Goofs for
Raise the Titanic (1980) More at IMDbPro »

• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: As depicted later in Titanic (1997), the ship broke in two as it sank; also, the stern section suffered major structural damage, perhaps due to implosion from water pressure. However, these facts were not established until after its remains were found in 1985. Eyewitness testimony at the inquiries had been conflicting, and the accepted version in 1980 was that the Titanic had sunk intact.
  
  
• Factual errors: The grave at Southby has the wrong year on the headstone, it says April 3 1913, it should of course read 1912.
  
  
• Factual errors: When Capt. Prevlov flies over and boards the Titanic he arrives in a Bell "Huey" UH-1H painted drab olive with the Red Communist Star on the side. The Russian Navy would not be using US helicopters.
  
  

• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Towards the end of the film, Seagram makes reference to the Sicilian Defense System, he accidentally says "Caesarian" instead of "Sicilian".
  
  
• Factual errors: During the scene when the team are examining the horn retrieved from the wreck, they note that the instrument had been presented to its owner after "three years service on the Olympic". RMS Olympic was RMS Titanic's sister ship, and was launched in 1910, and entered service in 1911, so by the loss of Titanic (1912) no-one could possibly have had three years service on her.
  
  
• Continuity: The traffic behind Dana Seagram keeps changing (stopped, then running) when she runs into Pitt on the street.
  
  
• Factual errors: The original Titanic has only one Mast on her bow section. Especially in the surfacing scene there are three Masts visible on the Wreck: the Main-Mast and two smaller ones supporting it at each side. That’s incorrect.
  
  
• Factual errors: The tugs which take the Titanic in tow are harbor tugs, not ocean tugs. Such vessels would not be safe as far out at sea as the Titanic was located. Further, the method for towing the Titanic was what is used in harbors and other relatively calm waters. It would not be safe at sea where waves and rollers would guarantee the short, light tow cables would break.
  
  
• Continuity: During the attempted recovery of the Hydrazine tank that results in 'Deep Quest' getting trapped in the skylight of the Titanic, the other submarine involved keeps changing alternately between the 'Sea Cliff' and the 'Turtle'.
  
  
• Continuity: During the placing and arming of the explosive probes, twice the probe being placed is a completely different number to the one that is then promptly armed.
  
  
• Continuity: During the hastily put together briefing where Pitt brings forward the raising of the Titanic, he states that the explosive charges will be detonated eight seconds apart, when the procedure happens, the explosions are randomly all over the place and with the exception of the last two (late) charges are mostly less than a second apart.
  
  
• Factual errors: In reality, Titanic's masts and funnels were ripped off and the Grand Staircase's dome was imploded.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Alec Guinness orders a pink gin. A pink gin is prepared by the barman warming a brandy glass with his hands, adding a few drops of Angostura Bitters, shaking them out, and then adding a single or double optic measure of gin. The actor's glasses would never have been so full or so richly colored.
  
  
• Factual errors: During the interview with John Bigalow (Alec Guinness), Bigalow makes the statement; "She was one of a kind." This is incorrect, as one of the ship's officers and an employee of the White Star Line would have known. The Titanic was preceded in construction by the Olympic (a half-sister ship), and followed by the Gigantic (a sister ship). The Gigantic was renamed as the Britannic following the loss of the Titanic.
  
  
• Factual errors: Bigelow tells Pitt that the byzanium was carried in "cargo hold number nine," and that Brewster had forced Bigelow to take him there. The Titanic had only two numbered cargo holds (numbers one and two), plus the mail hold. There was no "cargo hold number nine" or any space referred to by that name anywhere on the Titanic.
  
  
• Factual errors: The "Starfish" submarine takes several minutes to leak, flood and implode when it accidentally exceeds the 12,000-foot depth limit. In reality, at that depth and pressure (>600psi), a submersible that sprung a leak would flood in seconds.
  
  
• Factual errors: The sunken and raised Titanic is shown in the film with its second funnel missing. Although it was not known at the time the film was made that the Titanic had broken up when she sank and been shorn of all four funnels, it was generally known that the forward (#1) funnel, not the second one, had toppled over and detached from the ship during the sinking.
  
  
• Factual errors: Sandecker tells Pitt that they "got all the stuff from the White Star Line; engineering drawings and a complete structural design for the Titanic." The White Star Line did not exist anymore by 1980; it was merged with the Cunard Line in 1934 and became part of Cunard White Star, Ltd. By the end of 1949, Cunard had acquired the rest of White Star's assets and the company reverted to the name Cunard. No ship has flown the White Star flag since 1968. Also, in 1980 it was thought that the blueprints and drawings for Olympic and Titanic had been destroyed by the Luftwaffe when they bombed the Belfast shipyards of Harland & Wolff during WWII. Not until the late 1990's was it discovered that a set of structural blueprints for the Olympic class had survived and still existed.
  
  

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