Titanic anniversary: Shipbuilder who worked in Belfast yard creates shrine to liner

Former shipbuilder Mike Burton is so obsessed with the Titanic he has converted his home into a shrine to the stricken liner.

The 54-year-old blacksmith has used knowledge garnered from his years working on the docks to construct five scale models of the liner.

Mike, who had an ancestor aboard the ship, has spent a year painstakingly creating the models.

He has now put the finishing touches to the replicas just in time for the 100th anniversary of the disaster.

The five remarkably detailed miniatures show the progress of the ship from the Belfast yard where she was built to the wreckage lying on the bed of the North Atlantic.

The father-of-two admitted: "I have been besotted with the Titanic since I was a young boy. My interest in the ship only increased as I spent my working life in shipyards across Britain.

"My wife Deborah has spent the last year complaining about the smell of fumes as I hand painted the ships in the lounge but it was something I felt I had to do.

"I wanted to tell the whole story of the Titanic and not have to go anywhere to see it."

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Mike has created the three-foot long models complete with miniature crew members, first and second class accommodation and lights shining through the portholes.

They represent the ship's construction, setting off on her maiden voyage from Southampton, approaching the iceberg, starting to sink and finally the wreckage on the sea bed.

He has worked entirely from his remarkable knowledge of the Titanic amassed during his working life as a blacksmith at shipyards in Bristol, Glasgow and Sunderland.

He even spent five months working at the famous Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast where the Titanic was built.

"I went into the shipyards as a 15-year-old and in 1990 I was sent for a stint at Harland and Wolff which was fantastic for me. I was in the place where the great ship was built and I couldn't have been happier.

"I remember as a kid my Dad brought me back pictures of the Titanic and I was hooked. I thought it was the best thing I had ever seen and that fascination has remained with me ever since.

"The models are the best tribute I could offer to a magnificent ship."

Mike from Bideford, Devon is the seventh generation of his family to work as a shipbuilder going back hundreds of years.

During his research on the Titanic he discovered his great-great-uncle Edward John Burton was a stoker on the liner and died as it went down with the loss of 1,500 passengers and crew on its maiden voyage in 1912.

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"I don't know much about him and don't even have his picture but it has only increased my interest," added Mike who now works as a freelance blacksmith making gates and iron work.

"The models have each been put in hand built glass cabinets and with the lights on inside them at night it is quite a spectacular sight, much better than the television.

"My wife helped me with the rigging because that is so intricate my large blacksmith's fingers struggled to cope.

"I will be fairly emotional on the anniversary because I have always loved that ship. It was the look of the vessel and the size that captivated me. It should never have sunk.

"I can safely say it has been a love affair with the Titanic that shows no sign of ending."

Mike also has a rare copy of a report into the Titanic's sinking which contains a full list of casualties.