Highlights of “Titanic – 12,450 Feet Below
As you enter the exhibit you get the sense that you are indeed embarking on the Titanic as you pass park benches in front of a huge mural of the ship, with festive period music welcoming you. Along the way, you pass a tiny state room – which looks as though its occupant has stepped out momentarily – and a simulated Marconi communications room, from which the final SOS was sent.
Once inside, a glowing iceberg that is cold to the touch lures you deeper into the exhibit as somber notes and Morse code from distant ships, warning of ice in the water, sound the coming tragedy. Digital elements along your “journey” include touch-screen kiosks focusing on icebergs, the sinking of Titanic through a projected graphic representation, and a wreck site where visitors can discover more about Titanic’s final resting place.
The “Challenge” table invites up to four explorers to try to locate five specific artifacts from the debris field by using activators as undersea remote viewers allowing you to trawl the seabed looking for clues. Never-before-released documents, letters, photos and articles selected by Ballard for this exhibit can be sifted through via virtual archives.
A boiler room and a bi-level adventure area inspired by the ship’s engine room, allows children to use their imaginations and chart their course via speaking tubes, wheels, gadgets and horns. In another area an enormous replica of the sunken, corroded hull houses more touch-screen exhibits showing various aspects of the oceanographic work that went into finding the wreck.
Perhaps the most poignant touches are the replicas of the ocean floor 
containing the shoes of the survivors; a statue recreation of Artemis of Versailles which rested on the mantelpiece in the First Class Lounge on “A” deck and a bathtub filled with debris. Incredibly, there were only two tubs for 700 passengers. A special gallery of oversized pictures pays tribute to some of the 1,517 passengers who lost their lives.
The high-definition film, “Moment of Discovery,” transports visitors from the search for the shipwreck through the events that unfolded leading up to the discovery with Ballard narrating and actual shots of the submerged ship as it was uncovered.
Scattered throughout, interesting “fun facts” are found on plaques along the walls: “Titanic’s fourth smokestack or funnel was added to the ship’s design to make the ship look faster and more important. It was not needed for the ship to function.”
