Memorial cruise starts for Titanic's centenary in Britain A woman sees off the Titanic Memorial Cruise ship "Balmoral" in...
Memorial cruise starts for Titanic's centenary in Britain
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by Xinhua Writers Bai Xu and Li Rui
SOUTHAMPTON, Britain, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Steam whistles blowing and smoke coiling up, passengers from a luxurious liner waved farewell to their beloved ones at the harbor of Southampton 100 years ago. Many of them, however, never returned.
Name of the ship was well-known: Titanic.
A hundred years later, a memorial cruise started from the same port city on the Easter Sunday, date of the religious rebirth, to commemorate the centenary of the most deadly maritime disaster in the peace time.
Exactly 1,309 passengers from 28 countries have set sail on the MS Balmoral at 4 p.m. (GMT) for a 12-night voyage, so as to retrace the doomed ship's original route.
"This cruise has been five years in the making," said Miles Morgan, managing director of Miles Morgan Travel who masterminded the cruise.
"Every step of the way we have sought to make it authentic to the era and a sympathetic memorial to the passengers and crew who lost their lives."
The passengers included relatives of those who lost their lives in the tragedy and who survived, enthusiastic historians and book writers, as well as those fascinated by the Titanic story.
One of them was Philip Littlejohn, whose grandfather, a 1st Class Steward on Titanic Alexander barely escaped the disaster. He will also give a lecture on the ship. "I'm sure my grandfather would be proud to know his story shared with the passengers on this historic cruise," he said.
The food on board will be based on the menu on Titanic, while a five-member band from Belgium will play the music in 1912, as a tribute to those courageous musicians who kept performing till the last breath of their lives.
YESTERDAY ONCE MORE
In the terminal hall, the bespectacled Valentijn Biesemans opened a case to show people his cello, while four other young men sat behind him, smiling in pride. The five musicians were from the Belgian band Grudetto.
Biesemans told Xinhua that they will play the "very music played 100 years ago." Many survivors remembered music being performed at the wreck time. "After Titanic hit the iceberg, the musicians on board played more and more lively music," he said. "How higher the water level was rising, how more happy the music became on board. It effectively lasted the whole time, before people began to panic. So the orchestra definitely managed in getting the people calm."
The band got to know about the memorial cruise from local media, before sending their CDs to the organizer. "It is an honor to be here and give tribute to the fellow musicians who didn't survive the tragedy."
They got the list of music from the White Star liner music repertoire booklets used by first and second class passengers on Titanic, and also the pop music from the United States 100 years ago.
Every day Biesemans and his fellows will play at dinner, at tea and in the evening, when people are eating, drinking and dancing.
They will also play at the special memorial services, to be held on April 14 starting at 11:40 p.m., when the legendary Titanic hit the iceberg 100 years ago, and 2:20 a.m.of April 15, when the enormous hull was completely devoured by the sea.
Apart from the band, many of the scenes 100 years ago were reproduced so as to dramatize the current cruise.
In the terminal hall, beds and dressing tables were arranged to show the luxury of 1st Class cabin, while a pink dress used by Kate Winslet in the movie Titanic hung by the side. Around 30 actors and actresses were dressed in the costumes as in 1912, bringing people back in time with touching stories of the survivors and crew members on Titanic.
Edward was from a youth theater. Under a chequered cap and carrying a big bag, the 11-year-old boy was dashing around to deliver copies of an old newspaper on the sinking of Titanic to people.
Dressed in a gray gown and a straw hat, Cheryl Butler in her 50s appeared like a lady from the upper class 100 years ago. The character she played was Charlotte Collyer, a second-class passenger who sold everything in Britain with her husband and was immigrating to the United States by the ship Titanic. She and her daughters were at last saved, but her husband disappeared in the sea.
"When the accident actually happened, three of my grandfather's cousins were on the ship, working as cook, steward and fireman," Butler recalled. Only one of them survived.
DREAM CATCHERS
For Miles Morgan, organizer of the cruise, the idea came all of a sudden.
"A gentleman came into one of our travel shops five years ago and mentioned the idea to us," he recalled. The more he thought about the idea, the more excited he became.
But easier said than done. Realization of this dream was not plain sailing. "When you start talking about 2012 when it's five years away, people react almost like you have three heads!" For the first two years it was hard to get people's attention.
However, things changed dramatically immediately. "It was not a steady process but went in 'bursts'," he said. "The ship was full about 16 months ago."
Tracie Brelsford and Terri Williamson were in their splendid attire while waiting to get on board. They booked their tickets two and a half years ago. "When I got my ticket, they were nearly sold out then. So I was really lucky," said Brelsford.
Brelsford has always been a fan of Titanic. "I am very much looking forward to be at the wreck site, having the memorials and I expect them to be very moving," she said. Talking about her dream, the lady was excited. "Just to be within two and half miles of the Titanic, that's as close as you can get."
To her sister Williamson, the Titanic dream seemed even closer. Her husband's grandfather was an Irish with a merchant store in Washington. "He had a ticket for the Titanic, but he hadn't done with his buying, so he didn't go on the trip," she said.
Of course, Titanic was not the dream to every one. There are also many people who still view it as a nightmare, like 73-year-old Mary South.
Her grandfather was a crew member of the Titanic and drowned after the ship sank. "Then both my father and my grandmother were supported by the Titanic relief fund," she told Xinhua.
After the tragedy, her grandmother was in a depression and her father swore never to be at the sea. "He had to have a trade that would not take him anywhere into the sea," she said. She was afraid of travelling in water herself as well.
South said she wanted people to know that Titanic was not just something "romantic and glamorous". "It has brought a lot of changes."
The old lady has her own way to commemorate her grandfather 100 years later. "I will talk in a local radio program," she said.
MY HEART WILL GO ON
When asked why, after so many years, Titanic is still very much in people's consciousness, Charles Haas has his explanations. He is president of the Titanic International Society who have studied the ship for half a century, and the first teacher in the world to dive to Titanic in 1993.
"I think first of all, we intend to look after the disaster through the eyes who was there," he said. "We tried to find someone like ourselves and we experience the disaster perhaps through their eyes."
The second reason, as he listed, was that the disaster unfolded in over two hours. "As a result of that, you have a considerable amount of time where human dramas are played."
Thirdly, he said, was about the social structure of that period and how people react in an emergency.
To the world Titanic has left legacies, most importantly the highlighting of safety issue.
Talking about the modern ship, the Balmoral, Haas believed it quite similar to the Titanic in size and capacity, except that it has bigger windows and modern facilities like Internet cafes.
The morning of Sunday saw some drizzles in Southampton but the sky cleared up and sunshine miraculously appeared the moment Balmoral sailed out of the port.
Passengers on board, some holding their national flags, waved to those who saw them off, while those on the land shouted "goodbye" and "safe journey."
In the terminal building, music from James Cameron's blockbuster, My Heart Will Go On, was played.
Haas recalled during the years of his research, a question usually asked was "will Titanic be remembered after 100 years".
"Titanic will not be forgotten," he answered.
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