The port of Belfast in Northern Ireland yesterday celebrated the centenary of the Titanic’s launch, with a religious ceremony and the launch of a distress rocket. It’s now a century since the Titanic was first launched in Belfast harbor on May 31, 1911.
An eventful date, preceding the terrible sinking that followed 10 months later, claiming 1,500 lives after the liner collided with an iceberg on its maiden voyage from Ireland to the USA.
To celebrate this landmark anniversary, Belfast invited its residents to the quayside to pay tribute to the once presumed unsinkable liner. For the occasion, whole families came to the docks, dressed in period costumes, and listened to the Reverend Chris Bennett, who presided over the religious ceremony.
The crowd then applauded for 62 seconds, at 12:13pm, the official time when the Titanic’s 269-meter hull first slid into the waters of Belfast Harbour. Boats in the harbor then sounded their sirens and foghorns in tribute to the liner.
As a reminder, the Titanic was built on the Belfast docks in the 1900s. The terrible tragedy that befell the ship and its passengers in 1912 initially instilled a sense of shame in the town, a feeling that has now been dispelled, thanks to James Cameron’s film. Since then, Belfast’s tourist attractions have included the Belfast Titanic Trail, an audio-guided tour inviting visitors to retrace the steps of the Titanic. A museum dedicated entirely to the liner and its sinking is also due to open by 2012… Over 400,000 tourists are expected in the first year of operation.
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