Titanic pulled away from White Star Dock, Southampton at the start of her maiden voyage on April 10th 1912.

To mark the 90th anniversary, Southampton City Libraries linked up with Cultural Services Oral History Archive to provide a special gallery on the Titanic. This brings together archive photographs and sound clips of oral testimony.

In the early 1980s oral historians interviewed Titanic survivors and local people in Southampton about their memories of the ‘the unsinkable ship’, which later formed the basis of the best-selling book ‘Titanic Voices’.

The extracts in this collection describe people’s excitement at the sight of the new ship in the docks, passengers’ boarding, the near-collision with the New York as she left the docks. As the story unfolds, the interviewees describe the ship striking the iceberg and the events that followed - the launch of the lifeboats, the hours on the lifeboats until rescue by the Carpathia at dawn. Meanwhile, residents of the town speak of the ‘great hush descending on the town’. And finally, the memories of those who lost family and friends speak of the effect it had on their lives.

The material is presented to the public in exhibitions, talks, training workshops and popular publications with 8 titles published on local communities, Southampton during the Second World War, cinemas, RMS Queen Mary and the Titanic.