More than one hundred years have gone by, but we continue to be fascinated by everything about the Titanic; both its history, which has been covered in successful motion pictures and documentaries; and the grand scale of the construction project for that famous ship. Bathco has recovered the best of that era in its Titanic Collection by Bathco, a line of washbasins and other elements (mahogany furniture, fixtures, bathrobes and towel sets) that faithfully reproduce the first- and second-class bathrooms on the Titanic.
How did this project come about? The idea for this collection, which is now available for purchase, came up in 2015, when the Titanic Foundation hired Bathco to create a reproduction of the bathrooms on the famous ship to complete the Titanic, The Reconstruction exhibition.
To learn more about the project, we talk to Jesús Ferreiro, the president of the Titanic Foundation.
What did the opening of the Titanic: The Reconstruction exhibition mean for the Titanic Foundation?
This exhibition is without a doubt the most effective tool for helping to keep alive, for millions of people, the true history of our beloved and mythical Titanic. It’s not just another exhibition; I would even go so far as to say that it’s not actually an exhibition. I define it as a sensory experience that, using our emotions, helps us go back to 1912 and embark on the “Ship of Dreams” to enjoy its incredible facilities and, naturally, to suffer with all the tragic stories of what happened on board. It is also a unique exhibition in that the stories are told by the actual people who lived them.
What are the most interesting pieces in the exhibition?
Materially, the most valuable piece in
the exhibition is unquestionably the huge model of the Titanic, because not only is it the largest in the world, it is also the most spectacular.
The tour of “Titanic: The Reconstruction” started in Granada, passed through Tarragona, and is now in Vigo. What are its next stops?
The next cities on the schedule are: Bilbao, Barcelona, Bologna, Rome, Bordeaux, Paris, Cherbourg, Southampton, New York, San Francisco, Mexico City, Bogotá, Buenos Aires, and, we are currently negotiating a visit to Cuba, but we’re talking about 2021 at this point.
What has this initiative meant to the two organisations?
For the Titanic Foundation, it was extremely important to accurately reproduce the bathrooms on the “Ship of Dreams”, because they help millions of people to imagine exactly what daily life on board was like, especially for the first- and second-class passengers. For Bathco, I think they must be proud of having been the first and only company in the world to enable anyone who so desires to have a replica of the bathrooms on the Titanic at home. That, for any company represents a historic milestone, and I am delighted that it’s a Spanish company doing it.
* Fotografía / photo: The Grand Staircase. PROcliff1066™. Flickr.com
