Belfast and a Titanic experience!

We wrapped up our Irish road-trip with two nights in Belfast as we had not visited it before now and we were keen to take in the 'Titanic Experience', among other things! 

We made this our first choice of places we wanted to visit and chose the self-guided tour which proved quite immersive, especially the personal stories they weave into the experience.

 The city is rightly very proud to be her birthplace and has created this impressive 'Titanic Museum/Experience' in the very location where she was designed, built and launched. The museum and the slipway tell the story of the workers who built her and the conditions they had to work in. More than just a museum, it’s a journey through time.

The way they blend the industrial strength of early 1900s Belfast with the deeply personal human stories of the passengers and crew of the Titanic makes it a powerful and emotional experience.

On entering the building you get an understanding of the scale of things as you ride the escalators to get to the museum proper.

The museum is over 4 floors, on each floor you will find information about important aspects about the ship, the top floor starts with an explanation of historical context about why it was possible to build it in Belfast and why this city had one of the most important shipyards in the world.

The motivation to build such a massive ship was for the 'White Star Line' to compete with its rival the  'Cunard Line'.

You learn about the structure in which the Titanic was organised, its rooms, and the social classification into which the rooms of the ship were divided.

There are a number of interactive experiences as you make your way through the exhibition.

The contract to build the gantry to enable the ships construction was awarded to Sir William Aroll & Co. in Glasgow. A wire cage elevator takes you up to allow you to walk through an example of the steelwork construction. 

The walk around the gantry leads you onto a guided hanging ‘car’ that takes you through various phases of the Titanic’s construction, laying the keel, bending the steel ribs, riveting the hull and on to launch itself. 

For us it was probably the personal artefacts on show and the individual passenger stories that really hit home.

You can read some survivor's stories here.

Something that became abundantly clear during our visit was that many mistakes were made on the evening of the collision with the iceberg...you can read about them here.  

On a lighter note the exhibition does allow a little reference to the 'that' movie and as we were there...why not!

You can visit the official site of  'The Titanic Experience' here