Here are some pictures from my trip to the THS Convention.
Here, Dr. Robert Ballard is signing my copy of his book "The Discovery of the Titanic" and my brother's
1964 copy of "A Night to Remember." Dr. Ballard, world famous oceanographer and author, is the most well known
for finding Titanic's resting place. He continuously lobbies for laws to protect Titanic's resting place as a gravesite for
all those who died in the disaster. He has also discovered and explored the Lustitania, the Bismark, the ships of
Guadalcanal , and several ancient ships in the Mediterranean. Dr, Ballard gave a speech Friday night on his recent
and future explorations. He is currently exploring Pearl Harbour to find the Yorktown and the
four Japanese ships which attacked Pearl Harbour. He has future plans to explore
the bottom of the Black Sea, hopefully to find some well preserved ancient ships.
Here, I am (looking half asleep) with Ken Marschall, famous maritime artist. Ken has illustrated the covers of Time and National Geographic magazines, and several books with both Dr. Robert Ballard and Titanic Historian Don Lynch including Titanic: An Illustrated History, Exploring the Lustitania, and Discovery of the Bismark. . I highly recommend his bookTitanic: An Illustrated History. Ken also served as Visual Historian for the movie Titanic. Ken gave a speech and slide show Friday night on his work on the movie.
I visited the exhibits that morning and met some THS members - Charley Andrews, Dave McMunn, Joe
and Robin Colossa, and Barbara Jackson. Joe and Charley accompanied me on a trip to the THS Museum
while the others stayed at the hotel to hear some of the lectures. The museum is located in Indian Orchard,
MA about a 20 minute drive from Springfield (There is also another THS Museum in Fall River, MA). The museum is quite small, however, does hold some interesting
items. You can also buy books and other Titanic/White Star merchandise here. After our visit at the museum
we headed back to the convention.
Joe and Charley in front of the Titanic Historical Society Museum.
Another view of the museum.
Back at the convention, Brian Kampersal who starred as 5th Officer Lowe in the movie Titanic, gave a presentation
on his insights and behind the scenes observations while starring in the movie.
A pic of me and Brian
Titanic Historian Don Lynch, author of "Titanic: An Illustrated History," gave a question-and answer session on his experiences
as Historian for the movie Titanic. This was my favorite lecture of the convention. He had some hilarious stories about
working with James Cameron and Visual Historian and his co-author in Illustrated History, Ken Marschall.
Don at the lecturn
After Don's lecture, we all headed to our rooms to get ready for the anniversary dinner. Before the dinner, we all
met for a toast in memory of the RMS Titanic and all those who lost their lives on the ship.
1st Row: David McMunn, Joe Colossa, Robin Colossa, me, Angela, Charley Andrews; 2nd Row: Barbara Jackson, and three guys whose names I didn't get.
There was about 450 members at the dinner. I sat away from my friends that I met earlier in the day, however, I enjoyed
meeting and talking with the people at my table. After dinner, a panel composed of Ken Marschall, Don Lynch,
Ed and Karen Kamuda (President of THS and his wife, who both had a cameo appearence in the film), Tom Nicolai (model builder for movie) and Brian Kampersal gave
another question-and-answer session on the ship and the movie. Titanic Survivor, Millvina Dean, who was only 6 months
old at the time Titanic sank, told some amusing stories about interviews with the press.
Me and Millvina
Father O'Donnell also gave a talk and slide show about his new book "The Last Days of the Titanic," a collection of Father Browne's photographs during his trip
on the Titanic from Southhampton, England to Queenstown, Ireland.
The next morning, Dave, Charley and I traveled to New Britian, CT to visit Joe and Robin. Joe had a quite impressive maritime memorabilia collection. We spent a couple hours browsing through his collection and then parted our separate ways to the airport. Next year's convention will be held in Denver, the home of the unsinkable Molly Brown. I'm looking forward to visiting with my new found friends at the next convention.