The forgotten

They were reassigned from a freighter docked in New York bound for Cuba by the company that had hired them.

Considering that the average survival rate for third-class male passengers was less than 20 percent, Schwankert says he believes the 75 percent survival rate of the Chinese workers was due to their experience traveling by sea.

"They had a particular understanding of what was happening on the ship. As sailors, they would know that the best thing to do is to get near the lifeboats early. We think they got onto the deck and took their opportunity when the boats were almost leaving," Jones says.

With experiments that ranged from building a full-size lifeboat and using 3D software to simulate the escape route, the documentary dispels rumors that the Chinese survivors donned women's dresses to hide as stowaways in the lifeboats.

"All those rumors are very unfair. The one thing we should remember about the Titanic is that there were spaces on all of the lifeboats. Some of the lifeboats from the Titanic were not even half full," says Jones. "Is it wrong to try to survive?"