One year on a long business trip to Brighton, England, I made plans to go exploring on my own.
I took off early on Saturday morning and headed along the southern coast
of England to Southampton. I found the docks and asked an attendant guarding one
of the ports if he knew where the RMS Titanic had been docked. He never cracked
a smile in that business-like British way some folks have and told me that Gate 4 is the one
I’m looking for. I thanked him and headed off to Gate 4 which ironically was not guarded. It sort
of amazed me that there were no safety measures in place and I could have driven my rental car
right off the edge of the dock and into the sea.
I saw the place where the QE III would have been docked, but a sign read that the
great ocean liner was out on a cruise. I found myself drawn to this one spot, so
I parked and was looking around when another attendant came and asked if he
could help me. He greeted me with a smile and was totally different from the
first guard I met. I asked him where the Titanic would have been docked and he
said, “Right here, where you are.” He then showed me a large pylon that would
have been there in 1912 and would have been used to tie the great ship to dock.
This was a thrill. I looked at the empty space and could imagine the brand new
ship sitting there waiting for her maiden voyage.
I took off early on Saturday morning and headed along the southern coast
of England to Southampton. I found the docks and asked an attendant guarding one
of the ports if he knew where the RMS Titanic had been docked. He never cracked
a smile in that business-like British way some folks have and told me that Gate 4 is the one
I’m looking for. I thanked him and headed off to Gate 4 which ironically was not guarded. It sort
of amazed me that there were no safety measures in place and I could have driven my rental car
right off the edge of the dock and into the sea.
I saw the place where the QE III would have been docked, but a sign read that the
great ocean liner was out on a cruise. I found myself drawn to this one spot, so
I parked and was looking around when another attendant came and asked if he
could help me. He greeted me with a smile and was totally different from the
first guard I met. I asked him where the Titanic would have been docked and he
said, “Right here, where you are.” He then showed me a large pylon that would
have been there in 1912 and would have been used to tie the great ship to dock.
This was a thrill. I looked at the empty space and could imagine the brand new
ship sitting there waiting for her maiden voyage.
He then pointed to an old wooden structure that had stairs going up but then lead to nowhere. He told me that this was how the first class passengers would have entered Titanic back in April of 1912. The Structure on top would have gone straight across the road and onto the ship.
This nice man then took my picture sitting on the pylon and left me with my thoughts. I sat there and could literally feel the ship and her ill-fated passengers, as if I was connected to them. It was likened to a religious experience.
Later I drove around Southampton and found a wall which was now inland but back in 1620 was where the Mayflower and the original Pilgrims sailed from to reach America.
I went to a maritime museum and then to a small antique shop called Cobwebs where I purchased original 1912 Titanic memorial postcards. The owner told me that James Cameron and his crew had come there and questioned him extensively.
On my way back to Brighton, I stopped in Portsmouth to see the recently raised Mary Rose, which was part of Henry VIII navy. She was a war ship that sunk back in 1545.
This was a good "gone but not forgotten" day-trip.
This was a good "gone but not forgotten" day-trip.
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