Titanic Artifact Exhibit

[BritinUSA]

I'm on vacation this week and temps are over 100F, so I thought I would take the opportunity to visit the Denver Museum of Nature and Science (they have great air conditioning). Until I arrived, I did not realise that the Titanic exhibit was there, it's a display of some of the artifacts that have been recovered from the debris field from the wreckage site.

Denver Museum - Titanic Exhibit

At the start of the tour, each person is handed a boarding pass with the name of one of the passengers and an indication of whether there were 1st, 2nd or 3rd class or a member of the crew. The tour starts with some coverage of the building of the Titanic with some photos and even some videos made from silent film of the construction at Harland and Wolff shipyards.

There are many small items in the display cases, each with some information about it's origin and in many cases they have been able to identify the owners. Small perfume bottles, purses and what appears to be some glasses for a small child were rather moving.

There are recreations of some of the cabins in the display and the route through the exhibit are linked by corridors that are made up like the corridors of the Titanic, even down to the cabin room numbers and lighting fixtures. 2nd and 3rd class cabins are also shown, as the tour progresses the story becomes darker as does the ambient lighting. The last corridor is from the lower decks of the ship, all metal walls and rivets and red lighting. The final two rooms contain a large lump of real ice to symbolise the iceberg (one of only two items that can be touched in the exhibit).

There is a large section of the hull that was part of an even larger section that was recovered from the debris field. This section is black and about 8-9 feet tall and about 7-8 feet wide. The size of the rivets is impressive, one side about the size of a golf-ball and the flattened side about 50% larger. The steel is about .75" thick and is torn in part as it was ripped from the rest of the hull during the sinking. To see this large piece of the hull from where it had rested at the bottom of the Atlantic for 80+ years was impressive. A smaller piece of the hull could be touched through a small hole in another display case.

There is an approx 5 foot model of the front half of the ship as it now appears on the sea floor, it's a little sobering to see how the mighty has fallen and the massive damage that the ship suffered after the collision.

At the end of the tour is a large plaque that contains the names of all the passengers and crew and whether or not they survived. There were about 20 children (approx 7-13 years old) moving through the tour at the same time as me, and they were all enthralled at the exhibits. As they got to the plaque they searched the names to see if they could find the name on their boarding pass, some called out that they have died and others that they had survived. They were totally into the whole thing, it must have been a great learning experience for them.

It cost about $20 and was worth every penny in my opinion. Not sure where the exhibit will be displayed next but if you get a chance to check it out I can recommend it.

[SiG Lady]

My God, that is SOOOO cool...!!!! You were very fortunate to have seen that when you did. It also sounds like the exhibit was creatively and artistically assembled so it had a feeling of 'interactivity'. That is too cool. Thanks so much for your vivid review.

http://www.titanictix.com/

Apparently this exhibit has been "on" for some time and millions have visited it. There seems to be a lot of ticket outlets online for it but it was unclear about its actual schedule. Maybe I was just in a hurry, I dunno....... Like, is it going to Vegas next or was it in Vegas in 2005...? I couldn't tell.

[Jman]

Thanks for your post. I'll try to see it myself. I sailed professionally (Merchant Marine) for a big part of my adult life. The older I get the more I realize just how much Captain Smith failed all those souls. Astounding tragedy.

Jim

[dajarrel]

Sounds Awesome.

I'd love to see it. Maybe it'll end up in the Southeast one day.

Like SiG Lady said, Thanks for the review.

dj

[BritinUSA]

The older I get the more I realize just how much Captain Smith failed all those souls.

Captain Smith was regarded as a "safe Captain" and, for the period, he probably was. Yet he had been in command of the Germanic when on 16 February 1899, she capsized at her New York pier from ice accumulations in her rigging and superstructure.

There was a fire aboard the Baltic in 1904 as well as this same ship running aground in 1909.

In June 1911 while maneuvering the Olympic into her New York Pier, the ship had damaged a tugboat with the thrust from one of the its propellers.

On Wednesday, 20 September 1911, the Olympic set off from Southampton on her fifth voyage, under the command of Captain Smith. As she made her way down the Solent and headed out to pass the east end of the Isle of Wright, she got up to a speed of 18 knots. She was nominally under the direction of George Bowyer, a very experienced Trinity House Pilot. As she turned to starboard to round the Bramble bank, speed was reduced to 11 knots but the wide radius of her turn surprised the commander of the HMS Hawke, a 7,000 ton cruiser, who was unable to take sufficient avoiding action.

The two ships collided, the cruiser's steel and concrete bow ram burying itself deep into the starboard quarter and baggage stowed in the hold of the Olympic spilled out onto the deck of the Hawke.

Nobody was killed and both ships remained afloat, the Olympic making it back to Southampton on one engine, despite two major watertight compartments being completely flooded. Although the blame was legally placed on the Olympic, and the White Star Line faced with large legal costs as well as the costs of repairing the ship and the losses resulting form the disruption of services, the solace was that the ship had survived a major collision (the Hawke, after all, was designed to sink enemy ships by ramming them) and had remained a float and stable despite serious flooding.

The two sisters ships being built side by side, Olympic is closest to the camera. The Britannic was the last of the line and built later, she served as a troop ship during WWII.

Edited August 14, 2007 by BritinUSA

[bierman]

We got to see this same exhibit last summer in Miami. My then 10 year old really enjoyed it. I think we spent about 3-4 hours in the exhibit, reading every plaque there was. We also did the audio tour as well. We are homeschoolers and I think it was a great way for my daughter to learn about the tragedy of the Titanic. Certainly much better than reading about it in a dry textbook. She still has her boarding pass sitting on a shelf in her room.

The only thing I have to complain about was the gift shop at the end of the exhibit. They sell pieces of coal they have brought up from the debris field. A large (several pounds) piece on an elaborate stand was $10,000 IIRC. There were many smaller pieces available as well. I am not a big fan of commercializing such things, but I suppose it is unavoidable. That aside, if you can get to the exhibit, I highly recommend it.

[Cactustactical]

We saw it in Las Vegas last year, although I think it is back at the Tropicana again.

There is also a permanent exhibit in Orlando near the Convention Center. I did not go inside of this one, but I think it is the same company which organizes the traveling exhibits.

[GENE S]

My wife (Anna ) and myself saw in in Phille several years ago

Outstanding, well worth it.

Gene