A telegraph machine from the ship that rescued Titanic survivors, the RMS Carpathia, along with a wedding ring and messages from some of those saved, are going under the hammer in a huge online action.
The RMS Carpathia saved over 700 people after receiving a message from the doomed liner that it had struck an iceberg on the morning of April 15, 1912.
After ordering full steam and navigating around an ice field, Carpathia reached Titanic’s position an hour and a half after the ‘unsinkable ship’ plunged to the Atlantic’s depths.
It arrived in New York three days later where 705 survivors disembarked and then resumed its regular voyage to the Mediterranean.
The ship's bridge engine order telegraph, valued between £20,000-£30,000 (€23,000-€34,500), was salvaged from the wreck of the Carpathia, which was sunk off the west coast of Ireland by a German submarine in 1918.
The Gormleys Signature Sale brings together key figures from Irish and international history, as well as items from pop culture history, and runs online until November 14 at gormleysartauctions.com.
The Titanic photographed in Cobh Harbour, County Cork.
“This auction features a treasure trove for Titanic collectors. Also included are messages from survivors transmitted from the Carpathia on 17th April 1912, reading ‘All safe, Lucile’ and ‘Saved cable me New York, Charlie’,” said antique expert Niall Mullen, a consultant to the auction.
“The signals, valued between £2,000-4,000 (€2,300-4,600) are hand-written on Marconi headed paper stamped Carpathia and are secured to an album page.
“There is also a 14-carat gold wedding band worn by Titanic passenger Selma Asplund during her rescue, until her death in 1965.”
The auction also features an extremely rare report on the findings of the British investigation into the sinking of the Titanic.
A report on the Titanic tragedy.
The inquiry heard from over 100 witnesses over 42 days May 2 to July 3, 1912, and the report, valued between £600-1,000 (€700-1,200) was published on 30th July, 1912.
A record of passengers and crew on board the Lusitania when it was sunk off Cork in 1915 is also listed, which appears to have been in use in the Office of the Cunard Company in Liverpool in the wake of the sinking.
Also included is an Elgin pocket watch which was recovered from the wreckage of the Titanic’s sister ship in 1982.
In the same year, it was announced that the amount of ammunition on board the Lusitania’s wreck posed a danger to salvage teams.
The auction also features a collection of unique John F Kennedy memorabilia including a Louis XVI-style bronze twin-light bouillotte lamp, which was in situ at the White House during his Presidential term and is guided at £15,000-20,000 (€17,000-23,000).
The JFK collection up for auction.
Also up for sale is a copy of Life magazine’s Inaugural Spectacular signed by JFK, a Jefferson Golden Hour electric clock used by the late President prior to his tenure in The White House, and two letters and photographs sent by Jackie Kennedy (then Onassis) to Democratic politician Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
Among the other iconic items in the sale is a bronze sculpture by Irish artist F.E. McWilliam, which survived the 9/11 terror attacks on New York.
Anthropomorphic Bean was presented by a leading industrialist H. Dieter Holterbosch to the historically ill-fated investment bank, Lehman Brothers, which went under in 2008.
It was displayed in the World Financial Centre, New York, and survived the collapse of the Twin Towers on 9/11.
Viewings for these items will take place at Gormleys Belfast from November 9-11, with the timed online auction closing on November 14.
See gormleysartauctions.com for details.
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