Question: Pardon me for asking a "what if" question, but this confuses me: what did Rose intend to do *before* the ship sunk? She had changed her mind about Jack, choosing him instead of Cal. However, she and her mother needed the security from Cal. They were in debt. Jack was poor. If Rose married Jack, Cal and his family would be offended by the broken engagement. They would not help Rose's mother. Would Rose just marry Jack and abandon her financially-burdened mother in New York?
Bishop73
26th Nov 2021
Titanic (1997)
Answer: Due to historical times, the "love birds" may have lucked out (had they survived). They would not have known WWI would start in 1914 (two years after the Titanic sank), but they would have hoped that their financial situation improved. Women were needed in the labor force.
Answer: That was her plan, assuming she would have been able to follow through with it. This would have left her mother high and dry, but that didn't seem to be a very big concern for her. However, in reality, between Cal, Lovejoy, and Ruth, Rose would find it very hard to even see Jack, much less marry him, if the Titanic had made it to New York in one piece. Women had very few legal rights in 1912, so once the marriage was performed, Cal could pretty much keep her imprisoned, for all intents and purposes, and Jack could do nothing about it, even if he wasn't a penniless vagrant...which he was.
Your last statement about Cal pretty much being able to keep Rose imprisoned has no factual basis. Women still had many legal rights, and while some states had more liberal divorce laws, by 1915, 1 in 7 marriages ended in divorce. By the 1920's, it had risen to 15%. Not to mention that in 1917, New York had given women full suffrage.
"Imprisonment" might be too strong of a word to use, but cultural norms at the time (such as those regarding marriage, the role of the wife/ homemaker, and divorce - taboo) didn't give women much freedom. Divorce statistics are notoriously inaccurate and, depending on the method used to calculate the number, percent, or rate, different figures are derived. Instead of 15%, the RATE of divorce (per 1000 PEOPLE) was 1.7 in the 1920s. Women's suffrage is hardly an indication of freedom, rights, or equality. [Just think how "effective" the 14th Amendment (1868) was in granting equal legal and civil rights.].
Regardless of any restrictions on "married" women, Rose was not yet wed to Cal. They were only engaged, and he had no legal right to impose anything on her at that point. If Rose wanted to walk off the ship with Jack, there was nothing Cal or her mother could legally do to stop her. If they tried to interfere, Rose could have the ship's officers or the White Star Line's personnel intervene.
22nd Nov 2021
Titanic (1997)
Question: Once the iceberg was spotted, was there another course of action or anything Titanic could have done (other than hit it, obviously) that would have led to a better outcome? Like - turn the engines off? Hit the iceberg front on instead of on the side? Would these, theoretically, have been better options than what actually happened?
Answer: Some have suggested that going full speed ahead through the ice would work because the Titanic was designed and built for that, but the results would just be speculation. Another course of action suggested is not to have slowed down and remain at full speed to be more maneuverable when turning. I don't remember how the film depicts the scene, but the First Officer in charge ordered "full astern" (reverse) once the iceberg was spotted. Then waited to see if they'd miss the iceberg. Once it was determined it wouldn't, he ordered the ship to turn. If he had turned at full speed, it might have not been hit. Also, the SS Californian could have responded to the flares the Titanic shot, but the captain (who was asleep at the time) dismissed the warning. Although it was later determined the Titanic lay further away than where it was thought to have sunk and the Californian probably wouldn't have made it in time.
7th Sep 2017
Titanic (1997)
Question: What does SQD Mean?
Answer: Its not SQD, it's CQD. This used to be the distress signal sent out by ships before SOS became commonplace, and it stems for the French pronunciation of CQ, the same as how they pronounce "sécurité". The D either means disaster or distress.
Answer: It was CQD. It stands for "come quickly, distress" or "come quickly danger!"
CQ does not mean "come quickly." CQ meant all telegraph stations to be on alert. Later they added D to stand for Distress. CQD means "all stations: distress."
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Answer: Rose was strong-minded and determined but was thinking "in the moment" and had no real plan or idea about what to do if she'd left with Jack, had he survived. It's unknown if they would have stayed together and married. Rose had only told Jack she was going with him. At some point she might reconnect with her mother. Cal Hoxley probably would be so humiliated by Rose deserting him for a penniless artist, that he would have hushed it up and invented some story about the broken engagement. He likely had already paid off the DeWitt Bukater debts to clean-up any lingering complications or embarrassments before marrying Rose. He probably would also have made some minimal financial arrangement for Ruth, not from compassion but for appearances sake. As we saw, Rose faired quite well on her own once she did escape Cal and her mother.
raywest ★