Unsinkable
Contrary to popular mythology, the Titanic was never described as "unsinkable", without qualification, until after she sank.[5][90] There are three trade publications (one of which was probably never published) that describe the Titanic as unsinkable, prior to its sinking, but there is no evidence that the notion of the Titanic's unsinkability had entered public consciousness until after the sinking.[5]
The first unqualified assertion of the Titanic's unsinkability appears the day after the tragedy (on 16 April 1912) in The New York Times, which quotes Philip A. S. Franklin, vice president of the White Star Line as saying, when informed of the tragedy,
I thought her unsinkable and I based by [sic] opinion on the best expert advice available. I do not understand it.[91]
This comment was seized upon by the press and the idea that the White Star Line had previously declared the Titanic to be unsinkable (without qualification) gained immediate and widespread currency.
David Sarnoff, wireless reports and the use of SOS
An often-quoted story that has been blurred between fact and fiction states that the first person to receive news of the sinking was David Sarnoff, who would later lead media giant RCA. In modified versions of this legend, Sarnoff was not the first to hear the news (though Sarnoff willingly promoted this notion), but he and others did staff the Marconi wireless station (telegraph) atop the Wanamaker Department Store in New York City, and for three days, relayed news of the disaster and names of survivors to people waiting outside. However, even this version lacks support in contemporary accounts. No newspapers of the time, for example, mention Sarnoff. Given the absence of primary evidence, the story of Sarnoff should be properly regarded as a legend.[92][93][94][95][96]
Despite popular belief, the sinking of Titanic was not the first time the internationally recognised Morse code distress signal "SOS" was used. The SOS signal was first proposed at the International Conference on Wireless Communication at Sea in Berlin in 1906. It was ratified by the international community in 1908 and had been in widespread use since then. The SOS signal was, however, rarely used by British wireless operators, who preferred the older CQD code. First Wireless Operator Jack Phillips began transmitting CQD until Second Wireless Operator Harold Bride suggested half jokingly, "Send SOS; it's the new call, and this may be your last chance to send it." Phillips, who later died, then began to intersperse SOS with the traditional CQD call.
Titanic's band
One of the most famous stories of Titanic is of the band. On 15 April Titanic's eight-member band, led by Wallace Hartley, had assembled in the first-class lounge in an effort to keep passengers calm and upbeat. Later they moved on to the forward half of the boat deck. The band continued playing even when it became apparent the ship was going to sink.
None of the band members survived the sinking, and there has been much speculation about what their last song was. A first-class Canadian passenger, Mrs. Vera Dick, alleged that the final song played was the hymn "Nearer, My God, to Thee." Hartley reportedly said to a friend if he was on a sinking ship "Nearer, My God, to Thee" would be one of the songs he would play. But Walter Lord's book A Night to Remember popularised wireless operator Harold Bride’s account that he heard the song "Autumn" before the ship sank. It is considered Bride either meant the hymn called "Autumn" or "Songe d'Automne," a popular song at the time. Bride is the only witness who was close enough to the band, at the moment the ship went down, to be considered reliable—Mrs. Dick had left by lifeboat an hour and 20 minutes earlier and could not possibly have heard the band's final moments. The notion that the band played "Nearer, My God, to Thee" as a swan song is probably a myth originating from the wrecking of the SS Valencia, which had received wide press coverage in Canada in 1906 and so may have influenced Mrs. Dick's recollection.[5] It also should be noted that there are two musical settings for "Nearer, My God, to Thee." One is popular in Britain, and the other is popular in the United States, and they are not similar. The film A Night to Remember, made in 1958, uses the British setting, while the 1953 film, Titanic, with Clifton Webb, uses the American setting.
The Predictions of W.T. Stead
Another often cited Titanic legend concerns perished first class passenger William Thomas Stead. According to this folklore, Stead had, through precognative insight, foreseen his own death on the Titanic. This is apparently suggested in two fictional sinking stories, which he penned decades earlier. The first, "How the Mail Steamer Went Down in Mid-Atlantic, by a Survivor" [97] (Pall Mall Gazette, March 22, 1886) tells of a mail steamer's collision with another ship, resulting in high loss of life due to lack of lifeboats. Cryptically, Stead finishes the story: "This is exactly what might take place and will take place if liners are sent to sea short of boats".
The Titanic curse
When Titanic sank, claims were made that a curse existed on the ship. The press quickly linked the "Titanic curse" with the White Star Line practice of not christening their ships (notwithstanding the opening scene of the film A Night to Remember).[5]
One of the most widely spread legends linked directly into the sectarianism of the city of Belfast, where the ship was built. It was suggested that the ship was given the number 390904 which, when read backwards as reflected by the water's surface, was claimed to spell 'no pope', a sectarian slogan attacking Roman Catholics that was (and is) widely used provocatively by extreme Protestants in Northern Ireland, where the ship was built. In the extreme sectarianism of north-east Ireland (Northern Ireland itself did not exist until 1920), the ship's sinking, though mourned, was alleged to be on account of the sectarian anti-Catholicism of her manufacturers, the Harland and Wolff company, which had an almost exclusively Protestant workforce and an alleged record of hostility towards Catholics. (Harland and Wolff did have a record of hiring few Catholics; whether that was through policy or because the company's shipyard in Belfast's bay was located in almost exclusively Protestant East Belfast — through which few Catholics would dare to travel — or a mixture of both, is a matter of dispute.)[98]
The 'no pope' story is in fact an urban legend. RMS Olympic and Titanic were assigned the yard numbers 400 and 401[99] respectively. The source of the story may have been from reports by dockworkers in Queenstown of anti-Catholic graffiti that they found on Titanic's coalbunkers when they were loading coal.
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