honesty | insight | and iced coffee.: white star line - Catherine Rizk & Johannes Van de Velde

last night michael & i went to the titanic exhibit at the MTS exhibition hall. i have wanted to go since it opened, and so we finally got around to going. turns out we went on the "anniversary" week. i warned michael that i would likely take a really long time looking around because i wanted to read each description & look over each photograph & artifact. something about the titanic fascinates me in such a incredible & sad way.

i love going on trips & i love cruises. it's amazing to me how grand they can make boats, and that they stay perfectly afloat & upright. i think the titanic fascinates me because it was so grand & ornate. they have a suite set up like one of the bedrooms in a first class suite. some people got suites with 4 or 5 rooms and the cost for that was equal to 10 years wages (for the average person) or around $100,000 today. every little detail was thought of when it came to the decorating. and the experience. it would have been so grand.

it also struck me how much of a contrast there is between the classes. the 3rd class passengers stayed in rooms with 6 or 8 people in bunk beds. and there were only 2 bathtubs for all of the 3rd class passengers (over 700) to share (whereas the first class passengers all had their own tubs). the 3rd class passengers on the titanic were treated better than 2nd class passengers on other ships, so no one was really complaining! they had to pay approx the equivalent of $900 today to be a 3rd class passenger.

1st class passengers had so many extras. reading rooms. smoking rooms. promenades. the grand stair case. the 3rd class passengers weren't even allowed on the upper decks! how interesting.

it struck me with sadness when we were walking through the exhibit on the way to the actual sinking portion.. on the black walls there are warnings written in stark white. warnings - multiple warnings - of huge ice bergs & being surrounded by ice. warnings to slow down & to be careful. it struck me how our own pride so often brings us to catastrophe. they wanted to make headlines. titanic was "unsinkable" - so they went on. one of the quotes on the wall is from the designer of the titanic. who wasn't going to originally go on the voyage, but his partner was ill so he stepped in. when the iceberg hit, they went to him for reassurance. and he had to swallow his pride & say that there was no discussion needed. titanic would be under the ocean in a few hours.

so many people. so much chaos. so much shock. so little space for passengers. so much loss.

in the exhibit they have an "iceberg" and its the one thing in the exhibit that you are invited to touch. putting your hand on the ice for even 10 seconds started to give me an idea of how awful this was. it was so cold. afterwards, my hand burned where the ice had been. on the way home michael was saying "imagine that ice being everywhere, and the wind that is blowing around picks up all that cold & just surrounds you with it" it makes me so sad to imagine the fear that people experienced as they tried to tread water & survive.

such a grand ship ending in such a grand disaster.

when you enter the exhibit you are giving a boarding pass. on the back you have information about a passenger, and you are invited to be that passenger as you walk through the exhibit and try to imagine it all from their perspective. at the end of the exhibit you can find your name on the list, as either a survivor, or as one of the many that was lost. michael & i were both 3rd class passengers.

he was mr. johannes joseph van de velde, age 36, travelling alone. he was an out of work weaver, convinced by an official at his local White Star Line office that he should travel to the united states on titanic, where he could find good paying farm labor. He had been to the United States three times before. He most likely convinced many of the other 15 Belgian third-class passengers to travel with him on titanic. he was one of the many that died with titanic.

i was mrs. peter joseph (Catherine Rizk), age 24, travelling with my 2 children, michael (6 years old) and anna (2 years old). her husband sent her & the children back to Lebanon in order to save money. by april, however, peter sent for them to return. She suffered from tuberculosis, she may have also traveled to Lebanon to be in a healthier climate. she was one of the few survivors. (there is no mention of the kids names, on either list, so i assumed they were saved with their mom).

it was incredible to see the many things they have recovered. and to journey through this, trying to imagine it from someone else's perspective. i encourage you to go see it. it's well worth it.