Titanic Historical Documents Collections Compilation USB Drive

Titanic Historical Documents Collections Compilation USB Drive
 
This USB drive contains 20,590 pages of content from the following 8 Titanic historical documents collections from BACM Research.
 
Titles:
 
Titanic Disaster Historical Documents Archive

Titanic Disaster Newspaper Archive

Titanic Disaster White Star Line and Passenger Court Documents

Titanic Disaster Victim Recovery Documents & Medical Examiner Reports

Titanic Disaster British National Archives Documents

Titanic & Olympic White Star Line Danish Immigrants to North America Brochure

FDR & the Roosevelts and the Titanic Disaster Documents

Titanic Key Documents

 
Short Descriptions
 
Titanic Disaster Historical Documents Archive
15,452 pages of documents, text, newspaper articles, and photos covering the Titanic disaster. Period original source material from the National Archives, The Library of Congress, and the British National Archives.
 
Titanic Disaster Newspaper Archive
1,200 selected complete American newspaper pages, dating from April 1, 1912, to April 14, 1922, covering the sinking of the Titanic and its aftermath. Most newspapers are from the first six months after the sinking.

Titanic Disaster White Star Line and Passenger Court Documents
1,100 pages of admiralty case files from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, related to the RMS Titanic, including the petition filed by the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company, as the owner of Titanic, for limitation of liability, and responses from claimants, copied from material held at the National Archives and Records Administration.

Titanic Disaster Victim Recovery Documents & Medical Examiner Reports
1,555 pages of documents related to the recovery of Titanic victims at sea.

Titanic Disaster British National Archives Documents
1,175 pages of Titanic Disaster records preserved by the British National Archives.

Titanic & Olympic White Star Line Danish Immigrants to North America Brochure
58 pages, 35 pages of the brochure, plus 23 pages of rough English translations. In late 1911 or early 1912 the White Star Line produced a 35-page brochure for Danish immigrants intending on settling in North America, encouraging them to travel there on one of its great Atlantic steamers, the Titanic or the Olympic.
 
FDR & the Roosevelts and the Titanic Disaster Documents
50 pages of handwritten documents and transcripts, dating from April 15 to April 24, 1912, reflecting how FDR and his family members reacted to the sinking of the Titanic.  Members of both the Roosevelt and Delano families knew several of the first-class passengers who died. 
 
Titanic Key Documents
A selection of 90 pages of documents from the BACM Research Titanic Collections
 

Long Descriptions
 
Titanic Disaster Historical Documents Archive

15,452 pages of documents, text, newspaper articles, and photos covering the Titanic disaster. Period original source material from the National Archives, The Library of Congress, and the British National Archives.

Titanic files included in this collection 
 
British National Archives Titanic Documents

8,825 pages of archival copies of documents related to all aspects of the Titanic.

Includes: List of passengers boarding at Queenstown, boarding at Southampton, lists of crew and passengers, lists of passengers lost, Titanic's registration documents, British Foreign Office correspondences dealing with the disaster, 

British Board of Trade Marine Department correspondences and memos, Transcripts of the 1912 Subcommittee of the Committee on Commerce United States Senate Hearing, Transcripts of the 1912 proceedings of the Court of Enquiry ordered by the British Board of Trade, Early Titanic films documents, 

Diagrams and memos about lifeboat arms proposed for the Olympic and Titanic, Information concerning the manning of Titanic Lifeboats, Bulkheads Committee and Watertight Compartments Committee Wreck Investigation correspondences and papers, inquiries from the House of Commons, and Engineer and Surveyor inspection reports, correspondences, memorandums, and diagrams.
 
Among the highlights are: A List of passengers boarding the Titanic at Queenstown, most of these passengers are poor Irish emigrants enroute to America, traveling as third-class passengers. 
 
List of passengers boarding at Southampton, this includes many notable names, the Countess of Rothes, Benjamin Guggenheim, the American mining millionaire, J Bruce Ismay, and Colonel Gracie, whose book "The Truth About the Titanic" was published in 1913. 
 
Lists of crew and passengers, this file includes a list of crew leaving Belfast on 6 April 1912, bearing the signatures and rates of pay of individuals. 

Lost of crew by department and passengers by class lost and saved, some listings give addresses. 

Material from the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen covering Titanic surviving crew, showing photographs, individual's name, date and place of birth, and rating at the time the entry was made. Some give other details such as tattoo marks. 

Seventy-three of the 211 Titanic crew members who survived the Titanic disaster have registration information included in this file, including Frederick Fleet, the lookout man who first saw the iceberg, Master of the SS Californian Stanley Lord, the SS Californian was identified in inquests as the "mystery ship," Second Officer Charles Lighhtoller, and Fifth Officer Harold Lowe. 

Correspondence dealing with the original plans of the Titanic, showing the ship was originally to be fitted with 32 boats. This would have given capacity for over 2,000 people, significantly greater than the 1,178 that were ultimately provided for. 

Correspondences showing the British Government was opposed to the United States holding an inquiry into the Titanic disaster. 

