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So here is my replica formal uniform of Captain E.J. Smith. I actually acquired the coat in January from an auction house in Germany that had some Babelsberg studio props and memorabilia ( Babelsberg is the German Hollywood for those that don’t know ) and yup I was so ecstatic that I won, i’ve actually been wanting this item in my collection since I saw the 1997 movie…so 22 years i’ve been wanting this…

I had to pay extra fees in shipping due to the English Brexit and another charge to receive it once it arrived in the hands of the post office…. (was charged £60 by the monsters at HMRC)

I think if the plane took off from Germany and just air dropped my stuff in the field by my house I would actually be invested in that, Anyway Moving on….as you can see The uniform fits me , on little snag from my inner drill sergeant (or chief petty officer since we are navy ) the gap between the gold braid and the cuff seems to be a little long on the sleeve, compared to the other British naval uniforms I own seems to be too far up the arm but other than that it’s a great fit..

One nice little bonus of this item that I did not know till I received it is that the buttons are made by the original manufacture that had made the originals for on the real Titanic deck officers , imported from the Waterbury's Button Company of Connecticut USA so that’s a really cool

The other really cool thing about my replica is that It has a tailoring label of the same firm which also made The original uniforms for the real Titanic’s officers, tailored by Miller and Sons in Southampton, I do know that the crew had to pay for their own uniforms,
and Two weeks after the sinking of the Titanic the families of the deceased band received a telegram charging them the sum of 5s. 4d., which in today’s money would be around £20.85 (25 USD) basically for the loss of the company uniform ….

Next The visor cap, The only people that seemed to offer a replica of the cap were from Pakistan….so what I did was I bought a replica ww1 era Royal navy visor cap for a captain ( which has one gold row of oak leaves on the peak) from a London army and navy store and from another store I bought a white star line cap badge and just swapped the badges over, saved £30 in costs and 2 weeks minimum for it to be shipped…

A lot of people don’t actually know this tiny attention to detail but during the 1911-1912 season there were actually two types of white star line cap badge for her deck officers in use. Captain Smith, chief officer Wilde and 1st officer Murdoch wore the old type (the one I have) while Titanic's Sixth officer Moody and anyone purchasing new uniforms from 1912 would be wearing the newer version which was taller than the older version and featured a circle around the burgee… (The company flag) doesn’t show up very often in 100 year old grainy photos and even eluded the 1997 movie as all seem to have the new version.

One thing that I have not yet revealed about my self is that I am a collector of Phaleristics ( military medals and orders) i also do uniforms, perhaps I’ll give a tour of my 15 year collection just let me know, As I have the mess dress tail coat worn by Admiral Raymond Lygo (15 march 1924- 7 march 2012) former commander of HMS Ark royal during the 1970s ,the no 1 dress frock coat for Sir Maj general William G Stirling (25 may 1907- 29 august 1973 who was the commander in chief of British forces on the Rhine in the late 50s early 60s… I even have an original imperial German frock coat for an oberst (major) of an artillery regiment tailored in Saarburg in 1904 and is named to a von, (Bethmann) ? the righting back then was something else....

anyway as you can see I have the correct medals that Captain smith would have worn,   on the left we have the Decoration for Officers of the Royal Naval Reserve (1908) and on the right is the Transport Medal (1903) (with clasp for south Africa) for the safe transport of British and Colonial troops from and to south Africa during the Second Boer War,

One thing I will defiantly call out without out shame is in that in every titanic film they always have captain smith wearing the wrong medals, in the 1997 film for example they have him wearing the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Long Service and Good Conduct Medal with The post ww1 1919 ribbon and not the correct 1908 green ribbon, and where the troop transport medal should be they have what looks like a royal navy long service medal which has a blue/white ribbon and since the 1997 movie nearly every coloured black and white photo of the real captain smith has been coloured with the use of this incorrect source of reference….

What I just don’t get about the 1997 film is this fact, Used a 17-million gallon tank that cost $40 million, Dived and filmed on the actual wreck two and half miles down…$$$$$ The undisclosed $$$$$ bonus to bribe the terrified Gloria Stuart (the old rose) to ride the helicopter for less than 8 seconds of a film which made $2.264 billion …..But could not source the correct $10 medals for captain smith… It’s really odd because I also noticed the concept art for captain smiths uniform for that film which actually has the correct medals shown and the names of the medals written down next to the drawing so an another classic example of a weak link in the chain…

They even got the night sky for the northern hemisphere at 2 am on April 15th 1912 wrong but I won’t get in to that astro physics dilemma…..must have fallen in to a wormwhole.. I saw recently the “door” prop from the movie was sold, I will say there are way too many people debating wither or not jack could fit on that “door” that they fail to see it wasn’t a door, because if it did they would be asking the correct question of could jack fit on that louis XIV style oak pediment panel…. (Which was above the door) because if they asked that question we would have our answer in 1998…

And lastly A little fun fact when I took this photo above I was actually wearing a balaclava as my beard is so long you would not be able to see my tie also having a photo of your self in uniform with a balaclava on AND having Irish roots kind of goes hand in hand….lol but Hope you all enjoyed this little history tour.

