From the Marconi cabin to the ship's cabins' bathrooms and sinks

Guillermo Balbona.- The exhibition that will visit Santander is structured around a spectacular model, but as a complementary element, some of the ship's most representative facilities are reproduced in full scale, such as the Marconi transmission cabin, the central hold where artworks were transported, the command bridge, or first, second, and third-class cabins.

Begoña Merino highlights pieces such as the original Brush D24 automobile, known as ‘the Titanic car,’ the replica of one of the washbasins, built by the company Bathco, tools, navigation objects, life-size reproductions, original images, and documents. Among the latest additions is a silver and bronze plaque commissioned by the White Star Line company to reward the company that sold the most tickets for the ship.

All of this, with the collaboration of the Barcelona Maritime Museum and a dozen business firms or private entities, materializes the project.

The project thus recreates and evokes one of the most emblematic episodes of industrial development of the last century and includes spaces that illustrate the construction of the ship and the technology behind it through historical photographs, audiovisuals, and objects from the era. In this context, there is also a remembrance of the nearly 1,500 passengers who died in the ship's sinking, which carried some of the wealthiest people of the time and hundreds of Irish, British, and Scandinavian immigrants.

The exhibition scheduled for 2016 coexists at the moment with a parallel exhibition (currently in Madrid) that shares elements and objectives: the exhibition ’Titanic: The Exhibition«, currently at the Fernán Gómez-Centro Cultural de la Villa, which brings together nearly 200 original objects that serve to offer a story far removed from the »inaccuracies" of the film.

The director of the company Musealia, Luis Ferreiro, highlights historical objects such as the jewel that inspired Cameron himself to create the fiction of the Heart of the Sea and the romance between Jack and Rose; the only preserved diary written up to the last day of the sinking; watches stopped at the exact time of the sinking, or the famous ring of passenger Gerda Lindell from what was considered at its birth the «best floating hotel in the world.».

Last July, the Titanic Foundation decided, for this new exhibition The Reconstruction, to reproduce, among other rooms of the ship, the first and second class cabins, highlighting the bathrooms, mahogany furniture, washbasins, faucets, bathrobes, and towel sets. For the full-scale reproduction, the company Bathco, based in Santander, was selected. Under the name Titanic Collection, this month will feature a presentation of the reproductions in the bay of Santander. The presentation will take place on the 30th in the Gamazo area.

Princess Elettra Marconi Giovanelli, daughter of Nobel Prize winner Guglielmo Marconi, will attend these events. It was Marconi himself, personally, who oversaw the installation of his equipment aboard the Titanic. It was this equipment, by Marconi's order, that used the SOS signal for the first time in history. Another guest will be Richard Oribe from San Sebastián, the swimmer with cerebral palsy who has the best track record in the world. He has participated in six Paralympic Games and five world championships, and has won a total of 135 medals in international competitions.

Source: El Diario Montañés