Exhibit Review

Compte rendu d'exposition

National Maritime Museum, Reading the Relics: Titanic Culture and The Wreck of the Titanic Exhibit

MICHAEL MCCAUGHAN

National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, time given to slumber and rest will be free London, The Wreck of the Titanic from noise or other disturbance.. .The friendly Curator: Dr. Roger Knight intercourse, mutual helpfulness and bonhomie Designer: Alistair McCaw of third class passengers is proverbial...The Publication: Catalogue, Gillian Hutchinson, The new field of endeavour is looked forward to with hope and confidence. In these vessels Wreck of the Titanic, London: Addax the interval between the old life and the new is Publishing Ltd., 1994. ISBN 094806-5230 spent under the happiest possible conditions. Duration: October 1994 - October 1995. Tour itinerary to be determined. When Titanic struck the iceberg her steel We have arrived at a new time — and with this hull was opened below the waterline for a new time, strange methods, huge forces and length of ninety-one metres. The inrush of combinations — a Titanic world — have water, with which the pumps and systems of spread all around us. hull subdivision could not cope, doomed the ship. The essential tragedy of Titanic's sinking Winston Churchill, 1909. was the huge loss of life. There were not enough The wreck of the Titanic is an epic tale of the lifeboats to save all of the 2 201 people on twentieth century. On the evening of 14 April board. There was provision for only 1178 peo­ 1912, Titanic — the essence of modernity and ple, but not even all of the available lifeboats technological achievement — was steaming were filled to capacity. Boats were lowered only across the Atlantic on her maiden voyage from partly filled with passengers who refused at the Old World to the New World. On board, her first to believe that Titanic could possibly sink. passengers and crew were oblivious to the ice­ Almost 1 500 people, passengers and crew, per­ berg's presence and the imminence of destruc­ ished in the icy waters of the North Atlantic in tion and death. Enshrining the values, self- the most appalling circumstances imaginable. confidence and social fabric of the era, Titanic The sinking of Titanic had a traumatic effect was a microcosm of Western civilization in "a in both Europe and the United States. The great gilded age" before World War I. The Zeitgeist ship, a signifier of the civilized world, now lay was reflected and proclaimed, with unknowing fractured on the ocean floor, after plunging irony, in the White Star Line's grandiloquent down through over three kilometres of freezing advertising of Titanic and her sistership water. Millionaires and emigrant poor on board Olympic: had gone down with her. It was a mighty blow to the self-confidence of the age. An American The White Star liners Olympic and Titanic — writer, Bruce Jackson, has interpreted the impact eloquent testimonies to the progress of of the disaster from a modern perspective. mankind, as shown in the conquest of mind over matter — will rank high in the achieve­ The rising star of modern technology had a ments of the 20th century.. .the Staterooms in sudden loss of magnitude, as that sleek and their situation, spaciousness and appoint­ enormous ship that could not be sunk tore its ments, will be perfect havens of retreat where hide and collapsed. It was the major disaster many pleasant hours are spent, and where the of the era, and it struck the imagination of the