Documents dealing with the efforts to identify the mystery ship, seen from the sinking Titanic and by the SS Mount Temple. An account of a letter written by the SS Californian's carpenter saying that the "Californian did not render help to Titanic although distress signals were observed." 

House of Commons statements by Horace Bottomley MP, on lifeboats and the question, "How far the principal owner [Bruce Ismay] of the vessel should have precedence over a humble emigrant who has paid his fare?" Investigation found that over 500 passengers, including women and children, were still on board when Ismay left the Titanic in a lifeboat. 

A letter from Stanley Lord, captain of the SS Californian, to the Board of Trade complaining of the public odium he is suffering and pleading that "something be done to put my conduct on the night in question in a more favorable light to my employers and the general public." 

Wireless messages passing between various ships in the North Atlantic in mid-April 1912. Copies of telegrams sent to the SS Birma by the Titanic. 

Information about ice warnings. 

A handwritten account by Titanic first class passenger survivor Alfred Omont of events before and after the iceberg crash. 

Transcript of an account by Arthur Rostron, the captain of the SS Carpathia, of the ship's high-speed trip, navigating through icebergs, to reach the Titanic survivors. 

A letter filed by Sir Alfred Chalmers, the board of Trade member responsible for lifeboat requirements for passenger ships, arguing that more lifeboats would not have saved more lives on the Titanic. 

Documents concerning the British International Pictures production "Atlantic" of 1929, which was based on the sinking of the Titanic. Germany was quick to use the film as anti-British propaganda, claiming that if the ship had been German, the disaster would never have happened. 

Documents show the efforts of the British Chamber of Shipping to stop Alfred Hitchcock from making a film about the Titanic disaster. 

Diagrams of Titanic's bulkheads. 

Chart of ice reported near the Titanic. 

Chart of ships' positions near the Titanic.

 
United States Senate Hearing Transcripts

1,226 pages of computer text of testimony given at the hearings before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Commerce, United States Senate.

The Titanic hearings were conducted by a special subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee and chaired by Senator William A. Smith, a Republican from Missouri. The hearings began on April 19, 1912, in New York City. The Senate inquiry is particularly useful because it was the most immediate. The inquiry began at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York the day after the survivors landed. James Cameron used the Senate transcripts extensively in researching his Oscar-winning movie. "The Senate records, for example, provide the exact words spoken by the bridge officers in the moments leading up to the collision," Mr. Cameron has written. "Those scenes in my film are scripted and staged precisely as the event was described by witnesses."

A week after the proceedings began, the hearings were moved to the new caucus room of the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C. They were the first hearings to be held in that room. A total of 82 witnesses testified about ice warnings that were ignored, the inadequate number of lifeboats, the ship's speed, the failure of nearby ships to respond to the Titanic's distress calls, and the treatment of passengers of different classes. The hearings concluded on May 28, 1912, when Senator Smith visited the Titanic's sister ship, Olympic, at port in New York, to interview some of its crew. When the Titanic sank, the Olympic was about 500 miles away.

 
British Titanic Wreck Commissioner's Court  

1,446 pages of computer text of testimony before the Court of Enquiry and the Court's final report.

Within two weeks after the sinking of the Titanic, the British Board of Trade established a Commission of Enquiry, chaired by High Court Judge Lord Mersey. The hearings were opened in the Wreck Commissioner's Court, Royal Scottish Drill Hall, Buckingham Gate, Westminster, on 2nd May, 1912. The British Inquiry cleared Captain Smith and the White Star Line of any negligence in the loss of the Titanic. The conference confronted issues such as subdivision of ships, lifeboat provisions, wireless telegraphy, the reduction of speed in the vicinity of ice, and the use of searchlights.

 
Photographs

136 Titanic related photographs. Subject matters include: Titanic under construction, interior of the Titanic, Titanic survivors in lifeboats, survivors onboard the Carpathia, icebergs near the site of the Titanic sinking. The photographs of 72 members of Titanic's crew from registration cards maintained by the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen.

 
Immigration Documents 

52 pages from the Manifest of Alien Passengers for the United States Immigration Officer at Port of Arrival, for the R.M.S. Carpathia arriving in New York on April 18, 1912, carrying Titanic survivors. Columns on the forms provide space for such information as age, occupation, address, nearest relative or friend, destination, physical description, and place of birth. 
 

Recovered Bodies Documents

Nova Scotia Provincial Secretary's Office Disposition of Bodies ex Titanic Recovered up to May 13, 1912. The White Star line charted ships in Halifax to recover Titanic passenger and crew remains that were at sea. 328 bodies of Titanic victims were found at sea and were either buried at sea or brought back to Halifax, the capital of the Canadian province Nova Scotia. There, the Provincial Secretary's Office of Nova Scotia was in charge of administrating the handling of the remains. The Office produced the report, "Disposition of Bodies ex Titanic Recovered up to May 13, 1912." It contains two sections, "List of Bodies Identified and Disposition of Same," and "List of Bodies Unidentified and Disposition of Same." The information recorded in the report includes the descents' name if known, distinguishing physical features and notations regarding clothing and personal effects found on the body, and the final disposition of the remains. The list includes body number 122 J. J. Astor.

