If you have not seen the 1997 film Titanic, then put it first on your list. If you want to relive the film, see Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition. The film is based on the 1912 tragedy when the biggest passenger ship ever built sank en route to New York. Titanic was a beauty stretching 882 feet and nine inches in length, weighing 46,328 tons, and carrying 2,207 passengers. The ship’s architects and many other people believed the ship was unsinkable because of its structure. There were 16 water-tight compartments built in at the bottom of the ship, more than many ships had at that time. If only four tanks flooded, Titanic could still sail. But on the night of April 15, 1912, Titanic hit an iceberg, and the ship lost six of its compartments. Edward John Smith, the captain, concluded that the ship would never make it to the Americas and that the ship would sink completely in about four hours. There was a frenzy of people trying to get into Titanic’s 16 lifeboats.

Why only 16 for more than 2,000 passengers? The builders would have added more lifeboats, but people complained that the decks would be too crowded -- and of course, they thought more were unnecessary on an unsinkable ship. Only 700 survived; others remained on board and drowned or died of hypothermia in the 28-degree north Atlantic.

When you visit the Titanic exhibit, you are handed a boarding ticket with the name of an actual passenger on the ship. As you leave, you find out if your passenger survived. Of the many who set off on Titanic, one woman, Edith Russell had a bad feeling about the voyage from the start. She thought Titanic was just too…well, titanic to be safe. But she did survive: in her lifeboat with crying children, she played a music box to calm them down.

The Titanic exhibit is dedicated to Millvina Dean, who was the last survivor until her death on May 31, 2009 at age 97. You can walk through some of the third- and first-class bedrooms, dining rooms, hallways, lower decks, the giant thick black door to the engine room, and most memorably of all, the Grand Staircase. This outstanding replica looks exactly like the one in the movie, and you can have your photo taken on it. There is even an “iceberg,” a chunk of ice that you touch to find out what 28-degree ocean water feels like.

In addition the exhibit has actual furniture, pieces of the boat, passengers’ clothing and journals salvaged from the wreck. Some passengers must have looking forward to their arrival in New York: there are flyers for rides at Coney Island.

Some people argue that it isn’t right to take artifacts from the wreck because it is a gravesite for most of the passengers. Although I do agree, I also think that it is important for people to see these things and learn about the tragedy. The exhibit is worth it.

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