Wednesday 11 September - The Titanic Exhibition

The Titanic Centre, Belfast

 The rain stopped as we went to bed so no more worries about that, although it continued to be windy. Unfortunately Jamie decided he was definitely unhappy and repeatedly asked to go out – Bren must have taken him out 6 times over a period of a few hours. We think he perhaps had an upset stomach, as he was chewing grass (a sure sign), but it was early morning before he finally settled.

So not the best start to the day, but at least it was warm and dry so after breakfast we serviced the van at the French-style service point before heading back to Belfast. Having sussed it out we found a suitable place at the back of a carpark, left Jamie with some treats and headed over to the very impressive exhibition centre, which of course was packed with tourists of all countries, milling around like lost children – situation normal then!

We found the ticket office and bought a standard package plus guidebook then managed to circumvent the guides and found our way in. The exhibition is well laid out and follows the whole Titanic story, starting with the history of Belfast and it's development through the linen industry and into machinery which in turn brought about the shipyards. A forward thinking city council re-structured the course of the river and made new channels so that ships of every size could easily be launched, which then saw the development of Harland and Wolff who, with the White Star Line, built the largest ever passenger steamships in the world, including the Titanic.

The story progresses through the design and construction, with plenty of audio/visual displays and even a gondola ride through a simulated shipyard showing the construction of it and the ships them selves. From there it goes on to the story of the launch, fitting out, then a one-afternoon sea trials before being licenced and sailing to Southampton for the maiden voyage to New York. There was no pomp or ceremony, they just built them and threw them in, although they reckon 100,000 folk came to watch the launch of the S.S. Titanic.

From there was the story of the embarkation at Southampton, with displays of typical 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd class accomodations, reckoned to be well superior to any before, then across to Cherbourg where more high-class passengers were embarked by the S.S. Nomadic – which has been preserved and forms a separate exhibit – Titanic's dedicated tender. Finally across to Queenstown in Ireland for final passengers before setting out with it's appointment with an ice berg.

A large portion of the exhibition deals with the sinking and subsequent events including the two Boards of Enquiry. Then finally the story of the discovery of the wreck two miles down on the seabed.

As you can imagine by now we were somewhat exhausted – the whole layout is designed to move people through smoothly although you are never actually rushed, even being as busy as it was. However there are few opportunities to just stop and rest awhile until, of course, you get to the end with the cafes and large gift shop, where of course we bought the obligatory souvenir T-shirts!

We were going to miss out the separate visit to the Nomadic but in the end strolled over for a look round to this last remaining White Star vessel. Considering the calibre of people who used the tender to board the Titanic we thought it very sparse, but supposed that as you were not meant to be on it for any length of time this was acceptable.

S.S. Nomadic, White Star Lines tender

All in all we enjoyed our visit and were glad we'd made the effort, as was Jamie when we finally returned to Bertie for a late lunch. We decided that as Carrickfergus was only a short distance away and was quite suitable, we'd return there to overnight and perhaps have a meal in the closeby Brewers Fayre. Unfortunately, in between checking it out and actually going across for our meal, they had some sort of problem and were no longer serving. However, in an earlier sojourn to the adjoining Sainsburys, Bren had noticed a couple more restaurants along the way so we chose Springsteens, a more than adequate substitute for our evening, if a trifle more expensive!