Getaway Guide To A Titanic Anniversary
This week marks the anniversary of a maritime disaster that became synonymous with catastrophic ship wrecks. It was 101 years ago that the "Unsinkable" Titanic, sunk. It proved no match for a giant iceberg that ripped open its hull, sending the pride of the White Star line to the bottom of the north Atlantic and doomed 1,500 passengers and crew. But the Titanic isn't the only shipwreck that sparks the imagination and prompts getaways to memorials, museums, connected locations and events. There was the Andrea Doria, the Lusitania, Normandie and of local interest, HMS De Braak. So let's cast off in search of places and events to satisfy our fascination with the perils of those who venture on the sea. -- Jay Lloyd
RMS TITANIC
We know what happened. The stories have been told through popular media - books and film. But there are also vivid displays of Titanic artifacts and moments frozen in time from New York to Ireland that welcome visitors for a unique experience. A small seaport town on the Southwest coast of Ireland was the last landfall and passenger embarkation port for the ill-fated ship. The city of Cohb, then Queenstown maintains a museum that encompasses the White Star ticket office and pier where the Titanic cast off. If you get to county Cork, here's what you'll find in Cohb: www.titanicexperiencecobh.ie/
Halifax, Nova Scotia and the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic holds Titanic artifacts including deck chairs that bobbed to the surface. Nearby, the Five Fisherman restaurant which had been the funeral home where first class Titanic victims were brought, occasionally serves a menu straight from Titanic's top-tier dining room: www.fivefishermen.com/ And at New York's South Street Seaport you'll find a lighthouse memorial to the passengers and crew that perished on the fabled ship's first and only voyage.
ANDREA DORIA
On July 26th 1956, the Andrea Doria, pride of the Italian Line, filled with fine works of art, glistening chandeliers and considered, the epitome of elegance was struck by the Swedish freighter Stockholm and sank off Nantucket. Philadelphia awoke that morning to learn that its mayor, Richardson Dilworth was aboard the foundering ship. He and his wife were among the 1,600 plus survivors. Forty-six passengers and crew died. I woke that morning at the Coast Guard barracks in Portsmouth, Virginia with an urgent call to report to the Rescue Coordination Center in Norfolk to assist with communications for a massive rescue operation that involved cutters and aircraft, dispatched from as far as Bermuda. If your summer travels include a visit to Nantucket, make a stop at the Lifesaving and Shipwreck Museum where curators are preparing special exhibits and events to mark the 60th anniversary of the dramatic Andrea Doria sinking. www.nantucketshipwreck.org/shipwreck-lifesaving-museum/about/
SS NORMANDIE
She was fast, sleek and luxurious. The SS Normandy was a voyaging ambassador of French culture and cuisine, sailing the Atlantic between Le Havre and New York. With her maiden voyage in 1935 she became the flagship of the French Line, a rival of the Titanic's White Star Line. But by 1942, the Vishy government in Paris under Nazi control was no longer an ally in world war two. The Normandy was seized in New York and was being converted for use as a troop ship at pier 88. Suddenly she caught fire. The blaze was fueled by kapok life jackets. The water poured into the hull to douse the fire capsized the ship and left it a smoldering wreck. There is still a lingering question over whether a Nazi saboteur set the blaze. Today the Normandie's dock is the New York Cruise Terminal alongside the Intrepid Air, Sea and Space Museum. Well worth a visit on any New York getaway. If you're in Annapolis, Maryland, chandeliers salvaged from the Normandie are hanging in Harry Browne's restaurant on the Capitol Circle. And yes, I did see the capsized ship in its dock. I was 7 and dad wanted to have a look.
HMS DE BRAAK
It was a warm summer night in 1986. A fantasy of sunken treasure swept spectator boats just off the Delaware Bay and Cape Henlopen as spotlights bathed the crane that was about to raise the hull of a long-ago shipwrecked British Man-O'-War. The De Braak was believed to be carrying millions in captured Spanish treasure when it was smashed by a storm in 1798. KYW reported on the salvage effort and the first sight of the ship's carcass being raised. Rising slowly, it appeared like a grotesque skeleton dripping water and caked in mud. Then the unthinkable. The wreck came apart. Artifacts, coins, cannons and the bones of 48 dead crewmen fell back into the sea. Some artifacts and coins were salvaged and others were recovered by divers. But if there ever was a treasure trove it is now no more than a lost fantasy. Visitors to the Zwaanendael Museum at Lewes, Delaware can experience the De Braak saga through artifacts, art and a scale model. The remains of the broken hull are at nearby Cape Henlopen State Park. Get there by ferry from Cape May and voyage over the track of HMS De Braak. history.delaware.gov/museums/zm/zm_main.shtml
As long as we go to sea in ships, there will be shipwrecks. The more dramatic of these events will continue to become a part of our history and folk-lore and the story tellers stock in trade.