Material History Review 43 (Spring 1996) I Revue d'histoire de la culture matérielle 43 (printemps 1996) 68 rich, who lost friends and relatives on the The destruction of Titanic by a spur of ice shat­ ship.. .and the poor, for whom the ship repre­ tered popular faith in the supremacy of tech­ sented the great shining and glistening world nology, progress and privilege. The age of self- forever denied them and anyone they would confident belief in the inexorable progress of ever know. society through the appliance of science was Public expressions of grief knew no bounds. over. In retrospect, the utter failure of this micro- Feelings of loss, bewilderment and the point­ cosmic machine and all that it represented, ing of lessons were expressed in a cathartic symbolized the end of the nineteenth century. outpouring of popular verse. There was an irre­ The twentieth century had begun. The day of sistible urge to string the lyre, invoke the Muse Salman Rushdie's "Titanic Verses" and other and in the seventeenth-century phrase, indulge Titanic jokes was at hand! in pious ejaculation. Entrepreneurs, catching the Throughout the twentieth century, Titanic mood of emotion, flooded an eager market with has gripped the imagination of people, not only mementoes of the disaster. This was the mod­ in Europe and North America, but virtually ern Titanic industry in embryo, a profitable throughout the world. Yet with the passage of symbiotic relationship between production and time attitudes have changed and, for us today, consumption, keyed initially to a prevailing Titanic has a significance beyond tragedy and sense of human loss. Commemorative post­ death. While potent images of the stricken liner cards were especially popular as they com­ have endured for eight decades, the multiplic­ bined a high level of memorialization with the ity of metaphors resulting from the catastro­ commercial advantage of low cost. The publi­ phe have been equally powerful. Cultural pro­ cation of specially composed Titanic sheet cesses of absorption, transformation and music was another commercial activity and diffusion began immediately after the disaster market opportunity generated by the disaster. and as resonances of Titanic's disaster, they In the United States, for example, the first pub­ perhaps have significance for humanity greater lished song was copyrighted on 25 April 1912 than the event itself. Titanic and the mythic pro­ and within twelve months more than one hun­ portions of her loss have become the subject, dred Titanic songs had been composed and generator and carrier of all kinds of signs, mes­ published in America. Over fifty of these songs sages and meanings, from the sublime to the were published by the Washington, D.C., firm tacky. They embrace the cultural spectrum, of H. Kirkus Dugdale, who organized a promo­ from high culture to low culture, from popular tion whereby members of the public submitted culture to consumer culture. The Titanic litany lyrics and company hacks set them to music. includes books, verse, vaudeville, religion, Overwhelmingly the cultural response to the songs, music, opera, dance, drama, art, poetry, disaster was popular and vernacular, but artists film, cartoons, jokes, fantasy, graffiti, advertis­ and writers, most famously Max Beckman and ing, satire, politics, pornography, propaganda, Thomas Hardy, also expressed the catastrophic romantic fiction, science fiction and, of course, event in terms of their individual imagination museum exhibitions. and vision of humanity. In the north of Ireland Titanic has a special For many in 1912, the wreck of Titanic was significance, for the great liner was built in rich in symbolic significance. Her sinking called Belfast and there remains a thwarted pride in into question the established order of things. It her memory. In a retrospective way the tragedy deeply troubled those who implicitly believed of the ship can be seen as mirroring that of the in a good and merciful God. For others, it city itself. But today there is a spirit of optimism confirmed their belief in divine retribution for in Belfast and new possibilities for the future human conceit and arrogance. It seemed to are being envisioned. With unerring commer­ demonstrate the folly of man's presumption cial sensibility these include reappropriations and vanity that nature could be a conquest of of a Titanic past. For example, Harland and science. In a speech in 1909, Winston Churchill Wolff, builders of the original ship, are looking had proclaimed the advent of a new "Titanic to the new millennium with a proposed Titanic world." Now in 1912 the Bishop of Winchester Technology Park and on 20 June 1994 The preached its nadir: Belfast Telegraph reported that: When has such a mighty lesson against our a Northern Ireland construction firmi s hoping confidence and trust in power, machinery and to launch a Titanic twin — by building an money been shot through the nation? The exact replica for a mystery Japanese buyer.. .the Titanic, name and thing, will stand for a mon­ life-size model of the 270-metre vessel, minus ument and warning to human presumption. engines, would be permanently moored in

