Anyways...I went with becky to the titanic exhibit in kitchener this weekend. Before I continue I need to let you know that I have never met anyone that loves titanic more than her. It's nice to see that someone can get so passionate about something. I don't know anything I love more than becky loves titanic. The passion started with the movie and continued on from there. If you ever get the chance please watch the movie with her!
So it was her dream to go and sadly we put it off until the last day. We booked tickets online the night before to ensure our entry and we left her place around 8:30 to get there before 10.
So we got there and handed in our tickets...shortly into the exhibit I noticed that we had made it in the nick of time, right before the crowd. That seems to happen to me all the time (perhaps a further blog later)
I realized that this experience would be amazing to blog about so like the little nerd I am, I whipped out my trusty notebook and decided to take notes to share with all of you. I know that some readers are living in winnipeg and it is my understanding that this exhibit will be visiting winnipeg next and so I may be giving away some spoilers...SPOILER 1...the ship sinks!
So my first thought when I got in there was why are people so obsessed with this story? It was four days on the ship! I feel that my question was actually answered throughout this exhibit. There was so so much confidence in this ship and the new technology and everything about it seemed to set a change for human existence and ow we travel. If successful I feel this could have been a big milestone in history. For that reason I feel that it is a huge story of warning that we are also not unsinkable, and that we do need to be wary of dangers and not allow egos to overtake us. Also we have learned to watch out for icebergs! It seems to be a very romantic story as well, hence the film, however it just seems to be a great edwardian setting and it's just the time where social conventions are being challenged as well. Reading some of the biographies of people there were a lot of people that were on the ship by chance. The best story was of one guy that got shanghaied the night before and his friend took his stuff onto the ship, but the first guy never showed up. There were also people using this ship to get to America to start a new life, or people returning home for emergencies. The ship was also a place where all classes were welcome. Ticket prices ranged from $900 in 3rd class to a whopping $103,000 for a first class suite. (I put the prices into modern dollars). All things considered I feel that even now $900 is a lot to pay for the ship. It was interesting that a lot of the people who were in third class were treated to more luxury than they had ever experienced in their lives. The Titanic had a huge service aspect to it and tried to go beyond standard expectations. Some of the luxuries experiences were the delicious meals, and running water and the simplicity of electricity. Unfortunately the fact that there were so many people working aboard the ship meant that many of them went down with the ship. The largest proportion of people that died aboard were from the crew who probably lost 60% of the total aboard.
A lot of people were also returning from the british colonies in africa. I must say I totally forgot how many people were in africa doing settlements, and it's weird that people actually used to go and live there. I guess people do know, but it's a lot more in terms of missionary type roles. I forget that there are white people in africa. (Yes I know I'm a little racist sounding)
One thing they recovered from the bottom of the ocean was a wok for cooking. I thought that was kind of cool. You wouldn't expect them to use a wok for the british cooking onboard.
I bet living on a ship would be an amazing place for children. It's safe enough that they can't really get to far (good movie idea...captured on a cruise ship, like red eye on water?) but there were lots of outdoor places and their parents likely (especially upper classes) probably never let them have this much fun at home.
Nowadays to reach the resting place of the titanic on the bottom of the ocean it takes 2.5 hours from the surface. The total trip is 15-16 hours from land. I couldn't imagine being that far down and it would feel so lonely down there. Sadly because of this place it is expected the titanic only has about 60ish more years until it collapses upon itself, due to erosion of the materials. They are doing as much as hey can to recover all the artifacts they can. It's weird that we are recovering artifacts from 100 years ago; it really doesn't seem like 100 years is that long, but things were so different...but at the same time nothing has changed!
It was neat that they had recovered some of people's personal effects including postcards, some perfume, letters, sheet music and other assorted goods. The only reason I would like to die in some weird tragedy like this is so that I can have my 'personal effects' on display. Maybe I'll just have to do something awesome so that my house gets turned into a museum.
There were also many things that were manufactured by companies that are still around, Gillette razors included. That is a really great demonstration of how good your product is. I would for sure brag about that. Our product is so good that it lasted 60 years on the bottom of the sea and still works!
One last story. When you first get in you are giving a little detail card of someone who was on the titanic and we get to see whether or not they survived at the end. Mine was a husband and wife from third class returning from a year long honeymoon in Sweden where their son was born. Does anyone else see 'shotgun wedding'!!! A little bit of a scandal if you ask me. Ernst also was an emigrant recruiter for the White Star lines (the ship company that built titanic) and received commissions for getting people to go on this ship. All suspicious. He did die in the end. I feel there is a better story behind what I'm reading.
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