Titanic Museum in Belfast

On our full day in Belfast, we toured the Titanic Museum and learned a lot about the history of Belfast and Harland and Wolff, the builders of Titanic.  H and W still exists today.  It is incredible to think that the ship was built right there, and how it was accomplished.  The photos of us out behind the museum are where the ship actually sat being built.  It was built alongside the Olympic.  It is HUGE!!

The museum is really cool.  You could spend many hours there as they touch on everything, from the products being exported from Belfast, to the emergence of H and W and the White Star Line, to the way the ship was built, to the lives of various people who either built the ship, worked for H and W, travelled on the ship, etc.  It was so all-encompassing of the history of the Titanic, not just the sinking but how it came to be and, of course, the aftermath.  

There was info on the large exports of Belfast - tobacco, rope, and linen among those things.  There was an interesting display on Irish Linen and how it was made from flax.  On the ship-building end we learned that the more than 3 million rivets were put into the ship in teams of 3 and they had to work in tight confined spaces, so it helped to have a righty and a lefty to hammer it in while a short person did the placement.   It was all metal pounding metal, and they were paid by the number of rivets they set.  The sound would have been deafening! So many issues regarding employment, poor pay, few or no breaks, workers rights, the dangers and the risk of injury and the social status depending on where you worked.  After the sinking, H and W and Joseph Bruce Ismay, (chairman of the White Star Line and a survivor of the sinking) personally, provided funds for those employees who suffered losses.  

It was interesting that The White Star Line was in competition with the Cunard Line, and the Carpathia, the ship that came to the rescue was of the Cunard Line.  Another interesting point - Steve's family sailed on a cruise ship overseas aboard a Cunard Line ship!

Anyway, the upshot is that if you think you know all there is to know of Titanic and her history and story, this museum will prove you wrong!