TITANICa: The People’s Story

Like many others, I have been enthralled, obsessed with the Titanic from as far back as I can remember (my grandfather saved a copy of the New Orleans daily paper from the time of the tragedy) and have many documentaries on disc and tape to prove it. Of course, the thrill of the ship's final resting place being discovered by Dr. Bob Ballard (be still my heart!) and the subsequent data of the past decade have garnered even more attention.

Not interested in the romanticized movies about the ship, aside from the British "A Night To Remember". To my mind still the most accurate and best - hands down.The Titanic Museum just opened in Belfast and I hope to pay a visit.  First Alaska, then Belfast!

“Titanic’s story is about the people,” says my taxi driver.

It’s quite a firm reaction to my off-the-cuff remark that I was at TITANICa: The People’s Story, and to prove his point, I’m instructed to open the glove box and take out the book he’s reading.
I pull out Titanic Survivor; the autobiography of Violet Jessop, stewardess and Titanic survivor. “The greatest film about Titanic never made”, says driver Paul, shaking his head.
It’s a perfect example of how the stories of the people behind the ship are as enduring and timely as ever. With the centenary this year, and the opening of the spectacular bells-whistles-touchscreens-and-replicas Titanic Belfast, it’s easy to focus on the ship; the scale, the construction, the materials.
What TITANICa does is look at the men behind the machines; their accomplishments, their lifestyles, their stories.
These are told in the manner they so perfected in the Ulster American Folk Park; with live actors in costume. Coal miners talk shop with Thomas Andrews in the coal yard, riveters tell us how they’ll eventually go deaf from the pounding volume of their work; carpenters repair luggage destined for emigrant voyage in their workshop.
It’s a thrilling way to experience the era itself; sitting by a turf fire in a teeny 1884 house lifted from East Belfast; seeing a Victorian press print a Titanic launch ticket; even watching silent movies in the Picture House.
It was the riveter’s stories of the daily realities of the shipyard that stayed with me. How they were paid per rivet. How the foreman would mark the worker’s cards with the time they left and returned from the toilet. How the first fatal accident on the Titanic build was a 15 year-old climber boy.
My guide in the TITANICa: The Exhibition next door, Ken, shares another theory for the continued fascination with the Titanic story, 100 years on. The combination of the well-known personalities on board (including some of the wealthiest people on the planet) and the advance of communications enabling newspapers to cover stories the next day, gave the event an edge of popular culture which our modern celebrity culture echoes today.
Surrounded by over 500 artefacts from the era, Ken sets the scene. Belfast had the biggest shipyard in the world, and was industry leader for what was then a cutting-edge industry (it was the Apple or Mercedes-Benz of its day). This was all despite the fact that the region had no coal, iron or steel resources.
“What Belfast did have, was skill, ambition and pride in its work,” counters Ken.

The rest of the fascinating story is HERE.

And so it goes.
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