Today, April 15 at 2:20 AM, marks the 101th anniversary of the sinking of the famous luxury ship, the Titanic. I thought that in remembrance of the sinking, which saw 1,502 perish in the cold waters of the Atlantic ocean, I would dedicate this post to talking about a recent experience I had related to the Titanic. You see, for quite a few years in my life I was OBSESSED with the Titanic. I saw the movie around age 12, and I loved it. And then? Like a good nerdy kid, I went to the library and read all the books I could get my hand on. I surfed the Internet, looking for interesting stories and facts and tidbits. I had a bit of a scary amount of Titanic related paraphernalia in my room. I’ve grown out of this obsession as I’ve gotten older, but I still hold anything Titanic related pretty close to my heart. 2012 was a great Titanic year for me. I got to see the film FOR THE FIRST TIME in theatres, and in 3D. It was an awesome experience and it was the first time I actually cried while watching the movie! THEN I got the amazing opportunity to visit Ireland while studying abroad, and my primary objective? VISIT THE NEW TITANIC BELFAST MUSEUM! I’m going to go talk about my experiences and show some photos (both mine & a friends), but the TL;DR version is if you are interested in the Titanic and ever have the opportunity to go, DO IT!
First off, the museum is HUUUUGE. The outside is styled like a giant iceberg, and when you just see one side, you don’t really get the magnitude of the building. There are 5 floors and I swear it felt like each was the size of a football field. Also, I have found that modern museums in the UK and Northern Ireland go ALL OUT. I mean, there was a movie theatre, a RIDE, and holograms!
When you walk in, the entrance floor is designed to look like the rusted hull of the Titanic, which was neat. You get your White Star ticket, and then gain entrance into the exhibit. This museum is SO thorough, and the entire first floor (BOOMTOWN BELFAST) is mostly dedicated to putting Titanic in historical context: what Belfast was like during the late 1800s and early 1900s, advertising, the history of the White Star Line, and the Harland and Wolff building company. I found this part pretty interesting but there was A LOT to take in!
Next was THE SHIPYARD which was very technical but was presented in a very engaging way. There were videos and animations to illustrate the process that went into designing the Titanic, complete with projections of the building plans on the floor. There was also a RIDE - yep, you heard right, an electronic ride in the museum of a recreated shipyard. You first went up a replica construction elevator (I think it was 70 ft where the original was 300-400 or so?) and then waited in line. The ride took you up and down, spun you around, and there were videos and holograms showing what working on the Titanic was like -- for example, how they installed rivets! It was a pretty cool experience.
Exiting, you enter into the LAUNCH OF THE TITANIC exhibit. This was a room that had breathtaking special effects. The room came to a point, like the bow of a ship, where you could stand and look at the shipyard where the Titanic was actually built. The windows had a special effect where they then projected an image of the Titanic, as it looked under construction, onto the windows! I mean, talk about getting the big picture!! There was also the FIT OUT which detailed what the Titanic looked like, and all the fabrics, dishes, etc. that were on board. 1st, 2nd and 3rd class rooms were recreated, with holograms in the rooms to give the appearance of real people (you can see a 1st class room in the photo above). The detail that went into creating the luxury liner was just overwhelming!!
Then, we were off on the MAIDEN VOYAGE where we learned of what it took to get Titanic into the water, and what life was like on the ship. There were a bunch of really neat infographs to read through, such as facts on Titanic in Belfast (pictured), or how many eggs were on board, etc. I mean, think how much work it is to pack up your family for vacation? Just imagine outfitting the Titanic for the voyage it was about to commence on!
Then we came to the reason everyone knows about the Titanic, THE SINKING. Talking about this part of the exhibit still gets me choked up and covered in goosebumps. It was SO well done and one of the most memorable experiences on my trip. Before you know it, you are leaving the MAIDEN VOYAGE exhibit, and there is a wall with a beautiful poem written on it:
“… as the smart ship grew
In stature, grace and hue,
In shadowy silent distance
grew the Iceberg too.”
- Thomas Hardy
Walking into the exhibit, I experienced sensory overload. There was shimmering lights that recreated the effect of moonlight on the water, twinkling lights on the ceiling, the sound of water lapping coupled with the voices of survivors telling how they experienced the sinking, and morse code being tapped out. Panels on the wall depicted every morse code message sent, received and about the Titanic. A screen also showed an animated depiction of how the Titanic sunk. To hear, read, and see all this was just … overwhelming. I couldn’t help but cry picturing the terror, and the piercing cold water that so many died in. Explaining the totality of this exhibit is hard; it is something that you truly need to experience to fully understand.
The next exhibit was THE AFTERMATH which featured everything from the newspapers that reported on the sinking, to survivor’s and the dead’s stories. There was a recreation of the disastrous inquiry and the ludicrous questions asked. This exited into MYTHS AND LEGENDS which did some mythbusting and talked about Titanic in popular culture. There were some costumes and props (pictured below) from the most famous adaptation, James Cameron’s TITANIC (1997) which I loved!
The final floors of the exhibit dealt with the discovery of the Titanic’s WRECK. I wasn’t SUPER interested in a lot of the discovery bits, but I was getting really tired by that point, and it was more science based. There was a nice theatre where you got to watch a 12 minute video exploration of the Titanic wreck. Dr. Robert Ballard’s equipment was on display which to someone who used to be obsessed with the Titanic, was pretty cool! There was also a ton of information about the ocean to read about, watch and explore.
Of course there is a fabulous gift shop, and even a Titanic themed restaurant on location! Had I more time on my tour and not been as exhausted, I could have ventured out to the dockyard to see exactly where the Titanic was constructed. But all in all I was extremely thrilled with my trip to Belfast (which also included a Black Taxi Tour -- highly recommend!) and the museum. To go in the centennial year of the sinking made it even more special and emotional for me. Next I’d really like to go to the memorials and museum in Halifax.
Today on the 101th anniversary of the sinking, I think of history, those lives lost, and am thankful that today, we have much safer means of travel, and take icebergs much more seriously.
SOME RESOURCES
The Titanic Belfast Museum
The History Chicks Podcast: Margaret “Molly” (Unsinkable) Brown & Titanic Field Trip
Titanic Museums of the World
Young Adult Titanic Novels
Books Released in Anticipation of 100th Anniversary
Are you interested in the Titanic? Have you ever been to a Titanic-related museum, memorial, etc? I’d love to hear about it! Want to go to Belfast now? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
No comments:
Post a Comment