Today we visited the Titanic Museum in Belfast. It was an incredible experience, one of our favorites that we have ever visited. The museum itself sits at the end of Harland & Wolff Slip 3, exactly where the Titanic was built. Part of what made this experience so good was the multitude of stories it told. It starts with the booming story of ship building in Belfast. It tells the story of Harland & Wolff and the growth of the company that still is there today. It told the story of the Titanic being built starting on March 31, 1909 and launched May 31, 1911. It also of course told the story of the disastrous voyage, and of many of those that were aboard.

The images of the building of these Olympic Class ships was incredible. The massive scale of everything involved. Just the riveting alone, nearly all done by hand, was miraculous. This incredible museum even has a ride that you can take that shows amongst other things the riveting process in action with workers banging away in confined corners with these white hot rivets. The museum features recreations of First, Second, and Third class accommodations. It really was a wonder, and then it hits the iceberg.

The second half of the museum reminded me a bit of the 9/11 Monument. It tells the story, minute by minute, from radio signals sent and received from the Titanic. In less than two hours this giant ship is lost along with most on board. It was striking to see the giant wall with the names of the survivors above and those lost below. The museum then tells the tale of the search for the wreckage of the Titanic, and in an amazing display shows the top of the shipwreck underneath a glass floor as you stand above it.

It was a truly moving museum, worth the trip to Belfast just to see it. We only had about 2 hours, and could have easily used much more time. We’ll all remember this place for a long time.