SOUTHAMPTON, England (Reuters) - Descendants of some of
the 1,500 people killed when the Titanic sank a century ago were among
the passengers on a cruise ship that set off from Britain on Sunday to
retrace the route of the liner's ill-fated voyage.
Some donned period costume, including furs and
feathered hats for women and suits and bowler hats for men, to board the
MS Balmoral at Southampton on the southern English coast.
Passengers lined the decks and waved as the ship set
sail almost 100 years after the Titanic set off on her maiden voyage
from Southampton to New York.
Around 700 people were rescued but there were too few lifeboats to save the rest.
The world's most famous maritime disaster has
fascinated people ever since, explaining why passengers from 28
countries were prepared to pay up to 8,000 pounds ($13,000) each to be a
passenger on the memorial cruise organized by a British travel firm.
The Balmoral will follow in the wake of the Titanic,
sailing near Cherbourg in France and then calling at Cobh in Ireland
before arriving at the spot where the Titanic went down. There, on April
15, a memorial service will be held on board to mark the centenary of
the disaster.
Passenger Jane Allen, whose great-uncle died on his
honeymoon trip on the Titanic while her great-aunt survived, said she
did not think it was "ghoulish or macabre" to go on the voyage.
"I've been to World War One and Two cemeteries in
various places across the world and I think it is always important to
remember. The people here in the Titanic died in very different
circumstances but it was still quite unbelievable what happened that
night," she told the BBC.
Organizers said 1,309 paying passengers booked on the memorial voyage.
While the Balmoral is a modern ship, the 12-night
memorial cruise will try to recreate the atmosphere of the time with
dishes and music from the era, while experts will give lectures about
the Titanic.
A 3D version of James Cameron's 1997 blockbuster movie
"Titanic" has just been released to coincide with the centenary of the
sinking of the luxury liner.
A $150 million Titanic centre telling the story of the
doomed liner has just opened in Belfast, Northern Ireland, beside the
slipway from which the liner was launched by the Harland and Wolff
shipyard a century ago.
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