RMS Titanic

RMS Titanic (also SS Titanic) was the second of a trio of superliners intended to dominate the transatlantic travel business.{{ref|trio_ref}} Owned by the White Star Line and built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland, the Titanic was the largest passenger steamship in the world at the time of its launching. During Titanic's maiden voyage, it struck an iceberg at 11:40 PM (ship's time) on Sunday evening April 14, 1912, and sank two hours and forty minutes later at 2:20 AM Monday morning.

Popular culture

The sinking of Titanic has been the basis for many novels describing fictionalised events on board the ship. Many reference books about the disaster have also been written since the Titanic sank, the first of these appearing within months of the sinking. Survivors like Second Officer Lightoller and passenger Jack Thayer have written books describing their experiences. Some like Walter Lord, who wrote the popular A Night to Remember, did independent research and interviews to describe the events that happened on board the ship.

Related Topics:
Novel - Walter Lord

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Morgan Robertson's 1898 novella Futility, which was written 14 years before RMS Titanic's ill-fated voyage, was found to have many parallels with the Titanic disaster; Robertson's work concerned a fictional state-of-the-art ocean liner called Titan, which eventually collides with an iceberg on a calm April night whilst en route to New York. Huge amounts of people died because of the lack of lifeboats. Both Titan itself and the manner of its demise bore many striking similarities to the eventual fate of Titanic, and Robertson's novella remains in print today as an unnerving curiosity.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Titanic has featured in a large number of films and TV movies, most notably:

Related Topics:
Film - TV movies

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• Saved From the Titanic (1912)
• In Nacht und Eis (1912)
• Atlantic (1929)
• Titanic (1943)
• Titanic (1953)
• A Night to Remember (1958)
• S.O.S. Titanic, TV movie (1979)
• Raise the Titanic! (1980)
• Titanic, TV mini-series (1996)
• Titanic (1997)

The most widely viewed is the 1997 film Titanic, directed by James Cameron and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. It became the highest-grossing film in history. It also won 11 Academy Awards out of 14 nominations, tying with Ben-Hur (1959) and ' (2003) for the most awards won.

Related Topics:
Titanic - James Cameron - Leonardo DiCaprio - Kate Winslet - Highest-grossing film - Academy Awards - Ben-Hur

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The story was also made into a Broadway musical, Titanic, written by Peter Stone with music by Maury Yeston. Titanic ran from 1998 to 2000. The 1960 Broadway musical The Unsinkable Molly Brown tells survivor Margaret Brown's life story, which included the events onboard the Titanic. The musical was written by Richard Morris with music by Meredith Willson. A film version starring Debbie Reynolds was released in 1964.

Related Topics:
Broadway - Musical - Titanic - Peter Stone - Maury Yeston - The Unsinkable Molly Brown - Margaret Brown - Meredith Willson - Debbie Reynolds

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Other media include ' which was a 1996 computer game that took place on the Titanic. Starship Titanic was another computer game that takes place in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy universe and was a parody of the Titanic disaster. Many television shows have also referenced the Titanic disaster. The show The Time Tunnel featured a visit to the ship on its first episode, a character on the British drama Upstairs, Downstairs died on the Titanic, and the animated series Futurama did a parody where it had the cast boarding a space?faring vessel called Titanic. The spaceship was torn in half by a black hole on its maiden voyage. In movies like Time Bandits and Cavalcade the Titanic has had brief appearances, and in Ghostbusters 2 the Titanic briefly appeared as a ghost ship.

Related Topics:
Starship Titanic - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Television - The Time Tunnel - Upstairs, Downstairs - Futurama - Black hole - Time Bandits - Cavalcade - Ghostbusters 2

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Using the Titanic as humour has not been exclusive to popular entertainment. The Intel Itanium microprocessor has often been jokingly called the "Itanic", since (as of 2005) its sales have fallen far short of expectations.

Related Topics:
Intel - Itanium - Microprocessor - As of 2005

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~