One hundred and eight years ago, the Titanic hit an iceberg and sank to the bottom of the ocean. It was the most luxurious passenger ship of its time and thought to be unsinkable. Sadly, that proved to be false and more than 1, 500 of the approximately 2, 200 people onboard lost their lives.

One reason for the tremendous loss of life was the lack of sufficient lifeboats on the ship. The Titanic had 20 of these small boats, which were meant to be used in an emergency. The boats could carry between 40 and 65 people each. All together, they could hold only 1, 178 people, far too few to save all of the passengers and crew.

After the Titanic hit the iceberg, an order was given to launch the boats. Many passengers didn’t take the order seriously. Instead of responding to it, they decided to stay indoors rather than go out onto the freezing cold deck. Those passengers who took the order seriously began to get into the boats. Some of the boats were lowered into the ocean before they were full. Two of the boats floated away empty when the ship began to sink.

In 1987, movie producer John Joslyn and a team dove to the site of the Titanic’s wreckage in a＄20 million submersible (潜水器). They filmed for hundreds of hours. Some of the film was later used in a documentary about the Titanic.

Joslyn dreamed of a place where visitors could experience much of what those on board the Titanic actually saw, touched and encountered. Joslyn wanted a “living theater” with guests as part of the experience. In 2010, his dream came true with the construction of Titanic Museum Attraction (TMA). Located in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, TMA is the world’s largest permanent Titanic museum with over 400 Titanic artifacts (文物).