Gold-rimmed Spode china plates of of lamb, roast squab and foie gras swirled around the dining room, as suited waiters served 10 courses of fare that only a first-class ticket on the most luxurious — and supposedly unsinkable — ship on the planet could buy.
The plates were set upon tables surrounded by women in shimmering satin gowns and men dressed to the nines, while a stringed orchestra played from a selection of more than 350 songs it had memorized just for the voyage.
Hours later, Titanic struck an iceberg 400 nautical miles southeast of Newfoundland just before midnight on April 14, 1912. More than 1,500 people died.
Crafted by “Top Chef” judge and cookbook author Gail Simmons, I recently experienced this dinner, sans the sinking, at a re-creation of the final first-class meal served aboard Titanic at Liberty Science Center in Jersey City.
‘Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition’
Through Monday, Sept. 1, the center is again hosting “Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition,” created by RMS Titanic, Inc., the only organization with rights to recover artifacts from the wreck. “Titanic” was a popular exhibit at Liberty Science Center in 2015, and it’s a good bet it will draw lots of visitors again.
The exhibit includes life-sized cabin reconstructions with beds, tables and chairs; and a real iceberg — the same temperature as the one that led to the downfall of the ship — that people can touch.
“Titanic” showcases more than 130 types of artifacts, including a gold-finished chandelier from a first-class lounge now warped from its traumatic fall; and Titanic’s logometer, which was used to track how far the ship traveled each day. It still shows the reading from the night Titanic went down.
“Titanic: The Artifact Exhibit” at the Liberty Science Center includes life-sized cabin reconstructions.
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Each visitor’s journey starts with a replica boarding pass that represents and includes information about a person who was on Titanic. Mine was second-class passenger Master Michel Marcel Navratil. A 3-year-old French boy, Michel was traveling under a fake name after his father stole him from his estranged wife.
At the end of the exhibit, visitors scan their boarding passes to see if their Titanic counterparts lived or died in the sinking. Michel lived, but his father perished.
Michel and his brother were known as the “Titanic orphans,” and he was one of the last survivors when he died in 2001 at age 92. Before that, he visited both the site of the sinking, and his father’s grave in Halifax, Canada.
At the end of their visit to “Titanic: The Artifact Exhibit” at the Liberty Science Center, visitors scan their boarding passes to see if their Titanic counterparts lived or died in the sinking.
“Starting with getting a boarding pass, immediately you’re personally invested in this experience and you want to know what happens to that person and about them,” said Paul Hoffman, president and CEO of the Liberty Science Center. “We think that more learning takes place when you have interactive experiences. Everything at the center is designed in that way, to not be a passive experience.”
Visitors follow the journey of Titanic, from the ship’s construction, to life on board, to the moments of impact and sinking — and the current efforts to recover and conserve the wreckage.
Passenger possessions, including doll accessories, cufflinks and teacups, fill the exhibit. Some are in such good condition that they look more like they’ve been sitting in a basement rather than 2 miles beneath the ocean’s surface.
The ‘unique power’ of objects
A gold-finished chandelier salvaged from the Titanic wreck now on display at “Titanic: The Artifact Exhibit” at the Liberty Science Center.
It wasn’t easy to get them to look like that. Artifacts were recovered using manned submersibles on 12- to 15-hour dives to the pitch-black ocean floor.
Objects are kept in sea water until they are treated by conservators who can carefully desalinate the artifacts, stabilize and conserve them for exhibition, a process which can take months or years. In a few decades, the objects will be the only remnants of Titanic, as the ship is consumed by iron-eating bacteria.
Exhibit artifacts are surrounded by profiles of former passengers hanging on the walls, ranging from a suffragist and humans right organizer to a 22-year-old actress, bringing life to an event most of us are only familiar with from the 1997 Hollywood blockbuster directed by James Cameron.
“Titanic: The Artifact Exhibit” at the Liberty Science Center features a real iceberg – at the same temperature as the one that led to the downfall of the ship – that people can touch.
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“Objects have a unique power to connect visitors to a specific time and place, allowing them to discover details that speak to them personally,” said Tomasina Ray, president and director of collections at RMS Titanic, Inc. “Because of the expeditions, we have been able to restore the identities of passengers through their artifacts who might otherwise be remembered only as statistics.”
The time needed to do that is running out. Since the Titanic artifact recovery began in 1987, Ray said, the ship has deteriorated significantly due to the site’s freezing cold waters, 6,000 pounds per square inch of pressure and a setting that’s 12,000 feet beneath the ocean’s surface.
“We have already observed changes to the ship over time,” Ray added. “For example, where Captain Smith’s bathtub was once visible, the roof has now collapsed, burying it within the debris. Most recently on our expedition in July of 2024, we discovered that part of the iconic bow railing has fallen from the ship.”
Re-creating the final dinner
Barley risotto served at the recreation of the last-first class dinner held on Titanic hosted at Liberty Science Center to celebrate “Titanic: The Artifact Exhibit.”
Simmons’ dinner had a final cocktail named after the last song played as Titanic sunk.
“I wanted to stay true to what they would have eaten in terms of the essence of the meal, but also make it a little more modern and evolved,” Simmons said. “We decided to make it what we wanted to eat using ingredients that made sense but still honor all the flavors.”
To Simmons, who studied anthropology before becoming a culinary maven, the creation of the dinner and the deep dive into Titanic’s cultural significance held various interests for her.
“The anthropologist in me felt like you really got this window into the way the height of society lived over 100 years ago,” she said. “And for me as a cook, it also made me think of not only the people eating the meal, but the people preparing it. The chance to re-create this final dinner that was the height of glamour and luxury was very exciting to me.”
Chicken Lyonnaise served at the re-creation of the last-first class dinner held on Titanic hosted at Liberty Science Center to celebrate “Titanic: The Artifact Exhibit.”
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Built to rival the world’s best hotels, Titanic had the finest of everything, as first-class passengers had private bathrooms with full bathtubs, huge closets, and adjoining parlor rooms — as well as access to Turkish baths. They paid $2,500 for their tickets to New York, about $57,200 today.
Meals were served in lavish dining spaces, including a Parisian café staffed by French waiters; the Verandah Café with palm trees, green trellises and 7-foot windows; and a more-than 500-seat Jacobean English dining room where meals were presented among fresh flowers, crystal and silver.
“There’s something about Titanic that really captures our imagination,” Simmons said. “Even though we all know the ending, we’re still talking about it nearly 120 years later.”
Admission to Liberty Science Center is $31, $26 per child. Tickets for “Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition,” on view through Monday, Sept. 1, cost an additional $8. The exhibit usually takes from 45 minutes to two hours to view.
Go: “Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition,” through Monday, Sept. 1, Liberty Science Center, 222 Jersey City Blvd., Jersey City, $31, $26 per child, $8 extra to view the “Titanic” exhibit; 201-200-1000, lsc.org/explore/exhibitions/titanic.
Jenna Intersimone.
Contact: JIntersimone@MyCentralJersey.com
Jenna Intersimone has been a staff member at the USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey since 2014, although she’s a lifetime Jersey girl who considers herself an expert in everything from the Jersey Shore to the Garden State’s buzzing downtowns. To get unlimited access to her stories about food, drink and fun, please subscribe or activate your digital account today. You can also follow her on Instagram at @seejennaeat and on Twitter at @JIntersimone.
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Liberty Science Center hosts immersive Titanic exhibit
