May 5, 2012 Cobh

When we woke up this morning, we were entering the channel leading into Cobh.  Cobh is the port that serves Cork.  We had breakfast and then headed out into the village of Cobh.  It is an amazing day here, there is no rain.  We have been in Ireland four times and this is the first time that it has not rained on us.  The village is quite nice and steeped in history.  We walked up through the shopping district and stopped at the Titanic museum.  This was most interesting.  We have seen the display that was in Kansas City, but this was really well done.  They give you a boarding pass with the name of a passenger on it, and you find out at the end of the tour if you survived or not.  I had always thought that the Titanic had tied up at the dock like we do.  It however dropped anchor outside the entrance channel and the passengers were ferried out to the boat.  

The museum is located in the old White Star office building, so you are walking where some of the passengers for the Titanic waited and boarded tenders.

After the museum, we walked up to the cathedral that dominates the Cobh sky line.  Beautiful views from there.  We then headed back down hill to find some fish and chips.  A local told us about a place close to the ship and we stopped there.  A nice outside eating area, covered with plastic, awaited us.  The fish and chips were great and as we ate members of the ship’s crew arrived.  We lingered for a short time and then headed back to the boat.

I had always thought that the Titanic had tied up at the dock like we do.  It however dropped anchor outside the entrance channel and the passengers were ferried out to the boat.  There were three classes of passage on the boat.  First and second class passengers had fairly nice accommodations.  Some first class passengers had very regal accommodations.  The Titanic had the first heated swimming pool for them. 

The life boats were stored on the upper decks, where the first class passengers were.  The third class passengers were not allowed up to the top decks until sometime after the abandon ship signal was sounded.  The Titanic carried more life boats than required, however the number of life boats was determined by the tonnage of the ship not the number of passengers.

May 5, 2012 Cobh / Cork   Click blue line for pictures.