Material History Review 43 (Spring 1996) I Revue d'histoire de la culture matérielle 43 (printemps 1996) 69 Tokyo Bay for use as a luxury conference cen­ are custodians of historical truths and gnostic tre.. .we are talking big, big money. possessors of arcane knowledge. The Titanic Historical Society is the largest and most senior Within this commercial frame, irony and par­ enthusiast organization in the Titanic pantheon. ody are unconsciously present, and the pro­ Based in the Untied States, but with a world­ posed transfiguration of Titanic from substance wide membership, the mission of the Society to pastiche is a retro-visionary proclamation is that the ship's "memory and history be pre­ that millennial post-modernity is alive and well served for future generations." To this end the in Belfast. Society publishes a regular journal, holds con­ Titanic, or rather Titanicism, is an interna­ ventions and, most recently, organizes Titanic tional cultural phenomenon. It shows no sign Heritage Tours. As the pilgrimage advertising of abating and indeed it is clear that the scale says, "Hurry, Act Now. Get on Board!! We have and potency of Titanicism has increased rather only a few spaces still available." than diminished since the remains were located Beyond popular culture, Titanic continues to on the seabed in 1985. Despite the magnitude engage the imagination of artists and writers in of other twentieth-century horrors, Titanic has whose work the tragedy takes on meanings achieved the status of ultimate disaster symbol, beyond the event itself. Poets in particular have or root metaphor, in our cultural conscious­ explored Titanic themes. Perhaps the most ness. Titanic, both real and imagined, has compelling contemporary poem is "The Sinking become a key icon of the twentieth century, a of the Titanic" by Hans Magnus Enzensberger glittering star of popular culture and one of the (1978). Translated from German into English by great metaphors of our time! the poet, it is an extended metaphorical dis­ In considering Titanicism as an aspect of course on human loss and the foundering of popular culture, three key and interconnected Western society. characteristics can be identified. These are profit, pleasure and memorialization. The first I can see my fellow beings going down very of these, profit, is premised on the mass con­ gradually, and I call out sumption and commercial exploitation which to them and explain: I can see you going down are endemic to Titanicism. This commodifi- very gradually. cation is nothing new. In a sense it was begun There is no reply. On distant charter cruises by the White Star Line, whose essential purpose there are orchestras in building and operating Titanic was to turn a playing feebly but gallandy. I deplore all uiis profit. As the lost ship deconstructed on the very much, I do not like seabed, it continued to make money for an the way they all die, soaked to the skin, in die drizzle, it is increasing number of entrepreneurs. With the a pity I am severely tempted to wail. "The discovery of the wreck in 1985, its "real pres­ Doomsday year," I wail, ence" created new market opportunities for "is not yet clear/so let's have/so let's Titanic products, publications and attractions. have/another beer." In short, Titanic is a very profitable commercial property! From the thirty-third (final) Canto. It has been argued that popular culture is concerned with meanings, pleasures and iden­ In general outline, this is the cultural frame tities. Pleasure is of course a mainstream feature through which the National Maritime Museum's of Titanicism. Part of the continuing consumer Wreck of the Titanic exhibit can be viewed. appeal of Titanic is that simultaneously it makes Advance publicity made clear its primary focus, you feel good and glad you weren't there. The with the bold headline "National Maritime deriving of pleasure and satisfaction from the Museum Exhibition To Feature Largest Ever tragedy of Titanic seems to suggest that Freud's Public Display of Titanic Artefacts." For the pleasure and reality principles can operate in public this was the core drawing power of the reverse order. But what the hell! Titanic is big, show. Here was the real stuff of the mythic it's sexy and it's a star. It's up there with Princess Titanic, a chance to witness the resurrection of Di, Demi Moore and possibly Joan Collins! a lost world through the wonders of modern Naturally the keepers of Tltanic's sacred his­ technology. Dr. Stephen Deuchar, Head of tory tend not to see things this way, for the Exhibitions and Display at the National obsession here is the memorialization of Titanic Maritime Museum said, ".. .the range and nature and all who sailed in her. Just as museums are holy of artefacts on display will bring to life — like temples for Titanic relics, so Titanic enthusiasts nothing else can — Tltanic's brief but legendary

Material History Review 43 (Spring 1996) I Revue d'histoire de la culture matérielle 43 (printemps 1996) 70 history and the way things were at the twilight everyone will be convinced by the strength of of die British Empire." these arguments and in the absence of a state­ Despite die "sea of controversy" surround­ ment outiining an opposing viewpoint, die key ing the exhibit, as a Belfast newspaper put it, concerns of the International Congress of The Wreck of the Titanic has been a block­ Maritime Museums should be emphasized. busting success in terms of visitor numbers and These relate to the importance of ensuring that media coverage. The huge popular appeal and a proper archaeological record is made of any commercial strength of Titanic could hardly further work on the Titanic wreck, the need for have been a surprise to the Museum. Indeed die a preservation policy and international agree­ exhibit's income generating potential through ment on the future of the wreck site and die admissions and shop sales, and hence its capac­ need to provide an appropriate long-term home ity to help close museum funding gaps, must for the salvaged Titanic artifacts. Clearly these surely have been a factor in the decision to go are now also the concerns of the National into partnership with the artifacts' owners, RMS Maritime Museum, whose policy is to translate Titanic Inc. The récognition of tiiis commercial good intentions into practical reality. dimension is of course not a criticism of the In its own terms the exhibit was impressive. exhibit per se. As would be expected from one It deployed modern museum display tech­ of die world's leading maritime museums, the niques to considerable educational effect. These exhibit was thoroughly professional and taste­ included some really terrific models and in ful in the presentation of the relics. However, particular, an atmospheric tableau of the from a popular culture perspective, the exhibit wrecked Titanic on die seabed. A considerable was also a major manifestation of Titanicism, the amount of information was presented in acces­ ultimate visitor experience in wall-to-wall sible and easily understood text panels, images, Titanicana. and video presentations. The latter included From the inception of the Wreck of the extracts from a Northern Ireland television pro­ Titanic exhibit, the Museum became a target for gram in which the pros and cons of the exhibit widespread media-carried criticism, ranging were debated by Stephen Deuchar of the from professionally informed views to basic National Maritime Museum, Una Reilly of the emotional responses. But of course all this had Ulster Titanic Society and Tom McCluskie of the been anticipated. The Museum, led by the shipbuilders Harland and Wolff. Broadcast Chairman of Trustees, Admiral of die Fleet, sound bites included, "the incentive to bring Lord Lewin, mounted a strategic and vigorous things up is to make money" (Reilly), and campaign to defend its position and even seize "Titanic is the most important shipwreck in the high ground, not only in the public domain, the world" (Deuchar). Through an interactive but also in the world of Titanic enthusiasts, computer, visitors had the opportunity to record togetiier witii the sometimes enclosed circles tiieir own responses to a series of set questions inhabited by museum professionals, historians about the Titanic artifacts. These of course were and maritime archaeologists. The importance of the stars of the show, the raison d'être for the endorsement by die tiny but influential group exhibit. The 150 artifacts were displayed sen­ of Titanic survivors was not forgotten either. sitively in a variety of contexts. They were Most impressively of all, the Museum incor­ explained exhaustively, especially in respect porated critical comment on its exhibit decision, of their recovery and conservation. In the into die exhibit itself, thus claiming openness gallery, low lighting, low ceilings and comple­ of debate whilst annexing the opposition! mentary theme colours of rust brown and dark Of course the Museum has never denied the blue, in carpets and cases, suggested a prevail­ importance of debate and criticism, which vary ing mood of sombre dignity appropriate to the from cool arguments for best practice in mar­ display of a relic collection. However, in prac­ itime archaeology to the hot allegations of tice the prevailing mood was one of crush, Titanic grave-robbing and desecration. In a state­ crowd and chatter as waves of visitors washed ment accompanying this article, Roger Knight, drrough the exhibit and on to die shop. Here a Deputy Director of the National Maritime variety of Titanic-theme purchases could be Museum, acknowledges the controversial made, including a splendidly produced exhibit dimensions of the exhibit. He argues the catalogue. As it says on page 36, the artifacts Museum's case for the way in which it has "sank to the floor of the deep ocean and were addressed, and continues to address, the impor­ thought to have been lost forever. The fact that tant archaeological issues raised by the salvage we can see them again now is little short of and display of Titanic artifacts. Perhaps not miraculous."

