Into the Deep: Go down with the Titanic

Armed with this tidbit of information on my second-class ticket, I took a deep breath and boarded the Titanic. Not the actual one -- the "unsinkable" luxury liner which collided with an iceberg and sank on April 15, 1912, losing 1,522 lives -- but "Titanic: The Artifact Exhibit."

The exhibit has stopped at ports across the country (the latest was Los Angeles) and docked in Tampa Oct. 4 at the Museum of Science & Industry in Tampa. It's on display until April.

"It's the largest exhibit we've ever had," says Beverly Littlejohn, public relations manager for MOSI. "We've been preparing six months for it. It's impacted our facility area greatly."

The 12,000-plus-square-foot display claims more than 300 artifacts including a 13-ton section of the Titanic hull, the largest artifact recovered from the wreck. There's also everything from first-class dishware to perfume bottles and other personal affects from passengers.

But there's more. There are models of the actual cabins (first and third class) and a simulated iceberg to show just how cold it was the night the ship sank.

To say it's a moving experience is an understatement.

Upon entering the exhibit, each "passenger" receives a boarding pass and takes on the identity of an actual person who was part of that fateful night. That's where I became Mrs. LaRoche from Paris. My 7-year-old companion became 50-year-old third-class passenger Richard Henry Rouse. Poor Mr. Rouse had just lost his job to the coal strike in Kent, England. He was traveling to America via the Titanic to join a daughter in Ohio.

Before entering the exhibit, passengers are offered an audio tour for an extra $5. Although I thought it a bit much at first, I highly recommend it, especially for youngsters who may not know much about the Titanic's history. There are two versions of the tour -- one for adults and one for children -- and each can be accessed by pushing numbers on your headset (which are posted on walls all along the way).

The darkness is eerily appropriate upon entering the exhibit. There's a simple paragraph in white: discussing the legendary luxury liner and ends with the phrase -- "2,228 souls who journeyed with her into history ..."

Several brightly illuminated glass cases containing artifacts are the only light in a sea of darkness: a pair of men's gold spectacles with a lens missing, a bowler hat, a tarnished gold chain handbag, a piece of paper money and a pocket watch in pieces.

The pocket watch seems oddly appropriate as the last personal item, as it leads you to what is considered one of the greatest tragedies in maritime history.

IF YOU GO

What: Titanic: The Artifact Exhibit Where: Museum of Science & Industry, 4801 E. Fowler Ave., Tampa. Cost: Varies. But a first-class ticket, which includes admission to MOSI exhibits as well as "Titanic: The Artifact Exhibit"; and one standard film in the IMAX Dome Theatre -- such as Titanica" and "Ghosts of the Abyss"; is $19.95 for adults, $15.95 for children and $17.95 for seniors. For an extra $5 you can add the audio tour (there's an adult and a child version). Information: (813) 987-6100 Museum Hours: Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.

A boat horn blows in the distance and then passengers -- er, those on the tour -- who hold boarding passes for White Star Line's R.M.S. Titanic, climb aboard.

It's over the threshold and down a long hallway with sparkling white doors. It's just the way first class looked aboard the Titanic.

The hallway empties into a large room with an elaborate rounded staircase which displays a grand chandelier in its midst. It's all life size and eerily disconcerting that it looks so real.

"And who might you be?" A petite and youngish woman in a black hat said to my companion as she put out a gloved hand to him.

He told her his name and she looked somewhat confused. "May I see your boarding pass?" she asked.

My companion nervously passed her his ticket and she smiled. "My, my, Mr. Rouse, you are quite well preserved for your 50 years. I'd have sworn you were but a child."

To this my companion giggled and said he was 7. She waved him off saying the boarding passes never lie, and we moved along to the dining area.

That's the typical M.O. for those re-enacting the events of the Titanic, Littlejohn says. There are a number of professional actors that have been hired to play the parts of certain Titanic passengers. And they always stay in character, no matter what.

"If you say something about the lifeboat, they don't react," Littlejohn says. "They just say 'What lifeboats? Why would we need lifeboats?'"

The actors mill around in the areas of the first-class hallway, dining area and cabin area. They refrain from having people in the sections that depict the ship's demise, though.

THE TITANIC: THEN & NOW

THEN-- Maiden voyage date was March 20, 1912, but it was pushed back to April 10, 1912, when her sister ship, the Olympic, was damaged in an accident and needed to be repaired. -- It cost $7.5 million to build Titanic and carried a $5 million insurance policy. It would cost about $400 million to build today. -- Titanic was 882 feet 9 inches long and 11 stories high. -- It was equipped to carry a total of 3,547 passengers. -- A first-class ticket for a parlor suite on Titanic cost $4,350, which would be about $50,000 today. NOW-- The Titanic's wreck site is located 963 miles northeast of New York and 453 miles southeast of the Newfoundland coastline. -- It lies 2.5 miles beneath the ocean surface. -- Since 1987, six joint U.S., French and Russian expeditions have been conducted to Titanic's wreck site. The last was in 2000. -- It takes about two and a half hours to reach the Titanic wreck site via submersibles.

But the most emotional part of the exhibit has to be the end, where a memory wall stands somberly dedicated to those who survived and those who did not.

Lists of names that represent real people envelop the wall like some sort of mourning cloak. Each passenger on the tour takes the time to find the name they were given as if it were someone they knew and loved. There are shrieks and sighs, both happy and sad. It's very much like what one might imagine happened as family members anxiously pored over the long list of passengers decades ago.

As I searched the wall to find out whether Juliette (the woman on my ticket) was saved or perished, I held my breath. Surely a young family with so much to look forward to would not perish so horribly, so needlessly.

When I found Juliette's name I sighed with relief. I, rather she, had lived. So had her two little girls and the son who'd yet to be born. But upon further research I found her dearly beloved Joseph had died on that fateful trip.

My little companion's passenger had a similar fate. The 50-year-old Mr. Rouse had perished as many of the third-class passengers did that night due to lack of lifeboats.

His eyes filled with tears when he realized, "I didn't make it." And suddenly it became very real and no longer some sort of silly seagoing game.

As Paule Braun, a recent "passenger" of the exhibit, wrote in the log at the end of the tour, "No one seems to fathom the depth of fascination that the Titanic holds for all of us."

And that now includes my 7-year-old son.