There can’t be many people who failed to notice the coverage in the media about the 100^th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. What was a horrific event, especially for people local to us here in Southampton, has sparked world-wide interest and a fascination about how the ‘unsinkable’ ship could be sunk so easily with the loss of so many lives.

A new museum about the Titanic and the impact it had on Southampton opened this week. The Sea City Museum run by Southampton City Council was opened by Olympic rower James Cracknell and documents the impact of the sinking of the ship with a host of interactive displays as well as a rather macabre historic map showing where people who died on board the Titanic had lived in Southampton before boarding the ship.

Some 549 Southampton residents were among the 1,517 passengers and crew who died when the ship hit an iceberg and sunk beneath the Atlantic as it sailed from Southampton to New York. The historical map shows where they had lived before the tragedy struck and shows a city devastated by the impact of the deaths of so many local people in the city.

There’s also an interactive map which shows the current aerial imagery of Southampton (taken from the camera in one of our aircraft one bright sunny day last November) and allows you to link back to what the city used to look like throughout various periods in history. It’s am amazing use of the new to highlight the old and provides an overview of how much Southampton has changed in time. Ordnance Survey has been based in Southampton for over 160 years and so, it’s great for us to have been involved in charting the history of the city and helping to bring it to life.

Other exhibits at the museum include costumes from the time, the pocketwatch belonging to a steward which stopped shortly before the Titanic sunk and was recovered from his body as well as audio of many of the survivor’s stories and a 1:25 scale reproduction of the ship.

So if you are panning a trip to Southampton or the New Forest, consider giving the Sea City Museum a visit. We think it looks great!