Many research trips have been organized to recover artifacts from The Titanic since the wreckage was located in 1985 off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. An incredible 5,500 objects have been salvaged, although the Marconi radio that sent distress signals to help save 700 passengers remains buried. Here are 10 of the more surprising treasures.
Titanic love letters
Decades after The Titanic sank in 1912, divers found a trunk in the wreckage that included love letters addressed to Howard Irwin. Howard wasn’t aboard the luxury liner, however, only his luggage which was being transported by a friend who drowned. Unfortunately, Howard didn’t fare so well either. The North American native was a heavy gambler who’d been beaten up, kidnapped, and forced to work aboard a ship bound for the Middle East. He managed to escape but the love of his life, Pearl, died of Typhoid before he arrived back home.
German national George Rosenshine disguised his true identity on board The Titanic. Born in 1866, he boarded in France under the assumed name George Thorne. He was traveling first class with his mistress, Gertrude Maybelle, according to documents found in a satchel. Maybelle, a widow living in Manhattan, also boarded in France and she survived narrowly by escaping in the last lifeboat. Rosenshine perished. His body was later found and his identity was eventually discovered.
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Many research trips have been organized to recover artifacts from The Titanic since the wreckage was located in 1985 off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. An incredible 5,500 objects have been salvaged, although the Marconi radio that sent distress signals to help save 700 passengers remains buried. Here are 10 of the more surprising treasures.
Titanic love letters
Decades after The Titanic sank in 1912, divers found a trunk in the wreckage that included love letters addressed to Howard Irwin. Howard wasn’t aboard the luxury liner, however, only his luggage which was being transported by a friend who drowned. Unfortunately, Howard didn’t fare so well either. The North American native was a heavy gambler who’d been beaten up, kidnapped, and forced to work aboard a ship bound for the Middle East. He managed to escape but the love of his life, Pearl, died of Typhoid before he arrived back home.
German national George Rosenshine disguised his true identity on board The Titanic. Born in 1866, he boarded in France under the assumed name George Thorne. He was traveling first class with his mistress, Gertrude Maybelle, according to documents found in a satchel. Maybelle, a widow living in Manhattan, also boarded in France and she survived narrowly by escaping in the last lifeboat. Rosenshine perished. His body was later found and his identity was eventually discovered.
With first-class tickets selling for about $100 per person, Titanic guests must have expected a high level of luxury and sophistication on board. This top hat, found among the debris, was made primarily of silk with a label from a top store, Herbert Johnson, a London firm of hatters and cap makers founded in 1889 and located on fashionable New Bond Street.
Titanic musical instruments
Researchers also recovered a clarinet, broken in two, a poignant reminder that as the ship sank, its musicians stayed behind. The band reportedly helped calm passengers by playing hymns up on the foredeck as the ship sank. In The Band That Played On, author Steve Turner tells the personal stories of the eight musicians who’d never performed together before the voyage. Their leader was violinist Wallace Hartley, 33, who had left his fiancée behind to accept a job on The Titanic.
Hartley’s legendary violin, which he used to play Nearer, My God, to Thee on April 14, 1912, sold for $1.7m during a UK auction in 2013.
The violin was a gift from his fiancee, Maria Robinson, and was discovered in a case strapped to his body when it was recovered from the North Atlantic water.
Titanic clothing
Those aboard would not have known they were enjoying one of their last meals served on The Titanic. The first-class menu was auctioned off for $83,000 in 2012, according to the BBC. Within 12 hours, the ship crashed into the glacier and was completely submerged within 2 hours and 40 minutes.
Not everyone was traveling first class, of course. These boots were found in a leather suitcase of toolmaker William Henry Allen, 35, who was among the third-class passengers who died. Some 75 percent of the roughly 700 third-class passengers perished with him.
Pocket watch
Many personal items have been recovered which help tell the story of the 1912 disaster. This pocket watch belonged to Sinai Kantor, a Russian immigrant aboard The Titanic. Kantor managed to get his wife, Miriam, to a lifeboat before he died in the icy water. He was buried in New York. Another pocket watch belonging to passenger John Chapman was also recovered. Chapman's watch was frozen in time at 1:45 am, around the time the ship was partially submerged.
Titanic jewels
Who was Amy? Sadly, no one knows. Her bracelet was recovered in 1987. Her 15-karat rose gold and silver bracelet spells her name in diamonds but there were only two women aboard named Amy, one a crew member and the other reportedly a third-class passenger. Some believe the bracelet may have belonged to a woman named Amanda or Amelia, but no one came forth to claim it, so Amy is not believed to be among the survivors.
Bronze cherub
Some passengers refused to accept that the ‘unsinkable’ Titanic was going under, stubbornly refusing to abandon the safety of the ship for what appeared to be risky lifeboats. Many congregated around the Grand Staircase, which is why this bronze cherub is such a touching reminder of the tragedy. At one point, the water crashed through the dome above and rushed down the Grand Staircase steps to the bottom where the bronze cherub sat. One foot of the bronze cherub was attached to the base and came loose. Years later, it was found in the debris at the bottom of the ocean where The Titanic remains more than a century after its sinking.
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