Titanic centenary carnival: 'Bad taste' or a fitting tribute?

PA

Liverpool council has organised a three-day 'sea odyssey' parade to commemorate 100 years since the Titanic sunk on 15 April, 1912.

But the £2 million carnival idea, funded by the European and Arts Council, hasn't gone down well with everyone: particularly 56-year-old Clifford Ismay, a relative of the J Bruce Ismay, who founded White Star Line, the company which built the Titanic.

He believes that holding a street carnival is not a fitting tribute to a disaster that caused 1,500 fatalities.

He told the Daily Mail: "The words remembrance and memorial would be more fitting. There are still a lot of people around who lost relatives aboard the Titanic.

"I don't like the idea of commemorating the loss of lives and the sinking of Titanic with a parade. It really is very insensitive."
The RMS Titanic set off to New York from Southampton, but Liverpool was her registered home port, and Captain James Smith, as well as Ismay, hailed from the city.

J Bruce Ismay survived the Titanic by escaping on a lifeboat, and lived in London until his death in 1937.

The carnival in Liverpool is just one of a host of events being organised across the world to commemorate the Titanic centenary.

Bristol-based travel agency Miles Morgan have even organised a Titanic Memorial Cruise, a voyage that will replicate the doomed vessel's route to New York.

The 1,309 passengers and 500 crew will sail on the Fred Olsen liner, Balmoral.

According to the-titanic.com, the ship will leave Southampton, and call at Cobh, County Cork on 9 April, before heading out to visit the ship's final resting place.

Titanic experts will be offering lectures and debates, and a service of remembrance will take place between 11.40pm on the 14 April, the time when Titanic struck the iceberg, and 2.20am on the 15th, the time when the ship slipped below the surface of the water.

From there, the ship heads to the port of Halifax, Nova Scotia. It is here that the bodies of around 200 Titanic passengers and crew were brought ashore and buried in local cemeteries.

Passengers can spend two days in Halifax before continuing down the coast to New York. Balmoral arrives there on the morning of 20 April.

Susie Millar, the great granddaughter of Titanic engineer Thomas Millar, is lecturing on board the ship and will be providing TV and radio coverage for BBC Northern Ireland.

She told the-titanic.com: "For me the big moment will be our arrival in New York Harbour. To be able to complete Tommy's journey for him a hundred years later will be such an emotional thing. I am sure he never imagined his great granddaughter would be honouring him in this way."


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