For someone who has only seen the movie once can you guys help me out with some of the characters whose names are mentioned all over this board:

Andrews - I am assuming this was the ship designer who was at the clock at then end

Ismay - who was he? (I am guessing he was the guy who was ordering the captain to make the ship travel at such fast speeds)

Brown, Molly I think was her first name - she was the "new money" who helped Jack try to fit in, right?

What was Rose's mother's name?

I know Jack, Rose, Cal, and Fabrisio but any other character info would be appreciated.

Thanks - BK

-- BK (n/a@aol.co), February 11, 1998

Answers

Response to Characters question

J. Bruce Ismay was the Chairman and Managing Director of the White Star Line and not one of my favorite people. He survived but did not escape the U.S. Senate Inquiry into the disaster.

Thomas Andrews was, as you said, the designer of the ship and is one of my favorite people. He did everything he could to help people get off that ship and did not survive.

Molly (Maggie) Brown was, by all accounts, a very strong-willed, opinionated women who chastised the crew on her lifeboat for not going back after the sinking to look for survivors and thus earned the title "the unsinkable Molly Brown".

Read the books, you won't be disappointed!

Regards, Peter

-- Peter Nivling (pcnivling@capecod.net), February 12, 1998.

Characters question

Rose's mother's name was Ruth. Molly Brown (also known as the unsinkable Molly Brown) WAS new money. her husband "struck it rich" in oil. She was frank and crude in the eyes of the first class people, but she was stong willed and helped Jack to "fit in" with the upper class. Some other importain characters were Tommy, an Irish guy that befriended Jack on the Titanic (he was shot by Murdock before the ship sank). This leads me to Murdock. He was one of the improtaint members of the crew. I can't remember exactly what his job was though. He ended up shooting himself after he shot Tommy. Then there is Lovejoy. He was Cal's "right hand man". He would spy on Rose and follow her around. He is the one who watched Jack, when he was handcuffed to the pole. That is about all the other big charaters. Hope this helped. :) ~Laura

-- Laura Pliner (pliner98@hotmail.com), February 12, 1998.

Note to Laura:

Not to be picky, but Molly Brown's husband, J. J. Brown, struck it rich in mining (silver, I believe) in Colorado. She and her husband lived apart for a good deal of their marriage (although they did have two children). Mr. Brown died intestate (i.e., he left no will), and the children managed to cut Molly off from most of the estate after his death.

William Murdoch was the ship's First Officer, and third in command under Captain Smith and Chief Officer Henry T. Wilde. The scenes in the film of his shooting two passengers, and then himself, are speculative at best. There are a couple of survivor accounts, one of which was written on board the Carpathia hours after the rescue, which describe "an officer" shooting a passenger, then shooting himself, but the officer is not identified. The accounts conflict in enough details that a definitive answer to this question cannot be reached.

The character of Lovejoy is fictional. He is described (I think in the movie website) as an ex-Pinkerton detective, now serving as bodyguard to Billy Zane's character.

Cheers!

-- Kip Henry (kip-henry@ouhsc.edu), February 12, 1998.

Once again, Kip is right. In fact, Molly Brown and her husband were separated (not on speaking terms: however you would interpret separation) during the sailing (and sinking) of the Titanic.

-- Rose (rosemarie17@hotmail.com), February 13, 1998.

A little additional information of Murdoch:

William Murdoch was originally to have been Chief Officer (2nd in command) of Titanic, but Captain Smith apparently wanted someone more senior, and so arranged for Henry T. Wilde to be brought over from Titanic's sister ship, Olympic, for this one voyage to serve as his Chief Officer. So, Murdoch (and the rest of the officers), were all bumped down a notch.

Murdoch was the officer of the watch when the collision occurred. It was he who gave the orders to try to steer around the berg, and to reverse the engines. Later, he supervised the loading and lowering of the lifeboats on the starboard side. Many believe he was the officer who committed suicide, out of remorse for allowing the collision to occur on his watch. But his body, as with so many others, was not recovered, so we will never know for sure.

Cheers!

-- Kip Henry (kip-henry@ouhsc.edu), February 14, 1998.

I believe that Mr. Lightoller was also a little miffed at being bumped in the chain of command.

Regards, Peter

-- Peter Nivling (pcnivling@capecod.net), February 14, 1998.

Peter: Lightoller was slightly annoyed at his disappointing demotion just before the embarking of Titanic. There is a biography on Lightoller which includes an account of the sinking of the Titanic and a detailed description of the Senate inquiries. Incidentally, Lightoller chose not to mention the last report of the position of the deadly iceberg received forty minutes before the ship hit. The knowledge of that transmission did not come out until after the inquiry. Anyway, the biography also includes accounts of his other travels. He had experienced several shipwrecks during his life.

-- Rose (rosemarie17@hotmail.com), February 15, 1998.