Woke up this morning again to the dulcet tones of radio presenter Matt Bailey on Radio Newcastle’s breakfast show, as he gave us this morning’s cryptic clue to solve. As today is apparently International Potato Day, the answer to the clue was ‘Maris Piper’. It was therefore quite appropriate that we would be spending the day in the pretty little town of Cobh, in Ireland. š
About 10 minutes after I’d sent my answer in, I received a call asking if I wanted to go on the radio again to give out the answer, and I agreed. Matt spent some time asking me about the cruise and the places we had visited; he seemed fascinated to be speaking to one of his listeners who was on a cruise ship! š
The morning was bright and sunny and, as we sailed into our berth, we could see the large Titanic memorial which had been erected in 2012 to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, and our visit to Cobh in April 2012.
Cobh (or Queenstown as it used to be called in those days) has a lot of maritime history and still has the old White Star Line ticket office there. Not only was Cobh Titanic‘s last port of call before she left on her ill-fated transatlantic crossing, it was also Cobh to which the rescue boats brought the survivors of the Lusitania, after it was torpedoed and sank off Kinsale on 7th May 1915.
Today, it would also be the last port of call for Queen Anne this cruise, before her return to Southampton on 1st June. š
After having our breakfast in the Artisans’ Foodhall, we decided to go ashore and asked Billy and Carole if they wanted to come too. They didn’t have any excursions booked, but as this was their first visit to Cobh (and it’s our fourth) we advised them that there was a lot to see and do on foot, straight off the ship. We therefore got ready to disembark and were walking down the gangplank into the sunshine just after 10 o’clock.
The first thing we passed of note was the statue of Annie Moore and her brothers.
Annie Moore was the first Irish emigrant to pass through the federal immigrant inspection at Ellis Island, New York. 18-year old Annie arrived at Ellis Island from County Cork aboard the steamship Nevada on January 1, 1892. Her brothers, Anthony and Philip, who journeyed with her, had just turned 15 and 12, respectively. As the first person to pass inspection at the newly opened facility, she was presented with an American $10 gold piece from an American official.
We walked along the harbour front, passing what was the original White Start Line building. It was now advertising the Titanic Experience, an immersive visitor experience described on its website thus:
Titanic Experience Cobh is a unique visitor experience located in the historic White Star Line Building ā the very place from where Titanicās last passengers departed. Take a guided tour and retrace the footsteps of our Queenstown passengers. Featuring real passenger stories and eyewitness accounts of the tragedy.
The tickets were only 11,50 Euros (for seniors) which seemed very reasonable, so we decided to go in. When we arrived, they said that all the tickets were sold for the upcoming session, but we could book the 11.45am slot. We agreed, and purchased our tickets, ready to come back later.
In the meantime, we decided to stroll along in this attractive little town, past the seafront park and the memorial statue to those lost in the Lusitania disaster, past the Commodore Hotel and the place where you could get boat trips out to Spike Island. Above it all we could see the spire of the wonderful St. Colman’s cathedral.
As we sat chatting on a park bench, a bloke sitting opposite asked us where in County Durham we came from! He recognised our accents. He was in Cobh with some of his family and they were touring parts of Europe in a camper van.
Soon it was time for us to start making our way back for the Titanic Experience. What was really interesting about our tickets was that they were replicas of tickets that the 123 real passengers from Queenstown had, complete with their names, ages and the ‘class’ they were travelling. Today, our alter-egos were as follows:
| Trevor | Jeremiah Burke | 19 years | 3rd class |
| Debbie | Delia McDermott | 31 years | 3rd class |
| Billy | William Minahan | 44 years | 1st class |
| Carole | Mary Mangan | 32 years | 3rd class |
We set off around the exhibition, which started off with life-size examples of what the accommodation would have been like. The vast majority of those travelling to New York from Queenstown would have been in third class, and this was certainly “no frills”; cramped bunks and a washstand in each cabin. A third class one-way ticket in 1912 cost Ā£8.00, which today is worth Ā£475.00.
Next, we were shown an example of a first class cabin. It wasn’t one of the poshest staterooms, such as the penthouse, but it was still very comfortable and spacious. Our guide told us that this was the cabin of one Dr. William Minahan. “That’s me!” exclaimed Billy, waving his ticket. A passage in this cabin (one way) would have cost Ā£30.00 then (Ā£1,783) but if you wanted a first class Parlour Suite it cost a staggering Ā£870 or over Ā£51,000. Unbelievable!
We then went out to the rear of the building, where there was the remains of the pier from where the passengers would embark on the tender to be taken out to the Titanic at anchor. It was amazing to think we were standing in the same place as the people named on our tickets would have queued to board.