Halifax Medical examiner files. 93 pages of Medical Examiner, City of Halifax and Town of Dartmouth documents concerning remains and property of several recovered Titanic bodies.

 
United States National Institute of Standards and Technology Study

A 1998 report, "Metallurgy of the RMS Titanic," produced by the Metallurgy Division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Metallurgical and mechanical analyses were performed on steel and rivet samples recovered from the wreck of the RMS Titanic. Forensic tests were performed to determine what, if any contribution the condition of the Ship's steel and rivets had on the amount of damage the Titanic received by hitting the iceberg on the night of April 14, 1912

Electronic Books 

1,036 pages of electronic text of 5 books related to the Titanic disaster including:

The Loss of the S. S. Titanic, by Lawrence Beesley - Lawrence Beesley was a second-class passenger aboard the Titanic. This account was written two months after the sinking.

Titanic and Other Ships, by CH Lightoller - CH Lightoller was the most senior surviving officer aboard the Titanic. Lightoller chronicles his life at sea from being an apprentice on a sailing ship at age thirteen to commanding a destroyer in World War I. In addition to his history with the Titanic, Lightoller tells of his experiences with hurricanes, fires, other shipwrecks, and being a gold prospector in the Klondike.

Sinking of the Titanic and Great Sea Disasters, by Logan Marshall - One of the first "instant books" sold door-to-door and through newspaper ads in the United States, dealing with the Titanic disaster. Information in the book was quickly compiled from newspaper reporting. Focusing more on sensationalism than accuracy, the book itself documents public reaction to the sinking of the Titanic. 

Notes on Life and Letters, by Joseph Conrad - Published in 1924, it includes two often quoted essays written in 1912 about the Titanic disaster, "Some Reflections, Seamanlike and Otherwise, on the Loss of the Titanic," and "Certain Aspects of the Admiralty Inquiry into the Loss of the Titanic."

A Journey to Other Worlds, by John Jacob Astor - A science fiction novel set in the year 2000, written in 1887 by millionaire inventor and Titanic victim JJ Astor. Topics covered include air travel, space travel, anti-gravity devices, television, a world-wide telephone network, and solar energy.

 
Titanic Disaster Newspaper Archive

1,200 selected complete American newspaper pages, dating from April 1, 1912, to April 14, 1922, covering the sinking of the Titanic and its aftermath. Most newspapers are from the first six months after the sinking.

The sinking of the Titanic was the first international news story of the twentieth century to receive instantaneous, intensive coverage world-wide. By 1912, the development and use of telegraphs and photographs had reached a point that allowed news about the Titanic tragedy to be spread quickly and widely.

American newspapers had an advantage over the British press, since survivors of the Titanic were brought to New York City. American newspapers had some of their best reporters in place when the first inquiry into the disaster was held by the U.S. Senate at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City, the day after the survivors landed.

Though not an uncommon mistake, the London Daily Mail ran the unfortunate headline on April 16, 1912, "Titanic Sunk. No Lives Lost. Collision with an Iceberg. Largest Ship in the World. 2,358 Lives in Peril. Rush of Liners to the Rescue. All Passengers Taken Off." Compare this to the New York Herald April 15, 1912, headline, "The Titanic Sinks with 1,800 on Board; Only 675, Mostly Woman and Children, Saved."

The first reports of the disaster published on April 15 contained many inaccuracies. A bias toward optimism can be seen in the first headlines and articles regarding the fate of the super-liner and her passengers. The stalk reality of the scope of the disaster is clearly evident in the reporting that began to emerge on April 16. Many newspapers began publishing more detailed accounts of the sinking with much more accurate information beginning on April 17th.

A major factor that fueled the coverage was the number of wealthy and noteworthy individuals aboard the Titanic such as: Mr. and Mrs. John Jacob Astor; Benjamin Guggenheim; Major Archibald Willingham Butt, President Taft's military aid; J. Bruce Ismay, managing Director of the White Star Line; William T. Stead, well-known English editor; Isidor Strauss, wealthy New York merchant and Macy's owner; Denver millionaire Margaret "Molly" Brown; Frank Millet, noted artist; James Clinch Smith, sportsman and society man of New York and Paris; and Henry B. Harris, theatrical manager and producer.

Newspapers fed the public interest in the Titanic disaster by publishing sensational banner headlines, reports, stories, special sections, photographs, and editorials. This collection shows the result of different efforts to balance the need to sell newspapers and the reporting of accurate information.

The horror and loss that constituted the disaster of the sinking of the Titanic evoked a strong human need to find something heroic, even redemptive in the event. Later research by scholars have not been able to substantiate many inflated tales of honor and daring-do that were widely reported to a stunned public. For example, most Titanic researchers can find no hard evidence to support the widely reported story that Titanic victim Major Butt single handily stood between men, who to save themselves, would deny the extrication of women and children from the sinking Titanic. A headline from the April 19, 1912, Los Angeles Times read: "Maj. Butt with Gun in Hand, Held Back Frenzied Men, Saved Women; Capt. Smith a Suicide on Bridge." Later other newspapers further embellished, reporting that it was "crazed Sicilian men" who had to be threatened at gun point to allow for the egress of women and children from the Titanic by lifeboat.

