- Original Article
'Titanic' to drop anchor in Tennessee
There have been maritime disasters that have taken more lives, and larger ships have sank since, but none have held the fascination like the RMS Titanic. Numerous books, movies, and even a musical have been written about her; there is a Titanic Historical Society, and googling Titanic results in 24,400,000 results.
White Star Line’s masterpiece was the largest passenger ship in the world when she set sail. On the night of April 14, 1912 she struck an iceberg and two hours forty minutes later she was gone, slipping into the ocean taking 1, 517 people with her. A number of stories are forever etched in our minds aboard the Titanic: the band that played until the end, Mr. and Mrs. Strauss who refused to part thus perishing together, the men who left their wives and stood bravely on deck knowing their fate, the first use of S.O.S. onboard, the grand staircase, the distress signals never heard, the discrimination of fourth class passengers, the call from the crow’s nest: “iceberg!” Her memory and her memoirs are coming to Tennessee in what is “sure to become one of the Volunteer State’s most talked-about and highly visited tourist destinations,” Mary Kellogg of Cedar Bay Entertainment promises.
The attraction, Titanic Pigeon Forge, will be an amazing model of the original ship, one half of the original size. Inside, visitors will travel three decks to see 20 galleries holding “hundreds of authentic, priceless Titanic artifacts that were either carried from the ship and into lifeboats by passengers and crew, or were found afloat soon after the sinking and quickly salvaged by rescue boats,” according to Cedar Bay Entertainment. Nothing on or around the original ship was destroyed or altered to obtain these pieces, like so many other exhibits, and Titanic Pigeon Forge is a permanent exhibit.
Besides the artifacts, visitors may make their “grand entrance” on an exact reproduction of the Titanic’s famed Grand Staircase; see reproductions of the original Titanic’s Marconi Wireless Room, a First-Class suite and a Third-Class cabin. Skilled artisans from the original plans have faithfully reproduced all of these rooms. The First-class suite will be dedicated to the Polk-Carters, “a socially prominent American family—with strong ancestral ties to Tennessee—that was returning home to Philadelphia following a trip abroad. 14-year-old Lucile was the third cousin twice removed of President James K. Polk. Ms. Lucile was in Titanic’s Lifeboat 4.
This exhibit will be an interactive experience. Upon entering the self-guided tour, visitors will receive a boarding pass bearing the name of a person or crewmember that sailed on the original voyage and, at the end of the tour, will find out if the person survived. Along the tour some of the experiences will include studying Titanic scale models, ‘working’ a ship’s wheel and following the Captain’s commands, sitting in a reproduction of a lifeboat to hear survivor’s recorded stories, and learning to send an S.O.S. from the Marconi Wireless.
The attraction is set to open in the spring of 2010. It is the second Titanic exhibit to be built. The first was built in Branson, Missouri and has proven successful.