The BBC recently published an article titled “Five Titanic myths spread by films.” The first alleged myth is that the White Star Line never claimed that the Titanic was “unsinkable.” The article asserts: ” The White Star Line never made any substantive claims that the Titanic was unsinkable – and nobody really talked about the ship’s unsinkability until after the event..” One hears this claim over and over. White Star Line never claimed that the Titanic was unsinkable. But is it accurate?
It is true that White Star did not prominently feature “unsinkability” in its advertising. Their slogan was “Largest and finest steamers in the world.” Nevertheless, there is strong evidence that White Star, and indeed most experts of the day, did consider the Titanic to be unsinkable.
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