On Monday, we drove to Belfast to visit the Titanic museum, called Titanic Belfast. We learnt about the conception, building and launch of the RMS Titanic, the sinking on her maiden voyage, and the subsequent quest to locate her. The museum also contained artefacts recovered from the wreck.
Titanic Belfast was located right at the docks where the Titanic and her sister ship, the RMS Olympic — at the time the largest passenger ships in the world — were built. It was an exceptionally well-set-out museum and very moving. Here are a few highlights, though it's hard to effectively capture a great museum experience in photos!
This view shows where the Titanic was built and launched.For me, the museum started to get properly interesting once we got past the initial "conception of Titanic" displays and rode a lift to the top of this replica gantry. This was only one quarter of the height of the actual gantry used during the building of the Titanic!Next came this slow-moving cable car ride while learning about the massive ship's construction. This was the first time I'd really considered what the sinking must have meant to the hundreds of construction workers, and the community of Belfast, who'd been so proud of this history-making ship.A ticket from the day the Titanic was slid down to the water and launched for the first time (the year before her maiden voyage) — a momentous occasion attended by thousands.Photos of the Titanic being launched.The personal stories were incredibly touching. This was a letter written from onboard the Titanic before the sinking. The letter writers survived.Another really moving section contained these radio conversations between the Titanic and other ships after she struck the iceberg. Unfortunately, the radio operator of the ship closest to the Titanic had gone to bed for the night.This conversation was between the Titanic and her sister ship, the Olympic. In this section, there were also voiceovers of survivors sharing their memories.You may be familiar with this story.Bandleader Wallace Hartley's violin, recovered from the wreck of the Titanic.This inscription from Wallace's fiancée Maria was on his violin.There were many other heroes too.The long list of people lost was very sobering.A rare recovered life jacket from the Titanic.This display listed the many factors that contributed to the disaster.To think that such a great tragedy could have hinged on such a tiny thing...!This wall of witness testimonies from an official inquiry into the disaster was absolutely fascinating. B and I both read quite a few pages until time (or children) dictated we move on!A slowly rotating hanging Titanic model all lit up...... and in darkness.J is holding an activity sheet from the museum. The task was to spot each of the character dolls hidden around the museum (a construction worker, ship's cat, cook, sailor, etc). This is a great way to keep kids occupied at a museum, especially when the topic is such a serious one. He was happy because he found them all. 🙂F said one of the things that made an impression on him was how dangerous it was to build the Titanic. Eight men died during the construction process.
Afterwards, we had time for a quick visit to the SS Nomadic, which was included in our museum passes. The Nomadic was a tender that took passengers out to the Titanic.
This hollow structure, called a caisson, was on display in front of the Nomadic. It was used to plug the entry to the dry dock.The dry dock containing the Nomadic and the caisson are to the left of this walkway. On the right, you can see the jet of water being pumped out of the dry dock.
All in all, this was a fascinating, educational and deeply moving experience. We'd recommend a visit to the Titanic museum to anyone travelling to Belfast!
