Continuity mistake: When old Rose grabs the dragonfly jewel she places her left finger under the broken wing. When the angle changes her finger is away and she is repeating the previous movement.
Continuity mistake: When Jack is talking to Rose for the first time, his hair is constantly changing position. (00:39:30)
Revealing mistake: When we see the dogs being led on to the ship at the very start, look behind them and there is a woman on the walkway waiting for her cue to start walking. (00:22:10)
Continuity mistake: We see the plates sliding out of the holder and smashing as the ship starts to go vertical. Then 50 seconds later we see more plates falling from the same holder. However, the positions of the plates have changed and there are stacks of plates in sections that were empty. (02:30:10 - 02:31:00)
Continuity mistake: When the pastor is giving a sermon on the deck of the sinking Titanic, there are people grabbing his hands in one shot and not in the next. (02:29:45)
Audio problem: When the steward is getting Rose and Cal's life jackets from the closet he says about top coats and hats, However his mouth stops moving after the word coats. (01:44:00)
Continuity mistake: We see Mr Andrew walking through the 1st class cabins just after hitting the iceberg. He has 4 blueprint rolls under his arms. We then see him out on deck while discussing the situation with a few other men and the rolls have gone. As he gets to the office with Captain Smith he has the rolls again. (01:39:20)
Visible crew/equipment: When we see Jack moving the sofa for Rose to lie on, look in the window behind him to the right. You can see the cameraman's shadow moving with the camera. (01:21:25)
Continuity mistake: When Rose is talking to Mr Andrews about the lifeboats, her bag changes hands instantly. (01:13:10)
Continuity mistake: When we see Jack and Fabrizo at the front of the ship, in one shot we see the wind blowing Jack's hair and jacket. In the next shot it's not. (00:29:50)
Other mistake: In the scene where Rose is sitting in front of her vanity mirror after Jack saves her life, Cal bestows upon her the 16-carat Heart of the Ocean necklace. He drapes the necklace around her neck but never actually fastens it (the camera's on him the whole time), yet it stays in place even as Rose touches the diamond and runs her fingers across the chain. A 16-carat diamond would slide right off someone's neck if it were not properly fastened.
Answer: Though not a requirement of maritime law, it was a matter of historical codes of chivalry that, in life threatening situations where limited numbers of life-saving resources were available, the lives of women and children were to be saved first. That was captain Smith's order the night the RMS Titanic sank. Some of the crew interpreted this to mean "women and children only." Thus, several of the lifeboats were launched only partially full, as men were prevented from occupying empty seats even when all nearby women and children had been boarded. The rescue efforts on the Titanic were further hampered by the fact that, initially, many of the passengers thought that the launching of lifeboats was unnecessary precaution, as the Titanic was thought unsinkable. The night air was cold. The lifeboats seemed uncomfortable. Thus, many preferred to stay on board the ship until reality of the magnitude of the situation became more evident and panic began to set in. Many of the men who survived in lifeboats, like White Star Line chairman Bruce Ismay, were branded cowards upon return to shore, even though many of them occupied seats that would have otherwise gone unused.
Michael Albert