The sinking of the RMS Titanic continues to capture the imagination of people today. From the eponymous 1997 film to the 2023 implosion of the Titan submersible as it carried passengers to see the wreck at the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean, the ship’s tragic fate generates discussion online and memorabilia sales at auctions globally. Now, a museum dedicated to the RMS Titanic in Tennessee, USA is the talk of the town after one of its attractions, which allows visitors to experience what the water felt like on the fateful night of April 15, 1912, went viral online.
Here’s what you should know about the Titanic Museum Attraction and its icy experience.
Billing itself as the “world’s largest Titanic museum attraction,” the Pigeon Forge facility celebrates the ship, passengers and crew of the doomed ocean liner. In fact, the museum has been constructed to resemble a half-scale replica of the ship! Outside, an iceberg is shown hitting the ship-like museum, while inside visitors can even touch an iceberg wall. Each guest who enters the museum will receive a boarding pass of an actual RMS Titanic passenger or crew. They will experience what it was like to walk the hallways, parlours, cabins and grand staircase of the RMS Titanic, all while surrounded by more than 400 artefacts directly from the ship and its passengers—the collection is valued at over USD 4.5 million (INR 377 million).
At the heart of the Titanic Museum Attraction experience is the USD 1 million (INR 83 million) replica of the original ship’s grand staircase, complete with oak carvings and a cherub statue. Here, a magnificent glass dome reflects light off oak wall panelling, elaborate railings and iron scrollwork. Wide, sweeping steps and landings provide a spectacular area where the original guests of the RMS Titanic made their appearances.
What has got people most excited on social media though is a -2°C (28°F) bucket at the museum which has the same temperature as the Atlantic Ocean was on that fateful night. The experience aims to replicate the extreme cold faced by passengers when the RMS Titanic sank. Viral videos have shown participants plunging their hands into the bucket and gasping at how cold it is. Some withdraw their hands within a few seconds while those who brave it for longer remark on the “burning” sensation they experienced. Their reactions convey the unbearable cold that could lead to hypothermia in a matter of minutes.
In addition to this, visitors can sit in an actual size lifeboat and hear true passenger stories, shovel “coal” in the museum’s boiler room, learn how to send an SOS distress signal, experience the sloping decks of the ship’s stern as she descended and discover their passenger’s fate in the memorial room.
Take a flight from any American city to McGhee Tyson Airport (TYS) in Knoxville, Tennessee. The drive to the Titanic Museum Attraction is a little over 45 minutes (51 kilometres).