The Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest entries should all be on display by now. Which means you can now vote for the People’s Choice Award! You can do that by scanning the QR Code in the flyer below:
Or you can click on the link below:
If you want a closer look at this year’s entries, go here:
Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest Entries – 2026
And if you want to hoof it around town and see the pictures in the flesh so to speak, here is the map of locations:
Graphics created by Monica!
Last Friday we had just reached the Titanic Museum. This was on my must list as I’ve always been fascinated by Titanic and shipwrecks in general. I’m a big fan of “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” by Gordon Lightfoot! I’m not saying I wouldn’t recommend going if you are ever in Belfast. But if there was one part of the trip I would skip, it might have been the Titanic Museum.
However, that might be a me thing. While I love history, I don’t really love history museums. I do love going where history actually happened though. So being where the Titanic was built was a pretty cool experience. Plus, the architecture of the Titanic Museum! One of the most beautiful building I’ve ever seen. Especially for a modern building and let’s face it… most buildings built after the 1950s are so boring!
Here are more pictures from the Titanic Museum:
“Waste of deck space as it is on an unsinkable ship.”
Not sure, but this might be the smoke stack that crushed Fabrizio.
“Yes, actually I wanted to convey sheer size, and size means stability, luxury, and above all, strength.”
People forget that Titanic made stops in France and Ireland before meeting its fate in the middle of the ocean.
A game I’ve never played. Even though there used to be (might still be) a shuffleboard court on the floor of the basement floor in my church.
It hit kind of hits different seeing an actual life jacket from Titanic.
“Will the lifeboats be seated according to class? I hope they’re not too crowded.”
Oh, the Californian. Didn’t render any help. Saw the flares and did nothing.
This represented Nemo’s submarine. Not sure why it was there.
What the Titanic looks like today.
This really was one of the coolest parts of the museum.
“Gentlemen, it has been a privilege playing with you tonight.”
Mable Bennett (actually Mabel Bennett) was not a 1st Class passenger. The was a Titanic stewardess. But more and her worthless husband later.
The Unsinkable Molly Brown.
The only surviving White Star Line ship.
The White Star Line was basically bought out by Cunard.
The Nomadic was a tender. Launched in 1911 to transfer passengers and mail to the Olympic and Titanic.
It is the only surviving vessel designed by Thomas Andrews.
It was put out of service in 1968.
I hope he doesn’t see an iceberg!
That is it for pictures today. But I want to give a little more information about Mabel Bennett. Of course, she was a Bennett by marriage and her husband a worthless Bennett. I don’t claim him.
Here is some information on her:
Mabel was married in St Luke’s Church, Southampton on 30 April 1905 to George William Bennett (b. circa 1878), a taxi cab driver. The couple then moved to London and made their home at Peckham Park Road, Kent and other addresses and had one child, a daughter named Mabel Clara who was born in Camberwell, London on 6 March 1906. Within the next few months their marriage began to falter and they ended up living apart, with George living at different addresses and sending only stipends until his daughter was about one year old, after which his communication financial support to his wife and daughter began to gradually diminish. Mabel and her daughter upped and left London, returning to Hampshire where she had family.
On the night of the sinking Mrs Bennett was rescued in lifeboat 5. Steward Henry Etches later identified her2as the woman who appeared at lifeboat 5 following repeated calls from first officer Murdoch and Bruce Ismay for women to come forward to take a seat in the partially-filled boat. After their calls one solitary woman appeared, Ismay asking her to get into the boat. The woman responded “I am only a stewardess” to which Ismay replied “Never mind, you are a woman, take your place” and she got in, the last woman Etches saw entering the boat before it was lowered away.
Mrs Bennett later returned to England with other surviving crew; in Plymouth she was photographed alongside other surviving stewardesses. She was not required to give evidence to either the American or British Inquiries into the sinking but was awarded expenses of £7, 7s with regards to her detention at the latter. She later returned to work at sea.
Mabel’s marriage never recovered, she sending her estranged husband numerous letters to which he did not reply. On 30 September 1915, whilst a resident of Fletchwood in Totton, she filed for divorce.
With a divorce under her belt, Mabel remarried New Forest in 1918 to John W. Walker (1882-1964). By 1939 the couple were living at 165 Earls Road, Southampton with Mabel having no stated profession.
Mabel was fated to outlive her only child; the younger Mabel had married in 1930 to Hebert Claude Pegrum (b. 13 July 1903), the Southampton-born son of a map draughtsman and whose younger sister Violet Irene was married to the son of Titanic victim William Simmons.
Herbert Pegrum was an ordnance surveyor and he and Mabel, who remained childless, made their home in Ryde on the Isle of Wight for several years before settling on New Road in Ashurst, Hampshire. Herbert died there on 21 October 1963 and Mabel was last seen alive on 15 March 1964; her dead body was found the following day, her probate hinting at a possible suicide.
Mabel outlived her daughter by over a decade. Widowed in 1964 Mabel spent her last days living at 15 New Road in Ashurst, Hampshire where she passed away on 11 December 1974(3), just a few months past her 96th birthday and leaving only nieces and nephews and survivors. Her ashes were scattered at Southampton crematorium (section, bed A1).
She holds two records: at the time of her death, she was not only the last surviving female crewmember but also the longest-lived female crewmember. The overall longest-lived surviving crewmember was steward Frederick Dent Ray who died aged 97.
https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-survivor/mabel-bennett.html
Still a large amount of photos from Day 3 in Ireland left to share!