Crew or equipment visible
Reflected in Rose's TV.
Continuity
Jack wins his ticket by beating 2 pair with a full house. However, when we first see Jack's
hand, he has nothing that could be made in to a full house, and only draws one card.
Revealing mistakes
A strip of desert is visible between the dock and the Titanic when docked at Southampton.
Continuity
When Captain Smith orders, "Take her to sea, Mr. Murdoch -- let's stretch her legs", they
are standing to the right of the wheelhouse looking forward with the sun coming from their
left. When Murdoch walks into the wheelhouse to carry out the order, the sun is behind him.
The draft markings on the Titanic's bow when Jack looks at the dolphins later change size
and position.
Anachronisms
Jack claims to have gone ice fishing on Lake Wissota, which wasn't created until five years
after the Titanic sank.
Jack claims to have visited the Santa Monica Pier, which did not begin construction until
1916.
The pipe frames supporting the third class berths have set-screw speed rail fittings, not
developed until 1946.
Factual errors
Margaret Brown was never refered to as "Molly" until after her death.
Continuity
In the scene where Jack is teaching Rose to spit, there is no spit on his chin as he starts to
turn around to face the ladies, but by the time he has completed his turn he has some on his
chin.
Factual errors
The painting over the fireplace in the Titanic's first class smoking lounge in the film depicts
New York Harbor, which was actually the painting on the Titanic's sister ship, "Olympic".
The painter, Norman Wilkinson, had provided a scene of Plymouth Harbor for Titanic, but
no pictures of this work survive.
Anachronisms
A closeup of Captain Smith reveals that he is wearing contact lenses.
Factual errors
The main characters have lunch in the Palm Court/Verandah on A Deck. These were not
used for dining, although passengers could order tea or a small snack.
Cal orders lamb with mint sauce for himself and Rose. Lamb was only available for dinner
on the ship, while mutton was reserved for lunch. The lamb was prepared in the D-Deck
galley and would not have been served in the Palm Court.
Revealing mistakes
While Jack and Rose are walking on the promenade the day after he rescues her, a small hill
with a building on it is visible over Jack's shoulder and above the ship.
Anachronisms
The button on the left side of Jack's borrowed jacket is a "Kingsdrew" button, first made in
1922.
Continuity
Jack takes Rose and Molly's arms to go into dinner. They start walking, but in the next shot
they are still standing apart.
Crew or equipment visible
Reflected in the glass door opened for Jack as he enters the dining room.
Factual errors
The worship services held at 10:30 on Sunday April 14th, 1912, in the First Class Dining
Room were open to all passengers of the ship.
Anachronisms
"Almighty Father Strong To Save" is sung during the worship service; the two verses used in
the film were written by Robert Nelson Spencer in 1937.
Factual errors
During the scene when Rose "flies" from the ship's bow, the sunlight is clearly falling almost
exactly straight across the ship from left to right. On the evening of the 14th, the ship would
be steaming somewhere between WSW and SW; the lighting in the movie would indicate
that the sun is between SSE and SE, when it actually would have been between W and
WNW.
Revealing mistakes
In the same shot, the faces of Jack and Rose are lit from a different angle, though still from
the left.
Continuity
The length of Rose's fingernails throughout the movie.
Factual errors
The hands sketching Rose are clearly too old to belong to Jack. (They actually belong to
director James Cameron.)
Workers in the Titanic's engine room had to wear thick protective clothing to shield them
from the heat generated by the engines.
Anachronisms
The gauges in the engine room are fitted with sweated tubing fittings, a plumbing technique
not available when the ship was constructed. The fittings should have been threaded brass.
Factual errors
There was no door between boiler room 6 and the cargo area (and no access to any but
authorized crew). If there had been a door, it would have entered the third cargo area aft,
not the one where the Renault was stored.
Crew or equipment visible
Reflected in a brass panel on the front of the Renault that Jack and Rose find in the cargo
hold.
Factual errors
The disaster message that the radio operator starts clicking out on the telegraph key is not
intelligible Morse code.
When Captain Smith enters the wheelhouse, the ship's telegraph is set to "Full Reverse"
instead of "All Stop".
Continuity
The sea water would be at or below freezing point, yet characters rarely display discomfort
or disablement from being immersed.
Factual errors
Jack is supposedly held prisoner in the Master-at-Arms' office, which is depicted as having
a porthole. On the Titanic, this room was an interior room and hence would have no
portholes.
Continuity
That porthole is shown to be several feet below water, yet in a shot from inside the room,
the surface of the water is visible inches above the porthole.
The broken glass that the axe sits behind.
Factual errors
It is impossible for voices to echo in the middle of the North Atlantic unless there is a large,
flat object like a ship nearby.
