Captain Rostron Medal

When Captain Rostron rescued the Titanic survivors the morning after the disaster and brought them to New York, he was hailed as a hero.  He was given many awards and much praise as a result of his actions.  Among the awards he received as a Congressional Gold Medal in 1913.  This is a replica of the one awards to him by Congress.

Thomas Andrews

Thomas Andrews (1873-1912) started his career as an apprentice at Harland & Wolff at the age of 16.  He came from a family of politicians and businessmen including his great-uncle, Lord Pirrie, who was the Managing Director of Harland & Wolff.  He worked his way up and became chief designer.  In 1908, Thomas Andrews married Helen "Nellie" Barbour.  They had one daughter born in 1910.  Thomas Andrews and a group of men who built the Olympic and Titanic called the Guarantee Group sailed on the maiden voyages to make notes of what was going on and how they can improve the next ship.  Andrews was on the Titanic for her maiden and final voyage.  After the iceberg was struck, Andrews was called on by Captain Smith to investigate the damage.  Andrews was the one who calculated the damage and that she would sink.  Andrews was seen encouraging people to put on their life jackets and get into the lifeboats and throwing deck chairs overboard for those in the water.  He was last seen on the Bridge with Captain Smith.  His body was never recovered.

This is a telegram that was sent to Thomas and Nellie from their friend Jim on the day of their wedding wishing them congratulations and telling Nellie he sent keys to them.  

Lord Pirrie

Lord William Pirrie was the Managing Director of Harland & Wolff and according to legend was one of the people who had the idea for the Olympic Class.  He not only had a great professional shipbuilding career, he also had a political one.  He served as Lord Mayor of Belfast and was active in the politics of the time.  Harland & Wolff at the time employed a great many people in Belfast.  His brother in law was Alexander Carlisle and his great-nephew was Thomas Andrews, both of whom designed the Titanic.  In addition, he was a good friend of Captain EJ Smith.  When he died in 1924 near Cuba while he was on a business trip to South America, the Titanic's twin sister ship Olympic brought his body back home.  

This letter has not one, but two connections.  The stationary from 24 Belgrave Square is from Lord Pirrie's home in London where the idea for the Olympic Class Liners was supposedly discussed.  The letter from Pirrie invites Mr. Richard May who was a Titanic cross channel passenger to a dinner party.  It was in Richard May's scrapbook along with other Olympic and Titanic memorabilia.  

Titanic Launch

At 12:15 AM on May 31, 1911, the RMS Titanic's hull moved for the first time.  No champagne was broken on the bow as many have done.  Instead, rockets were fired to alert ships in the River Lagan and when the signal was given, she moved down the slipway with 22 tons of soap to ease her movement down into the sea.  

These pre-sinking photographic postcards show the Titanic just before and during her launch.  Both are very rare and hard to find.

                                     

Through The Lenses of History

The things that help us know and envision what it was like to be on the Titanic are primarily photographs and survivor accounts.  And the main photographers that documented the Titanic's short life were Robert Welch, Kate Odell, and Father Francis Browne.  Below is the same type of camera Father Browne used to take his photographs of the interiors and exteriors during his short time on board.  When he disembarked at Queenstown, he brought with him some of the last photographs of the ship and many of her the people on board.  

To view his photographs, this website has many of the photographs he took of the Titanic.

http://titanicphotographs.com/Browne/indexfatherbrowne.html

J. Bruce Ismay

Joseph Bruce Ismay (1862-1937) as legend has it was one of the people who came up with the concept of the Olympic Class Liners including the Titanic.  He was the son of Thomas Henry Ismay, the man who made the White Star Line a major player in many of the shipping lanes and he was the chairman of the White Star Line.  J. Bruce Ismay was one of the most famous and criticized people on the Titanic due to the fact it was sailing with enough room in the lifeboats for half on board and the controversial moment in which he survived by getting into one of the last lifeboats to leave the ship.  History hasn't always been kind to him, but truth is not always what you see in the movies and a closer look at Ismay's actions in the context of what was going on at the time will show he wasn't really doing anything wrong.  He was doing what he could and his actions saved many lives during the lifeboat evacuation.

Being such an integral part of the Titanic story from beginning to end means items from him are highly sought after and often valuable.  This letter is a notice of receipt by J. Bruce Ismay from the estate of Luke Bruce who was his maternal grandfather.  The letter is on White Star Line stationary from the headquarters in Liverpool and has his original signature after the message.

Titanic Cherbourg

When the RMS Titanic left Southampton starting her maiden voyage on April 10, 1912, her next stop was Cherbourg, France.  Because the harbor was too small for the massive size of the Titanic, the White Star Line built two tenders called the SS Nomadic and SS Traffic to ferry passengers and mail from the harbor to the Titanic.  They were built around the same time as the Titanic and Olympic in Belfast, Ireland.  A total of 281 passengers boarded at Cherbourg.

This postcard features the SS Nomadic which was the largest of the two tenders.  The SS Nomadic was built for the 1st and 2nd class passengers and the interiors gave people a mere glimpse of the luxury of the Olympic Class.  Even after the Olympic was scrapped and the White Star Line merged with the Cunard Line, the SS Nomadic faithfully transported passengers to the greatest liners to ever cross the Atlantic including the Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth.  During WWII, she was used to transport soldiers across the English Channel.  Many famous people sailed on her including John Jacob Astor IV, the Unsinkable Molly Brown, Charlie Chaplin, Madame Marie Curie, and Elizabeth Taylor.  She was retired and turned into a restaurant for years before she was saved from the scrapyard and brought to Belfast, Ireland for restoration.  She still exists as a museum in Belfast and is the last surviving White Star Line ship in existence.

This postcard featuring the SS Traffic was a smaller tender meant for transporting 3rd class passengers, luggage, and mail.  Not as much is known about her except that during WWII, she was scuttled by the British during the Nazi invasion and the Nazis raised her and scrapped her.

Titanic China: 3rd class

3rd class on a White Star Liner didn't use any patterns.  In 3rd class, they were white with a simple White Star Line burgee logo in the center.  Like 2nd class, 3rd class china is very rare and hard to come by.  And when you do find some available, they are expensive.  

Before I get to the china, I'd like to feature this 3rd class menu from 1913 used on board the RMS Cedric.  When you compare what's offered on this menu with what was offered on the Titanic, they offered the same meals and courses with a few exceptions.  It's a great glimpse into what they offered back then to eat.

This was a dinner plate used in 3rd class on a White Star Line steamer.

This is one of the rarer pieces in my collection.  Regular 3rd class china like plates and such are rare.  Specialty dishes are rarer still.  This is a 3rd class salt dish used to offer salt to the passengers who wanted to add flavor to their meals.  

Titanic China: 2nd Class

While Titanic had multiple patterns in 1st class for her different areas for eating and drinking, 2nd and 3rd class had 1 type of china respectively.  In 2nd class on the Titanic, they used the Blue Delft pattern which was fairly common at the time.  It was a beautiful flowery pattern with vines that often interlocked around the edge.  Surprisingly, while 1st class china is often more fragile, it is the most common partly because it was pocketed the most due to the beautiful patterns and found uses elsewhere even after the White Star Line was merged with Cunard in 1924.  However, for 2nd and 3rd class china, it is much rarer and harder to find.   2nd class china hardly comes up for sale and when they do, they are very expensive.  But I was able to purchase 2 beautiful examples of original White Star Line 2nd class china which you can see below.

This soup plate was made by Stonier and Co. which supplied the majority of the china for the White Star Line.  One of the unique things about it is the firing fault in the middle of the star in the burgee.  

This beautiful dish was meant for asparaguses.