Material History Review 43 (Spring 1996) I Revue d'histoire de la culture matérielle 43 (printemps 1996) 71 Essentially the exhibit comprised nine the­ and occasionally poignant. It ranged from matic sections, the first two of which — launch Titanic's foremast bell to a shaving brush still and loss of Titanic—occupied less than a quar­ replete with its bristles. The final section of the ter of the gallery space. Here the ship's exhibit looked to the future of the collection and construction, service and sinking were briefly announced plans for a world tour on board a presented and contextualized by means of his­ specially-built Titanic reliquary barge. toric images, text and evocative sounds. Nuggets Fundamentally this was not an exhibit about of information were given, such as "more than the past, but about the present and its appro­ three million rivets weighing over 1200 tons priation of the past. The emphasis was not on were used in the construction" and "Titanic the mortality of Titanic, but on the miracles of was beautiful and luxurious. She seemed to modern resurrection technology. The exhibit symbolize the triumph of technology over was not a requiem for the dead, nor did it nature." This introductory section was really a address the metaphorical meanings of Titanic. warm-up for the main show, to which it was Rather it was an enshrinement of the triumphs connected by a rather weak two-dimensional of deep-sea exploration and the reviving won­ timeline, incorporating photographs of poster ders of conservation laboratories. The cata­ for the films A Night To Remember (1958) and clysmic failure of Titanic was, and remains, a Raise The Titanic (1980). paradigm for the inevitable failure of flaunted The artifactual core of the exhibit was rep­ technology. Ironically, the implicit subtext of resented in sections three to nine. Their titles The Wreck of the Titanic exhibit was the identified the main focus of the show: Searching sanctification of technology. This was the essen­ for the Wreck; Titanic Found; Exploring the tial contradiction at the heart of the exhibit. Wreck; Recovering the Past; Preserving the Just as the design of the leviathan Titanic had Artefacts; Learning from Titanic—A Lost World a fatal flaw, so the celebration of modern tech­ Found; Learning from the Titanic—the Future. nology was the underlying conceptual flaw in The overall theme of course was a demonstra­ this Titanic exhibition. There was a failure to tion and chronicle of how modern technology recognize that Titanic, the sunken signifier, res­ first of all located the wreck of Titanic, then onates with us today precisely because it sym­ retrieved and preserved a whole collection of bolizes our contemporary fears about the van­ shipboard material and personal belongings ities and frightening possibilities of science and that had been strewn over the seabed debris technology. Their titanic advances are out of field in 1912. The Museum emphasized that the synchronization with popular trust and remains of Titanic's hull had not been pene­ confidence. They jar with our fin de siècle anx­ trated, as these were the true grave sites of the ieties about the precariousness of existence. Titanic dead. Only a small sample of the total The Wreck of the Titanic exhibit affirmed the collection was displayed in the exhibit, feeling that, as the twentieth century draws to although perhaps it was the cream of the col­ a close, we've somehow caught up with Titanic lection. Certainly the material was extensive and are recreating the future.

