Corrected entry: Anyone who's ever been on a boat knows how dangerous it is to have a bigger boat floating nearby - it produces huge waves that make the little boat tilt and many times turn over. Now what kind of waves would such a huge ship as Titanic produce!? However, at the beginning of the movie, when Titanic is leaving the port, there is a fishing boat nearby with a fisherman in it - and nothing even moves. (00:26:55)
James Rowell
27th Aug 2001
Titanic (1997)
1st Aug 2005
Titanic (1997)
Corrected entry: In the side view of the ship, you can see smoke coming out of all 4 smokestacks. The first one was not a working smokestack, but was there for balance.
Correction: The first smokestack was fully functional, as were the middle two. The aft most smokestack was a dummy funnel. It provided not balance but lighting and ventilation to the engineering spaces below decks. There were steam valves on it that could be mistaken for smoke while discharging, plus exhaust from the other 3 is blown backwards over the 4th, giving it the appearance of producing just as much smoke as them.
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Correction: Having served onboard an Aircraft carrier for nearly 5 years I am very familiar with the wake a large ship can produce. The scene you refer to did not finish, that is the wake that was produced had not had enough time to reach the small vessel. The speed of the Titanic is approx 8 - 10 knots as she exits the port. The wake from her would have amounted to about 1 to maybe 2 feet of swell. Even when it did reach the small boat it would have been exciting bobbing up and down on the wake but it would not have capsized the small fishing boat. I have seen this played out with our carrier many times. One instance in the harbor of Japan, many small craft from 10 - 15 feet in length were rocked by our wake as we passed them at less than 20' but none ever capsized or had the occupants thrown overboard. They were Greenpeace demonstrators and put themselves in harms way for their beliefs and were far closer to us than the fisherman was to the Titanic, a ship of equal size to us.
James Rowell