Titanic: The Artefact Exhibition, The O2, Peninsula Square, London, SE10 0DX, until Sunday, May 1.

Thus spoke Captain Edward Smith as he contemplated the maiden voyage of RMS Titanic. We all know what happened next.

On the eve of the hundredth anniversary of the ship’s sinking, Captain Smith’s words still send a shiver down the spine.

On April 15 1912, the Titanic, the world’s largest ship and one which sparked outrageous, ill-founded confidence, sank after colliding with an iceberg.

The accident claimed more than 1,500 lives in a catastrophe which has echoed down the decades ever since, assuming mythological proportions - as befits a ship so mythologically named.

However, a new exhibition in London now powerfully brings it all back to the human scale, underlining that this was above all a human tragedy, not simply a setback for overweening ship-building ambition.

As always with a big disaster, it’s the little things that bring it home, that bring it back within our reach and understanding.

More than 300 of those little things are currently on display in a deeply-fascinating show at The O2.

The exhibition focuses on scores of artefacts rescued from the sea bed - the simple things in life which bring the tragedy to life in a way nothing else could.

I confess I’d naively imagined that nothing much could have survived. How wrong.

You can feel a chill run through you as you stand and contemplate plates, bowls, serving dishes and teapots retrieved now after decades on the ocean floor.

More moving still are the more personal items - the playing cards, the cigarettes in their case, the postcard of St Paul’s, the top hat, the silk bowtie and the perfume samples.

Somehow more tragic still are the champagne bottles, the champagne untouched, the intended celebration never celebrated.

By a stroke of genius, as you enter the exhibition, you are given a facsimile boarding pass in the name of an actual passenger; you then view the exhibition wondering whether you yourself will survive.

In the Memorial Gallery, as you leave, you then consult the memorial wall and discover your fate.

From the start, it’s an exhibition which holds you emotionally captive - thanks to those cards, thanks to the abundance of photographs, thanks to the artefacts and thanks to the wealth of personal testimony. In every respect, the whole thing is beautifully, intelligently and sensitively presented.

At one point, you can even touch a small section of the hull; by then you will have seen some of the exploded rivets which couldn’t hold the ship together on that fateful night.

Particularly poignant are the facts which relate it all to our time: a luxury first-class ticket today would cost £61,500 in current money; a third-class ticket £536. Mixed with such facts are tales of the real people who paid those prices before paying the ultimate price when they decided to travel on the Titanic’s maiden voyage.

Titanic: The Artefact Exhibition also features extensive room recreations and the first opportunity to view never-before-seen footage from Titanic Expedition 2010

But it is those actual objects that linger once you’ve left - a pocket watch belonging to an elite passenger, china etched with the logo of the elite White Star Line, one of the Ship’s portholes, its wheel and even its telegraph.

Silent, inanimate witnesses to one of the world’s worst maritime disasters, they link you directly to it - a year before the centenary of the sinking - in a way which Kate and Leo never could in their Hollywood epic.

As Cheryl Mure, vice president of education for RMS Titanic, Inc, says: “Over the past 15 years, more than 22 million people have seen this powerful exhibition in major cities worldwide - from Chicago to Los Angeles and Paris to Dublin.

“We could not think of a more amazing location to share this never before seen footage to the world and debut 14 new artefacts,

“On that unexpected night in 1912, more than 1,500 passengers met the same fate no matter their class or place in society; a shocking ending to what was a joyous journey. Their story is our story and it is our honour and duty to share these treasures with London at such a poignant time.”

For more information, visit www.TitanicLondon.co.uk. Open: Sun, Mon, Tues, Wed:11am – 7:30pm (last admission 6:30pm); Thurs, Fri and Sat 11am – 9:00pm (last admission at 8:00pm): The O2, Peninsula Square, London. SE10 0DX. Tickets are available at www.TitanicLondon.co.uk

Ticket Prices - Mon-Fri: Adult (17+): £13.00; Children (3-16): £9.00; Audio Tour: £5.00, Sat & Sun: Adult (17 +): £15.00; Children (3-16): £10.50; Audio Tour: £5.00. Children under 3 years of age go free and group and family rates available.