The packed square listens to the whistle
Listen to the sound from the deep. The Titanic whistle blows 87 years after the vessel sank. AIFF or WAV (193 K/ 1 sec. audio)

February 21, 1999
Web posted at: 2:12 a.m. EST (0712 GMT)

ST. PAUL, Minnesota (CNN) -- The voice of the Titanic is more feeble than it was nearly 90 years ago.

But that hasn't diminished its power.

On Saturday, nearly 100,000 people jammed into a square near the old Union Depot and listened intently for a sound out of the deep.

On the cold, sunny afternoon, the Titanic whistle, not heard since the ocean liner sank after a collision with an iceberg in 1912, blew through the square in two 10-second blasts.

After the blasts, set two minutes apart, the crowds burst into cheers and whistles, as they pressed for a better look at the bronze 2-foot whistle, which once adorned the forward smokestack of the luxury liner.

It was recovered from the wreck in 1993 -- after more than 80 years in a watery grave in the North Atlantic. More than 1,500 people lost their lives when the Titanic sank during its maiden voyage. Many died because of a shortage of lifeboats.

Helen Horn celebrated her 51st birthday by attending the whistle-sounding ceremony.

"I thought it sounded like a foghorn," she said from her vantage point at a Union Depot doorway.

Her husband, Dennis Horn, 51, was a little disappointed. "It wasn't as loud as I had hoped, but it was nice," he said. "It made a smooth, low roar that just kind of built."

But Thomas Goulding, who has been intrigued by the Titanic since his boyhood in Ireland, when he heard stories about the sunken ocean liner, was thrilled.

"That's great, that's great, that's great," Goulding said.

The whistle, only slightly higher than 2 feet, perched outside the Union Depot on a 6-foot platform for the ceremony. It will go back on display with other artifacts from the ship in "Titanic - The Exhibit," which runs through April 30.

To avoid damage, workers sent compressed air rather than steam through the 750-pound whistle and used less pressure than it was designed to withstand.

The crowd which gathered for the ceremony was far greater than organizers had estimated. They had predicted 2,000 to 3,000, but police said between 80,000 and 100,000 people showed up.

Some experts have said the Titanic's whistles remained quiet after the collision, and probably last sounded during a routine test at noon on April 14, 1912.

But local promoter Erich Mische said his research shows the last time a Titanic whistle blew was 12:15 a.m., April 15, 1912 -- after the fatal collision with the iceberg.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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