Titanic: The Captain of the Titanic

The Story of Edward J. Smith (1992)

*** (out of 4)

This is a rather bizarre documentary (out there under multiple titles) because it appears to be about Captain Smith, the man aboard the Titanic when it sank but after starting off on the subject and ending on it, everything in between is so far away from Smith you really wonder who came up with the title. The film starts off talking about how Smith ended up being a Captain, we hear of his education and then learn how he got the job on Titanic. At the very end of the film we hear of the tributes that came to him after his death in Britain. The middle portion of the film centers more on the sinking of the ship as we get several voice-overs that were taken from the inquiry is played over various pictures, newspaper clippings and other items of the ship. During all of these we get an extended interview with Eva Hart who was just seven-years-old when the ship sank. She talks about a premonition her mother had about not wanting to go on the ship and she talks about getting into the lifeboat and eventually being rescued. Again, I'm really not sure who came up with the title but if you're wanting to learn about Smith then you're going to be disappointed because there's probably ten minutes or less of running time actually devoted to him. The rest of the documentary is actually very entertaining because the stories told by Hart are just so chilling to listen to. She talks about several subjects including whether or not she saw the Californian in the area to where they could have saved some of the people in the water. She also talks about what it was like on the boat when people realized the ship was going down and she also comments on what the band was playing. Titanic buffs will certainly enjoy hearing these first-hand stories and there are some nice images as well. The documentary is certainly cheaply made but it gets the job done.

This dated Titanic documentary focused on the life of Titanic's Captain E.J. Smith born in a landlocked area of England. He would become a well-respected and revered sea captain. Titanic was supposed to be final journey before retirement. Sadly, we all know what happened to the Titanic and he was Captain of the ship. He told his men to "Be British" in the face of certain death. Even if he had lived, he would have never been able to live with himself. He was popular and liked by passengers. You see the rare footage of him aboard the ship. It's kind of eerie.

My copy of this VHS video is copyright dated 1990 so I have had it in my "Titanic" collection some while.Sadly Eva Hart has since died and in the companion video, "Titanic Remembered" (1992) made by the same producers, Elizabeth Haisman has also passed on.For a while these two were some of the only living survivors of this infamous maritime tragedy.What intrigued the producers about Edward John Smith was 1.He was not born in a seaport with its tradition of maritime jobs, such as Liverpool, but was born in 1850 into a modest semi-detached house in the pottery town of Hanley (near Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire).2 He was not born into the social elite strata of society so he was assumed to lack the necessary social nous; however he had an ability to converse with the rich and famous passengers and officials of the White Star line in the class obsessed Edwardian society and rose to become commodore of that shipping line.

He gave a famous interview to the press in 1907 when he stated that he could not conceive of a disaster at sea since he had only personally witnessed minor problems."Science has gone beyond that".He was 62 when the iceberg struck (my age now) and his widow and daughter attended an unveiling ceremony in June 1914 in Beacon Park, Lichfield (Staffs) of the statue to his memory.The ceremony was performed by the widow of Robert Falcon Scott who also died in 1912 on his abortive way back from the South Pole (since he had been beaten to it by Amundsen of Norway).

The video gives the only known film of "EJ" which was actually taken on the bridge of Titanic's earlier sister ship "Olympic" which was launched in 1911.EJ's great nephew shows his great uncle's ship's sextant, his cheroot holder and telescope.There are many musical sketches using this tragedy as a theme and old 1912 78 r.p.m. records are extant like "Be British" alleged to EJ as the "Titanic" went down. It surprises me this film does not appear more on digital history channels on TV judged by the number of documentaries we see about the "Titanic".