The Tale of 2 cities – Belfast and Southampton

(Part II of the Never Ending Stories of the Titanic)

BELFAST, Ireland— Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland has a charming setting surrounded by green hills by the mouth of River Lagan, which flows east into the Irish Sea. From its banks and quays spectators viewed the noontime launching of the Titanic on May 11, 1911. Downtown landmarks include the elegant white stone and marble City Hall. The Linen Conservation Area testifies that linen has been the source of its founding wealth and man-made fiber factories from the surrounding towns continue the Irish linen tradition. Stripped from flax it was also essential for the ropes in shipbuilding. With more than half a million population today, in 1911 almost the whole town was employed in building and refitting the ship. Donegal St., the main street, is not far from the large campus of the historical Queen’s University and the Royal Botanic Garden.

Living with partition

What has made world headlines though for 30 years was the trouble of partition when the Catholic South and the Protestant dominated North ignored each other for 50 years dividing Ireland into two. The civil war ended in 1923, when the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed. Still the border question cast a shadow over the deal. Six counties of Ulster– Antrim, Down, Tyrone, Fermanagh, Armagh and Derry – were retained within the United Kingdom. The British recognized that even the deluge of a world war had not softened the resolution of the northern Protestants. Thus anarchy, strife lasted through several coalitions, from Sir Winston Churchill’s times until the 70’s when thousands of lives were lost. Our tour bus took us to the laborers’ district where enclaves of red-brick houses are painted with bright “folk art” portraying hooded figures brandishing Kalashnikov rifles and the green white and orange of the Irish Republic’s tricolor flag. In another area is the caricature of “King Billy,” England’s King William III crossing the Boyne River on his white horse. By 1987 when Ireland negotiated with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the Anglo-Irish Agreement was finally signed. This left the North to fight its ancient battles, while the South looked to Europe transforming in the process its economic and social values.

The vigorous workforce that put together the ship Titanic

The Titanic was one of the largest ships ever made in Belfast. It took over a year to finish the Titanic. From its end to the front bow, the Titanic was as long as 22 London double-decker buses lined up together. It weighed over 50,000 tons (as much as 7,500 elephants!).

The usual workforce of Harland and Wolff, which numbered about 6,000 people, more than doubled in size to cope with the construction and fitting out of both the Titanic and its sister ship, the Titanic. The shipbuilder was the biggest single employer in Belfast, and its workforce lived in the maze of narrow streets surrounding the dockyard.

The crew of the Titanic worked very hard to keep the ship running smoothly for its guests. Captain Edward J. Smith and his officers commanded the Titanic from the bridge. The chefs in the many kitchens prepared over 4,000 meals a day. In the cargo hold, it was estimated that there was enough food to feed the inhabitants of a small town, including approximately 40,000 fresh eggs, 7,000 heads of lettuce, 36,000 apples, and over 2,000 bags of potatoes. In the boiler rooms at the bottom of the ship, crewmen worked long, hard hours throwing coal into the boiler in order to keep the Titanic’s giant steam engines running.

The memorable part of our trip to Belfast is the visit to the magnificent Belfast Titanic Museum right at the Harland and Wolff shipyards where massive cranes still dominate the skyline. Sonia Peregrino, Lumen Duran’s sister took us to this 38m high building designed melodramatically like the bow of the original 60m high Titanic ship. That brought us back 100 years ago to ship designer Thomas Andrew sorting out the messy business of creating new slipways without computerized machines but men, shovels, horses and carts, raising the steel ribs and plating the decks. We walked through four floors where the perfect models of the interior rooms including the captain’s berth, luxurious first class cabins, the grand staircase, the bottom boiler room etc. These involved 400 skilled shipyard workers, plumbers, electricians, joiners, etc. Before Titanic and Olympic, Harland & Wolff had built 399 ships and after Titanic, 1,300 more ships until 2003.

Sonia still took time to drive us hours away to Dublin making a stop at the shrine of Our Lady of Knock, the 18th century rural shrine, which is quite popular with the Irish due to the continuous occurrence of miracles. Then after we flew back to Southampton.

