Prayers and silence mark Titanic's centenary
Source: Agencies |
April 16, 2012, Monday
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Print Edition
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CRUISE ship passengers and crew said prayers yesterday at the spot in the North Atlantic where the Titanic sank 100 years ago with the loss of more than 1,500 lives, while the city that built the vessel looked back with a mixture of sorrow and pride.
Exactly a century after the ship sank, passengers lined the decks of MS Balmoral, which has been retracing the route of the doomed voyage. After a moment of silence, three floral wreaths were cast onto the waves as the ship's whistle blew in the dark.
Jane Allen from Devon in southwest England, whose great-uncle perished on the Titanic, said the moment vividly reminded her of the horror of the disaster.
"All you could hear was the swell splashing against the side of the ship. You could see the white breakers stretching out to sea," she told the BBC. "You are in the middle of nowhere. And then you look down over the side of the ship and you realize that every man and every woman who didn't make it into a lifeboat had to make that decision, of when to jump or stay on the ship as the lights went out."
Another cruise ship, Journey, which has traveled from New York, also held a service at the site of the disaster, 640 kilometers off the coast of Newfoundland.
The Titanic, the world's largest and most luxurious ocean liner, was traveling from England to New York when it struck an iceberg at 11:40pm on April 14, 1912. It sank less than three hours later, with the loss of all but 700 of the 2,208 passengers and crew.
A century on, events around the globe are marking a tragedy that retains its grip on the world's imagination.
In Belfast, Northern Ireland, where the Titanic was built, a memorial monument was unveiled yesterday at a ceremony attended by local dignitaries, relatives of the dead and explorer Robert Ballard, who discovered the wreck of the Titanic on the ocean floor in 1985.
A brass band played as the granite plinth bearing bronze plaques was uncovered beside Belfast City Hall. Officials say it is the first Titanic memorial to list all victims alphabetically, with no distinction between passengers and crew members, or between first-, second- and third-class travelers.
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