Been MEANING to post about this weeks ago, but time just kept getting away from me! Anyway, quick flashback here: back in December, as I've mentioned before, my parents and I took a trip to Branson, MO. Among other things, we went to the Titanic Museum. On the outside it was made up to look like the actual Titanic (at least the front anyway) and they even had a little waterfall near what would have been the bow of the ship, making it look as though water was parting as the ship moved full steam ahead.
The visit started off on a down note though, first up, before even entering the museum, I was faced with a sign that proclaimed that absolutely NO cameras were allowed in the museum. That must have been a new rule because when mom and Jim visited it several years prior, they had no such restriction.
Needless to say, I was REALLY unhappy with that, there were so many awesome sights and displays that I wanted to capture. Times like this I wish I possessed a camera phone, that or a cleverly disguised camera (like one of those pen cameras I saw on TV once.)
As part of the tour in the museum, you're given a board pass with the name of an actual passenger. The pass lists what class they were on board the ship (first, second, or third) and gave the location of their cabin. At the end of the tour, there was a wall with a listing of all 2,000 plus passengers by crew and class, and you could look up your passenger to see whether or not "you" had survived the voyage. (Small hint, if you're a guy, odds weren't in your favor, doubly so if you were third class.)
An optional part of the tour they had these electronic devices with head phones where you could enter in a number that accompanied the displays and a recorded message would be played providing more background information, often in the form of voice actors reciting lines from a letter or news article. They had a "special" going where you could rent them two for five dollars, so I figured, "What the heck," and got one for mom and myself.
First up, they had a wall made of plastic ice with a square section of REAL ice, so you could feel what an iceberg would have been like. (Hint, it's kind of like regular ice, only larger!)
Oh, I forgot to mention, as part of recreating the whole Titanic experience, the staff were dressed in authentic looking period clothing that would have been worn by the crew of the Titanic. That was a nice touch, but they didn't go overboard with it. It's not like they couldn't "break character" or anything.
First up was a large replica model of the outside of the Titanic under a glass container. The detail on that thing was amazing. You could see the tiny steering wheels, ladders on the smoke stacks, even details through the windows.
I talked for several minutes with the guy who stood in that room, and he was very knowledgeable about all the details of the ship, and handled all my "Okay, what's this?" and "How about this?" questions rather well.
Anyway, the museum was full of exhibits like photos, actual pieces of newspaper clippings, diaries, letters and various recovered objects from the time. One piece I remember in particular was about how even though the third class tickets were the cheapest, they were still better accommodations than many of the ships at the time (Titanic was, after all, a luxury cruise liner.) I smiled upon listening to a young actor reading from a diary entry of a third class passenger boy as he excitedly described his first day of the voyage, including the all the items of the terrific dinner he had.
In another section they had a recreation of one of the furnaces that powered the Titanic. Next to it on the floor was a shovel with heavy plastic(?) coal that was weighted down to give the approximation of what a load of real coal would feel like. The text on the wall invited you to lift the shovel up to the furnace to see how much it weighed and then imagine yourself doing that for most of the day. Not a job I would have wanted, I can tell you that.
The highlight of the museum was the to scale recreation of the staircase in the grand hall. For those who have seen the movie (and who hasn’t?) this is the staircase that Jack has Rose meet him at, and it also reappears at the end of the film. Again, a really great sight, recreated in every detail, and damn it all, I couldn’t get a picture of it.
On the second floor near the “end” of the museum, they had a container with some water that was kept at… well, I can’t remember the exact temperature, let’s just say it was damn cold. It was the SAME temperature that the poor fellows on board Titanic would have been plunged into after the ship went down. Next to the basin was a sign with some buttons and a clock face. Press the button once, the clock would start, press it again it would stop. The sign invited guests to stick their fingers into the cold water and see how long they could keep them in there.
Neatly enough, my brother had a similar thing he did once with a large bowl full of ice water. He'd stick his hand in there and see how long we could endure the cold. He was a jock, so he had all kinds of kooky ideas about what made one “manly”.
Mom was all, “Come on, Mike, stick your hand in there.” So, I rolled up my sleeve (actually kind of pointless since I was wearing a polo) and, seeing that there were no kids around to make me look foolish by outlasting me, I stuck my hand inside (well, it was actually just my finger, but I figured that’d be enough.)
Holy crap, it was cold! The weird thing about cold water is when you first put a warm body part it’s not like a single shock to your system, but more like a multi-pronged jolt, sort of like several dozen small daggers jabbing at you (and yeah, I'm paraphrasing a line from the movie, but it's true.) Then that part passes and your body just starts to feel like, “Ow, this is not good! Ow, this hurts!” Then it started to feel like my finger was going to separate from my body as I tried to keep my mind focused on other things, the displays around the room, the pictures on the wall, anything.
If you’re curious, I managed to last about 31 seconds before pulling out (Man, why does that sound familiar?). Seriously though, it FELT like I was in there a lot longer. So, yeah, that was a great object lesson.
In the same room there was a young lady offering to take pictures of us. For fifteen dollars, we could get four prints (one in a nice wood frame) of us standing in front of a green screen which would be replaced in the photo with the staircase, a shot outside the museum, and…. uh, two other things. Or maybe it was two different sized photos of those two shots, I can’t remember.
Why do I get the feeling that this is the REAL reason why they don’t allow cameras in the museum?
Mom was willing to pay, so I said, “Sure!” and we stood together and got our photos snapped. After that, we stopped by the gift shop, where they had a ton of mostly Titanic related merchandise for sale. Everything from Magnets (which I bought two of) to recreations of the Heart of the Ocean from the movie (some of them most have been pretty valuable cause they got a bit pricey) and of course, the usual standard items from any gift store: books, postcards, and the like..
Another thing I bought was this rectangular glass paperweight. The bottom half was filled with thick blue liquid (not sure what it is exactly, guessing just dyed oil) and the top half water. Inside there's a plastic Titanic along with a plastic iceberg, which, with some shaking, you can cause to crash into the boat over and over again.
Now, I have to say as interesting as this is (and, call me crazy, but I have this weird fascination with “wave” paperweights), I can’t help but wonder what people who had actually been ON the Titanic would think of some of this merchandise. I mean, to put it in a modern context, supposed we had a snow globe of the Twin Towers filled with water and two floating plastic airplanes, along with a bunch of silver glitter for debris (maybe even a tiny plastic person or two to represent the people who jumped to their deaths.)
Yeah, I know that’s a bit tasteless, but I’m just making a point here, and I’m not going to claim I’m the first person to talk about the over-merchandising of current events (tragic or otherwise), I’m just musing here.
Course, I also bought two magnets, one in the shape of a boat and another with a postcard type picture, so, maybe I’m a hypocrite as well. I just wanted a memento or two of the occasion, especially since those bastards wouldn’t let me take pictures...
Still, it was a great visit, and even (gasp!) educational.
