At 20 minutes to midnight, April 14, 1912, passengers aboard the Titanic felt a distinct and troubling bump.
The disturbance felt like a train pulling into a station, according to one survivor, whose parents had the good sense to locate the nearest lifeboat and stay there.
Billed as “unsinkable,” the grand ship – on her heralded maiden voyage – hit an iceberg in the unforgiving North Atlantic, allowing the sea to breach the watertight compartments that made her safe.
Two hours and 40 minutes later, she sank beneath the waves, claiming 1,503 lives. Within minutes, the vessel lay broken in two nearly four kilometres below on the ocean floor, lost but not forgotten until her rediscovery more than 70 years later.
A new exhibit that opened this week at the Surrey Museum – in time for the 100th anniversary of the disaster – puts visitors aboard the Titanic in a way you might never have thought possible.
Unsinkable: Remembering the Titanic, 1912-2012, is presented by the Surrey Museum, fashion historian Ivan Sayers and the Johnson GeoCentre of Newfoundland and Labrador. The exhibit runs until June 12.
It seems the only thing grander and more superlative than the Titanic itself is the legend that surrounds her. A century later, the story still fascinates.
For one thing, there was her sheer scale – 11 storeys high, weighing more the 46,000 tons, she was the largest passenger ship on the seas at the time. Built at a shipyard in Belfast, Ireland through the labours of 15,000 workers at a cost of $7.5 million, the Titanic was the world’s most luxurious ocean liner.
First and third class (or "steerage") accommodations on board the “Ship of Dreams” have been recreated for the Surrey exhibit, largely using materials from the museum’s collection, underscoring the rigid class divisions of the day as well as what it meant to travel in style.
Second class on the Titanic matched first class on any other liner – the original “super-elite” travelling class. First Class suites, within reach of only the wealthiest, boasted private promenades, two bedrooms, closets and private washrooms. First Class amenities also featured Turkish baths and saunas, a well-appointed gymnasium with fitness instructors and sublime dining hall.
Third Class passengers – most about to start new lives in North America – were fortunate to enjoy electricity, heat, and running water in their considerably more spartan cabins, outfitted with bunk beds. Required by U.S. law, their quarters were separated by steel gates from the rest of the ship but their accommodations weren’t lacking in amenities and amusing diversions, as visitors to the Surrey Museum will discover.
Clothing assembled from the museum’s and fashion historian Ivan Sayers’ collection is also featured, revealing what constituted proper cruise wear on transatlantic voyages in the early 20th century for both middle- and upper-class passengers.
Then there was the enormity of the tragedy: there weren’t enough lifeboats for all 2,200 passengers and crew. Whether it was denial about the seriousness of the situation – or incompetence – many lifeboats were lowered at less than full capacity. Just over 700 people survived. Museum-goers can flip through a list of all the passengers and crew who were aboard.
The story of the Titanic also contains an integral element for today’s celebrity-obsessed culture – a passenger list that boasted the most prominent American names of the day, including John Jacob Astor, a Guggenheim, a Macy’s department store owner and the “unsinkable” Margaret (Molly) Brown, a Denver millionairess and philanthropist who urged her fellow lifeboat passengers to row back to save more lives. Once safely aboard the rescue vessel RMS Carpathia, Brown rallied donations for surviving widows and orphans, earning a place in musical theatre and movie history.
There’s even a British Columbian connection – railway magnate Sir Charles Melville Hays, [pictured] an American Montrealer with a Titanic-sized vision for Prince Rupert as the terminus 
of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, complete with a grandiose hotel and shipping port. He, too, perished on the Titanic, putting Prince Rupert’s destiny on hold.
Programs for families and children will be available throughout the duration of the exhibit.
Tonight (Thursday, April 12), join Robert Gallacher at the Surrey Museum for a presentation about the last hours of the ill-fated vessel.
On Saturday, April 14, Ivan Sayers presents Titanic Tea and Fashion, a slide presentation and talk profiling the clothing the fashion-savvy passengers wore aboard the Titanic.
On Friday, June 8, parents and young children are invited to Titanic Ladies or Titanic Gentleman, preschooler sessions on the discovery and clothing of the Edwardian Era.
Winnipeg-bound Eva Hart, who was just seven years old that terrible, cold night awaiting rescue, lived a long life, but her father’s was cut short. After ushering his wife and daughter into the lifeboat, he bade them farewell. Obeying the mores of a civilized age of travel, it was women and children first.
For more information, call 604-592-6956 or visit www.surrey.ca/heritage. The Surrey Museum, located at 17710 56A Ave., is open Tuesdays to Fridays, 9:30 a.m. to 5:50 p.m., and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Closed Sundays, Mondays and statutory holidays.
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