THE curator of the Titanic museum in Colne has set sail on a voyage of discovery to find out how many passengers and crew were from Lancashire.

Nigel Hampson, who runs the Titanic in Lancashire museum, is facing a race against time to research all passengers and crew before the 100th anniversary of the tragedy on April 15.

Out of a total 2227 passengers and crew only 705 people survived the sinking.

Mr Hampson said: “It all started because the Titanic bandmaster, Wallace Hartley came from Colne.

“As a collector of Titanic memorabilia, I started to realise that our county has many more Titanic connections.

“I opened the Titanic in Lancashire Museum last year to share my growing collection and make the links.

“And I’ve now got a team of volunteers helping me in this painstaking but fascinating task.”

They’ve found an emerging picture which demonstrates why the tragedy had such an impact on Lancashire.

Mr Hampson said: “To date we’ve found over 80 people from Lancashire who were on the Titanic or who were connected to the liner and each week we uncover more.

“I think we’ll reach 100 by the centenary.”

Nigel and his team have been working steadily through the list starting with the crew and first class passengers.

They are halfway through Titanic’s 2nd class passengers and only have to check 3rd class for the task to be complete.

Coun Jonathan Eyre, who leads tourism for Pendle Council said: “This is a very special year for us when the national and international spotlight will be on us.

“I’d like to thank Nigel and his team for all their hard work towards what will be an amazing Titanic Festival for Pendle.”