More than 300 items recovered from the wreck of the Titanic go on display Saturday at the Florida International Museum in St. Petersburg in the latest attempt to capitalize on continued public fascination with the 85-year-old tragedy.
"Titanic: the Exhibition" opens shortly before the premiere of a $200 million Titanic movie, the latest of several films on the disaster. "Titanic," the Broadway musical, is drawing well after opening this year and won five Tony awards."The universal appeal of this exhibition is tremendous," Florida International Museum President Joseph Cronin said.
The Titanic, then the biggest ship ever built, sank April 15, 1912, after hitting an iceberg off the coast of Newfoundland on her maiden voyage from England to New York. Over 1,500 passengers and crew died, while 705 survived.
Millvina Dean, one of seven living survivors, arrived from London Monday to attend the opening. Now 85, Dean was an infant when the ship sank and was placed in a lifeboat with her mother and brother. Her father went down with the ship.
The wreckage was discovered in 1985, two-and-one-half miles below the surface of the Atlantic, by a U.S.-French team using a small submarine.
A commercial company, RMS Titanic Inc., has brought up several thousand artifacts from the ship since 1987.
Among the items that will be on display at the exhibit are a bronze cherub from the ship's main stairway, silver dinnerware, dishes, cups and glasses with the logo of the White Star line, two unopened bottles of champagne, a porthole, the ship's whistle and its bollard used for tying lines.
Items recovered from the passengers and crew include a white steward's jacket, an unbroken pair of glasses, shoes, money, a suitcase and a pocket watch.
The 16 galleries of the exhibit try to recreate the atmosphere aboard the ship and to explain how the accident happened. The exhibit includes a video on the Titanic and audio tour guides.
The same exhibition drew more than 600,000 people in Memphis, Tenn., in six months this year. It will be in St. Petersburg through the city's winter tourist season until next May 15.