Cruise ship to retrace voyage of the Titanic

Nearly 100 years after the Titanic went down, a cruise with the same number of passengers aboard set sail yesterday to retrace the ship's voyage, including a visit to the location where it sank. The Titanic Memorial Cruise departed from Southampton, where the Titanic left on its maiden voyage. The 12-night cruise will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the White Star liner.

With 1,309 passengers aboard, the MS Balmoral will follow the same route as the Titanic. Organisers are trying to recreate the onboard experience - minus the disaster - from the food to a live band playing music from that era, in tribute to Titanic's musicians who reportedly played their instruments until the ship sank.

Turning back time: Mary Beth Crocker Dearing and Tom Dearing from the USA dressed in period costume in front of the MS Balmoral. (Left) Carmel Bradburn and Andreas Storic from Adelaide, Australia in a replica of the Titanic dining room. Pics/Simon Brooke Webb/titanic memorial cruiseu00a0

Organisers said people from 28 countries have booked passage, including relatives of some of the more than 1,500 people who died when the Titanic collided with an iceberg and sank on April 15, 1912 in international waters in the North Atlantic. Other passengers include relatives of the around 700 survivors, along with authors and historians.

The tickets cost between £2,799 (Rs 2.3 lakh) and £5,995 (Rs 5 lakh). Over the course of the voyage, passengers will attend lectures by Titanic experts such as Philip Littlejohn, grandson of a Titanic survivor. They will dine on meals based around dishes served in April 1912, with a formal dinner on April 13 made up entirely of dishes served aboard the Titanic.

There will be a special memorial service on April 14 to start at 11.40 pm to mark the moment Titanic hit the iceberg, and later at the exact moment when the ship sank. The cruise is among an abundance of commemorations that have sprung up to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Titanic's doomed voyage.

Did you know?
The Titanic rests some 1,000 miles east of Boston and two miles beneath the ocean's surface.