The newspaper articles cover details that are still in dispute today, such as the controversy over what the Titanic band was playing as the ship sank, some say it was the hymn "Autumn", and others say it was "Nearer My God to Thee." Accounts differ as to the last moments of Captain Smith. Press coverage established 100-year commonly accepted anecdotes such as Mrs. Strauss giving up her seat in a lifeboat in order to remain with her husband on the doomed ship; And Bruce Ismay's alleged cowardice, climbing aboard a lifeboat though women and children were waiting for places.

Among the many Titanic subjects covered by the newspapers were: Iceberg sightings in the area of the sinking; Efforts by the Carpathia to rescue survivors and return them to land; The American enquiry into the disaster held the United States Senate, headed by Senator William A. Smith in which eighty-two witnesses were called; Accounts by survivors of the Titanic sinking; Various theories about the sinking, some which today seem laughable; The role played or not played by ships such as the Carpathia, SS Californian, Mackay-Bennett, Minia, Montmagny and the Algerine; The effort to recover Titanic victims' bodies at sea; The British Board of Trade enquiry into the disaster; Judgments about the Titanic sinking and recommendations to prevent a similar tragedy.

Although The Titanic is the focus of the collection, the disaster appears alongside other news of the day. Events of note that shared newsprint with the Titanic disaster includes: The ugly battle for the Republican nomination for the 1912 presidential election between Incumbent President William Howard Taft and former president Theodore Roosevelt; After former President Theodore Roosevelt fails to receive the Republican nomination he creates the Progressive Party, also known as the "Bull Moose Party"; The Summer Olympic Games open in Stockholm, Sweden; The Mexican Revolution and Pancho Villa; U.S. Marines land in Cuba; Movement toward the prohibition of alcohol; The growth of labor unions and labor strikes; The death of Wilbur Wright; United States occupation of Nicaragua; The First Balkan War begins between Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey; Fashion trends of the day are illustrated in ads by Gimbels, Lord & Taylor, and Macy's.

The Newspapers in this set include:

New York Times
Los Angeles Times
Washington Times
New York Tribune
The Washington Herald
The Sun (New York City, NY)
The Evening World (New York City, NY)
The Day Book (Chicago, IL)
Trenton Evening Times
The Times Dispatch (Richmond, VA)
The San Francisco Call
El Paso Herald
Medford Mail Tribune (Medford, OR)
The Watchman and Southron (Sumter, SC)
The Tacoma Times
New Brunswick Times (New Brunswick, NJ)
The Evening Standard (Ogden City, UT)
Evening Bulletin (Honolulu, HI)
The Hawaiian Star (Honolulu, HI)
The Hawaiian Gazette (Honolulu, HI)
The Yakima Herald (Yakima, WA)
Weekly Journal-Miner (Prescott, AZ)
The Democratic Banner (Mt. Vernon, OH)
The Citizen (Honedale, PA)
Bisbee Daily Review (Brisbee, AZ)
Burlington Weekly Free Press (Burlington, VT)
Hopkinsville Kentuckian
The Logan Republican (Logan, UT)
The Mathews Journal (Mathews Court House, VA)

Titanic Disaster White Star Line and Passenger Court Documents

1,100 pages of admiralty case files from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, related to the RMS Titanic, including the petition filed by the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company, as the owner of Titanic, for limitation of liability, and responses from claimants, copied from material held at the National Archives and Records Administration.

The case of "In the Matter of the Petition of the Oceanic Steam Ship Company, Limited, for Limitation of its Liability as owner of the steamship TITANIC," was filed in accordance with the liability laws in place at the time of the Titanic Disaster, allowing the owners of the White Star Line to seek to have the courts limit their liability.

The case file contains court papers, evidence, depositions from surviving passengers and claims of survivors and representatives of deceased passengers. Some documents tell in the first person the story of the sinking in dramatic detail. 

In the petition, the White Star Line claimed that the collision was due to an "inevitable accident." The Titanic's liability was governed by the 1851 "Act to limit the Liability of Ship-Owners, and for other Purposes." This law was designed to encourage shipbuilding and trade by minimizing the risk to owners when disasters occurred at sea.

This collection contains several dozen claims filled in the case. Survivors of the Titanic Disaster were not necessary free from physical harm. Examples of claims found in the documents: Anna McGowan of Chicago, Illinois, missed getting onto a lifeboat before they were lowered, forcing her to jump from the Titanic and into a lifeboat. Her claim states that she sustained permanent injuries from the fall, shock, and frostbite. According to her filing, the experience left her in a state of "nervous prostration" and unable to provide for herself.

Patrick O'Keefe of Ireland also jumped overboard to save his life, but he remained in the cold Atlantic waters in a collapsible raft for hours before being rescued by lifeboat B.

