Replica Of Titanic Cabin

 

Man builds replica of Titanic cabin using wood and mementos from its sister ship Olympic... in his garden shed

By Nick Enoch

PUBLISHED: 18:52 GMT, 11 April 2012 | UPDATED: 23:12 GMT, 11 April 2012

Forget re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic - one man's gone full steam ahead and lovingly recreated the famous old liner… in his garden shed.
John Siggins, from north Derbyshire, has built a copy of a cabin and dining room from the doomed vessel using wood and mementos from its sister ship the Olympic.
And the history-filled hut comes complete with a chair used by Titanic's captain Edward Smith (when he commanded the Olympic) which had been gathering dust in his back bedroom.
While most men are happy just pottering at the back of their house, Mr Siggins, 60, wanted to do something to mark the centenary of Titanic's fateful voyage.
What treasures lie within this ordinary-looking shed? Scroll down to find out

John Siggins has been tinkering away in his shed to transform it into a fitting tribute to the Titanic for two years

The 60-year-old Titanic fan has recreated a cabin from the doomed liner in his garden shed in north Derbyshire - using wood from its sister ship the Olympic

Since the early 1990s, Mr Siggins has collected ornate light fittings, crockery, silverware and linen from the White Star line

But after 20 years of collecting memorabilia of the White Star line that owned her, the engineer wasn't sure what to do with it, until he was thrown a lifeline when a friend gave him the shed.
That was two years ago and immediately his wife Audrey got a sinking feeling she wouldn't be seeing much of her husband until he'd finished his 'wacky' project.
Now his stunning shed is a shrine to the Titanic and all things connected to the company which owned the two ships.

The father-of-two has spent hundreds on oak panelling stripped from the Olympic. Its maiden voyage from Liverpool to New York was successfully completed just under a year before the Titanic sank.
He bought the wood in Cumbria from a businessman who planned to use it to deck out a function room for weddings. More was traced to a pub that was being demolished in the Peak District.

A first-class wardrobe from E deck, cabin 22 of the Olympic; and right, a dining room chair from the same vessel

A dining table laid out completely as it would have been on the Titanic including a menu from April 14, the night she sank in 1912. All items sourced from the Olympic

Measuring 18ft x 12ft, the shed is also 12ft tall in order to allow the panels to be utilised fully without being cut or trimmed.
The first lot of panels were bought in 2004, but it wasn't until earlier this year that Mr Siggins finally got the last ones cleaned up and arranged into his amazing cabin and dining room.
'It's not something I planned - it just sort of came together,' he said modestly.
'I got a lot of wood at the right price, so I knew I had to do something with it. Then when my mate said I could have the shed, I knew straight away what I wanted to do.
'It has taken me two years to build, which is the same time it took to build the Titanic.

 

An item of crockery from the Olympic and, right, a reproduction menu showing food served on that last fateful night

Among the items on display is the chair the Titanic's commander Captain Edward Smith (right) sat at during his previous command on the Olympic. Also pictured is a pillar from the grand staircase