Titanic director James Cameron reveals the clever way he would have survived the sinking ship

Legendary filmmaker James Cameron has been obsessed with shipwrecks for much of his life, but one wreck captivated him more than any other.

The 71-year-old's fascination saw him transform the infamous sinking of the RMS Titanic on April 15, 1912, where around 1,600 people died in the icy waters of the Atlantic, into one of the highest-grossing films of all time, 1997's blockbuster Titanic.

Cameron was even open at the time that one of the main motivators for making the movie was that it would give him the opportunity to dive 3,800 metres down to 'the Mount Everest of shipwrecks', which had only been rediscovered a decade before.

Having seen the Titanic with his own eyes and knowing more about the tragedy than most people, Cameron has shared what he would do to survive if he had been on the ship as it careered into an iceberg - and he wouldn't try clinging to a large door like Jack and Rose.

Titanic follows Jack and Rose's tragic love story (CBS via Getty Images)

With the benefit of hindsight and an in-depth knowledge of the deadliest moments of the disaster, Cameron's strategy to survive the downing of the massive 269-meter-long ship focuses on spending as little time in the water as possible.

This is because the director knows that the vast majority of passengers died from the shock of hitting the Atlantic waters, which were below freezing point (around 28°F), as hundreds came off the ship at around 2am.

The Hollywood Reporter asked the director: “If you were traveling by yourself as a second-class passenger on Titanic when it hit an iceberg, what would you have done?”

Cameron explained that his survival strategy would depend on the compassion of strangers, and he even knows which life raft he would be aiming for.

“Most people wouldn’t have had the courage to jump into the water,” he told the publication. “They couldn’t quite believe that the ship was really going to sink.”

The Titanic struck an iceberg that tore into her starboard side (Getty Stock Images)

While most of the souls on the ship likely had no idea what they should do as first-class passengers poured into a few lifeboats and the Titanic began to come apart underneath their feet, the filmmaker believes anyone's best hope was to jump in at the exact right time.

He added: “But if you knew for sure it was going to sink and you weren’t on a lifeboat, you jump in the water next to the boat the second it casts off.”

As with Cameron's on-screen lovers who spent too long on the sinking ship and ended up clinging to a piece of flotsam, most of the passengers had little chance of survival once they reached the water, with many losing their lives after experiencing cold water shock.

James Cameron directed the 1997 film (Araya Doheny/Getty Images for SAG-AFTRA Foundation)

The director went on to say: “Once they rowed away, you were screwed. Are they going to let you drown when Titanic is still there and everybody is watching? No, they’d pull you in, and the officers would go, ‘Well, f**k, there’s nothing I can do about that.’”

Cameron even knew which boat he'd aim for, adding: “Boat four would be a good one for this.”