various museums worldwide.

The longest-living survivor of the Titanic was Millvina Dean, who passed away in 2009 at the age of 97.

The enduring love of the Titanic

In the intricate narrative of Titanic's tragic voyage, in-depth research has brought to light the previously underrepresented Arab passengers, notably a substantial Lebanese cohort.

The standard depictions have often not accurately reflected this diversity.

Ray Hanania is a journalist, newspaper columnist and host of radio shows in Chicago and Detro who extensively researched the Arab presence on the ship after seeing the 1997 film Titanic.

"I went there thinking this would be a good movie about a maritime tragedy that every young American kid has learnt about, and I'm sure kids [everywhere]," he said.

"And then, all of a sudden, that word [yalla] comes jumping out.

"I'm sure for everybody else in the theatre, it meant nothing, but for me it was like I hit gold."

Popular depictions of Titanic's voyage have overlooked or misinterpreted the presence of Arab passengers, especially a significant Lebanese contingent.

Historically, it has been suggested that a significant scene in the film Titanic, depicted as an Irish wedding party, was actually based on an Arab wedding celebration.

Research indicates that between 10 and 20 per cent of the ship's third-class passengers were of Arab origin, with these figures being substantiated by original White Star documents.

Unfortunately, the Arabic names were often anglicised beyond recognition, leading to a distorted account of casualties.

Official records suggest 154 Syrians were aboard, of which 125 perished – a significant proportion of third-class fatalities.

Notably, the term “Syrian” in 1912 referred to a province in the Ottoman Empire encompassing present-day Syria, Palestine, Israel, Lebanon and Jordan.

Largest underwater scanning project in history reveals 'Digital Twin' of the Titanic wreck – in pictures

“Private trips to Titanic have technically been happening for years but they have been of a very different nature,” Dr Newman said. He added they were used for filmmaking, documentaries or research.

“So yes, Titanic has been visited a great deal over a 30-year period.

“But a lot of the dives were by remotely operated vehicles. Titanic was found by an ROV. Titanic was the test bed for that technology as part of a covert Cold War operation.”

Dr Newman added he did not want to speculate about what had happened, but any shipwreck is dangerous to some degree or another.

“In the case of some wrecks where scuba divers can go, there have been losses, sadly. And wrecks do have, particularly when we are talking about ROVs, there are catch points and risks,” he said.

A view of Titanic taken during the historical 1986 dive. AFP

“Wrecks slowly collapse over time.

“There was an expedition, I believe, in the 1990s to RMS Lusitania that used a mini-sub. A fishing net got caught in its propeller and it found itself effectively tethered to the wreck. In that particular instance, the submersible was designed so you could release the propeller in an emergency, and so it bobbed up to the surface.

“They put on a new propeller, put on an old one and there wasn’t a problem.”