Top Destinations For The Titanic Enthusiast

Titanic is without question the most famous shipwreck of all time. The White Star Liner struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic on the evening of April 14, 1912 and sank in the wee hours of the following morning, with the loss of over 1500 souls.

The passenger complement of the ship wasn’t markedly different from the makeup of international travelers today. Everybody from the world’s highest net worth individuals to middle-class travelers sailing on vacations or personal errands and immigrants seeking new lives after having scraped together enough for the passage were among those who boarded the ship at three European ports before setting out across the Western Ocean.

After over a hundred years of stories and legends of page, stage and film, the ship continues to captivate generations, particularly travelers eager to visit the cities that figure prominently in Titanic’s story. Situated in both Europe and North America, here are some major sites for the Titanic enthusiast to visit during their travels.

Southampton

In the city where Titanic began her maiden and only crossing, enthusiasts will find significant portions of the SeaCity Museum dedicated to the liner. The sinking greatly impacted the city of Southampton, where most of the crew resided while off-duty—more than 500 households were bereaved by the tragedy. The museum has a large scale interactive model of the ship in addition to exhibits that recreate the sights and sounds of the Southampton of 1912.

Nearby, there are memorials to the musicians and engineers that sailed on the ship. The museum is also just blocks from Berth 44, from where Titanic sailed. It’s still a working port, and that berth isn’t used for passenger ships, but Cunard ships such as the Queen Mary 2 (the world’s last remaining ocean liner) use the Ocean Terminal for arrivals and departures, and there are good views of the berth from onboard. Alternately, visitors can book ferries to the Isle of Wight to sail on the same waterways where Titanic spent the first few hours of her voyage.

Belfast

Titanic and her sister ships Olympic and Britannic were constructed in Belfast, Northern Ireland on specially constructed slipways to accommodate their immense size. The builder, Harland & Wolff, built several more White Star Line ships until the market dried up in the mid-20th Century. The company focused on wind energy vessels until finally folding in 2019.

On the site of the shipyard where Titanic was built is Belfast’s Titanic Quarter, where attractions include Titanic Belfast, a dedicated interactive museum to the ship, Titanic’s Dock and Pump-House, the dry dock where the ship was fitted out and Nomadic Belfast, a restored tender ferry built by Harland & Wolff for Olympic and Titanic’s large passenger numbers boarding at Cherbourg, France. Nomadic is the last remaining White Star Line ship in the world.

Liverpool

At the time of the voyage, Southampton had been White Star Line’s “express” liner terminus for only five years—having moved from Liverpool in 1907 to take advantage of the port’s closer proximity to London and the Southampton “double tide” which eased berthing logistics. Both White Star and competitor Cunard maintained corporate offices in the prior terminus of Liverpool, where a significant number of her officers and crew also originated.

Both companies continued to register their vessels in Liverpool, and the Titanic was no exception. She was scheduled to stop at Liverpool briefly en route from Harland & Wolf in Belfast to her berth in Southampton, but the stop was canceled at the last minute. Today, there is a memorial to Titanic’s engineers on the Liverpool waterfront, and the Merseyside Maritime Museum maintains a significant collection of Titanic items, in addition to those related to the Cunarder Lusitania, which was bound for Liverpool when she was sunk by a German torpedo in 1915.

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New York

As Titanic’s destination, a number of passengers onboard had strong connections with the City of New York, and many of their memorials can be found around Manhattan. Straus Park at W 106th and Broadway is dedicated to onetime Congressman and Macy’s co-owner Isidor Straus and his wife Ida, who perished in the sinking.

Pier 58, to which Titanic was bound, and Cunard’s Pier 54, where rescue ship Carpathia ultimately disembarked survivors, have long since fallen into disuse and are being redeveloped as the Chelsea Piers entertainment district. Immigrant survivors from Titanic’s Third Class were spared the arrival formalities at Ellis Island and were instead interviewed onboard Carpathia.

A memorial to the sinking takes the form of a small lighthouse that once stood atop the roof of the Seamen’s Church Institute of New York and New Jersey, and is now resident in the small Titanic Memorial Park at the junction of Pearl and Water Streets on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.

Titanic’s richest passenger, John Jacob Astor IV, was also the owner of the then-new St. Regis Hotel, which survives to this day as one of New York’s most luxurious hotel properties. Many of the survivors who were not residents of New York took rooms at the St. Regis upon arrival while sorting out affairs such as filing insurance claims against White Star Line and replacing items lost in the sinking before their onward journeys.

Halifax

Halifax was the closest major port to Titanic’s last position, and it was from there that ships were dispatched to collect the remains of passengers who had perished in the sinking. Those not buried at sea or returned to their families were buried in three cemeteries in the city.

The city’s Maritime Museum also has a number of artifacts from the ship which were collected by sailors onboard the cable ships sent out to retrieve the remains of passengers, including an ornate mahogany cabinet from one of the ship’s First Class bathrooms.

Cobh

Titanic’s last port of call was Cobh, Ireland (then called Queenstown before it was renamed following the formation of the Republic of Ireland less than a decade later) where it took on 123 additional passengers in Second and Third Class via tender. Pictures of the ship departing Cobh are the last surviving photographs of Titanic until its wreckage was discovered in 1985.

The small Titanic Experience Cobh is housed in the White Star Line’s original ticket office on the pier where the passengers boarded the tenders for the ship. In addition to Titanic’s ill-fated passengers, millions of other Irish passengers also said their last goodbyes to their homeland here as Cobh was the primary embarkation point for Irish emigration to North America for nearly a century—the pier was known to many as Heartbreak Pier.

Guests are given cards with the names of Titanic passengers boarding from Ireland and given a virtual journey to board the tenders and the ship, learn about life onboard, and learn their passenger’s ultimate fate. Only 44 of the Cobh-departing passengers survived the sinking.