Cruise Ship Sets Sail In Titanic's Wake

Relatives of victims and survivors of the Titanic disaster are among the passengers on a memorial cruise recreating the fatal voyage of the ship 100 years ago.

The MS Balmoral set sail from Southampton and will follow the same route as the doomed liner. Those on board will eat food from the same menus as the Titanic .

A Belgian band has even been hired to provide period music in honour of the musicians who are said to have played until the ship sank.

When the vessel reaches the wreck site a memorial service will be held at the time the tragedy happened to remember its victims.

The same number of passengers are on board as on the ill-fated ship - 1,309.

They have paid between £2,799 and £5,995 for the 12-night cruise to New York, which has to leave two days earlier than the Titanic because the Balmoral is slower.

Many turned up in Southampton dressed in period costume as first class passengers, crew or steerage passengers.

Passenger Graham Free, a telecomms manager from Bolton, was dressed as a Edwardian gentleman as he arrived.

He said: "I have been a fan of the Titanic since I was nine years old and this cruise is the closest you are going to get to it.

We are not here to mock. We are here to enjoy and remember those who were unfortunately lost.

The memorial service will take place in the North Atlantic on April 14 starting at 11.40pm, the exact time the ship hit an iceberg. There will be another at 2.20am on April 15 when it went down.

Among the other passengers will be authors, historians and people who are fascinated by the Titanic disaster, which claimed the lives of more than 1,500 people.

Those on board are from Australia, Canada, the Caribbean, England, France, Germany, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, South America and the US.

Philip Littlejohn, grandson of Titanic survivor Alexander James Littlejohn, said: "I'm sure my grandfather, a 1st Class Steward on RMS Titanic, would be proud to know his story will be shared with the passengers on this historic cruise.

"It will be an emotional moment when we are over the wreck site, where I dived in 2001 and where my grandfather left Titanic rowing Lifeboat 13."

The cruise demonstrates the world-wide appeal of the story, which was was the subject of an Oscar-winning film in 1997 starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Another cruise ship from New York is due to meet up with the Balmoral over the site of the Titanic's wreck.