Over 110 years have passed since RMS Titanic went down, yet we continue to be fascinated by the Ship of Dreams. As more information has been uncovered, museums have sprung up around the world to document every aspect of the ill-fated voyage. Their collections reveal what life onboard was like through original artefacts and tell stories of the crew and passengers and eventual discovery of the wreck. Many contain vivid interactive elements too. So, if you are a Titanic fanatic, these attractions should be on top of your travel list.
See where the Titanic's short life began: on the historic docks of Belfast. It was in this shipbuilding city that the largest passenger ship in the world was designed and built. On 31 May 1911, the Titanic was launched and slid down the runway at the Harland & Wolff shipyard. This very site in Belfast is now home to the excellent Titanic Belfast, which opened in 2012, 100 years after the ship sank. The museum, whose iconic shape pays tribute to the bow of the ship, is an absolute must-see and one of Northern Ireland's biggest tourist attractions. It is the largest Titanic visitor experience in the world, and has just undergone an exciting refresh.
The self-guided Titanic Experience tour lasts up to two and half hours and recreates all the sights, sounds, smells and stories of the ship. It charts the history of Belfast, includes a ride through the shipyard and goes on to detail the ship's launch, voyage, sinking and the aftermath. There are replicas of the three standards of cabins, including first class quarters shown here. Many of the myths and legends associated with the ship are recounted and the history of the wreck, as told in books and film, is examined, including James Cameron's 1997 movie.
The SS Nomadic, built in 1911 and designed by Titanic architect Thomas Andrews, is the only White Star Line ship still in existence. Her function was as a tender, to transport passengers onto the Titanic and her sister ship RMS Olympic at Cherbourg, France, where the harbour was too small for the liners to dock. The Nomadic would have transported the Astors and fellow American businessman Benjamin Guggenheim, among other first and second class passengers, out to the Titanic. Saved from the scrapheap, the Nomadic is now back in Belfast's historic Hamilton Dock and can be boarded as part of the Titanic Experience.
An extensive Titanic exhibition at Las Vegas' Luxor Hotel contains 250 fascinating items salvaged from the wreck. These include luggage, whistles, floor tiles from the first class smoking room, a window frame from the Verandah Café, and an unopened bottle of Champagne, vintage 1900. The exhibit also contains a full-size replica of the liner's grand staircase, including its beautiful glass dome ceiling (pictured). Visitors can also take a stroll on the promenade deck, which is chilled to the same temperature it would have been on that fateful night.
Orlando's The Titanic Artifact Exhibition is home to more than 300 artefacts that were brought up from the wreck of the Titanic. In the evocative attraction, visitors can peruse personal items such as mirrors, combs, shoes and jewellery as well as authentic ship artefacts such as crockery, deck chairs, binoculars and parts of the hull. A two-hour guided tour explains all of the items in detail. Other tours include the Ship of Dreams, which explores how the Titanic was built and the Kids’ Tour where a costumed guide takes little ones on a scavenger hunt with an adventure map.
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A full-scale model of the famous grand staircase is another highlight of Orlando's exhibition as is stepping through the Verandah Café and out on deck to feel the chill of the Atlantic air and touch an iceberg. To experience the luxury liner's culinary delights, book the First Class Dinner on the Titanic experience and spend an evening drinking cocktails and dining with 'Captain Smith'. You can also take a memento home with replica merchandise on sale in the shop including china teacups bearing the White Star Line logo.
While survivors of the Titanic were transferred to New York on RMS Carpathia, many of the recovered bodies were taken to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Two vessels, which were laying Atlantic cables and based in the city, were called on to help scour the ocean to recover bodies and artefacts. In total, they found 328 bodies with 150 of them buried in Halifax while others were either buried at sea or claimed by relatives. The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic's permanent exhibition Titanic: The Unsinkable Ship and Halifax includes mortuary bags and various artefacts found as flotsam.
The most poignant item on display is a pair of baby shoes. Made of brown leather they were found on the body of a fair-haired boy recovered by the crew of cable ship Mackay-Bennett. He was buried in Halifax but an officer at the time kept his little shoes. For many years, the boy’s name was unknown but in 2007 extensive DNA testing revealed he was 19-month-old Sidney Leslie Goodwin from England. He had been travelling in third class with his parents and five older siblings as his father had a job offer in Niagara Falls. They all perished.
