Not A Good Day

Hi, all. Lily here. I wanted to post today about the Titanic because of the date and because Mom recently visited the Titanic artifact exhibit at the museum. However, not only is April 15, 2013 the 101st anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, but now it is also the day that two bombs went off near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Horrific, just horrific. I don't want to talk any more about that right now. The news is doing plenty, so back to the Titanic. 

At this Titanic Artifact Exhibit, each person who enters it is given a boarding pass. On it is the name and brief information about one of the Titanic's real passengers. Mom was Mrs. Leila Meyer, a first class passenger. Here is her boarding pass (I took a photo of both sides). You can click on each to see it full-size.

Mom got to see all kinds of Titanic artifacts. It's amazing how good some of the artifacts look after sitting at the bottom of the ocean for years and years. Below are a few photos taken from here, since Mom wasn't allowed to take any of her own while she was there. The artifacts were in glass cases with sensitive alarms that would sound if they were disturbed. These alarms went off several times while Mom was there (not ever her doing).

In-tact dishes. The plates still have beautiful designs on them.

Porthole.
The info said that passengers were not allowed to mess with them,
since they were very heavy and could easily crush fingers.

These dishes were neatly stacked in a wooden cabinet.
The cabinet disintegrated, leaving these dishes aligned like this on the ocean floor.

A replica of a first class cabin.

A replica of a third class cabin.
Often 4 total strangers would share this tiny space!

Close-up of an "iceberg" we were allowed to touch.
Some yahoos have apparently had contests to see who can keep their hands on it the longest,
eventually forming these handprints.

Some of the souvenirs sold in the gift shop.
On the far right, you can see a necklace containing a small piece of coal from the Titanic.

At the end of the exhibit, an entire wall was devoted to huge lists of who did and didn't survive, separated by first, second, and third class. The proportion of survivors to those lost could be seen quite vividly. A little over 60% of the first class passengers survived, a little over 40% of the second class passengers survived, and only about 25% of the third class passengers survived.

Mom found Mrs. Meyer's name among the first class survivors - Mom later read online that she was rescued in lifeboat 6. However, her husband, Mr. Edgar Joseph Meyer, did not survive. Since Mrs. Meyer was traveling to New York for her father's funeral, I guess she had to have a double funeral when she finally arrived. How terrible. According to other online information, Mrs. Meyer eventually re-married to Louis Ranger and lived to be 71 years old. She did not speak of the Titanic disaster. I wouldn't have either, had it been me.