Cape Town - On April 10, 1912, the Countess of Rothes boarded RMS Titanic at Southampton.
The ship was bound for Florida where she was to meet her husband and celebrate their 12th wedding anniversary. The countess was accompanied by her cousin Gladys Cherry and her maid Roberta Maioni. They were accommodated in a first-class cabin.
This information was on my ticket to Titanic, The Artifact Exhibition, which is a replica of a boarding pass for the ship’s doomed maiden voyage.
There are hundreds of different ones, and they make your visit to the exhibition just that little more personal. At the end of the tour, the list of survivors is on the wall so you can see if “you” made it or not.
More than a century after the tragedy, the Titanic and the stories of her construction, her opulence, her sinking and those who sailed all too briefly aboard her continues to fascinate. As do the artifacts brought up from the bottom of the ocean.
Titanic, The Artifact Exhibition travels the world and has been visited by tens of millions of people. It is at the V&A Waterfront’s Water Shed until March 6. Here you will be able to view dozens of items retrieved from the sea bed, nearly 4km beneath the surface.
The tour is chronological and begins with the idea of the ship and her sister the RMS Olympic. There is background on the building, which took place at the Harland & Wolff shipyard. On this site today, you’ll find Titanic Belfast – a massive visitor attraction and a monument to that city’s maritime heritage. I’ve seen it and it’s one of the ugliest buildings on the planet but its size is the same as the Titanic, replicating her bow, so they’ve made their point there.
That one’s almost a theme park, but here in Cape Town are photographs and information panels on the walls, as well as replicas of first- and third-class cabins. The artifacts are in glass cases – personal items like a pair of unworn socks and perfume vials, fittings, crockery, wine bottles (one still contains Champagne), postcards, and many more. During seven research and recovery expeditions between 1987 and 2004, more than 5 500 artifacts were recovered.
Lighting is low and the temperature is controlled because of the fragility of some of the items and flash photography is prohibited. The challenges involved in the objects’ recovery are documented towards the end of the exhibition, where you will be reminded that one day the wreck won’t be there anymore and these bits and pieces will be the only evidence left.
“To install these pieces, we needed a special Titanic handler to make sure that due care was taken,” said Nick Dreyer, director of ExpoRSA, which brought the exhibition to South Africa.
The people of the Titanic are an important part of this exhibition, and you cannot fail to be moved as you peruse the vestiges of their place in history, like the pocket watch which belonged to South African hotelier Thomas William Solomon Brown.
Titanic, The Artifact Exhibition is a powerful educational tool and there are school programmes and special rates for pupils.
l Open daily from 9am till 6pm (last entry but go earlier as you need at least two hours), tickets are available at www.webtickets.co.za or at the door and priced from R85 to R320 (four-member family package). There is a combo package with the Two Oceans Aquarium next door, where you can also partake of a first-or third-class Titanic dining experience inside the predator tank.
For more information, go to www.titanicexpo.co.za
Bianca Coleman, Weekend Argus