Bertha Noon of Providence, Rhode Island, filed a claim requesting $25,000 in compensation for injuries she sustained after being pushed onto a lifeboat and being exposed to the cold for several hours before being rescued by the Carpathia. Her enumerated damages include an injured back and spine that left her "unable to wear corsets," severe nervous shock, a "misplaced womb," and a recurring congestion in her head and chest that left her delirious and unconscious for days at a time.

Among the claims for loss of property, Margaret "Molly" Brown's three crates of ancient models destined for the Denver Museum, Col. Archibald Gracie's documents concerning the War of 1812, and over 110,000 feet of motion picture film owned by William Harbeck. The most expensive individual item lost in the sinking was H. Bjornstrom-Steffanson's four-foot-by-eight-foot oil painting La Circasienne Au Bain by Blondel, valued by him at $100,000.

Although the Schedule A claims filed by family members for loss of life did not include first-hand accounts of the accident, they document tragic losses. Finnish immigrant John Panula was preparing for a reunion with his family in Pennsylvania when his wife and four children died on the Titanic. 

The claims for losses reveal class differences. The loss of life claims reveal the variety of values that could be assigned to a human life. While Alfonso Meo's widow, Emily J. Innes-Meo, asked for only £300 (approximately $1,500 at the time), Irene Wallach Harris, the widow of Broadway producer and theater owner Henry B. Harris, sought $1 million in her claim. Some of the documents filled by claimants state the ages and annual salaries of the deceased to justify the amounts they were seeking in their claims.

Those individuals seeking payments slowly began to build their case against the White Star Line. They held that although the crew had received wireless messages about the presence of icebergs, the Titanic had maintained its speed, stayed on the same northern course, posted no additional lookouts, and failed to provide the lookouts with binoculars.

In addition, they faulted the White Star Line for not properly training the crew for evacuation, leading to the launching of partially filled lifeboats and the loss of even more lives. For these reasons, combined with the fact that the managing director of the White Star Line, J. Bruce Ismay, was on board the Titanic, claimants asserted that the liability should be unlimited.

The case made it way to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in June 1915 after the Supreme Court decided in favor of the British owners of White Star, finding that the laws of the United States, not Great Britain, should be applied to claims of losses from the Titanic sinking. 

In December 1915, an out of court settlement was reached for the total payout of $665,000 to all claimants. Since this was an out-of-court settlement there is no public record of how the money was divided. Newspaper accounts at the time vary on how the money was distributed.

A final decree, signed by Judge Julius M. Mayer in July 1916, held the company guiltless of any privity and knowledge and not liable for any loss, damage, injury, destruction, or fatalities.

Highlights from the material include:

Deposition of Emily Ryerson

Emily Ryerson (August 10, 1863 - December 28, 1939) was a first-class passenger who survived the sinking of the RMS Titanic. In her deposition she talks about her experience in getting off the Titanic: "...Stout, the second steward; he was at the foot of the stairs as we came from the boat deck, and he put his hand in front of my little boy, who is 13, and said 'He can't go.' My husband said 'Of course that boy goes with his mother.' The man said 'Very well, sir, but no more boys.' And some woman rushed forward and took her hat off and put it on her little boy's head, so he could go as a little girl..."

Deposition of William Thomas Turner

William Turner (October 23, 1856 - June 23, 1933) was the captain of the RMS Lusitania when it was torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine in May 1915. In this extremely unique document, the captain of the Lusitania is being interviewed about the Titanic disaster, seven days before the Lusitania will be destroyed. On the day before the Lusitania left on its final voyage, April 30, 1915, Captain Turner was at the New York City offices of Hunt, Hill & Betts. He had been asked to testify by lawyers involved in the Titanic limitation of liability case, which was dragging into its third year. He was asked a series of questions about the size and design of ships on the Cunard Line, the difficulty of sighting icebergs, and his reaction to iceberg warnings. These questions were important because the ship he was commanding, RMS Mauretania, in April 1912 was sailing only a few days behind the Titanic.

Examination of White Star managing director J. Bruce Ismay

Ismay was chairman and managing director of the White Star Line. He came to international attention as the highest-ranking White Star official among the 712 survivors. In June 1914, White Star Line's Ismay was questioned about the speed of the Titanic, its lifeboats, the lookouts, and other issues that may have contributed to the disaster. Throughout his testimony, Ismay restated many of the same sentiments given during the April 1912 congressional hearings on the sinking, that all decisions were made by Captain Edward Smith and that he, Ismay, was onboard to consider passenger accommodation improvements for the White Star Line's next ship, the Britannic.

Claim of Margaret "Molly" Brown, also known as "The Unsinkable Molly Brown"

The Unsinkable Molly Brown filed a claim for lost property that included an extensive collection of gowns, hats, and jewelry as well as ancient Egyptian models for the Denver Museum. Her list of lost items include: 1 sealskin jacket ($700); 1 necklace ($20,000); 14 hats ($225); 3 dozen gloves ($50) and 2 Japanese kimonos. The total of her claim was $27,887.

