Slipways

Two concrete slipways stretch from the edge of the shipyard floor into the dark water of the River Lagan. These are the twin launch paths where the Titanic and the Olympic slid into the harbor. Thousands of rivets held the heavy steel hulls together while they sat here on wooden blocks. When the time came to move the ships, workers knocked away those supports, leaving the massive vessels to gravity. The ground remains marked by these exact coordinates where maritime history began.