Titanic memorial service held at the wreck site

Updated
Titanic memorial service held at the wreck site
Titanic memorial service held at the wreck site

AP


Earlier today, the 1,309 passengers aboard the Titanic Memorial Cruise, which is retracing the route of the doomed liner, attended memorial services in tribute to the 1,512 people who lost their lives.

Passengers and crew held two services at the site of the disaster, 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland. The first marked the time when the ship hit the iceberg (11.40pm) and the second was held at 2.20am today, the time that the ship sank.

The BBC reports that passengers held a minutes's silence and wreaths were cast into the sea in tribute to those who lost their lives 100 years ago.

Passengers on the Balmoral listened in silence as the names of these who died were read out.

One passenger, Jane Allen, whose great uncle, Thomas Pears, was one of those who died, told the BBC:

"It was just so eerily quiet.

"And then you look down over the side of the ship and you realise that every man and woman who was not fortunate enough to get into a lifeboat had to make that decision of when to jump or stay with the ship, until the lights went out.

"And when the lights went out it must have been horrendous. We witnessed that tonight."

A number of memorials and commemorative events have taken place around the world. The Titanic was built at the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast and thousands attended remembrance services in Northern Ireland, including a concert at the city's Waterfront Hall last night.

A choral requiem at the St Anne's Cathedral was followed by a torch-lit procession to the new Titanic Memorial Garden in the grounds of Belfast city hall. Inside the memorial garden, the names of all the victims of the tragedy have been engraved on five bronze plaques on a plinth nine metres wide.

It is the first time that the names of everyone who died has been recoded on one monument as many of the existing memorials fail to include the names of the crew or musicians.

Names are listed in alphabetical order with no distinction between first class passengers or crew.

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