Uncover objects from the Titanic, find out about life at sea and learn about the port of Liverpool.
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Uncover objects from the Titanic, find out about life at sea and learn about the port of Liverpool.
Collections
The first major shipping disaster to hit Edwardian Liverpool was the sinking of the White Star liner Titanic in 1912. Although she sailed from Southampton, Titanic was registered in Liverpool, and so carried the city’s name on her stern. This was because her managing company, the White Star Line, had its head office in James Street, Liverpool.
Find out more about how the Titanic story is linked to Liverpool here.
Many objects from and linked to the Titanic are on display at the museum - see highlights in the object gallery below. This includes the permanent gallery on the first floor and the major exhibition Titanic and Liverpool: the untold story on the second floor of the museum.
Titanic, then the largest ship in the world, left Southampton for New York on Wednesday 10 April 1912. On board were 922 passengers, later rising to 1316 after calls at Cherbourg and Queenstown. With her crew of 892 she carried 2,208 people in all. Although she was little more than half full, her 20 lifeboats could only carry about half of the people on board.
At 11.40pm on the night of Sunday 14 April she struck an iceberg to the south-east of Newfoundland, which fatally damaged the hull. The ship sank over two and a half hours later with the loss of more than 1,500 lives.
Follow these links to see a selection of objects relating to the Titanic. The last six featured are loan items that went on display for the first time in December 2008.
Follow the links on the right to find out more about some of the collection highlights.
The Maritime Archives and Library also hold a lot of relevant material about the Titanic, including the only surviving first class ticket. You can read more online, with information sheet number 41: RMS Titanic.
You might also be able to spot another highlight from the Titanic collections in National Museum's Liverpool's Top Treasures online quiz - but we are not giving you any clues about which one it is!
The recently published book is available to buy from the online shop.
There are regular free spotlight talks and roleplayer performances about the Titanic. Further details and upcoming dates are in our Titanic events programme.
