Mark Lach is one of them.

“The power of the Titanic story is that it’s a human story,” said Lach, exhibit designer and creative director for RMS Titanic, the company that owns salvage rights to the infamous vessel, which sunk during its maiden voyage on April 15, 1912. “What started out as an optimistic, exciting trip filled with celebrities turned to tragedy. It speaks to all of us.”

And what is it sayingfi

If you show it, they will come.

Utah residents will now have an opportunity to get up close and personal with history as “Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition” docks in Salt Lake City. The traveling exhibit, which opened Saturday, is housed in the Utah Museum of Natural History Annex in the ZCMI Center. It will remain there through Jan. 8.

Lach, who has been on-site in Salt Lake overseeing the final preparation details of the exhibit, saw the Titanic firsthand four years ago during the latter part of a salvage operation that collected artifacts from the ocean floor around the remnants of the ship. It’s an experience that remains with him to this day and helps fuel his passion to display the exhibit items in a respectful manner.

“It was the last dive to pick up artifacts for the exhibit,” Lach said of his “on-sight” experience. “I’ll never forget it.”

Lach and two others entered a small submersible craft, which he compared to sitting in the front seat of a very small automobile … for 12 hours.

“When they screw the hatch down above you, there’s this moment of, ‘There’s no turning back,’ for sure,” he said. “Then they picked up the submersible and put it into the ocean. There’s a small porthole that’s right in front of you, and I’ll never forget looking out that porthole and seeing a very, very bright blue ocean, almost Caribbean blue, very turquoisey and bright blue. Then we started our descent and within 15 minutes that bright blue fades to black and for the next two hours you’re in the dark as you go down to the ocean floor.”

The wreckage sits 2 1/2 miles below the surface. With four hours taken up in travel to and from the site, Lach and his companions had eight hours to experience the Titanic as few others ever have.

“I knew this was a very rare adventure that I was taking part in,” said Lach. “It was a very exciting experience, but it quickly became a very emotional, human experience. Over the next eight hours it was much the same thing — kind of a back and forth, from exciting to human. I took that with me to this day. Really, it gives you a whole new responsibility on presenting these artifacts in a way that brings dignity and honor to the story and to those who lost their lives and to those whose lives were changed forever.”

Local stories

Among those who died in the wake of Titanic were several with Utah ties. Their unique stories will also be part of the exhibit.

The Family History Library of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints partnered with the Utah Museum of Natural History to not only shed light on passengers with local connections, but also to uniquely personalize the experience for patrons. To that end, a FamilySearch Center will be located adjacent to the museum annex in the ZCMI Center. It will allow visitors to run a computer search to verify if they have family connections to Titanic passengers.

“(Organizers) felt the tie-in to history, and the tie-in to family history and family stories, and the preservation of legacy was so unique to our city that they wanted to develop that,” said Karen Jepson, a representative of the Family History Library. “We’re absolutely thrilled about the opportunity.”

Among the passengers found with Utah connections, the story of Provo resident Irene Corbett stands out. Corbett, 31, was traveling back to the United States after studying obstetrics at a London hospital.

Corbett, born in Provo and the daughter of Bishop Levi A. Colvin, was married to Walter Corbett, a nephew of LDS Church President Joseph F. Smith. Irene Corbett’s parents mortgaged their home to finance her stay in London.

“She was, for her day, a very forward-thinking woman,” Jepson said.

During her time in England, Irene actually wrote a few articles for the Provo Herald, now the Daily Herald, detailing her experiences. Her articles focused on her work caring for poor women and children in London. She also touched on the differences between English women and those back home in America, noting that females in England tended to have a bit more freedom than their American counterparts.

When her work was completed, Corbett booked passage on the Titanic, the first available ship sailing for New York. When news of the Titanic’s sinking reached Utah, her family searched the published list of survivors, but did not find her name.

The family received a brief ray of hope when they received a telegram from White Star Line saying it could not find her name on the passenger list for Titanic’s maiden voyage. That respite lasted only a few minutes, as they then received a second telegram saying her name had been found, but that she was not one of those aboard Carpathia, the ship that rescued the survivors.

There were 14 women traveling in second class who died in the sinking. Corbett was one of them.

“We were particularly touched by her story,” said Cherie Bush, a spokeswoman for the Family History Library who helped research Corbett’s history. “We really feel that once the exhibit opens, people will come forward. Descendants of these people that were on the Titanic will come forward and say, ‘I am a grandchild … I am a great-grandchild.’ “

Artifact checking

Sarah George, executive director of the Utah Museum of Natural History, said there are nearly 250 bona fide artifacts in this exhibit.

Among the highlights:

Perfume vials, about half the size of an adult’s little finger, recovered from inside a satchel belonging to perfume salesman Adolphe Saalfeld. When the satchel was unrolled, the perfume’s odor remained. “That emotion, that surprising connection with the fragrances was powerful,” Lach said, “and it’s certainly one of my favorites in the exhibition.”

The Titanic’s whistles, some of the largest pieces recovered. According to Lach, they were the largest whistles ever made and could be heard up to 11 miles away.

Jewelry, most of it untraceable to specific passengers.

Items from the boiler room, including coal and a shaft used to close water-tight doors.

Clothing … “All of the clothing that’s been recovered has come from second- and third-class passengers because they never unpacked their suitcases,” said George. “They didn’t have a place to store their clothing in the cabin and the leather (of the suitcases) has protected the textiles over the years. You don’t find first-class clothing because they hung it up and, of course, it has deteriorated over time.”

Paper money with many remarkable colors preserved. “Some of it is discolored, but the colors come through,” said George. “It’s just amazing. This was back in the days before the federal government issued bills, individual banks issued bills. So there’s (money from) banks all over the country and they’re just beautiful pieces of art.”

A porthole from a third-class cabin.

“These artifacts are powerful because of where they came from,” Lach said.

All aboard

The tour itself is a theatrical presentation, where visitors are greeted by guides dressed in period costume and playing the parts of crew members.

Patrons are guided through a number of environment re-creations on the Titanic, including walk-throughs of first- and third-class cabins, the boiler room and a reconstructed iceberg that visitors can touch to better empathize with conditions the night of the tragedy.

Upon admission, each guest will receive a boarding pass with the name of a real passenger aboard Titanic. At the end of the tour, names can be checked against a list that reveals whether the passenger survived or perished.

“That really brings it home,” said George. “It’s a very personal experience.”

The Titanic remains relevant today, said Lach, in part because of the current state of world affairs.

“Everybody that was on board that ship, of course, when they left on that main voyage had every expectation of arriving safely in New York, and for so many that didn’t happen. And so I think the story relates to us in many ways.”

Doug Fox can be reached at 344-2546 or dfox@heraldextra.com.

Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition

When: Now through Jan. 8, 2005

Hours: 10 a.m. – 9 p.m., Monday through Friday; 10 a.m. – 7 p.m. on Saturday; closed Sundays

Where: Utah Museum of Natural History Annex located in the ZCMI Center, 36 S. State St., Salt Lake City

Tickets: $14.95 for adults, $9.95 for children (5-14) and seniors, and $3.50 for school groups. Available at the door or through Ticketmaster — www.ticketmaster.com or (801) 325-SEAT.

Info: (801) 581-6927, www.rmstitanic.net

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page D1.