I’m bit of a history nerd. I love history, 1800 to 1950 history is my favourite. When I heard that the Titanic – The Artefact Exhibition was coming to South Africa, I just had to make to go. So in true homeschooler fashion, I arranged a field trip for our local homeschoolers. What better way to introduce your children to your love of history, than to show them actual artefacts that were on the ship 103 years ago!
When we arrived, we saw that they had a few items that the kids could explore while we waited for the rest of our “party” to arrive. The kids played with the speed control from an old steam boat (similar to the one used on the Titanic) outside of the Titanic Exhibition centre. They spent ages playing with it with their friends. One of the staff from the exhibition explained the use and controls of it to the children too. The boys, especially, found that extremely fascinating.
We were unfortunately not allowed to take photographs of the exhibits due to the age of the exhibits and the effect of the flash on them (that’s their story, and they’re sticking to it). That was very disappointing. The pictures below can all be found on the Titanic Expo website link above.
There was reference to a South African passanger and his family in one of the exhibits. I found more information on that family here.
These were our admission tickets. Each ticket had the information of one of the passengers (1st, 2nd and 3rd class) on the back. It was really interesting to read about these different people.
I did, however, buy a few momentos to keep for years to come. A pack of Titanic cards, an informational book and a coffee mug (for those of you that are unaware, I collect mugs, this was the perfect memento for me).
The Titanic Society South Africa also had a hall dedicated to the South African Titanic artefacts at the exhibition. I didn’t even know there was a Titanic Society in South Africa!
You can watch the full History Channel documentary on the Titanic below (This is the same video they had playing at the exhibition):