We then had to make our way into a room that was shaped like the inside of a lifeboat. A huge floor to ceiling screen dominated one wall, and onto this was projected a film showing the Titanic in her death throes, minutes before she broke into two, then disappeared below the waves forever. As the film ran, we listened to voiceovers from actual passengers who had been in the lifeboats. It was really quite horrifying as well as being dreadfully poignant. š
Walking around the building, we looked at lots of photographs of Cobh (or Queenstown as it was then) during that time, as well as crew, officers and passengers from the Titanic. We then entered a room which had a roll of remembrance, with the names of the 123 Queenstown passengers listed alphabetically. Here, we could look at the names on our tickets to discover our fates.
It turned out that only Delia McDermott (Debbie) was saved; the others all perished. It certainly made the experience more interesting and personal, and it’s made me want to find our more about those four passengers now.
What an excellent visit we had had – I’d certainly recommend it to anyone visiting Cobh. The website is here if you’re interested.
Afterwards, we all felt that a freezing cold Guinness was in order. Trevor and I remembered going in a pub called “Kelly’s Bar” when we were in Cobh in 2015 for the “Lusitania Remembered” cruise, where the Guinness was very good.
By now, the sky was very blue and the weather very warm; it had been the best weather of this cruise. We found Kelly’s Bar but it seemed too nice to be inside, so we each took a seat outside at a table for four, and Trevor and Billy went inside to get the Guinness. A man with a guitar was just setting up his mic and sound system; we could expect some authentic Irish singing shortly. š
The Guinness went down an absolute treat as we sat there in the sunshine, listening to the lilting singing voice of the man with the guitar. Billy went inside the pub and asked him to do a rendition of Seven Drunken Nights which was made famous by The Dubliners, and the singer happily obliged, everyone joining in the chorus, “Oh, you’re drunk, you’re drunk, you silly old fool, still you cannot see….”
We enjoyed our Guinness so much we stayed for another one. It was just so pleasant here sitting in the sun. Afterwards, B & C decided to take a slow stroll back to the Queen Anne, but Trevor and I thought we’d walk up the hill towards the cathedral, as we knew you could get some fantastic photos over the whole town and sea front from up there.
As we walked up the steep incline, we noticed all these little pastel coloured houses, all in a row. They were just so pretty I had to get a photo. Apparently, they are known as the “deck of cards” houses and are among the most-photographed houses in Ireland. Turning around, we also had a fabulous view over the harbour, with the Queen Anne berthed up.
Once we arrived at the top, we decided to go for another pint of Guinness! (Well, we are in Ireland after all). We remembered visiting a pub on the “Titanic Trail” when we were here in 2012, and we looked around for it, knowing it was near St. Colman’s Cathedral. We soon spotted Mansworths Bar, which claims to be the oldest pub in Cobh. As such, Mansworth’s is the only pub in the town that was in operation in 1912, when some of the Titanic’s passengers would have had their last pint here before boarding the ill-fated liner. This is why it features on the “Titanic Trail’ for visitors.
It was nice and cool in the pub, and we each ordered our Guinness and took a seat at a table. A few minutes later, a group of people entered the pub, seemingly passengers from the Queen Anne who had had the same idea as us. From their accents, we guessed them to be Australian, and soon we got talking to them and trading the usual Anglo-Aussie banter that you get. One of them was wearing a t-shirt with a picture of the Titanic on it, which said “Made by the Irish – sunk by the English” and, as the guy announced “worn by an Aussie!”. š
After our Guinness, it was now after 3.30pm and the “all aboard” time was 5.30, but we had to be back before then anyway because of our ridiculously-early first dinner sitting. We said our goodbyes to the Aussies then went back outside into the sunshine. As we walked down, we now had a front view of the “deck of cards” houses, with the spire of St. Colman’s rising up in the background. It made an irresistible photo, so we had to stop.
It was after 4.00pm when we arrived back at the Queen Anne, and I had to take a photo of her before we boarded.
Back on board, we relaxed for a while before getting showered and changed, ready for dinner. Then we made our way down to the Britannia Restaurant and met up with Billy and Carole on table #393. We’d had a lovely day today, and Billy said he though that Cobh had been his favourite port of call this cruise.
The entertainment in the Royal Court Theatre featured the Liverpudlian comedian John Evans again, and we enjoyed his show as much as ever. Afterwards, we looked to have a go at the quiz in the Golden Lion, but the subject tonight was movies, and Trevor and I are no way movie buffs, so we decided to give it a miss. Instead, we just went up to the Commodore Club and watched the sun go down on another fabulous day spent cruising, and enjoyed the music of Brian Pamphilon, the resident pianist.
We had a couple of drinks then decided to go back to 4066 for a Bacardi and coke nightcap. Going out briefly on the balcony, we saw the Queen Anne was only going along slowly, maybe about eight knots. We had our final sea day to look forward to tomorrow before our arrival into Southampton on Sunday. As ever, we slept well.