Titanic House (former Harland and Wolff Drawing Offices) now Titanic Hotel, Queens Road, Belfast, Northern Ireland, March 2012 Photo:Ardfern(Wikimedia Commons)
It can be easy to forget that we live on the same island that once produced the largest moving object ever made by man, that generations of Harland & Wolff workers forged Belfast’s reputation as the engineering capital of the world, and that its most famous ship – the Titanic – would go on to inspire the first film to break the billion-dollar mark at the box office. So it’s fitting that the Titanic Hotel and visitor attraction in Belfast was a world-leading tourist destination before they opened their doors, in 2017 and 2012 respectively.
A new expedition to the wreck of the Titanic has been announced for summer 2022, but it comes at a hefty price. Only around 250 people have glimpsed the wreckage since it was discovered on the seabed in 1985, but a small group will make the epic two-mile journey to the site on the ocean floor next year. Oceangate Expeditions, which offers underwater expeditions across the world, has announced its second annual trip to the ship’s final resting place. It will see ‘mission specialists,’ along with researchers, survey the vessel up close from inside the company’s submersible Titan. The group of citizen explorers will travel 12,500ft beneath the North Atlantic Ocean to survey the famous Belfast-built liner that sank in April 1912. The Titanic Expedition is conducted as a series of eight-day missions in May and June but each seat now costs $250,000 – a $125,000 increase on last year.
At the same time, they were the source of inspiration for the story of the movie “Titanic”, and their image, from the movie, where they appear embraced on the bed, waiting for the end of life, has been taken over and reimagined since the film’s release. Along with other notable passengers, such as John Jacob Astor IV and Molly Brown, Isidor and Ida Straus embarked aboard the Titanic on April 10, 1912, bound for New York.
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Interesting Photo of Titanic Quarter from Jason McIntosh
Time to catch up on some Titanic news! Here are some news articles you might be in interested. If you see a news article you think should be noticed here, drop us a line at editor@titanicnewschannel.com
Former Harland & Wolff building in Bootle, Dock Road (18 Feb 2007) Image: Nigel Cox / Bootle: Harland & Wolff Works building, Dock Road / CC BY-SA 2.0The Little-Known Titanic Secrets About This Hidden Merseyside Building (Echo, 29 Dec 2018)
The Little-Known Titanic Secrets About This Hidden Merseyside Building (Echo, 29 Dec 2018)
The only sign of its illustrious past is the giant Harland & Wolff sign on the outside of the building. But unknown to many, this Bootle site – passed by hundreds of HGV drivers a week on their way to the Port of Liverpool complex – could have links to the ill-fated luxury ocean liner, RMS Titanic. The White Star Line-owned ship, built at Harland & Wolff’s main Belfast production yard and registered in Liverpool, tragically sank to the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean after striking an iceberg on April 15, 1912. Although there is little detailed information about Harland & Wolff’s Liverpool site, it is hought by some that engine parts for the Titanic could have been made there when it was used as a foundry at the turn of the last century. https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/little-known-titanic-secrets-hidden-15542852
The Titanic: 13 Things The Movie Got Wrong (12 They Got Right)(The Travel, 25 Dec 2018) Fortunately for Cameron and his team, the movie went on to be the highest grossing film of all time at the time of its release, breaking just about every single box office record in existence up until that point. It connected with audiences on a scale that few films do, becoming a cinematic sensation through its action-packed ship journey and an epic love story between the two main characters, Jack and Rose, played by a young Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. Here are thirteen things the movie Titanic got wrong and twelve it actually got right. https://www.thetravel.com/things-the-titanic-movie-got-right-wrong-right/
Harland & Wolff: Shipbuilder An Enduring Chapter Of Belfast Story For More Than 150 Years (Belfast Telegraph, 21 Dec 2018) The Harland & Wolff shipyard was founded in Belfast in 1862 by Edward James Harland and Gustav Wilhelm Wolff. At its peak in the early 20th century – its workforce hit around 35,000 in the 1930s Harland & Wolff and its Belfast yard was one of the biggest shipbuilders in the world and a beacon of manufacturing prowess. Now the famous Drawing Offices where the plans for the liner were refined is the home of the Titanic Hotel within the Titanic Quarter. https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/northern-ireland/harland-wolff-shipbuilder-an-enduring-chapter-of-belfast-story-for-more-than-150-years-37646075.html
My Titanic job…ship with 40,000 Lego bricks (Daily Express, 21 Dec 2018) Master builder Keith Morton is feeling shipshape after spending almost two years constructing a replica of the Titanic using 40,000 Lego bricks. The 65-year-old has painstakingly placed every brick into the 10ft model of the passenger liner. https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1062392/titanic-lego-model-Keith-Morton
The Discovery Of The Titanic Wreck Was a Front For a Secret U.S. Military Mission (Govexe.com, 18 Dec 2018) While it is true that a team from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution found the Titanic, what was not reported at the time were the conditions put in place by the U.S. Navy—or their involvement with the mission at all. Ballard was not exclusively a Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution scientist, but also a U.S. Navy Commander. The navy would fund the mission, CNN reported, but only if Ballard first explored the USS Thresher and the USS Scorpion, two American nuclear subs that had sunk about 20 years prior. https://www.govexec.com/management/2018/12/discovery-titanic-wreck-was-front-secret-us-military-mission/153629/
You Can Visit The Wreck Of Titanic At The Bottom Of The Atlantic Ocean In 2019 (Lonely Planet, 18 Dec 2018) Plans are in motion to bring people to visit the wreck of RMS Titanic at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean in 2019 as part of six 11-day missions to explore the wreck. Taking part in the Titanic Survey Expedition, which is open to scientists and ‘citizen explorers,’ will cost US$105,129 (£83,537), which is the equivalent of what a first class ticket on Titanic’s maiden voyage would cost now. https://www.lonelyplanet.com/news/2018/12/18/visit-wreck-titanic/
The Replica Ship Titanic II Will Now Set Sail In 2022 (Business Insider, 12 Dec 18) There are many stories out there about the upcoming Titanic II (dubbed by me as Palmer 2.0). We went down this road before. We had lots of press releases, gala events, stories of various suppliers etc. And then it hit the wall. Palmer could not get funding, the shipyard was quiet. Once again they are cranking up the press releases and the media are eating it up. Remember when suddenly out of the blue news articles were pushing Titanic II a couple of years ago by simply regurgitating old news? Well it has that feel again. Any way, here is the article about what Palmer 2.0 will look like etc. https://www.businessinsider.com/titanic-ll-compare-to-the-original-2018-11
To close out this Saturday, here are two Christmas comedy music for your enjoyment. Happy Saturday.
