Authenticity is Everything
OT: 110 years Ago Today Lusitania Sank Off The Old Head of Kinsale
Hello All,
Today marks the 110th year since the sinking of this Cunard ocean greyhound and sister to the faster R.M.S. Mauretania. She was sunk by a German U-Boat, SM U-20, 11 miles off the Old Head of Kinsale in the Celtic Sea. Between being used for target practice/munition coverup (we know now there was munitions) during WW2, the strong tides and shallow depth the wreck is festooned with fishing nets and decayed to the point her once 87.5 foot beam is now maybe 1/3 to 1/4 of that. The RMS Lusitania disaster resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people out of the 1,960 passengers and crew on board. It sank in 18 minutes. Listing to starboard, all but one of her port lifeboats was launched.
And some items from my collection: A 1912 mounted photograph with gold lead edges taken onboard, a rare photographic print of her and her sister in the Canada Dock Basin on October 14th, 1909 (note the different shaped poop decks), and some items recovered from her wreck in the summer on 1982 - the green Elgin pocket watch mechanism in its wax sealed case, and a section of her watertight door on Shell Deck.
The papers for the pocket watch are shown but cut off - they are dated 1982 from Cobweb's/Peter Boyd-Smith. The paper for the hull fragment is shown last (I was the very first to restore the only known photograph taken inside a cabin for one of Eric Sauder's last books). On the far right is a 1909 Elkington sterling silver souvenir Cunard spoon, and behind the hull fragment in the original black frame is an original photocard of the mass graves before filling in Queenstown.
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This last image is something that took me several years of steady work. It is a handmade simulated (no programs, all by hand) Lumiere Brothers glass plate Autochrome that would have been taken on The afternoon of September 13th, 1907. All colors are accurate both then and as they would appear with this process at this age. I recall Ken Marschall (of Titanic paintings and the 1997 movie) was impressed. This work was completed for this date in 2015 - 10 years ago! I started with an unpublished b/w photograph I bought from Portugal.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by JK on
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Nice artifacts.
I recall that there were a few (?) passengers who survived the sinking of both the Titanic and the Lusitania.
There was a medal made in Germany that marked the sinking of the Lusitania that was designed before the event.
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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on
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Hi JK,
Thank you. That was George Beauchamp, a "fireman" or stoker on Titanic, who also survived the Lusitania sinking. After surviving both tragedies, he reportedly told his family, “I’ve had enough of large ships.” The really amazing thing is that he survived both events by getting into a lifeboat - a practical near-impossibility in both sinkings. A lot of these men could not swim! This was true of many stokers and sailors at that time. Swimming was not a job requirement. The medal you mentioned was not designed and struck until well after the event, in August 1915. It was a simple error that "Mai 5 1915." Kapitänleutnant Schweiger could not have known that Captain Turner would choose not to zig-zag and slow down due to fog, which was common practice in that area. Goetz also corrected the date and re-issued the medal. Contrary to popular belief, the Goetz medal was not an official release by the German government. The British propaganda version, struck in a white metal, was an official British government release, with about 250,000 being made. Goetz made very small numbers of originals in a bronze alloy IIRC, either date.
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Thx for the clarification on the medal. I knew there was an issue with the date which I once read was due to advance preparation of the medal, but I guess that was just conspiratorial thinking at the time. It's interesting that the British officially released the German medal.
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These are fantastic Eric. You have introduced me to a lot of new areas that didn't exist and I really appreciate all of the knowledge that you share. Congratulations on such an elegant collection.
David
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Hi David,
Thank you. I really appreciate your comments. That means a lot. I did not realize that photo was older - here is the most recent. More authentic Titanic were added - now coal, horsehair insulation and rusted metal from the hull. I removed the certs. One of these just sold for some 1000 GBP or more with a Cobwebs cert from 1982. The few scale reproductions of certain Titanic items like the C Deck sign or 1st Class grille were custom made by folks who helped make the film. The toothpaste jar is a 1912 original and not the cheap copy sold by RMS Titanic Inc. - but not recovered from the debris field. Everything else is original. Mauretania, Lusitania, Aquitania and Olympic (mounted white ceiling molding from the Smoking Room upper left,1911-1934). The books are all original apart from the 1907 Engineering and Shipbuilder. I removed all the books I worked on as it was too much clutter. Those are on another shelf. Click for huge view.
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Thank you! I meant to say that all the books were signed but the two I mentioned, they are all originals.
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