Titanic Boat Trip
Here are the details for the Boat Trip...
Points of interest on the Titanic Tour:
- Big Fish sculpture by John Kindness represents the return of Salmon to the river after an absence of 200 years
- Custom House designed by Sir Charles Lanyon, completed 1857 (£30,000) stands on reclaimed land from the Lagan and consolidated as Donegall Quay.
- Lagan Weir built 1994 enabled the water upstream to be impounded at a base level or depth of around 2 metres. This varies by up to a meter and a half at high tides.
- Queens Quay site of the old scrap yards and coal quays now redeveloped as offices and residential buildings
- Dargan railway & motorway bridge named after Wm Dargan contractor who dredged the Lagan and deepened the port- end of Laganside
- Sinclair Seamens Pres Church 1857 – Venetian in design- closely connected with seamen and dockers as the name suggests. Houses large collection of maritime memorabilia. Pulpit carved in the shape of the bowsprit of MISPAH with port and starboard lights overhead
- Harbour Commissioners Office where the commercial, financial and executive business of the port is conducted- designed by harbour engineer G. Smith and built of white freestone in 1854 on the site of Wm Ritchie's shipyard and surmounted by a light & graceful clock tower and campanile
- Clarendon Dock- and Ritchies dry docks (two docks) where shipbuilding in Belfast began in 1791
- Odyssey Centre £92,000,000 development (45m funded by National lottery) on site of the old coal quays completed in 2000
- Abercorn basin 1867 - at the rear of the basin (until 2000) stood the Abercorn engine works where Titanic's engines were built tested and dismantled to be fitted into the ships
- Hamilton graving dry dock – 1867 – where many 4 masted schooners were built by H&W- as well as the passenger tenders to the Titanic (Nomadic & Traffic)
- remains of the 5 timber slipways on Queens island – owned by Hickson's shipyards prior to being bought by H&W
- Queens Island on east bank (opposite donegall Quay where immigrant ships left from during the latter half of the 18 th and early 19 th centuries to the new world and the passenger steamers to destinations around Ireland & UK right up until the present) where steel and iron were imported to build the great ships.
- Harland & Wolff main offices (disused) and drawing offices are listed as industrial monuments and will be redeveloped in the future in such a way as to retain their character and a history of their usage. These offices are where the Harland & Wolff Chairman Lord Pirrie had his private apartments, offices and the H&W board room. The drawing offices are where Titanic and many other famous luxury liners were designed. Titanic's designer Thomas Andrews (from Comber, Co. Down) also had his offices here.
- Slipways No: 2 and 3 (also listed). The famous Arrol Gantry stood astride these two slipways. No 2 slipway was where Olympic and Brittanic were built and No:3 slipway was where Titanic was built. These, and many other famous commercial and naval ships, were launched from these slipways. It is hoped that the slipways will eventually form part of a maritime museum in Belfast .
- Victoria Wharf where the smaller shipyard Workman-Clark was once based. Workman-Clark went out of business in 1937 and was taken over by Harland & Wolff. Today this site is occupied by the H&W paint shed where large sections of ships were spray-painted. Also on this site are the remains of three small steam cranes which once worked all over the yards on its own track system. These cranes also worked on Thompson Dock outfitting Titanic. Lagan Boat Company's sister company “Lagan Legacy” (a registered charity) initiated a restoration project to try and reclaim these historical artefacts for posterity.
- On the west bank stand three blue corrugated sheds which once belonged to H&W and had three slipways. Frigates, minesweepers and other naval vessels were built and launched here. Beside these sheds is the last remaining building (rounded roof) that once formed part of the Workman-Clark shipyards on Milewater Basin .
- Back on the east bank, moored in the Alexander dry dock, is HMS Caroline, the last remaining World War 1 battle cruiser still in commission. She was built in Birkenhead in 1913 and fought in the famous Battle of Jutland in 1916. Her superstructure has been adulterated over the years to accommodate training halls for cadets.
- Thompson Dock Pumphouse. The pumphouse latterly contained 4 X 1,000 horse power diesel turbine engines (previously the engines had been steam powered) which were used to drain the Thompson Dock. The dock had a capacity of 26,000,000 gallons of water.
- Thompson Dock. This dock was the final outfitting dock of many ships including the great luxury liners Titanic, Olympic and Brittanic. Here was where the internal outfitting took place, plumbing, wiring and décor.
- The Fitting Out Wharf . This was where the ships were moored after launch to have their superstructure fitted (funnels, masts etc).