One Titanic Exhibit

The $22 I spent to get into the ongoing Titanic exhibit at the Metreon in San Francisco wouldn't have even gotten me a 3rd class passage on the real Titanic ship back in 1911. In fact, a third class ticket or "steerage" class ticket back then would have cost $38 or an equivalent $700+ by today's standards. A first class ticket would have cost me $2500 or a whopping modern day's equivalent of $78,000. That's just some of the interesting trivia I learned today.

Note for photography buffs: there was absolutely no photography allowed inside because of the extreme monitoring for UV lights on the artifacts. Some portions of the exhibit had fiber optic lights (according to my friend Horace) and using flash was equivalent to a year's sunlight exposure. The only object we were allowed to shoot was this big model ship.

All that's missing are one inch Leo and Kate dolls.

The exhibit itself was amazing. With all the Discovery documentaries, corny Rose and Jack references and books written, the Titanic story has been retold over and over again. But this time, the exhibit allowed the actual recovered artifacts to tell the story. It finally became real for me. Items such as shaving implements, letters written to loved ones, leather luggage and jewelry were on display, perfectly preserved by sea water and time. But what saddened me the most were the stories of the hundreds of immigrants on board, who dreams drowned in the Atlantic Ocean that fateful night.


As we entered the exhibit, we were all given replica boarding passes and assigned "characters." I was Mrs. Nils Palsson. Towards the end of the exhibit, you could check if your character survived the tragedy. I didn't =(