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Belfast needs a Titanic replica
Tuesday, 6 January 2009
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I have been to Long Beach in California where the Queen Mary has been converted into a hotel — a really marvellous feat.
I have also been in New Zealand where I met people
who recognised from my accent that I was from Belfast.
The only thing that they knew about the city was that the Titanic was built there.
They were surprised when I told them that there was no recognition of the Titanic in the city, other than a drinking fountain in the grounds of Belfast City Hall.
My idea of a memorial would be, as others have suggested, a replica of the liner in the dock, converted into a hotel with rooms on the lower deck containing relevant information such as designers, builders, crew members and passenger list. If Long Beach and Dubai can convert liners into hotels, surely Belfast can come up with a similar idea? I might add that my grandfather was a crew member and lost aboard the ship.|
S PORTER
Ballymoney
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24 Comments
yea mate i agree i have been in to the titanic since i was 10 and i would love nothing more than seeing a replica built its one of the biggest diasters in history other than 911 i mean if they can build a 911 memorial rebuild a replica
Posted by oliver | 09.04.09, 00:47 GMT
Ah, well the Queen Mary's conversion into a hotel reminds me of how easy it is to give a ship a second life, a new purpose.
Now with regard to Titanic, if only the Great Depression of the 30s hadn't doomed the Olympic, if she had gone on to serve until the 1950s (a ship like that surely would have made it through WWII!), well, can you imagine what a future she would have had? While I realize that Olympic isn't Titanic, we musn't forget that these ships were near identical and the thought alone of Olympic's potential as both a floating hotel and a vivid reminder of her lost sister makes me want to curse Cunard for their carelessly looking down on the White Star line legacy they inherited.
At this point, I really don't know what would have been more probable: Olympic having escaped a one-way trip to the scrapyard and having been converted into a floating hotel/museum, or rebuilding Titanic and using it as a hotel?
Posted by Kelly | 10.03.09, 19:32 GMT
This is all fine but just not good enough i can and will rebuild titnaic people have been talking about it for years now and so far know one has really stepped in to build it well i will do it and am working on it right now so if you are with me then lets get it done!
Posted by jAY | 06.03.09, 09:05 GMT
Wrong Tom, Andrews was as Irish as Big Ian or Gerry Adams.
Born in Comber he later attended BRA.
Little known fact, he was also the younger brother to future Northern Ireland Prime Minister John Miller Andrews.
It was actually RBAI that he attended.
Posted by Roy | 21.01.09, 09:52 GMT
Wrong Tom, Andrews was was as Irish as Big Ian or Gerry Adams.
Born in Comber he later attended BRA.
Little known fact, he was also the younger brother to future Northern Ireland Prime Minister John Miller Andrews.
Posted by mickey | 13.01.09, 16:28 GMT
Thomas Andrews was a failure as the sinking of the titanic proved. the only grace is thank God he wasn't an Irishman.
Posted by Tom | 13.01.09, 11:33 GMT
Bemused, your comments are wrong. Andrews never, never said this ship was unsinkable. It was a corrupt shipping comany who said "unsinkable". The genius, the "Bill Gates" of Belfast, Thomas Andrews, died with this genius... his ship. Your comments are cruel to a man of such genius. A man who does us honor, regardless of where we are. He was not a failure. He is, was genuis of the wrong time, the wrong place. A horror as great as great as the sinking of this ship.
Posted by lanelle | 12.01.09, 01:20 GMT
Steven below uses the 750,000 going to the Giant's Causeway every year as a basis to be confident of gaining 400,000 people per year. Hate to burst his bubble but...
(1) The estimate of 750,000 is based upon the number of cars using the nearby car-park. With a hotel near-by, double-yellow lines in the immediate vacinity and a compiler who has a vested interest, how accurate do you think this estimate is?
(2) The Causeway is FREE. How much do you think the Titanic Project will be?
(3) How many entrance fee paying attractions get 400,000 visitors per year in Northern Ireland? The top attraction in 2007 was the Zoo at 300,000 and that attracts children which this attraction most certainly won't (Source: NITB).
(4) No private company has stepped up to the plate as they recognise what a money pit this project is.i
Posted by Nate | 09.01.09, 21:10 GMT
T.B. You are SO wrong. We did NOT build a failure, the failure came in the form of the ships captain. We can STILL be proud of our heritage and the Titanic is a part of that.
