Back From Las Vegas: the Titanic Exhibition

I just got back from my trip to Las Vegas.  I didn't gamble (I don't do that) but wifey and I saw some great shows, including the Titanic Exhibition, the Rat Pack is Back, Taylor Hicks and Cirque Du Soleil, "Love," an aerial acrobatic performance to Beatles' music and imagery.

One night wifey snuck downstairs to the casino and resolved to spend $1 in pennies playing the penny slot machines.  She won $75 and quit while she was ahead.

Cup and Saucer from the Titanic

The only show I really cared about was the Titanic Exhibition at the Luxor Hotel.  Upon entering the exhibition, you are given a card with the facts of one of the passengers, their name, cabin class, and the facts of their voyage.  Mine was of a gentleman traveling third class, on his way to Detroit to take a job open for him there.  At the end of the exhibition, you will confront a large white board listing all of the passengers and crew of the Titanic, and whether they survived the sinking.  I knew mine had undoubtedly died, being a male, third class passenger, who had almost no chance of gaining one of the too-few seats in a lifeboat.

We saw a recreation of  a third class cabin and a first class cabin, as well as a replica of the Grand Staircase, complete with the clock and the cupid figure, the ornamental railings and the white floor with black tile inlays.  There was also a replica of the large round skylight above it, with the decorative iron grill.  It was truly impressive.  We had our photograph taken, standing on the fifth step. (See an example here of some other couple on the Grand Staircase).

Actual artifacts recovered from the Titanic's debris field included pots and pans, saucers and cups, and ceramic "au gratin" bowls.  These are the bowls found stacked neatly in rows in the sand of the debris field, their wooden storage box long ago eaten away by sea organisms.  The bowls are still perfect, white and unblemished.

Au Gratin Bowls in Titanic's Debris Field

There was a lady's diamond ring, still beautiful and brilliant in the soft lighting, as well as various personal effects, including wallets. dollar bills, coins and clothing, postcards and letters with the writing still visible.  A perfume salesman's fragrance samples were also on display, still smelling sweetly after 100 years, most of which was spent on the ocean floor.  There was a pair of sink faucets from a first class cabin, one marked Hot and the other Cold.

The display has back lighted signs in each room, telling the history of the Titanic, as well as films running showing the building of the Titanic, the retrieval of artifacts, and an illustration of how the ship sank and broke up during sinking.  There is a huge model of the sunken Titanic, showing how it looks today in its watery grave.

One of the diplays is a mock-up of the promenade deck, where you walk on the deck, viewing a black sea at night, the black and moonless sky brilliant with stars, as it was on the night the great ship sank, April 15, 1912.

The most impressive display is the last one, which is a huge chunk of the Titanic itself.  You walk into a dimly lit room and find yourself face to face with a metal wall, actually a piece of the hull, complete with rivets and portholes, still containing glass, though it is broken and much of it missing.  This is the famed "Big Piece," which broke off when the Titanic broke in two.  It was recovered in 1998 and weighs 15 tons.  Viewing it, you feel you are looking at the side of the Titanic, and you are...well, a comparatively small piece of it anyway.

Viewing these artifacts, I felt I was communing with the dead.  Seeing them is a reminder of the terrible loss of human life that occurred when the Titanic sank.   These objects are more than curiosities, they are the bits and pieces of hundreds of human lives.  The mood is somber, respectful and almost reverent.

Consulting the listing of passengers and crew, I learned that my passenger, Frank John Goldsmith of England, had indeed died on the Titanic.  Mrs. Chomper's passenger survived.

Before leaving, we visited the gift shop where I bought a small piece of coal from the Titanic, and two third class coffee cups (exact replicas), white with the dark red insignia of the White Star Line.

You can view a lot of these displays at the links provided above, as well as here and here.

100 Years Ago Today: The Tragedy of the Titanic (Photos, Videos)

RMS Titanic as She Appeared in 1912 (Colorized by Stogie)

I have been hearing about the Titanic since I saw a movie about it (as a wee child) in 1953.  A great British ocean liner, on its maiden voyage from Southampton  to New York, touted to be "unsinkable," hit an iceberg near Newfoundland and sank two hours later.  There weren't enough lifeboats -- only enough for a third of the 2,223 people on board.  About 1,500 of those people went into the freezing water of the North Atlantic, where they quickly died of hypothermia.  That terrible event happened 100 years ago today, early in the morning of April 15, 1912.

The Titanic story is one of incredible arrogance, lack of foresight, bravery and cowardice, heroism and tragedy.  The Titanic was a beautiful ship, fitted out in luxury and the highest technology of its day.  It had luxury cafes, a gymnasium, a swimming pool, a library, and a wireless telegraph and remotely controlled watertight doors.  Some fool reportedly told the press before the voyage that "God himself couldn't sink this ship."  Apparently, God took that as some kind of challenge.

Titanic Today

Only 710 survivors made it into the lifeboats.  Many of the lifeboats were lowered into the sea half full, because the Titanic didn't seem to be sinking at first, and passengers preferred the warmth of their cabins to what seemed a false threat.  When the ship began to sink at the bow and the list became increasingly steep, pandemonium reigned as many tried to crowd into the remaining lifeboats.  Since it was "women and children first," some men survived only by accident -- by jumping into the water where they were picked up by the half-filled lifeboats.  Two men went over the rail together; one survived and the other did not.  A priest prayed with some passengers on the steeply listing deck; members of the ship's orchestra, led by band leader Wallace Hartley, played music to calm the crowd.  Some say their final song was "Nearer My God to Thee."  Others say it was "Autumn."

They were picked up hours later by the Carpathia, a freighter who sped towards the disaster site in a heroic attempt to save the lives of the Titanic's passengers.  Alas, it was too far away to save anyone but the lifeboat passengers.  The S.S. Californian, within easy reach of the Titanic, could have saved many.  Its crew was puzzled over the meaning of the flares being set off from the Titanic (they were a cry for help), but took no action.  They turned off their wireless and went to bed, totally oblivious to the unfolding disaster.

Today the wreck of the Titanic rests 12,415 feet down on the seabed, slowly rusting away.  Plans are underway to commemorate the tragedy and pray for its victims -- now 100 years after they disappeared into the cold waters of the North Atlantic, along with the luxury ship that will sail on in legend and imagination.

Here is a fairly short video showing scenes from the sunken Titanic, overlayed with images of Victorian era, ghost-like figures walking about the scene, which then clarifies into actual photos of the locations as they looked in 1912.  The film ends with a string ensemble playing "Nearer My God to Thee," very much as it must have sounded when Wallace Hartley's string ensemble played it as the Titanic sank into the sea.  Highly recommended.


Here is a film showing underwater views of the Titanic, with some unusual perspectives.

 

 From the Discovery Channel: Deep Inside the Sunken Titanic:   Part 1 of 2



 Deep Inside The Sunken Titanic, Part 2 of 2