Captain of the Titanic

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This article was published 11/02/2011 (5682 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Lowell Lytle wasn’t there when the Titanic broke apart, but he knows how to break hearts.

Lytle, an American actor who portrays Titanic Capt. Edward J. Smith at permanent and temporary Titanic exhibitions across North America, said he’s asked many questions about the legendary doomed ship, its voyage and the sinking. But there are a couple that are aimed directly at him — or, more directly, the ship’s captain he portrays.

“It’s always ‘what was the matter with you?’ and ‘how come you (the Titanic) were going so fast?” Lytle said, chuckling.

Lytle has actually gone down in a submarine to the Titanic wreck site and has picked up artifacts for the company that owns the salvage rights.

When people hear that, they inevitably ask him about one item, in particular.

“(They ask) ‘did you look for the blue diamond?’ That’s when I have to say there is no blue diamond. It’s from the movie,” he said. In the 1997 movie Titanic, the blue diamond necklace the character Rose possessed was known as the Heart of the Ocean.

“Then I say, ‘there is also no Jack and Rose. They’re all fictitious,'” Lytle said.

“I do break so many hearts.”

Lytle mesmerized almost 250 grades 6 and 7 students at H.C. Avery Middle School, during a presentation there on Thursday morning.

The students jumped to their feet and gave a salute when told by principal Rhonda May it’s traditional to do that when the captain walks in.

His visit coincides with the start of Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition, which begins Saturday at the MTS Centre Exhibition Hall.

Tickets are available at Ticketmaster (adults are $19.95 weekdays, $23.95 weekends; seniors, children and students are $15.95 weekdays and $18.95 weekends).

Lytle, wearing a captain’s hat and dark overcoat, complete with White Star Line buttons and two medals on his chest, said he has been playing the captain for 13 years, ever since a man in his Florida neighbourhood told his employers building a permanent Titanic exhibit in Orlando his neighbour looked like the real captain Smith.

Lytle said its not only fun, but he was able to parlay the role into the real-life experience of being able to go down to the wreck in a submarine for a day to view the ship and pick up artifacts in the debris field.

“At one point, I was about five feet from the captain’s bathtub when they were changing film,” he said.

At least one of the exhibits he found — a baking bowl with two handles — is at the exhibit in Winnipeg, but he is also responsible for finding the ship’s emergency telegraph to the engine room, the one the crew would have thrown into reverse when they saw the iceberg to notify the engine room to reverse the engines.

“You cannot see the Titanic with your own eyes and not be affected,” he said.

Lytle does make a great Smith — even the children were convinced he looked the part.

“He looks just like him,” said 11-year-old Brendan Henry, who recently completed a project on the Titanic.

“When I did my project, I thought it would be pretty cool to see the ship before it sank, but it would be pretty scary when it sank.”

Cole Penner, also 11, said he chose the sinking of the Titanic for his project.

“It seemed the most exciting part — now I want to see the exhibit,” Penner said.

“The man who plays the captain did a fantastic job. If people don’t know anything about the Titanic and see a photo of the real captain they’d think it was him.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca