Titanic Belfast reopened in March with four new themed galleries and a huge, illuminated scale model of the RMS Titanic. The reimagined Titanic Experience introduces ‘The Pursuit of Dreams’ as a new theme. It uses immersive technology combined with the authentic Titanic story in the refreshed spaces, ‘Never Again’, ‘Ballard’s Quest’, ‘The Ship of Dreams’, and ‘The Lasting Legacy’.
In the attraction‘s new themed galleries, guests learn about the hopes and dreams of the ship’s passengers and explore their lives and stories. They can also discover facts about the people who built the RMS Titanic in Belfast and those who found the wreck.
The centrepiece is a 7.6m-long scale model of the ship, suspended from the ceiling and fully rotating. Replicated on a 1:35 scale, the ship includes some of the Titanic’s main features, such as lifeboats, propellers, the engine, cranes, bridge, main staircase and chimneys.
New giant replica
Judith Owens MBE, chief executive of Titanic Belfast, says:
“Bringing this fabulous replica Titanic model to life through light and giving visitors the chance to immerse themselves in the dreams and stories of the passengers [is] very powerful. Facts and details are fascinating, but personal stories connect emotionally. By combining both, the reimagined Titanic Experience focusing on the pursuit of dreams [adds] a whole new dimension to the ship that has captivated people from around the world for 111 years.”
The revitalization is the culmination of a five-year project:
“We started this off in 2018, when we went out to international tender, and appointed designers in Amsterdam to support this. Since then, we’ve been working with designers, spatial engineers, filmmakers, animators, musical composers and AV specialists. We’ve been trying to deliver something that we wanted to be very special. I think that’s what we’ve achieved.”
New galleries at Titanic Belfast
She describes the galleries as a play in three acts:
“The first act was the introduction to Belfast and our past, explaining why we were in a place to be able to build the biggest ship in the world, and then the building of the ship. Act two was the ship’s launching, the fit-out, and the fateful evening.
“It was the aftermath that we saw as the final act. We always felt that whilst the final act was good – all of our galleries have had strong visitor feedback – it didn’t provide the emotional connection we wanted our guests to have when they were leaving. So that’s what we did. Way back in 2018, we called this the Next Big Thing.”
The theme running through the four new galleries is now called The Pursuit of Dreams:
“We took the last three galleries and reimagined them into four new galleries. They represent the pursuit of the dreams of the people that built Titanic way back in the early 1900s, the pursuit of the dreams of those people that were on board; those people going to a new life in America – and then also of the people such as Robert Ballard, who dreamed so many years later of finding Titanic.”
Never Again
The first of these galleries is Never Again. This looks at the sequence of events that came together to result in the Titanic sinking. Owens comments:
“It wasn’t just one thing. There was a domino effect, so that gallery has a row of eight-foot dominos. On each of them, we take one of the reasons why the Titanic sank. It might have been because there was, at that stage, much more ice in the path that they were taking than ever before. She was going too fast, and the emergency procedures weren’t carried out the way they should have been.”
“Then the one that’s really important to me is the fact that one of the engineers, David Blair, was reassigned from Titanic just before she sailed. He left the ship with the binocular box keys in his pocket unwittingly. That meant they didn’t have access to the binoculars. We actually have those very keys as one of the artefacts.
“It’s so poignant that something so small made such a big difference. The weight of significance attached to those keys is incredible.”
New artefacts at Titanic Belfast
Nineteen new artefacts have been introduced to this gallery.
“These are some of the world’s most important Titanic artefacts,” she says. “We have used original footage and stories, and combined it with some animation that has been created to bring it more to life. We also worked with a composer to introduce a beautiful bespoke music score. Then we have the immersive technology and the artefacts. It is all seamless. I wouldn’t be able to pinpoint one element or another that drove more emotion, for me. It works together as an emotional journey.”
Before emerging from the Never Again gallery, visitors experience the first-hand views of the people that were on board, in terms of both the American and the British inquiries.
“We then go into a period which we are calling the Void,” Owens explains. “It is that period of time between Titanic’s sinking, and Robert Ballard’s quest to find her. As a very young boy, Ballard started off wanting to be the world’s most famous oceanographer and explorer. We look at his journey, and then at how he came to be in the position to find her.”
Finding the Titanic
It was a top-secret US Navy mission that enabled Ballard to fulfil his ambition of finding the lost ship.
Unable to source sufficient funding to complete his ground-breaking equipment, an unmanned deep-towed undersea video camera sled, he approached deputy chief of naval operations, Ronald Thunman, for help. Thurman struck a bargain: Ballard would be allowed to hunt for the Titanic if he promised to find two US nuclear submarines that were on the Atlantic Ocean floor, the Thresher and the Scorpion.
“This is the first time that we’ve focused on this story,” she says. “Ballard had the technology, in terms of Argo.”
Argo was the system of television cameras and sonars that helped find the Titanic. This was named after the ship that carried the mythical Jason on his quest for the Golden Fleece:
“The Navy wanted the technology,” Owens continues. “But they weren’t interested in finding Titanic. So they said: ‘You do what we want you to do, and then you can do what you want to do. Find submarines and record the information that we want. And whatever time you have left on the expedition, you can use to find Titanic.’
“In the end, he only had 12 days left. It’s incredible. It makes my hair stand up on the back of my neck, though I’ve lived this story for 11 years. For seven days, they saw nothing but the same mundane thing. Then they found the boiler. Just as they were cracking open the champagne, they realised they were dancing on people’s graves – and that it was almost 2.20 in the morning, which was the time she had sunk.”
The Ship of Dreams
The extent to which people are connecting with the new galleries has taken Owens by surprise:
“We had 400 tour operators at a dinner last night in Belfast and took them around. It was interesting to see how everyone connects with the galleries in their own way. It’s so powerful and immersive that you just forget about the 1997 movie.”
The next gallery at Titanic Belfast is the Ship of Dreams:
“It’s the penultimate gallery, and in it, we have a 7.4 meter suspended and rotating scaled version of Titanic.”
This gallery is an immersive, reflective journey. The floor-to-ceiling projections of the people connected with Titanic, those who built her, sailed on her; those travelling to New York to start a new life, or those who dreamt of finding her when she was lost, are in sync with the ship, which transforms with each projected dream. The exhibit is elevated by a bespoke music score. This was composed by Stijn Hosman from Amsterdam, with Belfast native Maebh Martin playing the Irish fiddle.
“It’s like a film in six parts,” Owens explains. “The ship’s colours change as different parts light up. When we’re in the second scene, which is about the shipyard, her boilers light up. When we are in the love scene, which is about the families and the people that were on board, then she glows red. Then, when we are in the very dramatic scene where she hits the iceberg, her little lifeboats all light up. It’s very symbolic.”
She was initially worried that people wouldn’t understand the exhibit’s significance:
“But they really are getting it. It feels, to me, like such a good summary of all the galleries, allowing you really to reflect on the whole story.”
Titanic Belfast’s mission
Ground was broken on Titanic Belfast in 2009; it opened on 31 March 2012. Owens explains:
“Titanic Belfast came on the back of the Good Friday agreement, one of the strands of which was developing tourism. The project itself came out of a 2004 framework document. This identified five signature projects in Northern Ireland to provide international standout – basically, putting Belfast on the map for reasons that aren’t part of our troubled past.
“A group of civil servants and private developers looked at the options, and at the centenary of Titanic, and from that grew a vision of producing something that would commemorate that centenary, and bring the Titanic brand, – at the time it was a leading world brand – back to Belfast, where it all began.”
When Titanic film director James Cameron visited Titanic Belfast, he said that if he were to make the movie again, he would include the city:
“The film starts in Southampton, where she set sail on her maiden voyage to New York. But he firmly believes that this place was where she was born. You can feel that when you’re here.”
The focus of the attraction’s nine galleries is not primarily on Titanic’s sinking:
“They are about the innovation that came out of a little place called Belfast, which had so many of the finest industries in the world, the biggest shipyard in the world, and was building the biggest ship in the world.”
A commercial operation with a heart
Titanic Belfast has now been open for 11 years:
“We have welcomed over 7 million visitors from 145 countries across the world, which is great. 75% of our visitors are international, and that rises to 90% at the height of our season. In our first decade, we have returned £430 million to the local economy. We work – especially after COVID – as an enabler for the destination in terms of inbound travel.”
The Titanic Belfast building is owned by a trust that permits the attraction to operate as a commercial operation. Owens comments:
“Somebody described us recently as a commercial operation with a heart. That heart is Titanic, and the greater community that we live in.”
Creating Titanic Belfast: a collaborative project
She details the companies responsible for delivering the project:
“We went out to international tender in 2018. We expected to have one designer respond. But we actually got two who worked together, and that worked really well for us.”
Opera Amsterdam and content designers Studio Louter worked closely to design and deliver the project.
“Studio Louter focused closely on the history and the emotions,” she says. “We also brought in animators, ShoSho, who were incredible to work with. ShoSho brought in the composer Stijn Hosman from Amsterdam. The delivery partners came from Northern Ireland. Bob Wright was the construction company; the interior fit-out was by Marcon, who delivered the fit-out for the initial build in 2012, and we worked with DJW (D J Willrich Ltd), an AV company from England.”
Lisburn-based company Fabrite was responsible for specialist construction work at Titanic Belfast. They engaged further local businesses to assist with the work required. This included Harte Demolition, MMA Joinery and Braid Mechanical and Electrical in Ballymena as the mechanical and engineering partner.
Local connections
In total, an impressive number of companies worked to fulfil the project’s vision: Philip Hartley Associates (PHA) Ltd, Artych Ltd, Opera Amsterdam, Studio Louter, DHA Designs, Shosho, Fiction Factory, Todd Architects, 181, RPS Group, KCSCC, Axiseng, Fabrite, Braid, Marcon, White Light, DJW, and Frank Showcase.
Owens comments:
“If we had been successful in getting a designer from Northern Ireland or the UK, we would have been delighted. That didn’t happen, but we genuinely wanted the building to be delivered by local suppliers. Since COVID, our contractors have been finding things a bit more difficult. We are international, so we embrace that, but we always need to make sure that Belfast is represented.”
This project has been a means of helping the local economy in the shorter, as well as the longer term.
“The £4.5 million budget for the project is money we set aside in a fund each year, and that is ring-fenced.”
The Titanic Belfast Gallery Refreshment Fund was established when the building opened as part of the commercial operator agreement and held by Maritime Belfast Trust.
Adding something new at Titanic Belfast
The COVID pandemic slowed the project, turning it into a five-year enterprise rather than the three-year one it was originally intended to be:
“We were meant to deliver this in 2021,” she explains. “Like everybody within the tourism industry, we were hit hard. We’re a private company, so we used all our reserves and were in a difficult place. We knew we had that money there. While at the time we would have loved to be able to use it, I’m so glad now that it was ring-fenced. It has given us this incredible opportunity to refresh our messaging. There is so much competition in the market now, so it’s great that we have something to go out with.”
Over its first decade, Titanic Belfast, though regarded as a must-see destination, saw very little repeat visitorship:
“This is about bringing those people who have already seen it, giving them a reason to come back to the destination.”
Part of the refresh includes a staircase and a viewing platform. From here, visitors look down on the great ship in the ‘Titanic Beneath’ gallery.
“People are sitting around the side of it and looking the depth, which we didn’t expect,” Owens says. “I sat down beside these two girls from America who were travelling, on the day we opened. I said, ‘You’ve been here for the last 15 minutes. What do you think?’ And one said, ‘I’m just so emotional. It’s making me reflect on my own life, and on the class that I’m choosing over the next few years.’
“It’s just incredible that something can do that.”
