We got that sinking feeling

Our first full day in Ireland had us leaving the country and heading into Northern Ireland. We drove from our castle:

To the shipbuilding port of Belfast and it is noted for building the short-lived:

We stopped at the Titanic Belfast museum. We got there at 11:30AM and stayed until it closed at 5:00PM. It was really informative and well worth the time we spent there.

The main building is shaped in the form of the bow of four ships -- one facing north, south, east and west.

The above photo if you look hard on the left side you will see an outline of the Titanic in silver on the ground. This is the spot where the ship was built and the poles on either side of it represent the metal scaffolding used to build the ship.

This next photo takes a little imagination to understand. It is a large map. The darker tiles are land masses and the lighter tiles are the oceans. The dark tiles in the lower right is Ireland and to the left is Great Britain and the one on top is France. To get the right perspective you are looking from the North Pole south. Now that I have you totally confused let me explain a little more. The line you see that looks like a hook with a tail is the course of the ill fated Titanic. It starts out at Belfast where it was built. The next stop was Southampton, England to pick up passengers and provisions. Then it went over to the coast of France to pick up additional passengers. The last stop is Queenstown (Cobh) Ireland to pick up the final passengers. Most of those that boarded in Ireland were the third class passengers (70% of them perished in the disaster). The benches in the top of the photo are spaced out in Morse code symbolizing the last distress signal sent out by the Titanic.

Our final stop was to tour the ship Nomadic. This ship was used to tender passengers from the coast of France out to the Titanic. The port was too shallow to accommodate the hugh ocean liner.

Well I guess I beat this subject into the ground. I better end here before you fall asleep and crash head first into your computer or drop your smart phone. It's onward to the Giant Causeway tomorrow.

 

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