It’s not the size and scale of the Titanic which leave their mark on your memory - it’s the human details and the tragedy.

Sig. Gaspare Antonino Pietro Gatti was in charge of ovens that stretched for over thirty feet. He brought with him to the Titanic the staff from Oddenino’s Restaurant in London which he used to run. The Ritz Restaurant was situated on B deck and was for the exclusive use of First Class passengers only and was so expensive that booking a table for the whole voyage ensured a reduction in the price of your ticket. Gatti and his staff were not employed by White Star Lines so when the ship was evacuated they were of little consequence. Of all the Roast Cooks, Assistant Roast Cooks, Pastry Cooks, Fish Cooks, Soup Cook, Icemen, Entree Cook, Wine Butler, Waiters, Barman, Glassman, Carver, Maitre D’, Platemen and Page boys only three members of staff survived.

For the family of Captain Edward Smith the tragedy stretched on long after the loss of their husband and father that night. His wife died after being knocked down by a taxi outside her London home on April 28th, 1931. Their daughter Helen Melville Smith later married a stockbroker and had twin sons, one of whom died of polio and the other was killed in the war. Her husband Mr. Russell-Cooke shot himself in the 1950s.

The sad stories go on and on, like the scale of the ship immense and humbling.

The Southampton Maritime Museum takes just a few of these stories and explains them in their Titanic Museum and (on a drier and less windy day then today) you can wander around the city on the Titanic Trail.