While on our trip to Disney World, we left the parks to go to a couple of things in Florida we've been wanting to do for a long time. My one friend is a big fan of the Titanic. I'm not sure "fan" is the right word. "Buff"? "Interested in the history"? Is it easier to just say "fan" even though that sounds kind of inconsiderate to the tragedy? Okay, for now we'll just say fan. Anyway, he was a fan even before the blockbuster movie. And he knew this museum was here, and we did have a good morning to go, so... I got pictures to share.
Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition is in the middle of a regular old shopping center place, and not a big ship-shaped building, if that's what you were expecting. I'm going to try and keep my comments more respectful this time, there might be some things which are kind of silly, but this is not really the place for that.
The theatrical movie did spark a lot of people's interest in the Titanic, so it's not a surprise that there's a photo op for the big King of The World! scene. That scene was romantic before the tragedy, so it's not like they're taking it lightly or anything. It's cool.
You have to buy a boarding pass to enter. I think this is a replica of what the actual boarding passes looked like.
They give you a stack to choose randomly from, and on the back of your boarding pass it assigns you a random passenger. Later in the museum, you can check whether or not your random person survived. 47-Year-old man? Not looking too good for my guy. But I'm in 1st Class and wealthy, so maybe I have a chance.
This is a replica, but it's what the big propeller looked like. Might not be as impressive without a person standing next to it so you can tell how huge it is.
This place is pretty big with lots of display cases. Some of the items here are documents from the construction of the ship, that were not on it.
A lot of these pictures, you can zoom in and read the text plaques, so I don't think I need to re-explain the items. It's okay if you're not in the mood to do that, it's a lot of text, I know.
Some of the things have been recovered from the wreckage, those are noted by the White Star Flag icon above the description. So those tiles were actually on the Titanic, and probably stepped on by some passengers.
Some things are neat to see just from the time period. Like the power outlet plugs which are different than what we use today.
Porthole. That's what you'd look through to see outside.
There was a wall of travel advertisements for the trip. To think people reading these got excited and booked a trip.
Re-creations of ornate metal scroll work on the doors. The ship was very artistic, when simple doors would have otherwise been okay.
Here's a recreation of the layout of the engineering office. My friend said that there was an effort to locate this part of the ship and recover all of these instruments. Which would be set to whatever they were at when the ship sank. They might be able to science-up some data based on the settings.
Leather suitcase brought up from the ocean floor. The leather of the time was treated with chemicals to make it more durable, but that process coincidentally made the leather un-eatable to the ocean critters. So the contents of the suitcases were amazingly preserved.
Plaques along the walls described passengers and crewmembers. The tragedy happened over a hundred years ago, yet it still makes me sad to read these. But it's nice to have it documented.
Some of the plaques included people who survived. There's a little bit of guilty uneasiness in the relief, but we should still be happy for some part of this.
Look at that perfect stamp and postcard. You would think the sea would have ruined them, but those chemical-treated leather suitcases really did a good job.
Look at the wrecked-up metal cooking pot. The ship damaged itself a lot when it sank, so who knows what happened to crush it like that.
The metal is worn from the sea water, but the porcelain knobs are perfectly read-able HOT and COLD.
The museum curator told us a fascinating story involving the owner of this clarinet. They were drunk at a bar the night before the voyage, and his friend took both of their suitcases to the ship. Well, the drunk friend missed the launch, and then disappeared. Years later he claimed the story about how his belongings went on the Titanic, and this was his clarinet! What a neat story.
Chamberpot. For seasickness. It's tempting to do some kind of poop joke, but not really. Totally inappropriate.
Deck Chair is not technically from the Titanic, but it's from The Titanic, the movie. They did a ton of research to make the props detailed and accurate, so it's nice to be included in the exhibit.
I'll resist again, I feel like I want to comment on the broken mirror superstition. But since this likely belonged to a woman, and a lot of the survivors were women, perhaps she had some good luck after all? Still not cool to mention the superstition.
Playing cards tell the story of suspected swindlers who were taking advantage of their card-shark skills and trying to cheat the wealthy passengers. Dare I mention "karma" if there were scoundrels on board? Yeah, as scummy as those people might have been, they still deserved better.
This looks pretty big for a room display, but it gives you an idea what the furniture looked like, at least. Were the rooms really this big?
I included the description plaque. So yeah, they really did have rooms that big!
So sad to see a Valentine's Day postcard among the things brought up. At least they were happy once upon a time. Let's not discount that.
Is this room a re-creation of a fancy hallway? There's display cabinets in here but the decor is overwhelming.
There was a huge amount of dinnerware on the ship, to serve the passengers. So some of it was still in amazing condition.
This says that some of the recovered bottles still had the champagne in it! From 1898!
2nd Class dinnerware is not as fancy as 1st class. You gotta make those 1st class people feel like they paid for the best stuff.
3rd Class eh, it's a bowl. Hey at least they put the White Star logo on it.
More passenger stories on the wall. Some of these people survived.
Marble sink. Who doesn't like marble? Looks very fancy.
Modern day cruise ships make the Titanic look almost tiny in comparison, but let's not forget that it's still a very huge ship. It's nice to have a diagram to show us.
Awful to see an alarm bell that was probably ring-ringing. They tried to have emergency measures, but the damage was too much.
Re-creation of the ships steering wheel. Heartbreaking to spin this thing, but we all gave it a good spin.
Telegraph from the engine room where Officer Murdoch signaled "Hard Astern" but it was too late.
A re-creation of a watertight door panel indicator. Probably all of these lights were on.
Not really to do with the Titanic, but I've always kind of liked these simple tube echo communication tunnels. Even a ship like the Titanic had them, neat.
A sort-of highlight of the museum was this one room which re-created the railing of the ship, with a projected screen of the view. It gave you an incredible feeling of what it must have been like to look out onto the ocean that night.
Using a couple of mirrors and large screens, you could really look over the side and imagine.
Time to find out if the random passenger on your Boarding Pass survived.
My guy was in First Class, so here's the wall I gotta look at.
Hollow name, Mr Arthur H. Gee did not survive. Wow, the tragedy hits in an unreal-real kind of way. There were four of us that went to the museum, and none of our Boarding Pass passengers survived.
There was a scanning station where you could learn a bit about your passenger. Try not to get too sad, this happened in 1912. But right now, I'm a little sad for this poor guy.
I do have another batch of pictures from Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition to post, so let's try and cheer up a bit and see some more.
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