Mac Rating: 5.00 | Votes: 1 | Date: 21/06/2026 00:44:00

The last White Star Line ship afloat anywhere in the world, the SS Nomadic is preserved in the Belfast dock where she was built. A small, elegant vessel, she was the tender that carried first and second class passengers out to the Titanic. She was built by Harland and Wolff in Belfast and launched in 1911, on a slipway beside those used for the Olympic and the Titanic. Her job was to ferry passengers, mail and baggage from the harbour at Cherbourg out to the great liners, which were too large for the French port. On the night of 10 April 1912 she carried passengers out to the Titanic, days before the liner was lost on its first voyage. She is the only surviving ship designed by Thomas Andrews, who also drew up the plans for the Olympic and the Titanic. After many decades of service and several changes of owner in France, she fell into decay and was nearly scrapped. A campaign brought her back to Belfast in 2006, and she was restored by her original builders to her 1911 appearance. The ship and the restored Hamilton Dock around her opened to the public in 2013, as part of the Titanic Quarter. She stands close to the Titanic Belfast visitor centre, on the site of the old shipyard. After her tendering days she served in two world wars and later worked at Cherbourg into the 1960s, before ending up as a floating restaurant on the Seine in Paris. By the time she was saved she had lost her upper decks, cut down to pass beneath bridges, and was in poor condition. The restoration recreated her bridge, funnel and panelled interiors, returning her to the look of her maiden year. Visitors can now walk her decks and cabins, which give a sense of the style of travel in the Titanic era. Now a museum ship in the Titanic Quarter, she draws visitors interested in the story of the great liners and of the shipyard that built them, and stands close to the slipways where the Titanic itself took shape.