This is the third Titanic exhibition I have been to. The first two were in Liverpool and Belfast. I just couldn’t resist! All the exhibitions are slightly different. Here there was an audio guide I downloaded to my mobile (or you could borrow a headset for an extra £3). It takes you round the exhibition picture by picture and cabinet by cabinet, telling the stories of the people who travelled on the liner through photos and finds, postcards or telegrams sent and diaries kept. We have all probably heard about the orchestra who played as the ship went down. In the exhibition there is a picture of those men.
A lot of the stories are sad, heart-breaking, but there were stories of great gallantry and of people who survived, some by sheer luck. The tour takes about 90 minutes and it was well worth going. I took loads of photos, so here I will share just some.
The ring in the above photo slipped off the finger of a lady as she drowned. Her husband managed to climb into the lifeboat, but there was no more room, or the boat would have capsized. Someone held onto the lady’s hand, but eventually she slipped from his grip. The ring came off her finger as she went under and landed in the lifeboat. The ring wasn’t discovered until some days later. Her husband died of hypothermia shortly after the lady drowned.
The piped music is the theme to Titanic, though not the Celine Dion version. The film characters were fictional, but the events were based on facts.
When I returned home, I thought about where Titanic sailed from, which was Southampton, and that got me thinking that there might be a Titanic exhibition there. I looked it up, and yes, there is one. Looks like a trip to Southampton sometime!
This exhibition finishes soon (later this week, I think). The nearest tube station is Canada Water.
Other links: Titanic Experience, Belfast
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