A NEW exhibition of artefacts recovered from Southampton's most famous ship, the Titanic, goes on display at London's Science Museum this summer.

The "unsinkable" White Star liner sank off the Canadian coast in the early hours of April 15, 1912 after hitting an iceberg.

But - even after more than 90 years - the show was considered so controversial by the museum's management that they took the unusual step of consulting visitors before agreeing to go ahead with it.

Organisers were concerned that the display could lead to accusations of grave-robbing from survivors or relatives of those who died. The disaster claimed more than 1,500 lives - 500 from the Southampton area.

The sinking was the area's biggest peacetime disaster. Memorials and plaques were erected across the city by the grief-stricken inhabitants.

Titanic: The Artefact Exhibition has been billed as "real objects, real stories". It will not only look at the engineering feats involved in the construction of the ship, but also recount some of the human stories of the passengers and crew - both of survivors and those who perished.

The centrepiece of the show is to be a 2.5 tonne section of the ship's hull. More personal artefacts, such as clothing, photographs and personal letters, will also be on display.

They were brought to the surface from the 2.5-mile-deep grave by RMS Titanic Inc, a firm that has carried out a number of dives to the wreck.

In what could prove to be the most controversial aspect of the event, visitors will be issued with a ticket bearing the name of one of Titanic's passengers whose fate they can then discover through displays making up part of exhibition.

It is not known yet whether Millvina Dean, 91, from Woodlands, near Totton, who survived the tragedy that cost her father's life, will be attending.

She said of that fateful night: "My mother and father heard a crash and he went upstairs to see what had happened.

"He rushed back down and said the ship had hit an iceberg.

"He told my mother to get Bert (Millvina's brother), who was about two years old, and me upstairs immediately."

Mark Lach, one of the designers of the show, denies that organisers will be cheapening the disaster.

"The exhibition is not being done in any sensational or voyeuristic way. It is done in a way which is very dignified and respectful of the memory of those who lost their lives."

The exhibition opens at the London Science Museum on May 16.

Secrets of the Dead, starting at 9pm on Channel 4, March 13, shows how scientists and historians attempted to identify three victims of the Titanic disaster.