TITANIC’S SISTER
I was really interested to read the letter “Plucked from the Sea” from Jessica Bramley (Winter 2023) about the provenance of a violin that had been found floating in the sea, following the sinking of the RMS Titanic after its collision with an iceberg in 1912. The letter was accompanied by photographs of the violin and a postcard of the ship which included the description, “The ill-fated American liner Titanic ,the largest ship in the world, which foundered with great loss of life, 15th of April 1912, off Newfoundland on her maiden voyage”. What appeared to be Newfoundland was in the background of the photograph.
The statement on the postcard differs from my understanding of the facts. Contrary to the description on the postcard, Titanic was stated to be a “British Steam Ship of the Port of Liverpool” by the United Kingdom Board of Trade in its order for the formal investigation of the incident under the Merchant Shipping Act 1894.
Also whilst Titanic was, as stated in the description, on its maiden voyage, its final position was reported at the time by the ship’s fourth officer, Joseph G. Boxhall, as 41º 46’N 50 º14’W. This location was well out of sight of any land, including Newfoundland, and the rescue vessel, Carpathia, did not reach the port of New York until approximately 9.30 pm on Thursday 18th April, having commenced rescuing survivors at 4.10 am on Monday 15th April.
I suspect the postcard of Titanic
actually shows its sister ship, Olympic,
but with the name on the bow having been changed, which resulted in a common error by entrepreneurs on both sides of the Atlantic, who were cashing in on the tremendous public interest in the ship through memorial postcards published soon after the disaster.
Ellis Stones, Stafford, Staffs Thanks for pointing this out, Ellis.