Titanic

Today was a great day. In fact, it might have been the best day of the trip. After waking up at 6am to run with one of the leaders from a company we headed to our company to finish our projects and present. Our group rocked the project. I was really proud of the end product!

Afterward I finally went to the Titanic museum. I cannot describe how thrilled I was. This was the part of the trip I was most excited for. 

I have a lot of thoughts about this museum.

I am going to separate my thoughts into four sections. 

First I am going to discuss my initial thoughts of the lay out of the museum. 

Secondly, I am going to highlight the new facts about titanic I learned today. 

Then I am going to address some suggestions I have to improve the museum (with input from roommate Carolyn).  

Finally, we need an entire section devoted to outlining the inaccuracies of the James Cameron movie and highlighting the success of the film.

Thoughts on the titanic

-        The first two exhibits are unnecessary. I wanted the museum to focus solely on the ship. I thought there was a lot of frivolous information about the industrial revolution and growth of Belfast. #snooze

-        I found the SOS calls to be a fascinating addition which showed the crew’s last correspondence with neighboring ships

-        I thoroughly enjoyed the video that showed each level of the titanic

-        I believe the last level which explored sea exploration was a “wee bit” off topic

-        I loved the ride that took you through the ship building

Here are some new facts I learned today:

-        Brittanic (another white star ship) struck a mine in 1916 and sank in an hour. Nurse Violet Jessop survived both ship catastrophes.

-        At the bottom of the ocean the ship is covered in “rusticles” aka rusty, icicle like structures composed of bacteria which eat iron in Titanic’s steel

-        Mr. Bruce Ismay tried to hide the Titanic from the news the first two days after the tragedy. There was a lot of conflicting news reports about the sinking of the ship.

-        It only took 15 minutes from the time the ship was submerged in water to the time it hit the ocean floor.

-        How they recovered 330 bodies from the ocean.

Suggestions for the museum (with ideas from Carolyn)

-        Recreate the ship hitting the iceberg and a play by play how the ship broke apart and eventually fell to the ocean

-        Assign a passenger when you enter the building and find out later if your person survived the wreck

-        Include details about the lavish parties the guests had before the ship sunk

-        Show the place where the ship kept first class passenger cars

-        Recreate the front of the boat so people can recreate the famous Jack/Rose scene

-        Rebuild the famous stair case display

-        Play Titanic films and soundtrack in the background

-        Have a pool of water that is the temperature of the water the night of April 12, 1912.

-        Give more details about who survived the wreck, who was a hero, and who was a villain.

Titanic Movie by James Cameron

-        Put a picture of the actor next to the real life picture so we can compare and contrast the accuracies

-        Include more information about who was a real character in the movie

-        Create a shrine to James Cameron’s movie success (second highest engrossing movie of all time, most oscars winner of all time, etc.)

-        Address the deaths of prominent characters and illustrate if this was an accurate portrayal (captain, architect, Macy’s creators, etc)

And with that I must leave you. Such a great day. 

Definitely potential for some more thoughts on Titanic in future blogs.

"Largest and Safest Ship"