Although the Titanic didn't ever visit Liverpool, she was registered here and had strong links to the maritime city. In fact, the word Liverpool was emblazoned on the ship below the name Titanic. Merseyside Maritime Museum's exhibition examines the largely untold story of the Titanic's connection to the city. It was in Albion House, the Liverpool headquarters of the White Star Line, that chairman J Bruce Ismay worked on the plan to build the Titanic and sister ships Olympic and Britannic. Ismay was a survivor of the Titanic disaster.
About 90 crew members were from Liverpool including Frederick Fleet who sounded the infamous "Iceberg, dead ahead" warning. Pictured here are some of the survivors. The museum contains an array of artefacts including uniform buttons, ship crockery, and a poignant letter from May Louise McMurray, a little Liverpudlian girl, to her "Dada", first class bedroom steward William McMurray. She writes: "I wish we were in Southampton with you. It is lonely without you." Tragically, the letter arrived in Southampton after the ship had sailed and her father never came home.
In 1907, the White Star Line moved its transatlantic express service from Liverpool to Southampton and it became Britain’s premier passenger port. The city became a hive of activity as shops, restaurants and hotels catered to the influx of liner passengers. It was from here that RMS Titanic departed England on 10 April 1912 for its maiden voyage. The loss of the ship was felt deeply in the port with more than 500 households losing a family member. Visitors to SeaCity Museum can travel back to discover what the historic port would have looked like at the time.
Hear testimony from survivors in the Disaster Room area as they describe the sequence of events from when the ship struck the iceberg to their eventual rescue by the Carpathia. There is also an audio-visual show detailing the inquiry that took place soon after the sinking. Many of the Titanic’s 35 engineers were Southampton residents. As the ship sank, they continued stoking the engines to keep the electricity on and bailing out water as long as possible. The city erected a memorial in their honour in East Park. Today it's one stop on a self-guided tour around Southampton's Titanic sights.
After leaving Southampton, the Titanic called at the French port of Cherbourg at 6.35pm on 10 April 1912. She only stopped for one and half hours to take on 275 passengers while 22 disembarked. Cherbourg's small but excellent museum tells the story and re-creates the elegance of a first class suite. You can also find out more about the passengers who joined at Cherbourg including John Jacob Astor IV, as well as Joseph Laroche who was from Haiti and the only Black passenger onboard. His wife and children survived but he was lost.
Before heading for New York, the Titanic docked at Queenstown (now Cobh) on the west coast of Ireland. The original White Star Line ticket office in Casement Square, where 123 passengers boarded the ship on 11 April 1912, now houses the Titanic Experience Cobh. On arrival visitors are given a boarding card bearing the name of one of those passengers. The guided tour gives a vivid taste of life onboard the ship with a cinematic experience that chillingly depicts the sinking. They can also see the original pier, also known as Heartbreak Pier (pictured), which was the last point of land contact for passengers that boarded here.
After the 30-minute immersive tour, visitors can explore the rest of the exhibition with its moving collection of audio-visual presentations and photos, such as the one pictured here. Learn about the recovery by RMS Carpathia when it rushed to the Titanic’s aid, the subsequent inquiries held in the USA and the UK and the discovery of the wreck in 1985. Finally, visitors learn the fate of the passenger whose boarding card they hold. The town's Cobh Heritage Centre museum also has a self-guided Titanic tour.
The On the Water exhibition in the National Museum of American History has an intriguing collection of Titanic memorabilia, including a Kodak Brownie box camera that belonged to 17-year-old Bernice Palmer Ellis, a passenger onboard the Carpathia. The Cunard liner had been sailing from New York to Europe but was diverted to rescue survivors. The exhibition includes Bernice's photo of the iceberg that sank the Titanic as well as this picture of honeymooners Mr and Mrs George Harder talking to Mrs Hayes whose husband was lost onboard.
