The Artefact Exhibition was supposed to end on 17 October 2010, yet due to high demand, the exhibition extended til 7th of November, which lucky enough for me, I'm able to experience it.
We were given a boarding pass each upon entry. Boarding pass to board Titanic, interesting huh?! At the other side of the boarding pass, printed the details of the passenger who actually boarded Titanic. So, there I was, Mrs. Edgar Joseph Meyer for the day.
Supposedly everyone can be saved from it, yet before Titanic started her journey, White Star Line decided to reduce the number of safety boats for its own aesthetic purposes. And most of the passengers died due to the coldness.
The whole atmosphere gets more gloomy from one gallery to the other. It started off from the Construction Gallery, Departure Gallery, First Class Hallway & Grand Staircase, Passenger Gallery, Third Class Gallery, Iceberg Gallery, Seabed Gallery then Memorial Gallery. At Iceberg Gallery, the whole place was really cold and dark, they mimic the actual situation. And it kind of make us feel depressed until when we reach the Memorial Gallery, there's a wall where the names of all the passengers were written on it and categorised by weather the person is dead or alive. And guess what?! I'm still alive! =] at that time!
From the exhibition, the difference between 1st, 2nd & 3rd class passengers were quite obvious. 3rd class passengers especially, the cups, silverwares, ceramic basin, even their bed linen was labelled White Star Line, as the company is afraid the 3rd class passengers will steal it. So it makes them worth less with the company's name printed on it.
Some interesting facts:
-Cost of a ticket (one way)
- First Class (parlor suite) £870/$4,350 ($83,200 today)
- First Class (berth) £30/$150 ($2975 today)
- Second Class £12/$60 ($1200 today)
- Third Class £3 to £8/$40 ($298 to $793 today)
-A ship, the SS Californian, was close to the stricken Titanic and might have rescued everyone. However its sole wireless operator, Cyril Evans, went to bed 10 minutes before Titanic struck the iceberg and did not receive the distress message.
-The Titanic was designed to hold 32 lifeboats, though only 20 were on board; White Star management was concerned that too many boats would sully the aesthetic beauty of the ship.
-Although there were 4 funnels (smoke stacks), only 3 were functional. The 4th (rear most) funnel was added to make Titanic look more impressive.
-Construction and fitting out time: 3 years
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