SUNNY BELFAST AND THE RMS TITANIC!

Regal Princess/Belfast
Saturday, September 28, 2024
Sunny, 58F

Janie on the bow of the Titanic

Port of Belfast

Early this morning, 8:30 a.m., we disembarked the Regal, hopped on the Princess shuttle ($17 RT each) to the Belfast visitor center, bought tickets for the Titanic Museum Experience (25 GBP each), and easily caught a bus (1.80 GBP each) to the site where the Titanic was built, and the museum was created. 

First, I couldn’t believe we were in Belfast, and it is a lovely big city with a population of 348,000. Béal Feirste in Irish, it is the capital city and the principal port of Northern Ireland and stands on the banks of the River Lagan, connected to the Irish Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.

Exterior of the RMS Titanic Museum

This was one of the cars for the ride

Furnace for ironwork

Chain

Launching the Titanic

The launch, witnessed by 100,000 people

This is a partial view of a first class stateroom

My photos of other staterooms did not turn out 

and because of my photo issue I cannot edit them

By the time we were finished with the experience we felt as though we had helped build the Titanic and joined the passengers on its maiden voyage.  

Since this ship was the largest ever built at the time, many people from Ireland and Belfast were involved, from metal workers, carpenters, to seamstresses, officers, and crew, and so much more.  The story, shown in enlarged photos on the walls, drew us in.

One could easily imagine the noise, the need to finish the work on time, the last minute details.  There is even a ride reminiscent of an amusement park ride that takes the rider up and down several stories of the hull as it is being built.

After the building of the ship, one sees the first, second, and third class staterooms, china, carpeting samples, tickets, handbills, and so on that make one feel part of the ship.  TK and I were thoroughly engaged with the workers and the passengers, and then the ports of call as the Titanic picked up passengers in Southampton, Cherbourg, and Cobh. 

Everyone knows the ending to this story.  Toward the end of the museum experience, Robert Ballard’s film of the Titanic undersea as it rests today was shown in the most unique way, two stories down, under glass. We could see the fated ship as the camera passed over it—it was almost as if we were viewing it from beneath the ocean too.

 On a nearby wall was a list of the survivors and those who died. I noted that there were three Phillips men who died, and two Phillips ladies who survived.  There was a Bennett woman who survived, and a Walker male who died. An estimated 1517 people died and 712 survived, 32% survivors.  When one is introduced to this ship so personally while walking through, and then feels the impact of the sinking ship and the results, it is very very overwhelming.  The people of Belfast, who so proudly created this ship were monumentally affected too.

At the very end there are placards that state causes and changes since the Titanic:

• Weather-- I did not realize that the weather had been a little warmer and the icebergs floated further south into the planned route of the Titanic.   The warm and wet year 1908 created the conditions for a huge iceberg to travel in the early autumn of 1911 near southwest Greenland.  Today the U.S. Coast Guard monitors icebergs.
• Ice Warnings—necessary but not done
• Binoculars—no binoculars in the crow’s nest. That is a maritime regulation today
• Speed---the captain did not feel the ship should slow down, that it could plow through the ice
• Flooding—bulkheads were not high enough to prevent water from flowing over them
• Lifeboats—there were 20 lifeboats, but they were sent off with few people in them. Also, there weren’t enough lifeboats. Today there has to be lifeboats with capacity for every passenger and crew.
• Evacuation—lack of safety drills. Today cruise ships cannot leave port until every passenger has viewed the TV safety drill and reported to their Muster Station (this is how Princess does it)
• Distress Calls---the nearest ship did not hear the distress call because the crew member had gone to bed. Today someone must monitor the radio system 24 hours in every ship at sea.

 After this emotional visit, we toured the SS Nomadic, the last remaining White Star Line ship in the world. It served as a tender boat for the Titanic and other White Star ships.  It was much larger and opulent than any tender I have been on!!

SS Nomadic, a Tender boat

A beautful interior on a tender, like I have never seen!!

I really hate to say this, but now TK has caught the same disease I have--taking photos in the bathroom on the Nomadic---------------

I don't know if this is the sink or urinal and I 

am not going to ask

Toilet paper holder

Toilet part

Aside to Donna: We need to lobby for tenders like this again!!

We hopped on another bus to go to St. George’s Market and Victoria Square. This time I found sfogiatelle, the best pastry on the planet—called “shell” here, but the vendor was Sicilian.  Florida, Trader Joe's, Germany, now Ireland!  This little Italian pastry goes far!

Janie at the Market in Belfast

Cheeses

 

Italian baked goods, including sfogiatelle

Janie's favorite (top right)

Many items for sale at the market

On our way back to the ship-------------------

Victoria Square

The two great yellow-painted gantry cranes Samson and Goliath have

 become icons of Belfast, dominating the entire city skyline. 

Constructed to service the vast new graving dock at 

Harland and Wolff, Goliath (the smaller at 315 ft) 

began work in 1969, and the 348 ft Samson five years later

After dinner I went to the Production show, “John and Paul.” These two men from Liverpool sound exactly like Beatles John and Paul—and they played early favorites. Priming us for Liverpool tomorrow!!

I also stayed in the theater for Pete Best, who came on the ship for a program. TK knew who he was, and I bet some of you do too—the Fifth Beatle! He told wonderful anecdotes about how they played in his mother’s Coffee House, the Casbah, played in Hamburg, Germany, and some troubles they got into.   I read about him before the show at https://www.beatlesbible.com/people/pete-best/   

It is late now and I do have nice photos, but I fear I must get off to bed for another early start tomorrow.  I’m hoping I wake up to a text from my brother about the “Gender Reveal” party we are missing tonight in the States!