Rediscover RMS Titanic One Artifact at a Time Artifact
Feature: The Big Piece
Twenty six years ago this month, the wreckage of the
most infamous ship in history, RMS Titanic, was discovered at the bottom of the
North Atlantic. Today, the largest artifact ever recovered,
appropriately called The Big Piece, can be found in an unlikely place; in the
middle of the desert at Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition at Luxor, Las Vegas.
Weighing approximately 15 tons and measuring 26 by 12
feet, The Big Piece is a section of Titanic’s starboard side hull and was
successfully recovered during RMS Titanic Inc.’s 1998 Expedition. It displays the extensive rivet work that
went into the building of Titanic (about three million rivets were used in the
Ship’s construction). Also, a part of the original support beam that attached
the Big Piece to the frame of the Ship is visible on the back of the object.
True history buffs will be interested to know that the
portholes visible on the Big Piece came from C Deck and were part of cabins
C-79 and C-81. Although these cabins were unoccupied, nearby cabin C-83 housed New York theatrical producer Henry B. Harris and his wife
Irene. Also nearby was the cabin occupied by W.T. Stead, the most famous
journalist in England at the time. Irene Harris survived the sinking, but
both Henry Harris and W.T. Stead lost their lives in the disaster.
Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition provides guests with
the opportunity to become a passenger as they move through Exhibition galleries
and view more than 20 never-before-seen authentic artifacts including gaming
chips, passenger personal papers and decorative sections from Titanic’s famed
Grand Staircase. Experience the Ship’s historical journey in chronological
order: from the construction yards, her launch, first and third class room
re-creations, the Promenade Deck, the Grand Staircase, the fated sinking, to
modern day recovery efforts.
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