In the birthplace of the Titanic, residents
gathered for a choral requiem. In the North Atlantic ,
above the ship’s final resting place, passengers will pray as a band strikes up
a hymn and three floral wreaths are cast onto the waves.
A century after the great ship
went down with the loss of 1,500 lives, events around the globe are marking a
tragedy that retains a titanic grip on the world’s imagination — an icon of
Edwardian luxury that became, in a few dark hours 100 years ago, an enduring
emblem of tragedy
Helen Edwards, one of 1,309 passengers on
memorial cruise aboard the liner Balmoral who have spent the past week steeped
in the Titanic’s history and symbolism, said Saturday that the story’s
continuing appeal was due to its strong mixture of romance and tragedy, history
and fate.
“(There are) all the factors that came
together for the ship to be right there, then, to hit that iceberg. All the
stories of the passengers who ended up on the ship,” said Edwards, a
62-year-old retiree from Silver Spring ,
Maryland
“Romance is an appropriate word right up until
the time of the tragedy — the band playing, the clothes. And then there’s the
tragedy.”
The world’s largest and most luxurious ocean
liner, Titanic was traveling from England
to New York
Aboard the Balmoral, a cruise ship taking
history buffs and descendants of Titanic victims on the route of the doomed
voyage, passengers and crew will hold two ceremonies at the site of the
disaster, 400 miles (640 kilometers) off the coast of Newfoundland — one
marking the time when the ship hit the iceberg, the other the moment it sank
below the waves.
At 2:20 a.m. ship’s time on Sunday — 0547 GMT
or 12:47 a.m. EDT — a minister will lead prayers, floral wreaths will be thrown
into the sea and a shipboard band, which has been entertaining guests in the
evenings during the cruise, will play “Nearer My God To Thee,” the tune the
Titanic’s band kept up as the vessel went down.
“I don’t think there will be a dry eye,” said
Derek Chambers of Belfast , Northern Ireland
Edwards will, earlier, hold her own private
act of remembrance. She is carrying the ashes of family friend Adam Lackey, a
Titanic buff from Montana
Passengers aboard the cruise, which left Southampton , England
Some of the passengers have a direct link to
the ship, through an ancestor who was onboard. Most feel some sort of
connection to an event whose ripples have resonated for a century. Edwards said
the lives of her grandparents, who married in 1911, were marked by the disaster
even though they lived far away in Montana
“They had talked about going back to Sweden
Another cruise ship, Journey, left New York
In Belfast ,
Northern Ireland
The city spent decades scarred by its link to
the disaster, but has come to take pride in the feats of engineering and
industry involved in building the Titanic.
The memorial concert featured performances by
Bryan Ferry and soul singer Joss Stone, as well as 100 drummers beating out a
new percussion work, “Titanic Drums.” In film clips, actors including Kenneth
Branagh, Simon Callow and Imelda Staunton read from contemporary accounts of
those who built the ship and sailed on it.
At the cathedral, the performance of composer
Philip Hammond’s “The Requiem for the Lost Souls of the Titanic” was being
followed by a torch-lit procession to the Titanic Memorial in the grounds of Belfast
In the ship’s departure port
of Southampton , an orchestra played
composer Gavin Bryars’ work “The Sinking of the Titanic,” and a commemoration
is planned in Halifax , Nova Scotia
The most famous maritime disaster in history
was being marked even in places without direct links to it.
Venues in Las Vegas ,
San Diego , Houston
and Singapore
The centenary of the disaster has been marked
with a global outpouring of commemoration and commerce. Events have ranged from
the opening of a glossy new tourist attraction telling the ship’s story in Belfast
