6 ways to commemorate the Titanic centenary
On 14 April 1912, the ‘unsinkable ship’ did just that; 100 years on, people around the world are commemorating the tragedy
1. Titanic Belfast
Belfast, Northern Ireland
From 31 March, £13.50
Shaped like the hulls of four shining vessels, Titanic Belfast – Northern Ireland’s long-awaited new museum (above) – remembers the city’s eminent shipbuilding past. Events are planned for launch day, including a party overlooking Slipway No. 2, where the RMS Titanic was put together.
2. Titanic 100
Cobh, Cork, Ireland
Events throughout 2012
Cobh, Titanic’s final port of call, is putting on an expansive programme of events. Highlights include a Titanic Dinner, a fleet review and a 1912-themed St Patrick’s Day. Also, walk the Titanic Trail and see the pier from which boats set off to deliver passengers out to the fated ship.
3. Iceberg Alley boat tour
St Anthony, Newfoundland, Canada
May-July, CA$56
Take a 2.5-hour trip to spy some of the 600-plus icebergs that drift south from Greenland along the Canadian coast. Watch out for humpbacks and orcas too, and listen to the bergs creak and groan.
4. Receiving Titanic
Cape Race, Newfoundland, Canada
14-15 April, mostly free
The closest landmark to the Titanic wreck site is Cape Race, home to the wireless station that, at 11.49pm on 14 April 1912, received the sinking ship’s distress signal.
Celebrate Newfoundland’s role in saving 700 passengers as it re-enacts the vital communications effort of that night with working vessels.
5. Anniversary Cruise
10-13 April, from £1,660
Sail out from New York on a 12-day cruise to the spot where the Titanic sank. En route, the ship will stop at Halifax, Nova Scotia, where many of the victims are buried (including one ‘J Dawson’, a grave now visited by DiCaprio fans…). At the site itself – 41°43’57”N,
49°56’49”W – memorial events will be held, 100 years to the minute after the ship went down.
6. Titanic Expedition Dive
St John’s, Newfoundland, Canada
July-August, US$59,680
Got a spare £38,000 knocking around? Then you could join a 12-day cruise from Newfoundland, packed with academic lectures, marine biology lessons, five-star dining and a ten-hour dive to the Titanic’s wreck in a Russian MIR submersible. It takes 2.5 hours to hit the ocean floor, some 12,500ft below the surface; you’ll spend several more exploring the ship’s eerie, skeletal remains.And if you’re not a Russian oligarch, there’s always the movie.
Don’t miss your last chance to win one of National Geographic’s Titanic Collection on DVD, comprising three programmes exploring the most famous maritime disaster in history. Find out more and enter here.
