Thomas Andrews
Thomas Andrews is one of the most important figures in the Titanic story, but for many after the disaster he was bascially forgotten until the 1950s. Thomas Andrews today is remembered as the architect who designed the Titanic, but he was also a much loved family man and friend to many. In the film he was portrayed by canadian actor Victor Garber, who in keeping with tradition with the casting looks very similar to his real life counterpart. Don't know if his irish accent he gave him is accurate though. Now a little background on Thomas Andrews himself. Andrews was born in Comber, Ireland on Febuary 7th, 1973. He had quite the family Two of his brothers later grew up to be major polictians in Northern Ireland. His brother J.M. Andrews, later became Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, and his other brother James Andrews later became Lord Chief of Justice of Northern Ireland. Another family member of note was his uncle, Viscount Pirrie, who was the part owner of Harland and Wolff, a shipbuilder headquarter in Belfast, Ireland. In the year 1889, at the age of 16 Thomas began an apprenticeship at his uncle's counsin. He slowly but surely rose through the ranks, and he became highly regarded in the shipbuilding industry. He was also highly regarded by the people who had worked at the shipyards, people whom Andrews had regard as his "pals".
In 1907, Andrews was given a joint design assignemnt. With his uncle and Harland and Wolffe's genral manager Alaxander Carlisle, they would design a trio of top of the line ocean liners: Olympic, Titanic, and Britiannic. Carlisle later left the project and the company due to a disargeement(the disagreement being the fact that Carlisle want enough lifeboats for everyone). Andrews took a bigger role when Carlisle left, and memorized every detail of the ship. He knew it inside and out. In 1908, Andrews got married to Helen Barbour, and they later had a daughter named Elizabeth. Andrews loved his family, and as a result, began to hate his job, as his job kept him away from his family. On the occasion of the Titanic's maiden voyage, Andrews headed a team of workers handpicked from the shipyard to be on the Titanic as the voyage went on, and take note of any flaw in the design as the voyage went on. This group was known as the Guarantee group. When the ship sank in the early morning hours of April 15th, 1912, Andrews and everymember of the Guarantee group went down with the ship.
Now with the movie scenes
First off, Andrews is the only member of the Guarantee group who appears in this movie. It seems like in most films about the Titanic, the rest of the group never appears. Andrews for much of the film, seems to serve as a surrogate father figure to the Rose character. He's seen as very scoiable, humble about his creation, and well like among the passengers. This is accurate to the real man himself. Andrews was well liked among everybody who knew him. Even among the hard working crew. One boiler room stoker, who was on many voyages with Andrews, would always bake Andrews an irsh cake for the homesick man. Another scene has him give a tour of the ship to Rose's family. A interesting line of dialouge is that Andrews was the one who wanted there to be enough lifeboats for everyone on board. This isn't exactly true. Carlisle was the one who wanted that, but Andrews did think that maybe there should be, but he ultimatley went along with the limited number of lifeboats. In the church scene, Andrews is seen not attending the church service, but instead he's in the reception room making notes and measurements. This is what Andrews did a lot in the maiden voyages. He made measurement, listened what passengers said, and a made of potential improvments to make to the ship at a later date. One such improvment he wanted to make was to decrease the size of the rarley used Reading and Writing room, and use the avaible space to make more cabins. On the night of the 14th, Andrews was presumbably in his cabin looking over plans and designs, when the Titanic hit the iceberg.
In the film, Andrews notices the collision almost as it happens. While we don't know in real life what his intial reaction to the collison was or how he intially noticed it, it's clear from survivor testimony that Andrews was out and about almost right after the collison. Perhaps he felt the faintly felt collion of the iceberg, or maybe he heard the engines slow down. We don't know, but he went down to the lower decks to make inspections on his own. At first when passengers asked him if the danger was serious, he assured them that there was no trouble to worry about. But when he went down to the flooding areas of the lower decks, Andrews knew that the Titanic was doomed, and he immediatley informed the captain.
After this part in the film, Andrews is seen walking around the first-class quarters with a look of fear on his face, as he sees that none of the first class passengers are taking hte situation seriously. In real life, Andrews never let a second wait. He was going around getting people to wear their lifejackets, and get into the boats. You see a glimpse of this in the film, when Rose confronts him to tell him how to get to the master of arms' office. In that brief part, you can see Andrews tell a stewardress to put a lifejacket to set an example for everyone. This did happen in real life with Violet Jessop, who said that Andrews told her that same thing. Andrews is also the one who told Rose that the Titanic was indeed sinking, and only had an hour. Andrews actually did tell some passengers what was actually going on, for example he told John Thayer and his son Jack. There is also a scene where Andrews confronts Officer Lightoller, and demands to know why the lifeboats were only being launched half full. He also manages to convince Lightoller to fill up the boats to full capacity. This did not happen.
In a deleated scene, Andrews is seen with Smith and Officer Wilde attempting to call back lifeboat 6. In real life, Andrews did assist Smith and Wilde in the task of attempting to call back the half filled lifeboats. They were not successful.
Lastly, there is the final scene with Andrews which has now been immortalized as what Andrews did in the moments before his death. At around 2:10 in the film(ten minutes before the final plunge), Rose and Jack in their escape cross through the first class Smoking Room, where Andrews is standing alone in front of the fireplace. Rose asks Andrews if he's going to try for it. Andrews responds no, he give her his lifejacket, and they leave him there. In most films made about the Titanic, Andrews standing in front of the fireplace in the Smoking Room is always where we last see him, but is this accurate? Yes and no. In real life, at around 1:30 am, steward John Stewart entered the first class Smoking Room, and he saw Andrews standing in front of the fireplace, with a lifejacket laying on a nearby table. Stewart asked Andrews if he was going to "try for it" but Andrews gave him no response. Stewart left him and soon got escaped in lifeboat 15 at 1:40 am. This was a full half hour before the Titanic sank, and after this point, Andrews was seen in several other areas, but this sighting by Stewart has become immortalized in depictions of the sinking.
Andrews probably needed to collect his thoughts, and he was soon out and about, helping out in the evacuation. The true last sighting of Andrews was around 2:10 am, a steward named Cecil Fritzpatrick saw Andrews and Captain Smith in the bridge. Fritzpatrick heard Smith say, "We can't stay any longer. She's going." Moments later the bridge submerged, with surviving witnesses saying that they saw both Smith and Andrews jump from the bridge together. Andrews like many other victims of the disaster, persished in the icy waters.
I'd say that the film did a good job portraying him overall. It got all the essentials about him down, and I think that the actor did a fine job
If you would like more information on the life of Thomas Andrews, check out this awesome video by clicking right here! They said what I said better than me.