Claim of Charlotte Drake Cardeza

This socialite was a complete stranger to "packing light." Her claim contains the most pages of any in this collection. Cardeza occupied the most expensive stateroom on the ship and survived the sinking of the Titanic aboard lifeboat 3. Cardeza filed a claim for the lost contents of her 14 trunks, 4 suitcases, and 3 crates of baggage (a total of at least 841 individual items) for a sum of $177,352.75. The itemized claim includes objects such as her 6 7/8-carat pink diamond ring valued at $20,000.

Deposition of Elizabeth Lines 

In her testimony, passenger Elizabeth Lines recounts overhearing Bruce Ismay remark to Captain Smith on the speed of the ship's crossing, saying that they "will beat the Olympic and get in to New York on Tuesday."

Affidavit of Value

This court filling made by Oceanic Steam Navigation Company places the value of passenger losses at $91,805.54.

Titanic Disaster Victim Recovery Documents & Medical Examiner Reports 

1,555 pages of documents related to the recovery of Titanic victims at sea. 

The RMS Carpathia is famous for rescuing survivors from their lifeboats in the frigid North Atlantic Ocean waters. Less famous are the CS Mackay-Bennet and CS Minia, the ships that retrieved the majority of the fatalities that could be found at sea. Two days after the sinking of the Titanic, White Star Line chartered the cable ship (CS) Mackay-Bennett, which was based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The company soon hired additional Canadian ships, the lighthouse supply ship Montmagny, CS Minia, and the sealing vessel Algerine. To carry out its grim task, each ship was outfitted with embalming supplies, coffins, undertakers, and clergy. Out of the 333 bodies found at sea, 328 were found by Canadian ships. The rest were found by ships passing through the North Atlantic.

The MacKay-Bennett recovered 306 bodies, of which 116 were buried at sea and 190 brought into port. The CS Minia recovered 17 bodies, of which 15 were brought back to Halifax. The Canadian Government Ship (CGS) Montmagny recovered 4 bodies, one was buried at sea. The SS Algerine recovered 1 body.

The bodies recovered at sea included the American John Jacob Astor IV, who was the richest person onboard the Titanic, Isidor Straus, owner of Macy's Department Store and architect Edward Austin Kent. Soon the Mackay-Bennett was running out of embalming material. The ship could only return the bodies to Canada if they were embalmed first. This lead to the Mackay-Bennett's captain Frederick H. Larnder deciding to only bring back to the shore the bodies of first class passengers. The others were buried at sea. The bodies brought back to Halifax were taken to a temporary morgue set up at a curling rink.

DOCUMENTS IN THE COLLECTION

TITANIC DISASTER MEDICAL EXAMINER FATALITY REPORTS 
1,285 pages of reports assembled by the Medical Examiner for the City of Halifax and Town of Dartmouth concerning the 328 Titanic victims that were recovered by ships operating out of Nova Scotia. The documents illustrate the efforts to identify unidentified bodies.

Each report contains at least a one-page Medical Examiner's record of each Titanic victim, listing identity if known, gender, physical characteristics, estimated age, clothing, passenger class, and personal effects found on the body. Some reports contain additional documents such as letters to and from White Star, and information about the returning of effects to next of kin and the identities of the bodies. The pages of the reports contain handwritten notes and corrections.

The first victim recovered at sea was Walter John Van Billiard, thus he is given the identification number one. He was a nine-year-old boy described as having light hair. The report describes him as wearing one grey coat, one blue coat, grey woolen jersey, white shirt, grey knickers, black stockings, and black boots. Effects found on his person were a purse containing few Danish coins, a ring, and two handkerchiefs marked "A".  His body along with the body of his father, Austin Blyler van Billiard, was returned to his grandparents in North Pennsylvania for burial. His older brother, 10-year-old James William van Billiard, remains were never identified as recovered.

DISPOSITION OF BODIES EX TITANIC RECOVERED UP TO MAY 13, 1912
This 23 page report was prepared by the Halifax Provincial Secretary's Office. It contains an account of the 328 Titanic victims found at sea. The registry is in alphabetical order and list if known, name, body identification number, distinguishing physical features, clothing, personal effects found on the body, and the disposition of the remains. This report is in two sections, List of Bodies Identified and Disposition of Same, and List of Bodies Unidentified and Disposition of Same. This document was based on information available at the time it was produced.

FREDERICK A. HAMILTON DIARY
Seven pages from the diary of Frederick A. Hamilton, cable engineer, whilst aboard the CS Mackay Bennett, recovering corpses after the loss of the Titanic.

DIARY OF CLIFFORD CREASE, MECHANIC ON THE CS MACKAY-BENNETT
An 11 page journal containing 7 pages of diary entries record by Clifford Crease from April 17, to April 30, 1912. Crease worked on the Mackay-Bennett telegraph cable laying and repair ship as an artificer, a craftsman-in-training. His diary is a straightforward account of the ship's task of recovering the bodies of the Titanic Disaster victims.    

