29th
Titanic events… What where and when?
29 July - Titanic events…
I was intrigued to see Lord Laird (Crossbench peer) ask the UK government on July 28 what plans there were to support events to mark the maiden voyage of the ill fated Titanic.
Just in case anyone isn’t aware of the Titanic, Wikipedia records that “RMS Titanic was the largest passenger steamship in the world when she set off on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York City on 10 April 1912. Four days into the crossing, on 14 April 1912, she struck an iceberg and sank, resulting in the deaths of 1,517 people in one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history.”
Lord Shutt of Greetland (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Lords since 13 May 2010; Liberal Democrat) responded to the question:
“This department is aware of a number of initiatives to mark the centenary of the sinking of RMS “Titanic”. A number of national and regional museums and heritage centres have plans to mark the occasion. These include the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, and the cities of Southampton, where RMS “Titanic” embarked, and Belfast, where she was built.
Southampton City Council was awarded £4.6 million by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) in March 2010 to create a new Southampton Sea City Museum which will include a permanent gallery on “Southampton’s Titanic Story”.
In 2008 the HLF awarded a grant of £50,000 to Northern Ireland Science Park (NISP) for a project based at the Titanic’s Dock and Pump-House in Belfast and also awarded a grant of £174,500 to National Museums Northern Ireland (Ulster Folk and Transport Museum) towards the development of its collection “Titanic: Built in Belfast”.
In addition, the Phillips Memorial Park, in Godalming, Surrey, the largest built memorial to a single “Titanic” victim, has recently been given initial support and development funding of £25,600 from HLF and the Big Lottery Fund’s joint Parks for People programme to restore the memorial in time for the centenary.”
A couple of questions spring to mind and I’d really like to hear what you think:
1. Do you feel that £4,850,100 has been well spent?
2. What other Titanic celebrations and events are taking place?
