The Titanic museum in Halifax is home to one of the world’s most grim and riveting stories. You’ll be surprised that you don’t know the half of it. There’s much more than James Cameron depicted in “Titanic,” including a cemetery with over 150 graves of Titanic’s victims.
The Titanic exhibit is part of the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. I stopped by while on a nearly two-year-long solo road trip around the United States, Mexico and Canada. Like most of the rest of the world, I found the story of the Titanic’s sinking fascinating and when I learned there was a museum and cemetery – well, off I went. As a taphophile, I’ve often visit cemeteries around the world if there’s a good story, unique beauty, or famous graves. All in the same section, one hundred and fifty Titanic graves fit the bill.
I drove into Halifax from my rural Canadian hideaway someplace in the middle of nowhere (Stewiacke), just over an hour away. Many revere Canada for its spacious, rolling countryside and this road trip to the city did not disappoint. I passed many signs warning, “Moose Crossing,” alas, I never crossed any and my hunt continued.
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Downtown Halifax is a maritime city on the Atlantic Ocean boasting charming lighthouses, fresh seafood, phenomenal landscapes and the world’s second-largest natural harbor. It’s a small city with just 400,000 people. Compare that to Toronto with 6.5 million and the picture of a quaint, historic, coastal seascape emerges.
The day was golden and crisp as I walked down the long boardwalk on the water’s edge amid the street vendors, live music, and vibrant Canadian pubs. Massive boats floated in the water at the far end, and children climbed on stationary sculptures. Inside, the nondescription, glass-walled building held many of the remains of Titanic.
As I approached, I asked myself, how did 150 bodies of Titanic’s deceased end up in Halifax? I thought the ships all went to New York City. I’d learned the survivors went to New York, but many more did not survive; they went to Halifax.
Reclaiming Titanic’s bodies from the Sea
Halifax was the closest major seaport when the Titanic hit an iceberg and sank in the frigid Atlantic on April 15, 1912. It became the base for ships searching and recovering the bodies of Titanic victims. The seas during the rescue were rough and the crews battled terrible conditions to perform the rescues and recover bodies.
The Titanic carried 2208 total passengers & crew: of those, 712 survived. In total, three ships from Halifax recovered 328 bodies. I’ll let you do the gruesome math. In the coming weeks, passing ships continued to find debris and bodies scattered many miles by the wind. Seamen, who found those later bodies, removed the floatation devices and gave them sea burials.
Of the 328 bodies recovered, over 100 were immediately buried at sea because the crew didn’t have enough embalming equipment (a required regulation at the time) and body bags to take them back. It mainly was the lowest-class victims that they left in watery graves. Relatives claimed just 59 and shipped them home. The remaining 150 victims are buried in three cemeteries: Fairview Lawn, Mount Olivet and Baron de Hirsch.
Grim Fact: The body bags helped keep the bodies with their personal effects so they could be identified.
Inside the Titanic Museum Exhibit
Up a set of stairs, visitors first see a wall-sized photo of Titanic’s deck and, to the left, a reproduction deck chair; beyond that is a massive image of the famous grand staircase with the carved balustrade and newel post making you feel as if you’ve boarded the ship.
The exhibit walks guests through various artifacts enclosed in glass classes that tell a story of passengers and crew from first to third class and show the stark differences in accommodations. There are over 50 objects, much collected as flotsam at the time of the sinking, accompanied by historic photographs to give you a sense of the object’s use.
There are examples of the White Star Line’s first-class dinnerware, gloves from millionaire Charles Hays, and a moment-by-moment record of the ship’s sinking. A highlight is a mahogany cabinet recovered and kept by a recovery shipmate who used the first-class bathroom cabinet as their medicine chest for generations. Like many other objects, families of Nova Scotians who recovered the Titanic’s bodies later donated their wreckage keepsakes to the museum.
Titanic Wreckwood and Artifacts
Much of the exhibit features “wreckwood.” Seamen claimed these fragments that floated to the surface when the Titanic sank as memorabilia. Many kept pieces of Titanic wreckage in their family for generations, preserving carved pieces of her woodwork after the ship’s sinking on April 15, 1912.
The maritime tradition of salvaging shipwreck debris is old, but the wreckage is seldom more distinguishable than this. Much of the wood in Titanic was well documented and recognizable as once belonging to picture frames, infant cribs, tables, chairs and other objects.
Two of the most poignant objects that evoke the solemn and the personal devastation of the sinking are a mortuary bag that recovery teams used to identify and safeguard the personal effects of Titanic victims and the shoes of Titanic’s “Unknown Child.” In 2007 – over 100 years later – researchers used DNA to identify the pair of leather shoes as belonging to 19-month-old Sidney Leslie Goodwin from England. The boy had been traveling with his father to Niagara Falls for employment.
At the end of the exhibit is a model of a White Star Line lifeboat and another of the Titanic’s rust-covered bow as it appears today.
Titanic Graves at Fairview Cemetery
The Fairview Cemetery is just a few miles from the Titanic museum. In a quiet, shady section are dozens of square black granite markers of many unknown Titanic victims. Designer F.W. Christie aligned the graves in three rows that taper toward each other on a sloping hill resembling the bow of a large ship. Some stones have names, though many do not. Each has a number, signifying the order in which recovery teams found their bodies. The White Star Line paid for the graves and the stones. A few families or groups paid extra for bigger stones or more engraving.
At the far end, a tall stone “erected to the memory of an unknown child” gives me pause. It is larger than the rest because the crew from the recovery ship took a collection to pay for his elaborate marker. Today, a new black granite stone rests at its base, identifying body #4 as Sidney Goodwin. The Upon it, visitors still place stuffed animals, coins and flowers.
The Titanic Today
The Titanic was never recovered from the bottom of the ocean floor, resting in its watery grave. Many passengers are believed to have gone down with the ship, and what remains of them is still there. At the time of its sinking, the technology to salvage it didn’t exist. Today, the International Congress of Maritime Museums and other groups oppose and salvage attempts. They consider the site as an archeological memorial requiring minimal intervention.
If you visit the Titanic Museum
The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic is open seven days a week, from 9:30 am to 5:30 pm, with seasonal shifts to hours and some late nights. Admission is between $5 and $10 per person, depending on the season.