Errors in geography
We are shown a shot of Rose's view of the Statue of Liberty from a ship, yet to obtain a
view as indicated she would have to be on land.
Some artifacts recovered from the wreck of the Titanic included a number made of paper,
which were saved by being in leather bags or such; it is therefore possible for Jack's sketch
of Rose to have survived as shown.
The tugs that assisted the Titanic away from the Southampton dock did belong to the
company known today as the Red Funnel Line, but they had not yet adopted that nickname
or colour scheme. As shown in the film, the actual tugs had beige funnels.
Although the Titanic's fourth smokestack was not an exhaust avenue for the ship's engines, it
was used as an outlet for the Titanic's massive kitchen. Since the Titanic used coal stoves,
some smoke would have been coming out of the fourth smokestack. In one of the flyovers
of the ship, it is possible to see that most of the top of the fourth smokestack is sealed.
It is often claimed that there is a tattoo visible on Rose's arm in the scene where looks to be
committing suicide. It is actually a moon-shaped black dot - some embellishment that has
come loose from her robe, clearly visible in closer shots.
It has been stated that the paintings in Rose's room are famous works that did not go down
with Titanic. The paintings were by artists noted for creating many similar paintings.
Although her fingers partially obscure it, the coin that Rose gives to Jack is generally agreed
to be a Barber dime, minted 1892-1916. The Barber dime is distinctive because the portrait
of Liberty on the head of the coin faces the right, not the left.
After the iceberg is spotted, First Officer Murdoch bellows a helm order:
"Hard-a-starboard!" But Quartermaster Hichens, manning the wheel, turns the wheel
counter-clockwise, or to port. At first glance this would seem to be a mistake. The order
itself, "Hard-a-starboard," was a holdover from earlier days when the tiller of a ship would
be used to control the rudder. Pushing the tiller to the right (starboard) would cause the ship
to turn to the left (port). So a turn to port was ordered by calling "hard-a-starboard."
Sources differ on which way the wheel had to be turned to actually carry out this order.
Director James Cameron is on the record as being aware of the possible confusion that
turning the wheel in the "wrong" direction might create, but decided to include it to be as
accurate as possible.
The "middle finger" gesture was used as early as the late 19th century.
Young Rose's eyes appear green in some scenes due to colored lighting from flares, etc.
The gun that Cal uses to go after Rose and Jack was a Colt 45M1911, created in 1910.
The gun holds 7 bullets in the clip with an eighth in the chamber. Cal did not pull back the
slide (which would have ejected a bullet) before shooting and fired exactly eight shots.
There is much disagreement over the last song played by the band before the ship sank.
Wallace Hartley's family firmly believe that it was "Nearer, My God, to Thee" as shown in
the film, and indeed had this inscription placed on his tombstone, as do the majority of
witnesses. According to Junior Wireless Operator Harold Bride, the band played the song
"Songe d'Automne", which has some similar sections. The hymn itself has been set to at least
three melodies in the nineteenth century, of which the American Lowell Mason's 1856
melody, heard in this film, is only one. Night to Remember, A (1958), uses John B. Dykes'
melody from the English Hymnal.
There are two independent reports that an officer shot one or more passengers, gave a
"military" salute, and then committed suicide. There is no evidence to indicate that this was
First Officer Murdoch, however.
It is often presumed that it is impossible for people floating in unfrozen water to have ice
form in their hair. This is not the case. On the Titanic on April 14th, 1912, the air
temperature dropped over ten degrees Farenheit (5.6 C) between 7 pm and 10 pm. Even
assuming that the average temperature decrease slowed by half during the next four hours
(when the victims were in the water), the temperature of the air would be below 25 F (-4
C). This is not unreasonable, as there were no clouds to keep ambient temperature up. By
convection, the temperature of the air immediately above the surface of the water would
certainly approach this temperature. Freezing point depression of a fluid depends only on the
amount of material in the fluid. Average sea water has less than 2 moles of ions per kilogram
of water. This means that isolated sea water freezes at temperatures between 28 and 25 F
(-2 to -4 C). Assuming that the victims in the water hair wet and as long as the air
temperature was below 25-28 F, then it is quite reasonable for their hair to freeze.
The lifeboats for RMS Titanic were in fact labeled "SS Titanic". This is verified by a
photograph which appears on page 718 of National Geographic Magazine Vol. 168 no. 6
(December 1985).
The credits explain that some dramatic license has been taken; this is apparent with several
minor characters. For example, Benjamin Guggenheim's mistress, Madame Aubert, never
dined in the First-Class Dining Saloon; she took all of her meals in the a la Carte restaurant
on B-Deck.
Various other minute contradictions of history. This film is prey to a large number of factual
errors due to the large volume of documentary evidence from the actual event.