14 Oct 2014

TITANIC THE ARTIFACT EXHIBITION IN BRUSSELS

Together with two friends we finally managed to visit the Titanic Artifact Exhibition, which is already since May in Brussels. It had such a lot of success that it was prolonged until November 31. It was not allowed to take pictures, but somehow I managed not using my flash, when the guardian was not in sight.

When did the great ship exactly sink? On April 14, 1912, at 11:40 pm  sharp, the Titanic collided with an iceberg. Only 2 hours and 40 minutes later the ship had perished and sunk to the bottom of the ocean.



The expo hall in Brussels (Heysel)



The poster



At the entrance I got this copy of a  boarding pass. It was on the name of a certain Arthur Larned Ryerson who travelled with his wife, 3 children and a maid. It was a strange feeling.



a picture of the sunken ship and two replicas



This photo shows how big the Titanic was,




One of the various sitting rooms



The corridor leading to the first class cabins



First class cabin replica



3rd class cabin. Apparently compared to other shipping companies, they were quite nice and comfortable

In showcases we could see the items which had been saved and brought up from the depth of the ocean ground.



a wash basin in porcelain already with a water mixer



One of the big copper coffee pots with a porcelain pot inside



One of the candle holders



A safe



A vest of a suit which was surprisingly so well conserved



as well as a chef's cap if you think that both were laying in salt water for 102 years, probably well protected in a drawer or suitcase.



There was not a lot of jewellery on display, which surprised me, as I know that the ladies from the first class were decorated like Christmas trees for supper.



There were also well conserved postcards, here one destined for Sweden and one for Belgium. There were many other items, but I couldn't take pictures.



A picture of the wreck, how it looks today



The saddest item was an iceberg in real ice so that you could feel the cold, with prints and scratches of desperate people who tried to find something to hold on.



At the exit was a souvenir shop ! Not many people in there. Who wants to wear a Titanic T-shirt or drink out of a cup with the sunken ship ?


more participants here

14 comments:

  1. This was a great tour, thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a moving exhibition. Nice shots.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Very interesting. She was made in my home city of Belfast, where they now have a dedicated museum, recording every last detail. They must have participated in this exhibition. You can still see the slipway where they launched her, and the Thompson dry dock where she was fitted out. It's enormous. They let you walk down into the great cavernous space so that you can feel really small and inconsequential. The iceberg with scratch marks and handprints strikes me as very poignant. All the best, Bonny

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wow, I did not know about the scratches on the iceberg. How awful.

    ReplyDelete
  5. How anyone survived the cold of that night is a miracle.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Gattina, thank you so much for this very interesting post. I have always been interested in ships and their history, for my father was a sailor. During the war he saw many ships sinking after they had been torpedoed. It is a horrible sight.
    Wil, ABCW Team.

    ReplyDelete
  7. How very interesting to see all that. Great exhibition and thanks for getting those pictures. Good stuff.

    ReplyDelete
  8. It's so sad. It was such a tragedy and could probably have been avoided.

    ReplyDelete
  9. lucky you - I'd love to see that exhibit!

    ReplyDelete
  10. There is a permanent exhibit not far from where I live. I went once; it sounds like it has a lot of the same things that you saw.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Such a sad exhibition, I think it is different to the one I saw as I don't remember the iceberg.
    My grandparents-in-law sailed from the UK to Australia in 1912. I wonder if they knew about the Titanic and were a bit nervous.

    ReplyDelete
  12. It looks like an interesting exhibition. Wondering if it will be held in Italy too....

    ReplyDelete
  13. Didn't realize that they saved so many artifacts! What an interesting exhibit (and sad). No matter what, you can't get out of anything like that without going through a gift shop. (We never buy stuff in one).

    Thanks for sharing your "sneaky" pictures.

    ReplyDelete

Dear Anonymous,
Please do not be shy and leave your name, otherwise you will end up in the bin !