Today Cynthia and I went to see the Titanic exhibit at the Arts Museum in Singapore.  Which was pretty fantastic, they even had a real iceberg in the iceberg gallery!  Evidently the night Titanic sank the salt water (at 28 degrees) was colder than the icebergs in it which is why most people died from hypothermia not drowning.


As we walked in the main entrance we were given our boarding passes which had the name and story about one of the passengers on the boat.  At the end of the exhibit was a wall with all the passengers names and whether or not they survived.  I was Mrs. Benjamin Hart (Esther Bloomfield)- age 45 who was traveling to Winnipeg with my husband and 7 year old daughter to profit from the construction boom taking place in that region. We were in the second class compartment of the boat and interestingly throughout the voyage I was troubled by a fear that some kind of catastrophe would hit the ship.  I famously said "to call a ship unsinkable was in my mind flying in the face of God". My daughter and I both survived that fateful night but my husband did not.


Interesting fact: The Titanic could accommodate 750 first class cabin passengers. The cost of a first class ticket in the Titanic to New York was $2,500 (apx $57,200 today).  The two most luxurious suites on B Deck however were a staggering $4,500 (around $103,000 today).   The exhibition had 275 artifacts that have been recovered from the Titanic and are now being carefully preserved.  Jewelry, postcards, chamber pots, perfume samples (from a man who planned to make his fortune selling his new perfumes in the USA - which still carried its scent when it was recovered from the ocean floor in 2004),  plates and dinning utensils (very different between first class and second class) and many many more fascinating items.