Museum Adds Items for Titanic 100th Anniversary
Halifax Museum Expands World’s Largest Donated Titanic Collection
Oct 26, 2009
The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, which covers the seafaring history of this great port city, has the world’s largest donated collection of Titanic artifacts.
Travelers come to see one of the few intact Titanic deck chairs ever recovered.
The museum rarely buys objects, but in 2009 did purchase an important piece at auction in England, paying $80,000 for canvas bag No. 41.
Titanic’s canvas bags are central to Halifax’s role in the tragedy.
Titanic Nears 100th Anniversary of Her First and Last Voyage
Titanic sank on her maiden voyage, steaming from Southampton, England, to New York. She struck an iceberg late April 14, 1912, and sank two hours and 40 minutes later on April 15.
Titanic, pride of the White Star Line, carried more than 2,200 passengers; 705 survived, leaving more than 1,500 to die in the frigid North Atlantic.
Halifax was the closest port, so White Star hired three telegraph cable ships to assist in the recovery.
The ships’ crews recovered 330 bodies; 209 were returned to Halifax and the rest were buried at sea when the undertakers ran out of embalming fluid.
Halifax Deputy Register of Deaths Becomes ‘Father of the Toe Tag’
John Henry Barnstead, deputy registrar of deaths, helped with the gruesome work. He meticulously recorded the personal effects of each body recovered, filling individual canvas bags with each victim’s belongings. The sailors on the recovery ships hastily stitched the bags.
Because of Barnstead’s records, curators know that the No. 41 body recovered by the crew of the Mackay-Bennett was that of Edmund Stone, a 33-year-old first-class bedroom steward from Southampton.
One of the museum’s most heart-breaking artifacts came through the traditional channel, donation.
‘Unknown’ Boy Identified in Time for Titanic’s 100th Anniversary
The crew of the Mackay-Bennett paid for the burial of a little boy, whose headstone still reads “Unknown” In Fairview Lawn Cemetery.
Police burned Titanic victims’ clothes to stop souvenir hunters. Halifax police sergeant Clarence Northover guarded the bodies and belongings.
But there was something Northover couldn’t bear to burn: a tiny pair of children’s shoes.
He kept them in his desk drawer until he retired in 1918, then took them home. They passed through the Northover family until 2002, when the officer’s grandson, Earle Northover, approached the Maritime Museum.
Titanic Toddler’s Shoes Affected Halifax Police Officer
He told the curators his father had been too emotional to burn “the little pair of brown, leather shoes…” and donated them.
A decade before, John Barnstead’s records had become available, enabling researchers to identify the “Unknown” boy as 19-month-old Sydney Leslie Goodwin.
Largest Donated Titanic Collection on View for 100th Anniversary
The shoes are now part of the expanding Titanic exhibit at the Maritime Museum:
- A film of Capt. Edward J. Smith inspecting the Titanic about 10 minutes before setting sail, with footage of the lifeboats. The Titanic complied with current law, but there were lifeboats for fewer than half the passengers.
After the sinking, in which Smith died along with more than 1,500 of his passengers, the film was re-shot to show Titanic survivors in New York.
Smith had famously said, “I cannot conceive of any disaster happening to this vessel. Modern ship-building has gone beyond that.”
“Why was he 200 miles north of the route, in Iceburg Alley?” mused Bob Corkum of the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. “He took that to his grave in the bottom of the sea.”
- A piece of John Jacob Astor’s life jacket, kept by one of the undertakers. At least 33 millionaires died on the Titanic; a first-class ticket cost $2,000 in 1912, equivalent to $69,400 today.
Astor’s body was No. 124, wearing a blue serge suit and a brown flannel shirt with “JJA” embroidered on the back of the collar.
- The only intact piece of cabinetry found to date, a cabinet from a first-class bathroom;
- A third-class menu card found by the recovery ship Minia.
- A mahogany “wreckwood” rosette made from the grand staircase; sailors often carved “wreckwood” objects from wood they found floating near the site of the sinking of the Titanic.
- A mahogany panel from the first-class entrance into the lounge, salvaged by the Minia.
- An oak “wreckwood” cribbage board.
The wreck of the Titanic was discovered in 1985 by a French and American expedition using sonar mapping and a deep-sea submersible.
Halifax Preparing for Titanic 100th Anniversary in 2012
In addition to Titanic artifacts, The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic has extensive collections about local shipwrecks, The Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian merchant marine and other aspects of Marine history in Nova Scotia.
Destination Halifax has complete information on the city and its museums.
 |
 |