RECORD OF BODIES AND EFFECTS (PASSENGERS AND CREW SS "TITANIC") RECOVERED BY CABLE STEAMER "MACKAY-BENNETT" INCLUDING BODIES BURIED AT SEA AND BODIES DELIVERED AT MORGUE IN HALIFAX, N.S.
This 79-page report includes two typed pages with handwritten notations added loosely at the end for numbers 307 - 330, bodies retrieved by the CS Minia, CGS Montmagny and SS Algerine. The report skips numbers 324, 325 and 326, although other reports include a file for #326, an unidentified body.

CANADIAN NEWSPAPER REPORTING ON TITANIC VICTIM RECOVERY
114 article clips from the Chronicle Herald of Nova Scotia. These clips give a chronological look at the events and the impact of the burden inherited by Nova Scotia, as the guardian of the dead of the Titanic Disaster. The articles cover the work of recovering bodies at sea by the Mackay-Bennett and other recovery ships, the return of deceased Titanic passengers and crew to land. Events surrounding the return of remains; Accounts by family members of lost Titanic passengers arriving in Halifax, details about the burials at sea and land of Titanic victims.

Titanic Disaster British National Archives Documents

1,175 pages of Titanic Disaster records preserved by the British National Archives.

The files date from 1909 to 1925. This collection contains records from British government agencies including the Titanic Board of Enquiry, Board of Trade, Ministry of Transport, Treasury Solicitor, Public Trustee Office, Foreign Office, Cabinet Office, National Savings Committee and Post Office Law Officers' Department.

Document series include:

EXT 11/136 Loss of Titanic, Report of the Court of Inquiry into the Loss of the S.S. Titanic. Extracted from Public Record Office serial BT 13/50.

BT 334/52 Register of deceased passengers. Includes register for the Titanic disaster.

BT 334/53 - Register of deceased seamen. Includes details relating to the Titanic disaster.

BT 15/63 List of effects found on deceased crew members of the Titanic. Accounts of wages and effects. Includes correspondence regarding the collection of unpaid wages due to the estate of Titanic crew members who did not survivor the voyage.

MT 15/504 Blueprints of deck plans for the Olympic and Titanic.

MT 9/920/347A Titanic Wreck Enquiry. Stanley Lord's observations and the commission's conclusions on the position of the Californian at the time of the sinking of the Titanic, and Lord's conduct that night. Includes a handwritten letter by Captain Stanley Lord regarding the night of the wreck of the Titanic. The file notes that Lord was required by his employee to resign and he was asking the Board to help put his conduct in a more favourable light to his employer and the general public. Stanley Lord was the captain of the ship SS Californian, which was in the vicinity of the RMS Titanic on the night of the wreck.

MT 9/4469 Enquiry regarding awards of money and medals to members of the Carpathia and details of awards to its captain, A.H. Rostron, for services rendered to survivors of the Titanic. RMS Carpathia was a Cunard Line passenger ship. At 4:00 AM on April 15, 1912, the Carpathia arrived at the scene of the sinking of the Titanic, after navigating through dangerous ice fields, and rescued 705 survivors from Titanic's lifeboats. Captain Rostron was knighted by King George V. United States President Taft presented Rostron with a Congressional Gold Medal at the White House, the highest honor the United States Congress could grant him.

TS 27/21 Compensation for dependents of Post Office Officers who died in the loss of SS Titanic.

T 1/11470 Payment of compensation to dependents of postal officers who were lost in the wreck of the Titanic.

T 1/11444 Public Trustee Office keeping of a record of expenses of the "Titanic Fund" by the Stationery Office.

FO 244/801 British Foreign Office correspondences with the German Embassy and Consulates regarding the Titanic disaster and international agreements that followed the disaster.

NSC 9/1016 National Savings Committee correspondences related to the administration of payment of widows' grants by the Daily Telegraph "Titanic Relief Fund."

CAB 41/33/46 April 16, 1912, memorandum of record from the Cabinet Office of British Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith, regarding The Titanic; Coal industry; Government of Ireland Bill; Committee to consider industrial unrest, particularly in transport and distributive trades; and the Welsh Church Bill.

CAB 41/33/47 April 25, 1912, memorandum of record from the Cabinet Office of British Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith, regarding The Titanic.

LO 3/410 Post Office Law Officers' Department opinions regarding the Workmen's Compensation Act 1906 and J.R.J. Smith and B Williamson, deceased servants of the Post Office lost on Titanic.

BT 100/249 Registry of Shipping and Seamen: Agreements and Crew Lists, Series III: for the ship Olympic. Covers the journey in March 1912 after which many of the crew of Olympic enlisted on the Titanic.

BT 100/156 Registry of Shipping and Seamen: Agreements and Crew Lists, Series III: for the ship Carpathia. Covers the journey in April 1912 when the Carpathia picked up the survivors of Titanic after it sank.