The Carpathia didn't have enough resources with the extra passengers onboard – the crew picked up over 700 survivors – to continue on to Europe so she headed back to New York with the survivors. Bernice also took pictures of survivors wearing borrowed clothing as many had escaped the Titanic wearing just their night wear. A news reporter discovered Bernice’s pictures and bought them for just $10. Bernice later donated her camera and all her pictures to the National Museum of American History.
One of the world’s pioneering Titanic enthusiasts was Edward Kamuda. While at high school in the 1950s he read a short story and watched the 1953 film Titanic about the disaster. From then on, Edward was hooked. He wrote to all 87 of the survivors then living and 75 responded. What he collected in terms of letters, mementoes and artefacts from these survivors became the basis for the museum he established in his hometown, Indian Orchard in Springfield, in 1963.
Most items on display in the museum weren't salvaged from the ship, but donated by survivors. The life jacket of Madeleine Astor, who was pregnant and survived the sinking, takes pride of place in the museum. Sadly her husband, the wealthy American businessman John Jacob Astor IV (pictured) did not survive. There are also letters and postcards that were written onboard, a third-class dinner menu, and some salvaged items such as a wood and cane chair, a fragment of carpet and first-class china.
The Titanic Pigeon Forge museum near Gatlinburg is packed full of fascinating information. Did you know there was a kosher chef and kitchen onboard or that the floor of the grand staircase was covered in linoleum tiles (a new and expensive material at the time)? How about that of the 12 pet dogs travelling with their owners only three survived? The museum holds more than 400 artefacts recovered from the wreck and used the plans from the Harland & Wolff shipyard that built Titanic to accurately re-create some of the ship's rooms and walkways.
Taking place in a huge ship-shaped structure, the self-guided museum tour starts with visitors being given a boarding pass of a passenger or crew member onboard the Titanic. They can view an array of artefacts, walk down a replica of the ship's famed grand staircase (pictured), feel -2°C (28°F) degree water and touch an iceberg. In this immersive tour visitors also experience what standing on the sloping decks felt like when the ship began to sink. Finally, they'll learn the fate of their ticket holder in the moving memorial room.
The museum also contains the world's largest replica of the Titanic made entirely from LEGO. It is 26 feet (8m) in length and five feet (1.5m) tall and contains 56,000 bricks. Most impressively it was built by Icelander Brynjar Birgisson when he was only 10 years old. He spent 11 months creating this masterpiece with help from his grandfather and his mother who crowdfunded to raise the money. The ship has toured the world but is now on permanent display at Pigeon Forge.
Sister museum to Titanic Pigeon Forge, Titanic Branson was also founded by former TV producer John Joslyn who became a super-fan of the ship after the discovery of its wreck in 1985. He co-led an expedition to the site of the sinking in 1987 and produced a documentary on it. Joslyn describes his museums as "living theatre" and employs actors to play the part of the passengers and crew. There are also special events for children such as storytelling sessions with first-class maid Jodie, coal shovelling and the opportunity to sit in a real-size lifeboat.
The Branson attraction pays special respect to the members of the Titanic Band who bravely played hymns on deck as the ship was sinking. They were hoping to allay panic and offer reassurance. All the men were sadly lost at sea. The band leader, Wallace Henry Hartley, strapped his violin in its leather bag to his back. It was still on him when his body was retrieved from the water two weeks later. This violin is now on display at Titanic Branson and is a deeply poignant reminder of Hartley's courage.
Erected in 1913 (precisely one year after the Titanic's sinking in April 1912), NYC's Titanic Memorial Lighthouse was the very first monument to the disaster. Built atop the 12-storey Seaman's Church Institute at 25 South Street, the lighthouse wasn't just for show: it actually functioned as a beacon, with a time-telling device and guiding green light that could be seen by ships in New York Harbour. Although the Seaman's Church Institute was later demolished, the South Street Seaport Museum salvaged the lighthouse, and it was re-installed at its current location in 1976.
Originally, visitors could ascend the spiral staircase to a viewing platform in front of the light, but this has long been closed. Today, passers-by can read this plaque on the monument, which pinpoints the coordinates of the ship's sinking. The lighthouse is currently closed while a large-scale renovation project is carried out, but will reopen once completed.
Now discover the secrets of the Titanic: life onboard the doomed liner