A Look into the Titanic

I’ve been feeling as if I have a front-row seat on the Titanic lately. So it was particularly fitting to attend an exhibit of Titanic artifacts a couple of weeks ago.

The exhibit was really interesting, and I was amazed to see so many intact artifacts. On display were pieces of the ship, pieces of fixtures, bottles and plates, items that belonged to passengers. There were also replicas of the grand staircase and passengers’ rooms.

Photographs and stories of passengers were shared, and I always felt a chill after reading about passengers who were supposed to have been on another ship (I think it was grounded due to a coal strike), or decided to book passage at the last minute.

It was particularly moving to see a list of the survivors compared with a list of those who died.

I loved the 1997 movie and have always been haunted by the scenes of the orchestra playing as the ship sank. I read that all of the musicians were contractors, so they weren’t required to help the passengers escape. So they played on. I also learned that the orchestra’s leader wished to have “Nearer My God to Thee” played at his funeral, so that’s why it’s believed that the orchestra played that song as the ship sank.

The only bad thing I have to say about the exhibit was that it was packed with people, so I had to skip over some sections because it was too mobbed. But if you’re interested in this tragic story at all, you would find this exhibit fascinating.