Titanic & Olympic White Star Line Danish Immigrants to North America Brochure

58 pages, 35 pages of the brochure, plus 23 pages of rough English translations

In late 1911 or early 1912 the White Star Line produced a 35-page brochure for Danish immigrants intending on settling in North America, encouraging them to travel there on one of its great Atlantic steamers, the Titanic or the Olympic.

The RMS Olympic was in service from 1911 to 1935. In 1935, it was sold for scrap metal and destroyed in 1937. The Titanic collided with an iceberg on her maiden voyage on April 15, 1912.

The brochure, printed in Danish, begins by saying, "EVERYONE will be able to understand that America, often despite the fact that this country is a near-inexhaustible labor market, is not a country to which Knights of Fortune should travel. On the other hand, any young man with the upbringing which the youth of the working class now receives in this country, and who is either a craftsman or trained in agriculture or horticulture, can only in America get the greatest benefit from energetic diligence."

Since immigrants would mostly be third class passengers the brochure makes certain to highlight improvements to third class travel made by the White Star Line. The brochure states, "However significant changes for the better have been made with regard to the 1st and 2nd class, these are, however, quite significantly surpassed by the changes which have been made in recent years in the 3rd class. The democratic age in which we live demands that the Steamship Companies strive to the utmost to provide the best of the best to the 3rd Class Passengers, and it is also well known that the White Star Line, right from its formation with a view to bring improvements has been the Pioneer in Atlantic shipping, with the result that WHITE STAR LINE in recent years has carried the largest number of 3rd class passengers from Liverpool. Previously, the conveniences of the 3rd class consisted exclusively of the so-called open sleeping places, whereas they now consist of good airy cabins for 2, 4 or 6 Persons respectively, provided with everything required for a comfortably equipped Cabin.”

The brochure includes illustrations of amenities found on the Titanic and the Olympic for second- and third-class passengers, including dining rooms, libraries, cabins, and decks. Includes information about obtaining tickets for White Star Line passages. Includes the menus for the morning, midday, and evening meals offered on each of the seven days of the voyage across the Atlantic.

The glossary at the end of the brochure includes words and expressions provided, in Danish and English, including exchanges such as: “Have you work for me?” “I don’t know, what can you do?” “I am used to digging and farming; I can plough, take care of horses, and can drive both a team and a double team.”

 
FDR & the Roosevelts and the Titanic Disaster Documents 

50 pages of handwritten documents and transcripts, dating from April 15 to April 24, 1912, reflecting how FDR and his family members reacted to the sinking of the Titanic. Members of both the Roosevelt and Delano families knew several of the first-class passengers who died.

On April 14, 1912, 30-year-old Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a New York State Senator. At the time of the sinking, FDR was in Panama observing the construction of the Panama Canal. Exactly 33 years later, he would be buried at the Roosevelt family home in Hyde Park, New York, after dying on April 12, 1945

Highlights in this collection includes a letter from Franklin D. Roosevelt written in Panama to his mother Sara, he asks her to save newspapers about the disaster because, "We know practically no details, only scraps here and there. I am counting on your saving all the papers for every day I am away…" She replied, "Rosy is much upset over poor Jack Astor's death and spends most of his time at Mr. Ledyard's office. Mr. Millet, Mr. Widener, Major Archie Butt and Mary, others were well known but oh! the tragedies in the steerage as well."

At the time of the disaster Eleanor Roosevelt was in Albany, New York. She wrote to Franklin, “The news of the Titanic disaster came in the morning, but the reports were that all were saved until quite late at night. It is so appalling and awful and I think almost worse for the many women who were saved and who would probably far rather have gone down with their husbands and sons. I am so glad you are at least out of the track of icebergs.”

 
Titanic Key Documents

A selection of documents from the BACM Research Titanic Collections

Includes:

Telegrams sent to the SS Birna by the SS Titanic April 14, 1912 - April 15th, 1912 Two telegrams sent by the Titanic to the Russian EastAsiatic ship, SS Birma.

Correspondence from the White Star Line to the Board of Trade concerning the loss of the Titanic. April 15th, 1912 - April 16th, 1912, two letters from the White Star Line concerning early information about the fate of the Titanic

Handwritten submission by first class passenger Alfred Omontto the British Court of Enquiry. May 1912 Alfred Omontto was a French cotton agent who board the Titanic in Cherbourg. Omontto mentions dinner, play bridge in Cafe Parisien, the striking of the iceberg, and the confusion onboard the Titanic.

Pages from the Register Marriages, Births, Deaths and Injuries MAY 1912 Three pages of the forms for the listing of Marriages, Births, Deaths, and Injuries that have occurred on board during the voyage. Included here are Titanic's architect Thomas Andrews, millionaire Colonel John Jacob Astor, and advisor to President Taft, Major Archibald Butt.

Pages from the Report of the British Commission of Enquiry into the Loss of the Titanic July 30th, 1912 Pages of the Court of Enquiry's report dealing with the Titanic’s passenger accommodations, deck configuration, and life boats.

Handwritten letter from Stanley Lord, the Captain of the SS Californian August 10th, 1912 The SS Californian was identified in the inquiries as the "Mystery Ship."