Skip to main content

The Titanic Exhibition



St. Petersburg was lucky enough to get one of the traveling Titanic exhibits.  I was pretty stoked about getting to see it and we made it happen a few weeks ago.  I guess just about everyone has been fascinated by the Titanic story and the exhibit was every bit as good as I imagined.  It cost $19.12 to get in, clever, huh?  Patrons are given a boarding pass with a passengers name on it, and at the end you can look on a wall to find out if you made it or not.  I drew William Thomas Soloman Brown, a 2nd Class passenger from South Africa moving to Seattle with his wife and daughter.    


I must tell you that none of the pictures in this post are mine.  They did not allow cameras so these are from the St. Pete exhibit site.


My memory may be a little rusty (hehe), but I think this suit of clothes belonged to a fellow in 2nd class.  It was found in a leather suitcase and in amazingly good condition.  



Unopened perfume bottles.



Currency found in a safe.



This is a porthole.



This is a 2nd class plate and the back of a wooden chair. 



A very well preserved leather bag.  The tanning processes of the time apparently resisted decay from saltwater.


Serving cups 





A bent chandelier.



Pieces of ornate gold metal that ran along the Grand Staircase.



Unopened cosmetics.




A piece of coal from the boiler room.



All kinds of bottles.  


They had a large lock of ice at the same temperature the water was on the evening of April 12, 1912.  And yeah, it was cold.  They said you'd last around 7 or 8 minutes in water that cold.


           

It was surreal to be so close to a legend.  I kept thinking that all of these items belonged to someone and that they would never have imagined that their fate along with their possessions would be remembered, observed and studied by folks a hundred years after their ordeal.  There have been far worse loss of life at sea through the years but never has the story of one ship so captured the imagination of the entire world.  So glad I had the opportunity to see one of the traveling exhibits.  I've been interested in the story since I was a kid (who hasn't been, huh?) and never imagined I would see parts of the ship in person.

And by the way, I did not survive.  I went down with the ship, but my wife and child survived.



Comments

  1. kandiMarch 20, 2013 at 7:29 PM

    You are so fortunate to have been able to see this exhibit! Thanks for taking the time to put the photos on here for the rest of us Titanic "fans." I wonder how the new ship will fare, although I don't know the date of their voyage, I would guess that you do. :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Flashback Friday

Class, Or Lack Thereof The Dwight Vice gravestone in Oquawka, Illinois. I bring this old chestnut out every so often just to remind me that class is classless.  Dwight Vice was killed in his home near Oquawka in 2001.  It was one of those things that can generate crime:  two guys thought Dwight had a lot of money stashed at home because of his pot-selling sideline to supplement his fishing job.   Not really one of those big drug deals gone-bad things.  Marijuana was, according to the trial, about the only stuff Dwight sold.   But these two guys barge into the house and killed Dwight and attempted to kill his 11 year old kid, Darryl, before they took off with what money they could find.   His son, now 23, was stabbed in the back and left for dead.  He survived and is wheelchair bound and has undergone several surgeries to repair his wounds.  He will be paralyzed for life.   None of this is pleasant.  Reading the f...
Post a Comment
Read more

Philippe Park and The Tocobaga Indian Mound

About ten miles or so north of Bedlam is a place called Safety Harbor.  Its the place that has the 300-500 year old oak that the city tried to kill I featured a couple weeks ago on BFE .  They have a pretty nice park that has some interesting history, too.  Count  Philippe landed here and introduced the pineapple and cigar making to the Tampa Bay area. Today, however, I want to mention something else about this area, besides the really nice scenery.  Phillipe Park was also the home of the Tocobaga Indians.  The Tocobaga occupied the Tampa Bay area from around 600 A.D. to the 1600's.   This is a fairly common view of old stately moss-laden oaks down here.   This shot was taken atop the only Tocobaga Indian mound in the area.  This exact spot is home not only to the Tocobaga until they died out, but then to Count Phillipi who settled the area after the Tocobaga died out.   The place is full of oak and ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Mary Davis Home - Part 2

None of these pictures were taken by me,  they came right from the MDH website.  I am posting these so that friends who have never seen inside where I worked can gain access.  After 27 years I have many stories, tales and acquaintances.  But, I wouldn't know how to express them appropriately in a few paragraphs.  I enjoyed 98% of my stay there and hope I made a difference in the lives of a fraction of the kids who entered.  The original MDH at this site was just the front part.  The large red-roofed area in back was added on in the 90's. This is the Jerry Carlton library.  It was unofficially named after one of the counselors who truly loved the place.   He passed away around 2002, I think.  Mr. Farber looks like he is explaining a few things to a client. The classroom. Activity area with the gym behind the windows. Another shot of the classroom. It was a little different area to teach since we had 2 classes and 2 teachers i...
Post a Comment
Read more