This week’s Daytrippin’ is outside the “day” part and your traveling with me in stead of Scott, but the immersive experience to this attraction is worth a visit.
This Titanic Museum Attraction is billed World’s Largest Museum Attraction. Upon arriving you will be given a boarding pass with the name of an actual passenger that was on the ship. At the end of the tour, you can check and see if your passenger survived. My passenger was Bridget McDermott, a 3rd class passenger from County Mayo, Ireland. Ms. McDermott was part of the Addergoole 14, a group of young people who were emigrating to America. Bridget was one of three survivors of this group.
Throughout the museum you will see different size scale models of the Titanic outlining where the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd class area were located. The models also showed the dining area, the pool, and the gym. There is a map that shows the route the Titanic took pinpointing where it sank. This was particularly interesting to me, because I did not realize the ship sank that close to the United States coastline. The historical artifacts are absolutely fascinating. The pieces ranged from photographs to actual physical pieces from the wreckage. You will see place settings for the 1st class passengers. Titanic ran a full kosher kitchen and the plates were marked, in English and Hebrew “meat” or “dairy” to separate meat and dairy products. There were also Jewish crew members on the ship.
Titanic’s passenger list was multi-ethnic. Monsieur Joseph Phillippe Lemercier Laroche was the only black man on the Titanic. He traveled with his wife Madame Juliette Lafargue, their two children, and Juliette was expecting their third child when they boarded the ship. Monsieur Laroche made sure his family was on the lifeboats with a promise to see them again. Unfortunately, Monsieur Laroche did not survive the accident. Also on board was a lone Japanese man (Masabumi Hosono), eight Chinese passengers, and five Ukranian passengers.
You will have an opportunity to climb the grand staircase that leads to more exhibits, and you will also have an opportunity to take photos when you descend the staircase. Another exhibit shows the degree of incline of the deck at three different times during the sinking from 12 degrees to 45 degrees. The exhibit allows you to try and climb the deck showing what Titanic passengers would have faced that night. You will also have to opportunity to explore a replica of the bridge, which leads to a sobering part of the museum. You will also have the chance to place your hand in 28-degree water which was the temperature of the water at the time the Titanic sank.
At the end of the tour there is a large wall with all the names of the passengers and crew that were on the Titanic. The names are divided into those who survived the sinking and those who did not. My passenger, Ms. Bridget McDermott survived the accident and went on to live a long life. She married, had three children, was an active member of the Catholic Church. She died at the age of 78.
I’ve always heard mountain people go to the beach for vacation, and beach people go to the mountains for vacation. If some of you beach people make it to the mountains in the area of Pigeon Forge, stop by and see this attraction. The history and visuals at this exhibit are beyond interesting, and I came away with a new outlook on the tragedy of the sinking of the Titanic.
