| The Fictional Officers of the Titanic |
| On 10 April 1912, the Titanic sailed from Southampton on her maiden voyage to New York. Four days later, on Sunday, 14 April, at 11:41 at night, the Titanic hit an iceberg. Two hours and forty minutes later the ship sank. Approximately 700 people were saved. About 1,500 lost their lives. |
| Since
then, the Titanic
has become one of the best researched ships in
history. The story of the ship, the voyage, the sinking,
and its aftermath has been studied from every possible
angle, and many aspects are debated passionately by Titanic researchers
and history buffs. It has been retold countless times in
film, fiction, documentaries, and non-fiction books.
Though interest in the story of the Titanic has
waxed and waned over the decades, it has never been
completely forgotten and has become a part of the
cultural background of western society and beyond.
|
| The voyage and sinking of the Titanic have been used both as a plot device (as in Downton Abbey), as a short episode in a longer film (as in Time Bandits), or as an epic background for love stories, crime thrillers, fantastic tales, and more. |
| All of the fictional treatments of the story of the Titanic include to a larger or smaller extent fictional characters. The reasons are as varied as the stories. |
| Just as it is the privilege of any author of fiction to decide how close to the facts they stay and how much poetic licence they employ, it is our right as a readers or viewers to be nit-picky about it. If an author is upfront about using his or her imagination and taking liberties, I am happy to accept that, though it does not stop me from critiquing their choices. If authors claim that what they write is the truth and nothing but the truth, whether this is in a title card or by claiming that the account written is by an eyewitness, they leave themselves open to harsher criticism. |
| It is worth remembering that many of novels or alleged factual descriptions were written at a time when it was far more difficult to find out facts and factoids about the Titanic than it is now. |
| Spoiler Alert! All these contain spoilers! |
| Fictional Officers: |
| The
Original Fictional Officers - A Question of
Orthography Various Newspapers (1912), books, films… |
|
Third Officer Max
Dittmar-Pittmann - Memoirs of an Imposter Ein
Menschenalter auf dem Meere. Erlebnisse und
Abenteuer eines alten Seemanns (1926) |
|
Third
Officer Erikson, Iceberg Expert, and Chief
Engineer Vickers |
|
Second
Officer Hans Erik Petersen and Assorted Misspelled
Officers |
|
First
Officer Petersen - Am Deutschen Wesen soll die Welt
genesen |
|
Officer
Jackson - A Case of Limited Research |
|
Junior
Third Officer John Bigalow - A
Question of Survival |
|
Accidentally
fictional - First Officer Joseph Murdoch and Third
Officer 'Boxy' |
|
Officer
Fred Bishop - A Question of Murder |
|
Officer
Esther Baily - An Unthinkable Officer Giselle Beaumont, On the Edge of
Twilight. A Novel (2018) |
|
Officer
Merry - An Officer of no Rank or Reason |
|
Other Fictional Crew: |
|
H. Hesse
- The (Tall) Tale of a German Electrician |
|
Dr McCoy
and Chief Engineer Nordstrom. - Morality Tales need
only cursory research |
|
Dr
Gareth Burton - Another Question of Murder Sam
McCarver, The
Case of Cabin 13 (1999) |
|
Second
Master-at-Arms Thomas McGuire - A Very Studly
'Officer' |
| For the actual events and the officers' role and their treatment in various films, see Titanic's Officers . |
| Another
excellent website about all things Titanic-related
is the Encyclopedia
Titanica |
| Have
you come across any other fictional officers? Please let
me know! |
|
The Upturned Lifeboat in Fact
and Fiction The Titanic and the Moon |
| Acknowledgements |
| A Webpage
of Diverse Parts |