Titanic centenary: UK and US cruise ships to meet at spot iceberg struck

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/apr/14/titanic-centenary-balmoral-journey-cruises

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Two cruise ships are expected to meet in the Atlantic on Saturday to commemorate the centenary of the sinking of the Titanic.

The Balmoral, which departed from Southampton, will meet the Journey, which departed from New York, 400 miles east of Newfoundland, where the Titanic went down.

The Titanic hit an iceberg at 11.40pm on 14 April 1912 and finally sank at 2.20am on 15 April. More than 1,500 of the 2,208 passengers died.

In Belfast, where the Titanic was built at the Harland & Wolff shipyard, thousands will attend a televised concert at the city's Waterfront Hall or a requiem Mass at St Anne's Cathedral.

In Southampton, where the Titanic embarked from, an orchestra will play composer Gavin Bryars' work The Sinking of the Titanic.

Aboard the Balmoral, which is taking 1,309 history buffs and descendants of Titanic passengers on the route of the doomed voyage, passengers and crew will hold two memorial services. One at the time of the iceberg striking; the other at the moment it sank below the waves.

A band, which has been entertaining guests in the evenings during the cruise, will play Nearer My God To Thee – the tune the Titanic's band kept up as the vessel went down.