White Star’s most famous ships have not always been as much a part of the public consciousness as they are today. In fact, it is curious to think that, in light of the considerable interest in Titanic, until the 1950s the story of the ship had been largely forgotten. It was only the release of Twentieth Century-Fox’s film Titanic in 1953, starring Clifton Webb and Barbara Stanwyck, combined with the publication of Walter Lord’s A Night to Remember three years later, that the story of the legendary White Star liner fired the public’s imagination.
This 40-year lapse may explain how some of the facts associated with have been related through numerous fables, legends and myths. Much of what we read on the is often ‘apocryphal, or at least wildly inaccurate’, but, while the more dedicated buffs can see through the historical as more of an event, rather than a ship, it probably comes as no surprise to see them taken in by the attractive myths surrounding the ship.
