Exhibit opens June 18;
tickets go on sale
to public on May 16

PORTLAND — One hundred four years ago, the RMS Titanic hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic. Within three hours, the largest ship in the world, touted as “unsinkable,” was gone. For more than seven decades, pieces of history lay undisturbed, 2.5 miles beneath the surface of the ocean. The wreckage of Titanic was discovered in 1985, and in 1987, recovery of historic artifacts began.

On June 18, the world-renowned Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition will open at the Portland Science Center. Tickets for the general public will go on sale Monday, May 16 at portlandsciencecenter.com. Tickets are $19.50 for adults, 13 and over; $17.50 for seniors, 65 and over, military and college students. Children 3 to 12, are $15.50 and under 3 are free.

The exhibition tells the dramatic and poignant story of the ship, crew and passengers who embarked on the voyage of a lifetime, only to be part of one of the greatest maritime disasters in history.

“The exhibition uses artifacts recovered from Titanic to tell the compelling human stories of those who were traveling from Southampton, England, Cherbourg, France, and Queenstown, Ireland to the United States,” said Joe Gold, president of The Gold Group, which owns and operates The Portland Science Center. “Some were first-class travelers, making the trip solely for pleasure; some were third-class passengers hoping for a better life in America. The world changed — and certainly maritime travel changed — forever with the sinking of Titanic.”

Upon entrance, visitors to the exhibition will be drawn back in time to 1912, as each will receive a replica boarding pass, that of an actual passenger aboard Titanic. They’ll then begin their chronological journey through the life of the ship, moving through its construction, to life on board, to its ill-fated strike of an iceberg, and amazing artifact rescue efforts. Visitors will be able to press their palms against an “iceberg” while learning of countless stories of heroism and humanity. In the “Memorial Gallery” guests will take their boarding pass to the memorial wall and discover the actual fate of their passenger and traveling companions.

Titanic: The Artifacts Exhibition immerses visitors in the history of both the ship and the Edwardian era, including the then-acceptable enforced separation of social classes.

The ship carried 2,228 passengers but enough lifeboats for only 1,178. Following Titanic’s sinking in 1914, nations established the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea. In addition, numerous new regulations and communications protocols were put in place to improve maritime safety and prevent another such human tragedy.

Titanic by the numbers:

• 882 feet, 9 inches long
• 92 feet, 6 inches wide
• 175 feet high, from keel to the top of the funnels
• 78 feet, 8 inches — the height of the rudder
• 46,328 tons
• 15 tons — the weight of each anchor (2)
• 840 staterooms

RMS Titanic Inc. is the only company permitted, by law, to recover objects from the resting site of the Titanic. The company was granted salvor-in-possession rights to the site of the ship by a United States federal court in 1994 and has conducted nine research-and-recovery expeditions to the ship, recovering more than 5,500 artifacts.

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