TITANIC SAILS AGAIN
A century on, keepsakes from the doomed ship rise from the ocean floor for a Singapore exhibition
Just shy of the 100th anniversary of its launch, the Titanic has sailed into Singapore. It’s docked at the Marina Bay Sands resort’s ArtScience Museum right through April.
That was the month in 1912 when the world’s largest ship set sail from England, bound for New York with more than 2,200 people aboard. It was the passenger liner’s maiden voyage, and she was so mighty that they called her “unsinkable”.
Four days later, the Titanic struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sank, taking with it 1,500 souls.
“Titanic: The Artefact Exhibition” sprawls across 2,500 square metres in the Singapore museum, whose nine galleries are stocked with items recovered from the sea floor and trace the ship’s history from conception, construction and launch to life on board, the disaster itself and the wreck’s discovery in 1995.
Your own journey begins with a great photo opportunity: Climb onto a mock-up of the ship’s bow by the entrance and have your picture taken, hanging over the railing just like in “Titanic” the movie. Go right ahead and proclaim yourself king of the world.
The exhibition opens with the birth of Royal Mail Ship Titanic in an Irish dockyard specially enlarged for the unprecedented construction feat and the “new technology” of the day, much of which now seems quaintly archaic.
The liner was then sailed to Southampton in southern England, where passengers boarded for the ocean crossing. Visitors to the exhibition also receive a “boarding pass” that lists the name, hometown, companions, and berth class of an actual Titanic passenger.
This real-life denizen of the past becomes your own travelling companion, and as the story proceeds you learn more about him (or her), including his reason for sailing and what he did on board to fill the hours.
You get to see – meticulously recreated – the first- and third-class cabins, the Verandah Cafe, the famous grand staircase, the promenade deck and the boiler room.
The Discovery Gallery tracks the key milestones as divers searched for the wreck and, once found, how science lifted some of the important “souvenirs” and continues to monitor the ship’s condition.
Along the way there are 275 artefacts from the doomed vessel, 14 of which have never been exhibited before. They come from the Titanic’s final resting-place, 3,800 metres below the ocean surface, and they all have a poignant tale to tell.
Thai visitors might well be reminded of Kukrit Pramoj’s classic short-story collection “Lai Chiwit” (“Many Lives”) as the posh life on the liner’s upper decks is recounted – only to end abruptly, tragically and all too soon.
The artefacts – perfume bottles, shawls, handwritten letters, coins – all came from individuals, and quite possibly from someone among the 1,514 who perished in the freezing sea.
Triumph, tragedy
“Titanic: The Artefact Exhibition” continues at the ArtScience Museum at the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore until April 29.
The museum is open daily from 10 to 10.
Admission to the exhibition is S$24 (Bt576), or pay $28 for access to all parts of the museum.
Learn more at (+65) 6688 8826 or http://Titanic.sg.
