Continuity mistake: When Rose and Jack beg a steward to open the gate for them while the water is rising, the steward drops the keys and runs away. There are two shots of the keys on the chain lying in the water arranged in totally different ways (the difference is not caused by the water flow as the keys are not moving in either shot). (02:18:55)
Continuity mistake: When the ships sinks and the back is rising, you see no people swim under the ship. When the ship breaks and falls down, the sea is crowded with people, who get crushed under the ship. (02:35:15)
Factual error: When Titanic is leaving Southampton she accelerates in few seconds to a incredible fast speed. That was impossible then, when large steamers were helped off by tiny tugboats. In the long shot in fact, you can see the tugboats - no way she could accelerate that fast if being towed. (00:26:40)
Continuity mistake: When cuffed Jack is screaming for help, you can see the water level in the porthole in the background although the room in which he is cuffed, has already been shown to be completely under water. (01:53:40)
Factual error: When the ship hits the iceberg and the plates of the hull start to buckle and break apart, it shows a scene on the inside of the ship showing the walls buckling in, along those walls you can see vertical pipes that appear to made of PVC, similar to the pipes used for sewage drains in modern building structure. I don't think PVC was around in 1912, the pipes would have been made of cast iron or lead and they would not have been white. (01:37:00)
Factual error: Cal and Rose are supposedly in cabins B52-54-56, but in reality this was the suite booked by JP Morgan, and subsequently believed to be occupied by Chairman Bruce Ismay. (00:22:20)
Revealing mistake: During the first meal on board, the make-up glue around Cal's hair-piece is very noticeable. (00:32:15)
Revealing mistake: As the Titanic is leaving you can see the news guy holding a hand cranked camera. He's cranking it left-handed, but all hand-cranked cameras are right handed. Either a construction mistake or revealing that the shot was flipped - a mistake either way. (00:25:50)
Continuity mistake: At the very beginning of the film when Brock is talking with the big guy, they walk up stairs turn to the right, and right in front of them is a large piece of the ship with a no smoking sign on it, yet in the following shot, the large piece has turned into a very small piece, not even enough room for the sticker. (00:13:35)
Continuity mistake: Inside the car, Jack asks Rose "Nervous?" and she turns her seriousness into a big smile. Just a frame later, from the opposite angle, she is still very serious. (01:30:10)
Continuity mistake: When Jack and Rose have first met and are talking and walking on the promenade of the ship, in a wide shot of them, to the left of the screen stands a man with a hat in his hand talking to a lady. In the following shot his hat is on his head. (00:45:50)
Continuity mistake: When Jack is cuffed and has just looked out of the window, we have just seen his window is about 10 feet underwater, but when we see him banging his handcuffs, we can see the top of the waterline in the window. (01:52:40)
Factual error: The Strauses (the old couple on the bed as "Nearer My God to Thee" is playing) had stateroom C55-7 on C-Deck, right off the grand staircase. When the ship is sinking there is water coming in from the door in their cabin. But Rose's artwork is seen floating on top of the water a few seconds later. Her cabin was B52-56 (also just aft of the grand staircase) on B-Deck which was above C-Deck. So the Straus' cabin would have been completely flooded. (02:31:20)
Factual error: Thomas Andrews came from Comber just outside Belfast. He would not have had a Southern Irish accent. (00:32:10)
Factual error: Shortly after Old Rose mentions just leaving the coast of Ireland, a shot of the captain's area (with the steering wheels) is shown with the sun shining in from the right (if facing toward the front of the ship) This would be impossible for a westbound ship in the middle of the day as the sunshine could not enter from the north side of the ship. The rest of the movie has all scenes with the sun correctly coming from the south during mid-day as the ship is travelling westbound.
Factual error: When Rose is trying to rescue Jack, the corridors that she is running through are a bright white colour, the lights appear to have a high colour temperature, and they have a more modern A19 bulb shape, and they might be halogen. In reality they would emit a much dimmer yellowish light. The lightbulbs would also be transparent along with a different bulb shape.
Continuity mistake: When Jack is giving their tickets to the ship's crew before boarding the Titanic with Fabrizio, the crew took the tickets, but in the next shot, the tickets are in Jack's hand again.
Other mistake: Several actors/props/areas etc. are well known in this area to be flipped. For example, Billy Zane, who plays "Cal" in this film is right-handed, yet in some areas he uses his left-hand when it's not dominating and natural. (Noticeably, when he is chasing Jack Dawson down the grand stairs, he is holding his gun in his left hand, when it would make more sense to hold his gun in his right hand.) (02:13:00)
Factual error: When Jack and Rose begin to evacuate to the Titanic's stern, there should be only two lifeboats left on the ship: Collapsible A (which Cal was on) and Collapsible B (the overturned one with all men on it). However, if you pay attention you'll notice two other boats still there. One is still loading and another is in the water but still attached to the falls.
Continuity mistake: When it goes from young Rose blowing a whistle to the rescuers to elderly Rose's eyes, you see her eyelashes are short and light coloured. Then at the end when we pass sleeping Rose we see her eyelashes are long. (02:57:57)
Chosen answer: Because she is considered, in a minor sense, a "villain" in this film for forcing her daughter into a loveless arranged marriage to satisfy her personal wants, most fans probably speculate that she became a poor and penniless seamstress and lived out her life working in a factory. Of course, this is possible, without the financial security of the arranged marriage between Cal and Rose. However, it is difficult to believe that a woman of such status, and who has so many wealthy and powerful friends, would be allowed to languish in abject poverty doing menial labors. I would tend to believe that she probably sold a number of her possessions for money (she did mention that as part of the humiliation she would face if Rose were to refuse Cal's affections), and probably lived off the kindness of others. Given that her daughter was betrothed to a Hockley, his family might have felt an obligation to assist her in finding a suitable living arrangement and a situation for employment. It is also possible that she re-married into wealth. However, this is more unlikely, mainly because back in 1912, it was considered scandalous to re-marry, especially at Ruth's age. However, since Ruth does not make an appearance after surviving the sinking of the Titanic in a lifeboat number 6 (next to Molly Brown), nor is she mentioned again, her fate is left unknown and subject only to speculation.
Michael Albert
In that era, with Rose betrothed to Call, Cal would most definitely have provided for Ruth in the lifestyle she was accustomed to. As Cal angrily raged at Rose the morning after her excursion below decks, "You are my wife in custom if not yet in practice ", thus, society would have viewed him a villain had he not cared for Ruth once it was assumed Rose was dead.