SOUTHAMPTON, England, April 8 (Reuters) – Descendants of
some of the 1,500 people killed when the Titanic sank a century
ago were among the passengers on a cruise ship that set off from
Britain on Sunday to retrace the route of the liner’s ill-fated
voyage.
Some donned period costume, including furs and feathered
hats for women and suits and bowler hats for men, to board the
MS Balmoral at Southampton on the southern English coast.
Passengers lined the decks and waved as the ship set sail
almost 100 years after the Titanic set off on her maiden voyage
from Southampton to New York.
The Titanic was considered unsinkable but foundered in
frigid Atlantic waters off Newfoundland on April 15, 1912, after
striking an iceberg.
Around 700 people were rescued but there were too few
lifeboats to save the rest.
The world’s most famous maritime disaster has fascinated
people ever since, explaining why passengers from 28 countries
were prepared to pay up to 8,000 pounds ($13,000) each to be a
passenger on the memorial cruise organised by a British travel
firm.
The Balmoral will follow in the wake of the Titanic, sailing
near Cherbourg in France and then calling at Cobh in Ireland
before arriving at the spot where the Titanic went down. There,
on April 15, a memorial service will be held on board to mark
the centenary of the disaster.
Passenger Jane Allen, whose great-uncle died on his
honeymoon trip on the Titanic while her great-aunt survived,
said she did not think it was “ghoulish or macabre” to go on the
voyage.
“I’ve been to World War One and Two cemeteries in various
places across the world and I think it is always important to
remember. The people here in the Titanic died in very different
circumstances but it was still quite unbelievable what happened
that night,” she told the BBC.
Organisers said 1,309 paying passengers booked on the
memorial voyage.
While the Balmoral is a modern ship, the 12-night memorial
cruise will try to recreate the atmosphere of the time with
dishes and music from the era, while experts will give lectures
about the Titanic.
A 3D version of James Cameron’s 1997 blockbuster movie
“Titanic” has just been released to coincide with the centenary
of the sinking of the luxury liner.
A $150 million Titanic centre telling the story of the
doomed liner has just opened in Belfast, Northern Ireland,
beside the slipway from which the liner was launched by the
Harland and Wolff shipyard a century ago.
For a FACTBOX on media events around the Titanic sinking
anniversary, click on.
(Reporting by Olesya Dmitracova, Adrian Croft and Chris
Helgren; editing by Andrew Roche)
