Hi everyone! I'm posting again about our trip, wanting to share what we found inside the Titanic Museum in Pigeon Forge, TN. Looking from the road, it almost looks authentic, since it's made to the same size, but only half of it is there.
There are only 2 smoke stacks. The original had 4, but only 3 were functional.
Here's the sign--no cameras allowed inside. Maybe I can draw pictures with words. Most memorable were:
1-A display box containing a handwritten letter on Titanic stationery, posted from Ireland before traversing the ocean. The letter was written by Rev. John Harper and delivered to members of his church who had lost a relative. He encouraged them not to grieve without hope, and that the loved one who had gone ahead to Heaven was not lost to them, but now a link between Heaven and themselves. He was the pastor who was leading people to the Lord up until he himself perished, even giving his life jacket to someone who didn't know Christ--someone he said "needed it more" than he did. You may find stories about him by searching online and this
link gives some biographical info on him. What a testimony for Christ!
2-Photographs by Father Browne taken on board Titanic during the first leg of the voyage before he disembarked in Ireland. He was asked to stop giving talks about Titanic after she sank, and after his death in 1960, his slides lay undiscovered until 1986, when they were found to be the best collection taken on the ship. He took the last photograph of the captain, and the only one of the Marconi Room. You may also view them
here.
3-A replica of the grand staircase that we could walk up, laid with the newest, expensive flooring of the day--linoleum!! Pieces of wood from the grand staircase recovered from the water, and wood from the ship made into game boards.
4-Stories about other passengers, so interesting to read.
Maj. Archibald Butt, aide to first Teddy Roosevelt, and then President Taft, was said to have been instrumental in organizing the evacuation of women and children to the lifeboats.
Mrs.
Isdore Straus, wife of the owner of Macy's, almost boarded lifeboat 8 several times. But she gave her fur coat to her maid in the lifeboat and turned back to be with her husband, saying to him, "We have lived together for many years. Where you go, I go."
5-Toward the end we walked out on what was set up to look like a part of the deck outside the pilot house. There was an ice wall made to look like an iceberg, and containers of water cooled to the temperature of the water that night where we could plunge our hands.
My only comment is to say how moving it was to read some of the stories of those who were so courageous and were still doing the Lord's work in the face of death .
I wanted to share with you my latest project and where the inspiration came from. I actually have finished this butterfly since taking these pictures, by filling in the spaces on the lower wings inside the purple satin stitch.
I did a lot of cross-stitch years ago, but haven't done much other hand embroidery. Then I came across this site www.needlenthread.com/videos and have learned how to do many different stitches. Mary Corbet has very clear instructional videos for learning the stitches--great for beginners. And be sure to read through her posts to see examples of her own work, which is fabulous.
