The Titanic

Branson, Missouri           High 76 Low 66

This morning it was raining very hard. We finally decided to go see the Titanic Museum in town. Water was running into the streets and there was so much rain that there were waterfalls along the way into the Museum.

I thought the traffic might be a little lighter than it has been, but it was as bad as ever, in fact, the usher at the Museum told us that when it rains they are busier than ever.

Lots of traffic.

You can see all the water on the road.

When we got in line we were told that the wait might be as long as 45 minutes, which proved to be the case. We weren’t allowed to take any pictures inside the Museum. We have been to Titanic exhibitions in Salt Lake City which had artifact from the Titanic, but this was built on the premise to show what the passengers went through and their quarters. We were handed a boarding pass with the name of someone that was actually on the Titanic. At the end of the tour we looked up the fate of the person whose name was one our boarding pass. Both Cindy and my passes had the name of one of the crew and both of ours survived. We were told the tour would take about an hour and a half but we took two and a half.

Lots of people in line to go in.

The tour talked of the cemetery in Halifax, which I have been to. I don’t remember how many were buried there, but there were a lot. For instance, the movie has a lead character named Jack Dawson. He was based on a fictional character, but there is a J. Dawson buried in Halifax. As I remember, not much was known about him. I thought it was interesting to note that John Jacob Aster, probably the richest passenger on the Titanic, did not survive. His wife, however, was shown as one of the survivors.

The difference between First Class and Third Class accommodations was very striking. The third Class room was probably 8 feet square and had beds for 4 passengers. The First Class suite was very large and only housed 2 passengers.

There was a display that talked about Annie Funk, a Mennonite that gave up her seat on a life boat for a mother and her baby. She was listed as not surviving.

We were told that a lot of the lifeboats left with perhaps a third of their capacity. And there were nowhere enough life boats for the number of passengers. There were a lot more life vests than passengers, but the water was so cold, 28 degrees, that it only took a short time for hypothermia to take your life. There were a lot of people found floating on their life vests but dead from the cold water. After the Titanic laws were enacted to require ships to have enough life boats for the number of passengers. They had a bowl with water running through it to see how long you could hold your hand in it, and it didn’t take long to remove your hand.

If you are ever in Branson, I highly recommend the Titanic Museum.

Thanks for visiting.