Vivaciouslady Vintage: Titanic steerage supper

RMS Titanic

The Titanic was a British passenger liner that sank after colliding with an iceberg on April 15,1912 at 2:20 am on her way from Southampton, UK to New York, US. There were 2,224 passengers and crew aboard the ship, more than 1,500 died. There were not enough lifeboats to hold their total of passengers and the lifeboats that were available on the ship were not filled to maximum capacity. The Titanic sent out distress signals, the Californian saw the flares, but failed to assist and any other ship at sea were too far to reach her in time. The Carpathia, however did respond to the Titanic distress calls, but did not reach the Titanic until 4am, by then only 710 passengers were rescued from their lifeboats. The survivors were then taken to New York. It would be weeks before family members were given full information on their loved ones whereabouts.

I knew about the Titanic, read a couple of books and had seen the many movies made about it, so when I read about the Titanic Steerage supper at the Midway Village Museum I thought it would another unique way to learn about it.

Front entrance display

On March 19, 2011 my husband and I attended the Midway Village Museum 'Titanic Steerage Supper'. This was the first big event we had ever attended at the museum. We were a little nervous, we didn't know anyone there, but we were excited to meet new people and learn more about the Titanic.

The museum did a fine job in making it an interesting & fun learning experience. As you entered the building they would check you in by stamping your tickets and then asked some questions that would've been asked at the time. "Do you have lice"? I was taken aback, I didn't expect him to ask that. I hesitated for awhile and then wondered if he would let me in for taking my time answering him. He laughed that he had caught me off guard and then went on to explain what other things that would have been asked or done at the time before boarding. Thank goodness, I didn't scratch my head! Doesn't everyone itch at the mere mention of the word? The power of suggestion.

Inside the dinning room there so many beautifully dressed people. Some outfits were grand and others were simple, but they were all wonderful to look at and they really set the scene for the rest of the night. There were several tables with a variety of flags to represent the passengers heritage, a menu, a mini quiz, a listing with the passsengers names and background. They served dinner, had historic presentations and then ended the evening with dancing to Celtic music.

I didn't find out about the dinner till 1 week before, so I didn't have time to sew anything. I went to the thrift shop and bought my skirt, blouse and my husbands vest. I already had the flat cap, shawl, boots and vintage cameo.