There was no christening ceremony at the Belfast shipyards when the Titanic was launched for her sea trials in 1911—no marching bands, no parades, few speeches. “They just builds ’em and shoves ’em in,” a worker explained to the press.
The largest and most luxurious ocean liner afloat sailed from Southampton in 1912 on her maiden voyage, carrying more than 2,200 passengers and crew. Five days later, after ignoring several warnings of ice ahead, the Titanic collided with an iceberg and suffered a fatal blow. The lights blazed brightly, the band played until the very end, but there were enough lifeboats for only one-third of the people on board. She foundered in less than three hours, taking some 1,500 men, women, and children, including some of the wealthiest and most famous people of the day.
Interest in the ocean liner and those who sailed on her has remained strong over the years, especially after Dr. Bob Ballard of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution discovered her wreck in 1985. One organization in particular has helped keep the memory of the ship alive: the Titanic Historical Society, which opened the Titanic Museum in 1990, at Springfield, Massachusetts.
“Visitors are amazed at the amount of material we have,” says Edward S. Kamuda, president and founder of the society and museum curator. “One teacher from New Jersey came for an afternoon and ended up staying for three days.”
At first glance the museum doesn’t seem like much. Located in the rear of the Kamuda family jewelry store, it is a rather modest 30-by-30-foot room. But it is crammed with hundreds of documents, pictures, artifacts, and correspondence from survivors, including:
► A copy of the iceberg warning sent by the German liner Amerika to the Titanic. Unfortunately, the message never reached the bridge.
► One of the bronze medals presented by the “Unsinkable” Molly Brown, a Titanic survivor, to the crew of the rescue ship Carpathia.
► A sample of the carpet used in the Titanic, taken home by First Class Dining Steward Frederick Dent Ray while the ship was being fitted.
► Pictures of the first Coast Guard wreath-dropping ceremony in 1913 by the SS Modic. Every year since then, the Coast Guard has dropped a wreath at the site of the Titanic's foundering. Since 1963, the wreath has been paid for by the Titanic Historical Society.
► Original slides from the two Ballard expeditions to the Titanic, detailing the ship as she rests today and the Navy technology used to discover and explore the wreck.
Kamuda says the museum has plans to expand as soon as finances allow. A library is in the works to house all the books, tapes, photographs, slides, videos, and film collected through the years by the Titanic Historical Society.
About 100 miles away, more memorabilia can be found at the Marine Museum in Fall River, Massachusetts. This museum’s president is Newell Robb, son of Titanic survivor Marjorie Newell Robb, now 101 years old. Well known for its large collection of Merchant Marine memorabilia (in particular, the United Brands exhibit, which, says museum historian John Gosson, includes the names of all Merchant Mariners who were lost in World War II while working for that company), it is a fascinating overview of the Titanic's history.
“More than 50,000 people a year visit us,” says Gosson. “They’re interested in the Navy, the history of steam, the Coast Guard, the Merchant Marine, and of course the Titanic.”
And there is much to see. The museum houses the 28-foot-long model used in the 1952 movie Titanic, starring Barbara Stanwyck. “The lights work,” Gosson says, “and on special occasions we light the model up. It’s very impressive.”
The life jacket worn by Mrs. John Jacob Astor is also on display. Mrs. Astor, who found a seat in the second- to-last lifeboat to escape the Titanic, left the life jacket in the dispensary of the Carpathia, where it was picked up and saved by the ship’s assistant surgeon.
Among the documents preserved is Lookout Frederick Fleet’s discharge book, which lists the Titanic as “Intended for New York.” Fleet also donated a sketch of the iceberg he spotted and reported to the bridge on 14 April 1912. There is a series of letters from Violet Jessop, who in 1911 was a passenger on the Olympic, the Titanic’s sister ship, when she collided with the Royal Navy cruiser Hawke. The Olympic was seriously damaged and the Hawke was lost. The following year Jessop was a stewardess on the Titanic and survived.
Incredibly, she was also on board the other sister ship of the Titanic, the Britannic, when she sank in the Mediterranean in 1916. She was a nurse on the latter ship, which was converted to a hospital ship for the British forces. The Britannic was lost off the coast of Greece when she was torpedoed by a German submarine (although some claim it was really a mine), and Jessop narrowly escaped death when her lifeboat was drawn into the ship’s propellers. She was fished out of the water and for the rest of her life avoided boats.
After the Titanic sank, several ships were dispatched to the area of her foundering to recover bodies, and some of the floating wreckage was recovered as well. Some of these artifacts have found their way to the Marine Museum, including a piece of the deck railing and one of the deck chairs. There is also a support from one of the lifeboat seats— “It may be the only piece left from a Titanic lifeboat,” says Gosson.
Rounding out the exhibition is a series of photographs detailing the ship’s construction and launching, and her interior rooms. Dr. Ballard also has provided a complete photographic record of the 1985 discovery of the wreck.
In addition to the Titanic display, the museum is well known for its large collection of Merchant Marine memorabilia. “We get a lot of compliments from men who served in the Merchant Marine,” says Gosson. A Coast Guard display is also in the works. “I’m putting together a 21-ton channel marker in front of the museum. It’s 28 feet long and will be maintained in honor of the men and women who served in the Coast Guard.”
But the Titanic is the main draw. There are only a dozen or so survivors still around today, but the tragedy of the ocean liner and her passengers will stir our imaginations and our sympathy for generations to come through the displays at the Titanic Museum and the Marine Museum.