April 12, 2012 will mark the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. What better way to mark this enormous disaster (more than 1,500 drowned) than by taking a cruise to the very spot where the Titanic lies rusting under the ocean. It’s time, as some might say. All the surviors are gone and in fact living memory of the event is pretty much dead as well. As the Independent newspaper in the UK says, it might sound like tempting fate, but Titatnic tourists are gung ho.
2000 have booked
More than 2,000 of them have decided to take the Titanaic memorial cruise. A British company has almost sold out two cruises for people to mark the anniversary. The tour will follow the route of the Titanic to where it struck an iceberg. The booming demand for Titanic-related travel has led to another travel company offering the chance to explore the wreckage of the ill-fated vessel in a Russian-built submarine next summer at a cost of $59,000 (£37,000) per person. Places for that voyage are already “very limited”.
Local context
For those wishing some local context to the Titanic disaster, it was in the early 20th century that the Northern Railway Company (now the CNR) built a line through the Don Valley. Expecting large profits from land development, it began to assemble the land that would become The Town of Leaside. In 1912, it announced its plan to establish a sizeable residential community and engaged a town planner to prepare a detailed street and lot plan.
