Titanic Exhibit

Yesterday we went down to the Atlanta Civic Center to see the Titanic exhibit. A bit pricey, but well worth it. We spent almost three hours in there looking at the articles recovered from the Titanic.

The White Star Line's R.M.S. Titanic sailed from England and France on it's maiden voyage to the United States on April 10, 1912. However, late on April 14, the ship struck an iceberg and sank in the North Atlantic. Over 1500 people lost their lives. There were 700 that survived, but most of the life boats were only half full, because most of the passengers thought the Titanic was unsinkable.

Items recovered ranged from dishes, bottles, leather bag, shoe, jars (toothpaste jar), razor, shaving brush, pieces of the ship, jewelery, money, both paper and metal, documents, leather case with cigarettes, silverware, bell off the ship, a large piece of coal and other parts of the ship. There was also a recreated 1st Class room, which was quite nice, and a 3rd Class room, accompanied with the sound they would have experienced. It was very noisy from the roar of the ship's engines.

As we entered the exhibit we were handed a Board Pass. Each one was a duplicate of the boarding pass issued to one of the passengers on the ship. It reflected where the passenger was sailing from, their name, age, where they were from and who was accompanying them, the class they were traveling, where they were traveling to, the reason and a passenger fact about that individual. At the end of the exhibit there was a huge list of names on the wall, separated by class--1st Class, 2nd Class or 3rd Class, further separated by survived or lost.

Both our passengers were lost. It was very interesting to note that the largest number of passengers that survived were 1st Class passengers and the larges number of passenger lost were in 3rd Class. Just an observation.

The Little Woman's passenger was sailing form Southhampton (England). Her name was Mrs. Wilhelm Strom (Elna Matilda Persson). She was 29 years old, from Indiana Harbor, IN, accompanied by Selma (daughter, 2 years old) and Ernst Ulrik Persson (brother). They were traveling in 3rd Class to Indiana Harbor, Indiana. They had been visiting relatives at Julita farm, Sodermanland, Sweden. A few days before Elna planned to leave Sweden, her daughter Selma badly scalded her hand. This forced them to cancel their originally scheduled trip and book passage on Titanic. While on board, Selma had to visit the Ship's doctor every day.

Hubby's passenger was sailing from Cherbourg (France). His name was Mr. Engelhart Cornelius Ostby, age 65, from Providence, Rhode Island, accompanied by Helene Ragnhild Ostgy (daughter). They were traveling 1st Class to Providence, Rhode Island. Every year since 1906, Engelhart and Helene traveled to Europe together. A very successful jeweler, Engelhart made an annual trip to Europe to see what other jewelers were doing. In 1912, he and Helene also took a vacation through Southern Europe and Egypt. Engelhart's jewelry shop, Ostby & Barton, was the largest producer of gold rings in the world.

This was a very sobering exhibit. Well worth the money and time.


These are the two boarding passes given to us as we entered the exhibit.