On This Day: Titanic arrives in Southampton for her maiden voyage

On April 3, 1912, the Titanic arrived in Southampton to collect passengers and launch her maiden, yet famously ill-fated, voyage.

After arriving from Belfast in Northern Ireland where the world-famous ship was built, Titanic remained docked in Southampton for a week before welcoming passengers and crew aboard on April 10 and setting out to sea at noon that day. From Southampton, Titanic docked in Cherbourg, France, and finally Queenstown, now Cobh, in County Cork in Ireland before heading for New York City.

As the main port of call for the Titanic, the city of Southampton has a very important relationship with the ill-fated ship. Not only did passengers board the Titanic at Southampton, but many of the ship’s crew did as well.

At Southampton, 920 people boarded the Titanic with more than half being third-class passengers: 179 were First Class, 247 were Second Class, and 494 were Third Class.

Of the 908 crew members aboard Titanic, 724 were from Southampton. Of the 685 crew members who perished when the Titanic sank, 549 were from Southampton.

Today, Southampton features a walking trail of locales significant to the Titanic, as well as several memorials commemorating the Southampton natives who perished in the Titanic’s disaster in 1912:

The Titanic Engineers Memorial

Located in East (Andrews) Park, it memorializes the engineers who died in the shipwreck. The bronze and granite memorial was originally unveiled by Sir Archibald Denny, president of the Institute of Marine Engineers on April 22, 1914.

The Titanic Musician's Memorial

The musician's memorial was first unveiled by Titanic survivors in 1990 after the original memorial was destroyed by air raids in 1940. The newer memorial remembers the musicians who continued to play their instruments on the deck of the Titanic as the ship was sinking in an attempt to keep passengers calm.

Titanic Postal Workers Memorial 

Located in Southampton's main Civic Centre building, the memorial plaque is made from a spare propeller from the Titanic and commemorates the postal workers who died on the Titanic along with a book of remembrance. When it sank, the Titanic was transporting almost 3,500 sacks of mail containing an estimated 7 million pieces of mail. 

Southampton’s SeaCity Museum also features several exhibitions and artifacts from the Titanic.

Southampton played such  a large role in Titanic's story that a song was named after the city for the 1997 blockbuster hit 'Titanic' - listen to it here:

Have you visited any of these locations in Southampton? Let us know in the comments section, below. 

* Originally published in 2019. Updated in April 2023.