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Authenticity is Everything
Today is 110 years since Titanic struck its iceberg-show your related autos
110 years ago! I remember when it was about 65 years. My related autographs are from the co-discoverer Robert Ballard in 1987 on Woods Hole stationary telling me to write with my question (not scanned), and the youngest and last survivor Millvina Dean, who died in 2009
Signed to me in sepia Sharpie. I chose this original 1924 photograph, unique hand-tint too, because it was taken aboard the Adriatic and that was the ship that brought Miss Dean and her mother back to the UK after this disaster in 1912. Also, most importantly, in 1907 Captain Smith, later of the Titanic in 1912, brought this Adriatic over on her maiden voyage. During an interview in NYC at her arrival, he said that his life "...was boring, he had never seen a wreck or been wrecked and that modern shipbuilding had gone beyond such things...". Not quite...correct. I have been interested in this subject since 1975 or so, and have been involved with many books, exhibits and the authentication of ocean liner items from the lost liners since C. 2000,, so this is a very special item for me. Very personal. Never did I think I would have correspondence with a Titanic survivor. Most did this in the 1970's. But, I was lucky - last minute. Unfortunately, she died just a few months later. This item burst from its mailer and was lost for months. For good, no? I mean, it says what it is. The following summer, I received this in an unmarked envelope.
"To Eric with all good wishes from Millvina Dean, the youngest and last survivor of the Titanic"
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by JMS1223 on
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That’s a great story. Love the photo too.
I wrote Millvina Dean too. She lost the photos I sent to be signed but she sent me a handwritten letter explaining that and provided one of her own photos signed. I got that in early 2006. Very cool. I remember the envelope it arrived in said it was sent surface mail meaning it was on a ship. Postmark was 3 months before the day I received it so it took three months to get to me! I thought it was kind of interesting how it was sent via ship since the Titanic was a ship and she was the youngest Titanic survivor.
I also have a piece of coal from the Titanic wreck. It is legally the only thing you can own that was from the Titanic wreck. It has the R.M.S. Titanic Inc. COA and box. Other items that can be owned by the public are those that were originally taken home by survivors or things that floated in the ocean (like the chairs) right after the Titanic sank that some people collected. But that stuff is very expensive with the exception of small fragments of wood from one of the chairs being sold online.A dollar bill that was on the Titanic I remember bringing over $100,000 that was found in a survivor’s coat and saved by the family over the generations. He signed it, wrote it was on Titanic and dated it. Similarly a half dollar brought similar money and was saved in a similar manner so they knew it was actually on the Titanic. A lot of other neat items have sold at auction over the years including the violin used/owned by one of the band members that went down with the ship. It included the case that had his initials on it. The band member died in the sinking but the violin was recovered from the debris and sent back to the family who kept it over the decades.
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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on
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I have the large chunck of coal offered in 1995. Yes, I knew the man who had that half dollar. The violin I was very vocal about online. It is not from Titanic. It was not recorded in Halifax - they recorded what color sox he had on. but not a violin? This would have been noticed. The "scientific proof", only avaible to bidders at AA & Son Auctions, was BS. It all rested on the presence of diatoms. But which? I wrote a Marine Institute to confirm my suspicions. Diatoms have not changed in milions of years. So all we know is it was in sea water at any time, anywhere more or less. The claim was he strapped all of this in a Gladstone bag to his body during the sinking. All these posts and papers online by me and others have disappeared...the violin is held together by hideskin glue which is reactivated to a jelly with exposure the cold water - it should be in peices....things like that.
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That is very interesting about the violin. I didn’t realize there was a dispute about it being on the ship. Makes sense it may had just been in sea water at some point but that doesn’t mean it was on Titanic. It NOT being recorded would make me not want it in my museum/collection if I had the chance to buy it.
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Permalink Reply by JK on
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I have several Ballard letters, including one or two written soon after the discovery. At that time he was noncommittal on how the wreck and its contents should be treated and preserved. Later on, a concensus developed that there should be strict controls on salvage efforts.
I also had a number of exchanges with Millvina Dean. At the time I sent her two baseballs to sign she had never signed a baseball before, but I am aware that she eventually received others from other people.
I also have some coal from the Titanic. I even got to touch a piece of the hull that was undergoing preservation at the Boston exhibit.
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Very cool you had that opportunity to actually touch a piece of the hull of the Titanic. There is a Titanic museum about an hour away from me and I really should make the trip out there someday to check it out.
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There is a small museum I'm Western Massachusetts in the backroom of a jewelry store. The people who run it are some of the foremost experts on the Titanic. It is very small but if you are in the area it is interesting.
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That is the Titanic Historical Society (originally the Titanic Enthusiast Club - not the best name). They formed in 1962 or so. Not quite the foremost experts. They were to publish a book I had finished and found them very difficult so I quit. When they finally did do an article about my ship, Mauretania of 1907, they showed a photo of Lusitania's dining room - that's a serious problem! One was straw oak and the other white plaster - very different rooms. The design was physically different too.
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Indeed. Once they started selling boats and other odd stuff on thier website the shine wore off (likely years before).
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That's cool. I've always been fascinated by this wreck. Once I was able to wrap my arms around a lifeboat davit and tried to lift its many tons. RMS Titanic invited me to see the large peice as recovered - debut appearance - but I was among a very few watching live online in 1997 was it? The minute they dropped it I cancelled my tux and transport. No refunds after that night. I was also invited to the NYC launch party for Clive Palmer's ill-conceived Titanic 2. I was to be seated at a table between Mayor Bloomberg and Celine Dion. None of us showed - I was afraid it would be tacky and not respectful. Later I saw video of a kickline of lifebelt wearing passengers singing. They served the last dinner in Titanic in entirety but, unlike the food of 1912, this was all just brown. It was held on the Intrepid.
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Permalink Reply by a pug called eva on
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I think I have at least three. I'll post them separately so they can be commented on separately.
Here is the first. It is potentially the best but it is also the one I have serious doubts about. It is Wallace Hartley, purportedly signed aboard the Mauretania (misspelled on the card). I presume the photo is also supposed to be him. As there are so few images of Hartley and so few of his autographs I have never been able to get far in assessing authenticity. The handwriting is certainly not way-off the known genuine handwriting I have seen and he did serve on the Mauretania between Liverpool and New York. Obviously a clever forger would have been able to produce something like this but I did not have to pay a fortune for it.
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This postcard back is later than 1912 in my experience. I've collected period cards from 1905 on to the 30's for over 20 years and have never seen a one-off or nearly so card with that appearance. The signature is conveniently smudged...this is very far removed from the negative as well. The notion that he could not spell the name of the ship he was serving on - the much faster and famous Mauretania is unbelievable to me - these men could tell you what ship they were on by the feel of the decks and the movement.
I see no resemblance to Hartley - eyes, ears, hairline etc:
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