WHATEVER HAPPENED TO ....?

The Titanic model made for the film "Raise the Titanic?"

     From time to time the T.H.S. has received letters from people inquiring what happened to he largest model of the Titanic ever built?  We have seen newspaper reports stating that Lord Lew Grade decided to seal the model inside a granary on the island of Malta after the film which initially appeared to have such promise, became a financial disaster.  A brief background of the model's odyssey:

     Lord Lew Grade had the 55-foot Titanic model built, originally nearly perfect in every detail right down to the number of portholes and lifeboat davits.  (Ken Marshall served as a consultant when the model was in California.)

     Ken remarked that a man from Italy was brought over to supervise the building of a miniature replica of the glass dome over the Grand Staircase.  Nothing was overlooked to make the model like the original, unlike the 20th Century Fox model, which lacked much detail in the superstructure and fittings.  Not one miniscule rivet was missing.  The famous four funnels were at the exact angle, not a degree out of true.  Not one ventilation tube was neglected, and not one hatchway ignored.  Even the secondary skin within each funnel was painstakingly, if superfluously, reproduced.  In addition, four American warships, two tugs and a New York harbor fireship were created in the same scaled-down version.  The facsimile Titanic cost Lord Lew £3 million more than the original!

     Where was he going to sink her?  And raise her?  Only when the hull was completed did anyone discover that the film world did no own a big enough artificial tank in which to simulate the icy waters which engulfed her predecessor.  So she was flown from the United Sates to Malta.  A £2 million tank was built alongside the biggest existing one -- within the ground of Fort St. Rocco, a fort which had protected Grand Harbour during the siege of Malta.  Lord Grade's Titanic was deliberately sunk, re-floated and transformed into a rusting, grime-ridden hulk in the name of cinema verité by the artists who created her.

     "Raise the Titanic" was not a box office success as had been hoped.  Lord Grade had confidently expected his film to be such, however Lord Grade's Associated Communications Corporation lost £10 million and this effort was the last straw in the upheaval of the corporation.  It was a gamble that nobody knew would fall.  The plan was to use the ships again, modify them in a series of three epic sea films which would more than justify their cost.  But it all depended on the success of "Raise the Titanic" and that didn't happen.  After the failure of the 1081 film, the misplaced perfectionism produced such a sadness that the models were placed and sealed in the 15-foot thick, 300 year-old Grand Master Riocasoli's grain storage fortress built for the Maltese Knights of St. John.

     Captain Ronald W. Warwick of the Cunard Line, and master on board the QE2 wrote in a letter received last year.  "...For your interest, I enclose some photographs of a model of the Titanic that I took in Malta in December 1989.  It was Ken Marschall that told me of its existence but when I was in Malta it took quite a lot of searching to find it.  Eventually I spotted the funnels from a roadside and had to cross a field and climb a fence to take the pictures.  It was laying in what appeared to be a desolate film studio yard.

     Lou Gorman was a good friend of mine and we kept in touch regularly by corresponding so I was very sorry to hear of his passing.  Undoubtedly he will be a sad loss to all your members as he was a friend..."

     In February 1002, we received some new information from Simon Mills, a T.H.S. member from England:

     "...I've just returned from Malta where I've been working on a film at the Mediterranean Film Studios at Fort St. Rocco (Christopher Columbus) and guess what I found leaning up against a wall and looking very sorry for itself?  It looks as if the model had been used in another film judging by the hospital ship markings on the starboard side (the port side still seems to retain the original color scheme) but I'm afraid that since then time and the elements have rally taken their toll.

    I suppose it's true that the model was never intended to look in pristine condition anyway, but there's a world of difference between artistic design and neglect.  True, they have replaced the missing funnel (slightly smaller) but there's now a large hole in the hull (ironically in a very appropriate position) and the entire shell is covered in rust with many pieces in the process of falling off.  Being outside, it is at the mercy of the elements and the stormy weather and sea air have really combined to do their worst..."