Southampton, Hampshire England – the county of writers, gardens and cathedrals

Southampton is part of the lush green pastureland of “south country,” the label coined by the poet Edward Thomas. We owe our joyful stay here to our hosts Ray and Carina Andama together with Lawrence and Jennifer Pinili and their two smart primary grade school children, Lara and Pocholo. It included revisiting London, the famous Kew Gardens, the fantastic Natural History Museum at Kensington, the Winchester Cathedral and the Eden Project in Cornwall County. This ultra modern 35-hectare botanic garden inaugurated by Queen Elizabeth is one of UK’s 2000 Landmark Millennium Projects, a poetic ode to the environment.

Eden – a place to explore new ways in the 21st century

The Eden Project, an educational charity and social enterprise, creates gardens, exhibitions, events, experiences and projects that explore how people can work together and with nature to change things for the better. Project one: creating a global garden in a 50m-deep crater that was once a china clay pit as a symbol of regeneration.

Two vast Biomes, housing wild landscapes, crops and stories from the Rainforest and Mediterranean regions, act as backdrop to our Outdoor Biome and world’s largest rainforest in captivity, meander through the Mediterranean, a calendar of events and concerts to enjoy, go through the adventure of tracing plants to plates and eat delicious food all prepared with the planet in mind.

THE OUTDOOR BIOME – Fifteen years ago this Biome (hex-tri-hex bubble conservatories with the sky for a roof) was a barren landscape, with no soil and no plants. Take a look at it now – the world’s largest bubble hex-tri-hex bubble conservatories; it celebrates our dependence on plants (for food, fuel, medicines and materials), presents our wild landscapes and explores their importance. It shows how people can work together, and with nature, to leave things better than they found them. Look out for seasonal food around the site. Journey through plant evolution, from the earliest mosses to the bryophytes, ferns and horsetails that grew in hot, steamy conditions over 350 million years ago, before the dinosaurs.

RAINFOREST BIOME – The largest rainforest in captivity, under another “bubble” layer of hexagons, the largest 11m across. Trek through the steamy jungle, experience the new Rainforest Aerial Walkway, get an amazing view from the Lookout 50m up, discover how rainforests keep us alive and how we can help do the same for them. Bananas? Coffee? Cashews? All here. The Baobab juice bar is open when possible.

MEDITERRANEAN BIOME – Sights, scents and stories from the Mediterranean, South Africa and California. Visit the wild landscapes and stroll through the world’s kitchen gardens – wild vines, age-old olives, cork forests and much more. Fresh, tasty pizzas and paella are available in the Med. Terrace.

CORE – Home to exhibitions, art, school programs, and the 75-ton seed sculpture, information on global challenges and possible solutions, and on our projects – and the world’s largest nutcracker. Enjoy the baguettes, soups, salads and platters at The Eden Deli.

VISITOR CENTRE – This is the entrance and exit. This is where the ticket booth, membership desks, the big shops, plants sales and ATM machines are located. The Eden Coffee House is a pit stop on arrival or departure – sandwiches, soups, cakes and coffee are available for the visitors.

The power of a small group of people to change the world

“Never underestimate the power of a small group of people to change the world. In fact, it is the only way it ever has.” - Margaret Mead

Late 1990, a small group of people gathered in pubs and offices to talk about an idea led by Tim Smith, now executive chairman of Eden Regeneration Latitude. He realized that there was a big story to be told: plants that change the world. Jonathan Ball co-founder of the Project, together with the McAlpine Joint Venture worked for 18 months without payment or contract and then loaned Eden a significant sum. Finance director Gay Coley raised the money, fledgling teams grew thousands of plants, mapped them on the site, started planning the stories a team was recruited to run the place.

In 2012, the Big Jubilee Lunch with 8.5 million guests formed part of the central weekend of celebrations to celebrate Her Majesty the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. The Eden Project started the Big Lunch held every June of the year because it believes that we are better equipped to tackle challenges when we face them together.

The Titanic, a brainchild of 3 people, Lord William Pierre, chairman of the Belfast Shipyard Harland and Wolff, together with Bruce Ismay, chairman of the White Star Line built the magnificent luxury liner, captained by Edward Smith may have ended in a tragic disaster but earned major lessons that have prevented the deadly accidents of transatlantic shipping.