New Museum Wants to Recreate Sailing—and Sinking

When museums house exhibitions on the Titanic, they normally don’t include an interactive element. A new building planned for Niagara Falls, Ontario will go beyond timelines and artifacts in order to bring visitors into the Titanic on the night it sunk.

As Global News reports, the local group Lex Parker Design Consultants Ltd. hopes to open a new museum called “Experience Titanic.” The ocean liner-shaped building will contain several rooms modeled after ones on the original ship, including a boiler room, an engine room, a third-class cabin, and a first-class cabin. Boarding passes with personal information about actual passengers will be distributed, and as the exhibit progresses, guests will learn more about each person.

In addition to showing how the ship would look after leaving its port, the team also wants to recreate the moment that tragedy struck. “We’ll put you on the deck of the ship just as it hits the iceberg,” project leader David Van Velzen told Global News. Audio clips would simulate the sound of the incoming iceberg, while a refrigerated wall would capture how it felt outside during the event.

Lex Parker Design isn’t the first group with the idea to offer an immersive Titanic experience. Australian billionaire Clive Palmer has been attempting to build a seaworthy Titanic replica for years (though some authentic elements would hopefully be left out from that voyage). If you’re interested in experiencing the Titanic without leaving land, the new museum is expected to open in the spring of 2018.