Two cruise ships on opposite sides of the Atlantic have embarked on journeys to visit the spot where the Titanic sank, but one that had departed after a short stop on the Irish coast returned briefly after a passenger became ill.
With the sickened passenger needing to be airlifted for medical care, the European memorial cruise on Tuesday interrupted its trip retracing the path of the Titanic’s doomed maiden voyage 100 years ago.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the ocean, the cruise ship Journey departed a New York pier on Tuesday night.
Both memorial cruise ships were packed with history aficionados, many dressed in period costumes, including a boy in a fake white beard on the New York ship who was dressed up as the captain of the tragic ocean liner. In April 1912, the Titanic left Southampton, England, bound for New York. The vessel struck an iceberg and sank into the watery dark. More than 1,500 crew members and passengers died.
The cruise ship Journey, operated by Azamara Club Cruises, and carrying 440 passengers who boarded the ship at a pier on New York’s West Side, will stop in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where more than 100 Titanic victims are buried. It will then continue on to conduct a memorial service at the spot in the Atlantic where the Titanic sank. Along the way, passengers will listen to lectures about life on board the Titanic and dine at a costume-themed dinner.
Ticket prices dropped in recent weeks from about US$5,000 per person to US$1,000 per person.
“It’s just such a human tragedy that just resonates through the years,” said Carol Owens Campbell, 61, of Long Grove, Illinois, who was on board with her husband. “What would any of us do if that happened to us?”
There was a festive atmosphere above deck as passengers sipped champagne and explored the ship, which was not decorated in any way to resemble the Titanic and looked like an ordinary cruise liner.
Across the ocean, the MS Balmoral memorial cruise, operated by Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines, began its trip on Sunday from southern England, carrying 1,309 passengers, including relatives of some deceased Titanic passengers.
The ship made a brief stop in the Irish town of Cobh on Monday before continuing on its journey to New York. The Balmoral had to interrupt its journey on Tuesday because of the medical emergency on board.
Organizers did not identify the passenger or describe the ailment, but the BBC reported that one of its cameramen, Tim Rex, was airlifted by rescue helicopter “as a medical precaution.”
At least one person on board the Journey had a very personal connection to the tragedy. Sharon Lee Willing, of Tucson, Arizona, bought a ticket to honor her great-grandfather, Herbert Chaffee, a farming magnate from North Dakota who perished in the sinking. Family lore has it that Chaffee and his wife were in Europe on their second honeymoon, Willing said.
“I know it’s just going to look like water, but to think of that great ship down there,” Willing said, getting choked up at the thought. “It’s going to be kind of tough, I think.”
Her great-grandmother, Carrie Chaffee, was placed in the last lifeboat to make it off the ship safely.
After the journey, Campbell and her husband plan to stay at New York’s Jane Hotel, where many crew members and survivors stayed after the sinking. Campbell said she’s just a little nervous about the voyage.
“It’s fairly daunting to go on a ship at this particular time,” she said. “If I see an iceberg, I don’t know what I’ll do.”
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS