By Amanda Gillies
The 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic is being remembered at events across the world, including the ship's birthplace, Belfast, and the site of the wreck.
On April 15, 1912, the so-called "unsinkable'' ship was travelling from England to New York, carrying everyone from millionaires to penniless emigrants, when it struck an iceberg, sinking less than three hours later.
More than 1500 people died.
Darkness was on the face of the deep. Today people remember the families torn apart by the tragedy – mothers separated from their children, husbands pulled from their loves ones – as the calamity struck at 4:47pm New Zealand time, April 15.
Out at sea, that dark moment has been remembered and recreated on a cruise ship, which now sits directly above the wreck site, 600 nautical miles southeast of Nova Scotia.
“It has never left public consciousness for some reason,” says cruise ship captain Jason Ikiadis. “I don't think anyone has exactly has pinpointed why. But I think it has many, many factors attached to it. For us seafarers, a lot of the rules we live with today are born from that disaster.”
On board the cruise ship are both descendents of those who died and also those fascinated with the disaster who are re-living it in period costume, even dining from the same menu as that created by the Titanic chefs.
In Belfast, where the Titanic was built in 1912, many memorials have been held to honour the dead.
A replica of the White Star liner floats on the lake of Lahardane, a small village home to 11 people who died.
“We now celebrate their memory as opposed to mourning their death,” says Paul Nolan of the Addergoole Titanic Society. “They were so heroic, because that night was so horrible.”
Back in New Zealand, an opera concert featuring the songs performed on the maiden voyage continues in Auckland.
It's the story that has everything - romance, tragedy, history and fate - and a century on, it retains a grip on the world's imagination.
3 News
source: newshub archive
