They say Victoria is a popular destination with tourists, especially Americans (I suspect its proximity to Seattle has something to do with that), because of its British look and feel. I suppose it does look more British compared to other Canadian cities. The grand, historical looking buildings around the harbor certainly wouldn't look out of place on the banks of The Thames or, indeed, around Queen Vic. square in Hull. I think the constant stream of sea planes landing in the Marina gave the game away though. Never seen that in Britain. And I do draw the line at the lone piper playing under the totem poles. He might have been more convincing had he been playing Scotland the Brave in tune.
The plan in Victoria was to try a spot of whale watching. This didn't work out. I missed the sailing I'd planned to get on and the next was on a tiny 'Zodiac' boat, which I didn't fancy spending three seconds on let alone three hours.
No matter. Victoria was a nice place to be. I strolled around the harbor, looked in a junk (souvenir) shop, watched a group of shopping centre staff try to clear up a large pile of shattered glass from a broken window and then I came across the Royal BC Museum (BC being British Columbia). It was $25 admission and after my rather disappointing visit to the Royal Ontario Museum last week I was quite quite apprehensive about paying that.
Well, It was probably the best $25 I spent on this trip. It was a wonderful museum, on which someone has plainly spent a hell of a lot of money. There was an entire floor dedicated to the history of the provence from the late 1800s right to the end of The 20th Century. Each decade had its own gallery which was decorated in period style and contained electronic newspaper archives for the decade, information of the major events and lifestyle of the decade and a cabinets full of day to day clothing and artifacts used during the period. After you'd got through that the rest of the floor was a complete reconstruction of what life was like in Victoria in the early 1900s. It was amazingly well done. It had reconstructed streets, hotels, shops, alley ways, ships, saw mills, fisheries, houses, stations and more. I was fascinated, wondering round exploring every nook and cranny.
There was also a special exhibition about The Titanic. It was just as compelling. Before I entered the gallery I was handed a boarding card, which contained the name and details of one of the passengers (everyone would get a different person), the idea being as I went round the exhibition I followed the life of that passenger and then found out whether they survived or drowned at the end. I was a Mr. Leonard Mark Hickman, a 24 year old traveling from West Hampstead, London to Neepawa, Manitoba, Canada in second class.
I as I entered I was approached by a member of staff dressed in full White Star Line officers uniform and, in an assumed English accent that was considerably more convincing that my own, asked for my boarding card. "Ah, Mr. Hickman", he said. "I'm sorry to inform you that as you're traveling second class, due to your position on the ship, you stand considerably less chance of surviving than had you been traveling third." I remarked something articulate like "Excellent!" or "Great!" in return. "Very good, sir", he said as he moved on.
The exhibition took you on a tour of the journey from boarding to sinking. It had mock-ups of passenger accommodation, dining rooms and the all important ice berg (which really was made of ice). All the way through there were examples of real artifacts salvaged from the wreck (including, would you believe it, some paper documents that were still readable). Staff were dressed in costume (as maids, officers, engineers, etc.) throughout.
I learned a bit too... I'd always thought that the sealed sections that were supposed to make the Titanic unsinkable hadn't worked, which is why it sunk. Infact they did work. It was designed so that if four compartments were flooded it would remain afloat. However, the iceberg cut into six of the compartments which made the sinking almost certain. The split in two then, of course, sealed its fate.
Leonard Hickman did not survive.