Curatorial Statement

ROGER KNIGHT

The history of the Titanic has never been Three years before this exhibit finally free from controversy. She set sail from opened, the National Maritime Museum Southampton on her maiden voyage on 10 April received an offer of an exhibit of artifacts from 1912, with over two thousand people on board the wrecksite of the Titanic by a company of — a cross-section of society from more than commercial salvors, RMS Titanic, Inc. The pro­ twenty countries. On 14 April, steaming too posal put the museum in a considerable fast in difficult conditions, she struck an iceberg quandary. Had we refused, the chance of dis­ and sank in two and a half hours; 1 503 people persal of the collection by sale was very high; died and 705 survived. There have been greater it was also probable that another organization tragedies at sea in this century, but this is the could have mounted a high-profile and unpro­ one that people remember. fessional exhibit, probably in London, which

Material History Review 43 (Spring 1996) I Revue d'histoire de la culture matérielle 43 (printemps 1996) 72 would have done no good to the museum pro­ one hundred and fifty objects in a very simple fession, and to maritime museums in particu­ way. Over half a million people visited the lar. What could not be denied, and which the exhibit in its year's run and over 170 000 recorded museum's exhibit proved to be the case, was the their views. General press reaction was very power and fascination of the objects, brought up favourable. from two and half miles below the surface, after Professional criticism of the exhibit then eighty-two years on the seabed. moved into the question of the future of the col­ At the same time, we were well aware that lection of artifacts. It was felt that the salvors there were considerable professional pitfalls, would seek to sell the collection after the exhi­ while public perceptions of the "taste" and bition, thus securing a favourable price. Early tone of the exhibit were difficult to predict. debate established that it was not the salvors' The tragic loss of the Estonia, three days before intention to sell items from the collection. They the exhibit was about to open, focussed our wished to develop long-term exhibit plans, minds on this latter question. In the end it did with a world tour, and it was their intention to not develop any momentum, largely because the keep the collection together. The museum has objects in the exhibit came only from the debris established an Advisory Committee with RMS field and not within the wreck, and because the Titanic to plan a final memorial museum after exhibit deliberately avoided sensationalism. the world tour, which is planned to start in 1996. However, as anticipated, the feeling amongst When the exhibit opened, the wreck of the a considerable part of the maritime archaeo­ Titanic lay outside all national protective leg­ logical world has been at best sceptical and at islation, and it was not until November 1994 worst hostile. At a time when countries are try­ that the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention ing to increase the protection of historic wreck became international law. For the first time, sites, and when the international Congress of there was an opportunity for the site to come Maritime Museums passed their Barcelona res­ within the framework of international law. At olutions in 1993, the museum was seen as the very start of the museum's internal debate, flying in the face of professional archaeological we knew that by having the exhibit it would opinion. In fact, although the motives of the give a priority to getting better protection for salvors were commercial, their recording, arti­ sites in international waters. In February 1995 fact recovery and conservation methods were the museum therefore called a conference of of reasonable standard for the great depth of international lawyers, as well as bringing water; the museum would not have gone ahead together the three United Nations agencies with the exhibition had they not been so. One involved — The Law of the Sea from New York, of the reasons for supporting RMS Titanic Inc., UNESCO from Paris and the International was that they were extremely willing to listen Maritime Organization from London. Although to all these considerations; there are far worse there is a long and complicated road ahead, operators out there. By giving this company an the Museum is running another conference at opportunity to exploit their finds legitimately, the International Maritime Organisation in it could continue with maintaining salvage London in January 1996 to take matters further. rights over the wreck site and keep less scrupu­ The museum's reasons for involvement can lous operators from the wreck. be summarized as follows: we wished to put on The objectives of the design of the exhibit a high-profile exhibit on a dramatic maritime itself were to demonstrate the technical achieve­ subject, in a dignified way; to see if it was pos­ ment of finding and excavating of the site, to sible to work with enlightened salvors and to show the conservation techniques and extraor­ help them generate income from exhibiting dinary survival of objects, and to examine the their finds without selling the collection; to controversy in detail. (There were, in total, sev­ draw attention to the controversy over marine enteen minutes of video screens and an inter­ archaeological sites; and to provide a platform active computer which recorded visitor reaction for a drive for better protection for sites in inter­ to the controversy). Finally, we showed some national waters. So far, we are on course.

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