Posted by Stu. | 09.01.09, 20:49 GMT
We built one of the biggest failures in history. Any other nation would hide its head in shame at the mention of its name.Why should we waste further national resources to glamourise a titanic failure!
Posted by TB | 09.01.09, 16:28 GMT
If they are renovating the Titanic Centre what better topping that a replica of the majestic ship in that area?, then tourists could visit and even stay in the ship
Posted by Stu. | 08.01.09, 23:28 GMT
I agree totally. I have been waiting for a long time to win a Euromillions jackpot so I could rebuild the Titanic and do just this! Perhaps there are some enterprising buisinessmen out there who don't need a jackpot to fund this winning idea?
Posted by Niki | 08.01.09, 15:08 GMT
I would be 100% behind a Titanic themed hotel/conference centre, it would be fantastic to see on the Belfast skyline, how iconic a symbol for the rest of the world, a glorious replica of the worlds most famous ship sitting with the H&W cranes behind it!
The Giant's Causeway recorded over 750,000 visitors last year, so why people don't believe that 400,000 visitors for a major attraction in Belfast is not achievable is beyond me?
Whether people like it or not, the Titanic is the most famous ship in the world and people are interested in it. I regularly have people visit Belfast for work reasons from the UK, the Netherlands, Finland, Denmark, Sweden etc, and I have taken all of them to see where the Titanic was built, and they all want to get out of the car to look at an empty dry dock, yet people are trying to tell me that a replica would not be successful?
I just don't get some of the negativity, but the majority of posts to date have been very pro a Titanic exhibit.
Posted by Steven73 | 07.01.09, 18:52 GMT
Why not buy up an old cruise ship and decorate her like one of the earlier liners? That would probably be cheaper, I guess, than simply building a replica from scratch. However, a lot of nipping and tucking may be required (conversion of windows into portholes, making hulls a bit rounder, taking off parts of superstructure, etc.)
Posted by Rickyrab | 07.01.09, 16:21 GMT
Nate, depends on what is finally unveiled. There can be little or no attraction in the 'star-shaped building' which has been mooted. In which case I concur with your forecast of massive losses.
The same could not be said of a replica (or near replica) of the ship itself.
Posted by mickey | 07.01.09, 15:54 GMT
"It was an engineering feat". Which 'feat' was the more impressive? That it sank on its maiden voyage, despite being proclaimed 'unsinkable'? Or that it was engineered to have far too few lifeboats, ensuring that over 1,500 men, women and children died unnecessarily?
As someone born and bred in Belfast I'd prefer no 'celebration' of this shame upon our great city.
Posted by Bemused | 07.01.09, 13:50 GMT
Mickey,
Interesting point. In 2007 the Transport Museum (with artefacts incorporated) was visited by 169,ooo visitors, each paying £7 (source www.nitb.com). The Tourist Board now expects at least 400,000 to visit this attraction, paying perhaps £12 a visit. Does the Tourist Board's estimate, given this information, seem reasonable? Methinks I forecast a massive loss incurred every year.
Posted by Nate | 07.01.09, 13:44 GMT
Ian - you say "How many visitors go and view the Titanic artefacts at the transport museum - not many"
Please provide your reasons for reaching this conclusion.
Posted by mickey | 07.01.09, 10:08 GMT
As an ex H & W worker, I think it's laudable that Belfast should celebrate its heritage including that of the Titanic irrespective of whether it sank or not. It was an engineering feat and the continuance in service of its sister ships were testimony to that. However I question the value of a replica, with hotel or otherwise. NI, and the whole island is a small market for such an artifact and even if the number of tourists visiting annually were to were to double and all visited it (which is unlikely) I doubt the operating costs would be met. How many visitors go and view the Titanic artefacts at the transport museum - not many! This replica plan is a white elephant which will be nothing but a tax burden in a few years, competing with hotels, bars and other ampitheatres in Belfast for a limited market. How many times would its supporters visit it in a year and how much would they invest in a visit!
Nice idea, 'heritagey' and all that but not real world stuff.
Posted by Ian | 07.01.09, 02:03 GMT
Over 20 millions people have visited the Titanic artifacts exhibitions. I have stood in line in Los Angeles, London, Baltimore, Orlando and Stockholm.
Titanic is the only ship people have heard about. A lot of the people who built the RMS Titanic worked on the RMS Olympic, HMS Glorious and HMS Belfast. One I know of worked on Titanic and Canberra.
It is a memory to the people.
Posted by Jim | 06.01.09, 20:15 GMT
24 Comments