Agencies/London

Alex Aarouaon from Chicago, whose great, great, great grandfather died on the Titanic, touches the plaque of 1,512 names of those who died from the Titanic after its unveiling during the 100th anniversary commemorations and memorial dedication of the Titanic disaster in Belfast, Northern Ireland, yesterday

Wreaths were cast at sea and a memorial garden was unveiled yesterday in events worldwide to remember the more than 1,500 people who died in the sinking of the Titanic ocean liner exactly a century ago.
In Belfast, the city that built the Titanic, a memorial garden containing the first-ever monument to contain all the victims’ names was unveiled during a commemorative service attended by about 300 members of the public.
Earlier, wreaths were thrown into the Atlantic at the site of the wreck from MS Balmoral, a cruise ship that has traced the doomed liner’s route across the ocean, while people also held a minute’s silence.
And in Halifax, the Canadian port city from where ships sailed to retrieve bodies from the icy Atlantic waters following the sinking on April 15, 1912, and where 150 of Titanic’s victims are buried, church bells pierced the night.
The Titanic went down after hitting an iceberg about 800kms southeast of Halifax.
Jane Allen, whose great uncle Thomas Pears went down with the ship leaving behind his new wife who was rescued, said being aboard MS Balmoral to partake in a Titanic memorial service had been an “incredible” experience.
She told the BBC: “We were all so keen to be at the memorial service. You look down over the side of the ship and you realise that every man and every woman who was not fortunate enough to get into a life boat had to make that decision of when to jump or to stay with the ship until the lights went out. … It changed everybody’s life forever,” she added.
In total, around 50 people on board the 12-night Titanic Memorial Cruise have a direct family connection to the sinking.
Overnight, the MS Balmoral – which has travelled from the English port of Southampton in England – and the Azamara Journey from New York City approached each other at the site where the Titanic went down to witness a partial reenactment.
The Azamara Journey’s captain announced a collision and a commemorative distress call. “Have struck iceberg. … We require immediate assistance,” read the message. “Have struck iceberg and sinking … We are putting women off in boats.”
The Titanic had been sailing from Southampton on its maiden voyage toward New York when it sank.
In Northern Ireland yesterday, a few hundred people attended a commemorative service outside Belfast City Hall, among them politicians and relatives of those who died, including a great-great nephew of the ship’s doctor.
“The focus of the world is on Belfast and we are doing her proud,” Una Reilly, head of the Belfast Titanic Society, told the audience. “We are all proud of this ship. What happened was a disaster, she (the Titanic) was not.”
The Belfast memorial garden contains a nine-metre-wide plinth bearing five bronze plaques engraved with the names of the victims. It is the first time the names of everyone who died has been recorded on one monument.
Many existing memorials failed to include the Titanic crew or its musicians. There is no distinction between first-class passengers and others, with names simply listed in alphabetical order.