The British cruise ship MS Balmoral was on course last night to reach the point in the North Atlantic where the Titanic sank 100 years ago. The 1,309 passengers aboard the Titanic Memorial Cruise were on schedule for a service of remembrance arranged for 2.20am today, the time when the White Star Line's "unsinkable ship" sank a century ago on its maiden voyage.
The event was preceded yesterday by a series of commemorative events. Thousands attended remembrance services in Northern Ireland. The luxury liner, which struck an iceberg on 14 April 1912, with the loss of 1,512 lives, was built in Belfast.
Across the Irish Sea, in Maryport, members of a local amateur radio club sent signals from a replica of the liner's radio room. The Cumbrian town was the birthplace and childhood home of Thomas Henry Ismay, who founded the White Star Line. Robert Ballard, the oceanographer who found the wreck of RMS Titanic, delivered a memorial lecture in Belfast, while a Requiem for the Lost Souls was held in the city's Church of Ireland cathedral.
The scale of the tragedy is evident in the size of the memorial plinth, which is nine metres wide to contain the list of victims. It is the first time the names of everyone who perished has been recorded on one monument. Many existing memorials failed to include the Titanic crew and musicians.
