Southampton to stage events marking 97th anniversary of Titanic tragedy

Fascination with the ship, her passengers and crew still continues unabated.

One event guaranteed to be a sell-out will be an evening with Millvina Dean, 97, the last remaining Titanic survivor left alive, at the Turner Sims Concert Hall at the University of Southampton.

Millvina, who lives on the edge of the New Forest, will be interviewed by her biographer, Sheila Jemima, and then answer questions from the audience.

Hundreds of international visitors will join local people to remember the disaster that befell the “Ship of Dreams’’ when Titanic struck an iceberg, on her maiden voyage from Southampton, in the freezing waters of the North Atlantic off Newfoundland at 11.40pm on April 14, 1912.

Just 40 minutes later the order was given for the women and children, among the passengers, to take to the liner’s lifeboats and at 2.20am on April 15, Titanic slipped beneath the waves taking a total of 1,532 people, of which 549 came from Southampton, to a watery grave.

Throughout April the Civic Centre will stage an exhibition recalling members of Titanic’s crew and highlighting the lasting impact the sinking had on Southampton, and the Maritime Museum, at Town Quay Road, will host a display which will also concentrate on the many seamen, who lived in the narrow streets of dockland, and who did not return home.

A series of lectures, story telling sessions, and guided walks through the city and Southampton Old Cemetery on the Common, will bring Titanic characters back to life and give an idea what life was like in 1912.

Millvina Dean’s appearance is due to take place at 7.30pm on Friday, April 17 while on Sunday, April 19 at 11.45am, a civic commemorative service will be held at the city’s mother church, St Mary’s, where the first memorial service was held in 1912.

The British Titanic Society’s annual meeting and display will be held on Saturday, April 4 at the Holiday Inn Hotel at West Quay Road.