Titanic Fanatic?

[Sailor Steve]

That's one of the things that originally bugged me about the new movie, until I found out the fascinating truth: going all the way back to the times when rudders were controlled by a tiller instead of a wheel, the order was for the direction the helmsman moved, which was the opposite direction for the rudder (and the ship) to turn. This convention was still in use in 1912, and if I remember rightly it is commented upon in Walter Lord's original book A Night To Remember. I'm not sure if the wheel was rigged so the helmsman actually moved it to starboard to turn to port, but I doubt it. I think they just knew to do it that way. Anyway, the order as given in the movies is correct.

As to the anchors, I think all your summations are correct: they didn't have enough time, they didn't think of it and it probably wouldn't have mattered anyway.

One of the fascination things about the sinking is that ships (unlike cars, planes and boats) actually turn tighter the faster they go. If Titanic had turned but the officer had NOT ordered "Full reverse", they might have actually missed the 'berg. Conversely, had they ordered "Full reverse" but not turned at all the bow would have been smashed, people would have been thrown about and injured, but the ship would not have sustained that huge gash down the side and almost certainly would not have sunk.