A day to remember a night to remember

We are coming up to a very significant anniversary for it was on the night of the 14th April 1912 that RMS Titanic hit an iceberg, sinking early the following morning with the loss of an estimated 1,517 lives. At that stage, the greatest loss of life at sea there had ever been during peacetime. The story has captivated people ever since: the actions and behaviour of the passengers and crew; the social priorities between First and Third Class passengers; the number of lifeboats; the radio messages; the construction of the ship; the desire for speed; the navigational errors; the location of the iceberg ... all have contributed to the legend.

Every few years the story bubbles up once more: the discovery of the wreck; a new novel; the next film (and many people still prefer A Night To Remember from 1958 to James Cameron's 1997 Irish American-hero version of the story). It never goes away.

But one hundred years is especially significant. The commemorations have already started. A sample includes:

• At 12:13 pm on 31 May 2011, exactly 100 years after Titanic rolled down her slipway, a single flare was fired over Belfast's docklands in commemoration. All boats in the area around the Harland and Wolff shipyard then sounded their horns and the assembled crowd applauded for exactly 62 seconds, the time it had originally taken for the liner to roll down the slipway in 1911.
• On 12 March this year Songs Of Praise, from Belfast, took the form of a Titanic memorial. The programme included a selection of maritime hymns and ended with Nearer, My God, to Thee, allegedly the last tune played by the ship's band
• On 6 April, the 100th anniversary of Titanic's maiden voyage will be celebrated by re-releasing the 1997 feature film Titanic in 3D
• ITV1 have produced a four-part Titanic mini-series, written by Oscar-winner Julian Fellowes, to be broadcast in the next few months
• The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra will be performing The Titanic Requiem, a work composed by singer/songwriter Robin Gibb and his son RJ Gibb, on 10 April in London
• The cruise ship Balmoral, operated by Fred Olsen Cruise Lines has been chartered by Miles Morgan Travel to follow the original route of Titanic, intending to stop over the point on the sea bed where she rests on 15 April 2012

What will the Museum be doing? Well we had our commemoration a few years ago and all the major Titanic objects are spoken for elsewhere. We will be commemorating it in a quiet way, by recalling the wonderful Cornish families - especially the touching story of the young Chapmans - who sailed on the ship. Some of their objects which can be found in Cornwall and the Sea. The story has interesting implications for our Search and Rescue exhibition.

The 'Titanic places' are all joining. Belfast, Cobh, New York, Halifax and Southampton. See link for more about the events and places.

Here, Volunteer Clive Mathison looks at the celebrations in Southampton and the opening of the new attraction.

'NMMC’s superb Titanic exhibition gave me the opportunity to extend my knowledge, immerse myself in its history and acquaint the Museum’s visitors with the exhibition content and displays in the Cornwall Galleries. I flet particularly strongly about it becasue I spent some 15 years living, working and growing up in Southampton docks, the departure port of the ill-fated ship. All my fellow volunteers were keen to enlighten our visitors about the sad story of events leading up to the disaster. The exhibition was a great success for NMMC, its exhibition staff and patrons.

'I have just received some interesting news from an old friend and work colleague who lives in Southampton about the centenary commemorations of the liner tragedy, which takes place on 10 April at midday to coincide with the time of her original deaprture (she had arirved late the night before). The Titanic’s departure will be re-enacted when the tug tender Calshot, which was built in the same era to manoeuvre the world’s greatest ocean liners and ferry passengers, sails from 43/44 berth followed by a flotilla of craft.

'The tribute to the huge numbers of Southampton residents (Sotonians) who died on board the Titanic will be led by children of the city as part of the centenary commemoration. For several months children from more than 27 schools across the city have been researching the crew members and all the information they have gathered will be written on each placard they carry. Of the 897 crew members on the ship, 714 were from Southampton and 538 crew members were registered to a Southampton address.

'The city’s new Titanic Museum will open at 12:15am on 10 April as part of the commemoration. The Sea City Museum as it is named, which cost £15m to build, will feature the largest Titanic exhibition in Great Britain. Southampton Council has forecasted that ‘Sea City’ will attract more than 150,000 visitors a year. Every household in Southampton will be offered free tickets to the museum which will be open 10am to 5pm and prices are comparable to our NMMC prices.

'I will certainly be visiting ‘Sea City’ in Southampton with my wife who is a Sotonian. I was ‘exiled’ to Southampton for 15 years and served in the Royal Air Force Coastal Command at Calshot, where we met.'

Clive Mathison (Galleries Volunteer)
(All information researched from the Southern Daily Echo)