Tuesday 15 February 2011

Curatorial Corner - 15th February 2011

A Titanic Find!

We always come across interesting finds at STEAM.  But sometimes you find something that makes you stop in your tracks (if you excuse the pun!).  Recently we had one of those moments when we uncovered some paperwork relating to the RMS Titanic.

Everyone knows the story of the ill-fated ship that sank on 15th April 1912 so when we discovered the documents with the word Titanic printed on them we really took notice.

The first document is a letter dated September 1910 from the GWR's District Goods Manager's Office in Liverpool to James Inglis at Paddington.  It confirms the building of the Titanic and her sister ship, Olympic.  The GWR were obviously intrested in the White Star Line's new liners for a purely commercial reason and probably were hoping to provide the passenger transport to and from the proposed ports.  The GWR had been advertising with the White Star Line since the late 1890s.

The second set of documents is on a more personal level and relates to a passenger who died on the Titanic.  The passenger in question was Christopher Head who was a shareholder in the GWR.  The letters between the GWR and a London based firm of solicitors are confirming the death of Christopher when the Titanic sank, so the the shares could be released.  We know from passenger lists that Christopher was a former mayor of Chelsea and he boarded the Titanic at Southampton as a first class passenger.  He paid £42 10s for his ticket and occupied cabin B-11.  His body was never recovered.


Christopher Head


1 comment:

  1. A great find, thanks. As we have friends in SOuthampton related to the St John's and also to some who worked on and died in the Titanic, this is of some interest.

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