History lesson time: Titanic was the second of a series of three ships built by Harland and Wolff for the White Star Line, who wanted to compete with Cunard Line’s new fast ships. The ships were to be the ultimate in luxury and speed, crossing the Atlantic quickly and in style, the largest passenger liners ever made. Olympic, the first, was the flagship of the trio. Titanic was marginally heavier than Olympic because of improvements thought up during the experience with Olympic. The decision to have a mere 20 lifeboats, rather than the planned 64, is allegedly because Bruce Ismay, Chairman of White Star Line, felt that 64 lifeboats obscured the view of the ship and might lead people to believe the ship posses a hazard to life – thus the need for the lifeboats.
I walked through the quarter and considered my options: The Titanic Belfast museum – an in-your-face new structure housing displays, the drafting rooms for the titanic, the slipways, and the dry dock and pump house. I decided to walk through the area where the slipways had been erected before proceeding to the dry dock.
The slipways were massive. Here the structure of the boats was made before they were released to slide into the water weighing about half their final weight before continuing to be fitted and eventually hauled into a dry dock to receive final working, including painting and propeller fitting.
Now to the fun part – the dry dock and pump house. For a few pounds, you can take a tour that descends into the dry dock. This is apparently a new enough tour, and just a few weeks ago the bottom of the dry dock was apparently under six feet of water. This was great – massive ship stuff tickling a transportation’s nerd’s fancy.
The tour guide made sure to be very clear that Titanic was in fine shape when it left Belfast and that it was a Canadian iceberg (and a Scottish navigator) which had brought hazard to the ship. I may have suggested that Canadians made a mighty fine iceberg…
Next up was the pump house – which housed the equipment charged with emptying the dry dock of water to be able to service the hull and underwater systems. Steam generators powered pumps which could quickly empty the gigantic docks.
Now thoroughly drenched, the rain stopped and I made my way back to the city centre to catch a bus to the airport. On my way I picked up some Indian food at a farmer’s market and couldn’t resist a scrumptious looking cupcake!
I was surprised how much water went through my outer shell. I suppose I might need to spray it with some waterproofing product once I’m home.