Canada and the World
Current Events with a Canadian Perspective
Last update
19 November 2010
Anniversary Cruise to
Mark Titanic Centenary
Fred Olsen Cruise Lines is planning to follow
the exact route of the RMS Titanic on
the 100th anniversary of that vessel’s sinking
On April 14, 1912 the RMS Titanic hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic; she sank two hours and forty minutes later in the early hours of April 15. The disaster took the lives of 1,517 passengers and crew.
RMS Titanic departs on her ill-
Cruise to Follow Titanic Route
A cruise liner, The Balmoral, has been chosen to mark the 100th anniversary of the tragedy by sailing on the same route as the Titanic.
Writing in The Daily Telegraph (April 2009) Charles Starmer-
The 12-
Similarities the Titanic Voyage
The Balmoral is operated by Fred Olsen Cruise Lines, which is owned by Harland and Wolff, the company that built the Titanic.
The voyage will start at Southampton, U.K. early in April 2012. It will stop at the Irish port of Cobh (formerly Queenstown), where the Titanic made her final call on April 11, 1912. There is space for 1,309 passengers, the same number that sailed on the Titanic.
The timing of the cruise is slightly different from that of the Titanic because The Balmoral is not as fast as the earlier liner. However, she will arrive at the exact location of the collision with the iceberg at the same time as the Titanic did.
Notes Charles Starmer-
With luck, the ship will then continue to Halifax, Nova Scotia where passengers can visit the Fairview Lawn Cemetery where 121 Titanic victims are buried. The Balmoral will then sail to New York.
Recreating the Era
Aboard The Balmoral the food served will match the menus of the original voyage.
The music will be the same in an attempt to evoke the styles of a century ago. Also,
there will be lectures about the history of the ill-
However, there are a few modern conveniences unavailable to the Titanic’s passengers who are encouraged to “enjoy a workout in the gym, pamper yourself in the spa or join in the various activities.”
In addition, The Balmoral carries enough lifeboats for everybody on board should something terrible happen. One of the reasons for the high death toll on the Titanic was that the ship had lifeboat spaces for only a third of the ship’s complement.
Miles Morgan heads up the travel company that is organizing the memorial cruise. He is quoted in The Daily Telegraph as saying: “We have started taking registrations earlier than planned as there were so many rumours circulating on the Internet about plans to mark the anniversary. The fascination for the Titanic is as strong as ever.”
Source
“Titanic Cruise to Mark Anniversary of Ship’s Fateful Voyage.” The Telegraph, Charles
Starmer-
© Canada and the World, October 2010
All rights reserved
In Halifax’s Fairview Lawn Cemetery there is a grave marked J. Dawson. Tourists in their thousands photograph the headstone in the mistaken belief it marks the last resting place of Jack Dawson a character played by Leonardo di Caprio in the 1997 movie Titanic.
But, Jack Dawson was a fictional creation. The grave actually holds the remains of Joseph Dawson a crew member who worked in the liner’s coal bunkers where stokers shovelled fuel into the vessel’s massive boilers.
A disproportionately high percentage of men died in the Titanic tragedy because the principle of “women and children first” was applied as passengers were put into the limited number of lifeboats.
The chivalrous idea originated in 1852 when the Royal Navy ship HMS Birkenhead sank off the coast of South Africa. The ship was carrying 480 British troops and 26 women and children.
When the Birkenhead got into trouble, the soldiers and sailors were ordered to Stand Fast to allow the women and children to get into the lifeboats first.
All the women and children survived while most of the men drowned or were eaten by sharks.
The Ark was built by an amateur.
The Titanic was built by experts.