Description

So here is my replica formal uniform of Captain E.J. Smith. I actually acquired the coat in January from an auction house in Germany that had some Babelsberg studio props and memorabilia ( Babelsberg is the German Hollywood for those that don’t know ) and yup I was so ecstatic that I won, i’ve actually been wanting this item in my collection since I saw the 1997 movie…so 22 years i’ve been wanting this…

I had to pay extra fees in shipping due to the English Brexit and another charge to receive it once it arrived in the hands of the post office…. (was charged £60 by the monsters at HMRC)

I think if the plane took off from Germany and just air dropped my stuff in the field by my house I would actually be invested in that, Anyway Moving on….as you can see The uniform fits me , on little snag from my inner drill sergeant (or chief petty officer since we are navy ) the gap between the gold braid and the cuff seems to be a little long on the sleeve, compared to the other British naval uniforms I own seems to be too far up the arm but other than that it’s a great fit..

One nice little bonus of this item that I did not know till I received it is that the buttons are made by the original manufacture that had made the originals for on the real Titanic deck officers , imported from the Waterbury's Button Company of Connecticut USA so that’s a really cool

The other really cool thing about my replica is that It has a tailoring label of the same firm which also made The original uniforms for the real Titanic’s officers, tailored by Miller and Sons in Southampton, I do know that the crew had to pay for their own uniforms,
and Two weeks after the sinking of the Titanic the families of the deceased band received a telegram charging them the sum of 5s. 4d., which in today’s money would be around £20.85 (25 USD) basically for the loss of the company uniform ….

Next The visor cap, The only people that seemed to offer a replica of the cap were from Pakistan….so what I did was I bought a replica ww1 era Royal navy visor cap for a captain ( which has one gold row of oak leaves on the peak) from a London army and navy store and from another store I bought a white star line cap badge and just swapped the badges over, saved £30 in costs and 2 weeks minimum for it to be shipped…

A lot of people don’t actually know this tiny attention to detail but during the 1911-1912 season there were actually two types of white star line cap badge for her deck officers in use. Captain Smith, chief officer Wilde and 1st officer Murdoch wore the old type (the one I have) while Titanic's Sixth officer Moody and anyone purchasing new uniforms from 1912 would be wearing the newer version which was taller than the older version and featured a circle around the burgee… (The company flag) doesn’t show up very often in 100 year old grainy photos and even eluded the 1997 movie as all seem to have the new version.

One thing that I have not yet revealed about my self is that I am a collector of Phaleristics ( military medals and orders) i also do uniforms, perhaps I’ll give a tour of my 15 year collection just let me know, As I have the mess dress tail coat worn by Admiral Raymond Lygo (15 march 1924- 7 march 2012) former commander of HMS Ark royal during the 1970s ,the no 1 dress frock coat for Sir Maj general William G Stirling (25 may 1907- 29 august 1973 who was the commander in chief of British forces on the Rhine in the late 50s early 60s… I even have an original imperial German frock coat for an oberst (major) of an artillery regiment tailored in Saarburg in 1904 and is named to a von, (Bethmann) ? the righting back then was something else....

anyway as you can see I have the correct medals that Captain smith would have worn,   on the left we have the Decoration for Officers of the Royal Naval Reserve (1908) and on the right is the Transport Medal (1903) (with clasp for south Africa) for the safe transport of British and Colonial troops from and to south Africa during the Second Boer War,

One thing I will defiantly call out without out shame is in that in every titanic film they always have captain smith wearing the wrong medals, in the 1997 film for example they have him wearing the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Long Service and Good Conduct Medal with The post ww1 1919 ribbon and not the correct 1908 green ribbon, and where the troop transport medal should be they have what looks like a royal navy long service medal which has a blue/white ribbon and since the 1997 movie nearly every coloured black and white photo of the real captain smith has been coloured with the use of this incorrect source of reference….

What I just don’t get about the 1997 film is this fact, Used a 17-million gallon tank that cost $40 million, Dived and filmed on the actual wreck two and half miles down…$$$$$ The undisclosed $$$$$ bonus to bribe the terrified Gloria Stuart (the old rose) to ride the helicopter for less than 8 seconds of a film which made $2.264 billion …..But could not source the correct $10 medals for captain smith… It’s really odd because I also noticed the concept art for captain smiths uniform for that film which actually has the correct medals shown and the names of the medals written down next to the drawing so an another classic example of a weak link in the chain…

They even got the night sky for the northern hemisphere at 2 am on April 15th 1912 wrong but I won’t get in to that astro physics dilemma…..must have fallen in to a wormwhole.. I saw recently the “door” prop from the movie was sold, I will say there are way too many people debating wither or not jack could fit on that “door” that they fail to see it wasn’t a door, because if it did they would be asking the correct question of could jack fit on that louis XIV style oak pediment panel…. (Which was above the door) because if they asked that question we would have our answer in 1998…

And lastly A little fun fact when I took this photo above I was actually wearing a balaclava as my beard is so long you would not be able to see my tie also having a photo of your self in uniform with a balaclava on AND having Irish roots kind of goes hand in hand….lol but Hope you all enjoyed this little history tour.