By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 22 April 2024
James Cameron’s 1997 film, Titanic, has a scene showing First Officer William Murdoch shooting several male passengers who try to force their way onto the final lifeboats just before the ship sinks and then shooting himself. This caused great controversy with the Murdoch family because it picked at a wound that was already nearly a century old. The story of Murdoch killing himself originates from survivor testimony in the immediate aftermath of the disaster in April 1912, and it was denied just as quickly by Charles Lightoller, the Second Officer and most senior crewman to live, who was loading the lifeboats on the other side of the ship.
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