What amounts are spread at auctions for things found on the "Titanic"

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

News of the wreck of the British transatlantic steamer Titanic in 1912 spread all over the world. The resonance around this liner continues to this day. Thousands of newspaper headlines, a sensational film of the same name, the creation of a twin of the liner. And things found at the bottom of the ocean are in great demand and are put up at auctions for tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars.

A brief history and interesting facts of the "Titanic"

The Titanic is a British transatlantic steamer, the second of three ships in the Olympic series. At the time of construction, she was the largest ship in the world, reaching a length of 268 meters. The construction of this liner cost $ 7.5 million. In theory, the Titanic was unsinkable and the owners decided they could save money on boats. Therefore, only boats were found for half of the passengers, since there were only 20 of them, which could accommodate about 1200 people. And on that ill-fated board there were more than 2,000 people. Unfortunately, only 711 people were saved, since due to general panic, most of the boats were sent not completely filled.

Passengers of the ill-fated Titanic

Three classes of passengers traveled on the liner. In the first class of the Titanic, millionaires, famous personalities, public figures, actors and many other representatives of high society went sailing. The second class mainly consisted of the middle strata of society. These were mainly engineers, journalists, doctors. In the third grade, there were mostly poor immigrants, small employees, waiters, nurses, schoolchildren, and even the unemployed.

First and last flight

The Titanic crashed on its maiden voyage. This happened on the 4th day of the cruise in 1912 on the night of April 14-15. Something went wrong with this ship from the very beginning. While sailing, the Titanic nearly caught the smaller New York liner with its propellers. He also played a cruel joke on the fact that before sailing, a man who had the keys to the binoculars cabinet was excluded from the crew, and he did not have time to transfer them on board, which is why the crew was left without long-range vision devices. In addition, after warning of icebergs from passing steamers, the captain did not inform the crew and continued on his previously charted course.

And although he tried to avoid the glaciers and ordered them to sail south of the built route, this did not save them. The fact is that the Labrador Current also changed its route, taking with it a couple of hundred icebergs to the south. And in the end, almost at midnight, an iceberg was seen along the course, but due to its large dimensions, the liner could not make the maneuver. And already at 2.20 "Titanic", having split in half, goes under the ocean waters.

However, there is another version of this terrible tragedy. Vaginak Byurat - a survivor of the Titanic wreck, like many others who were there, claims that the iceberg is not so much to blame as the fire on board. Since the light was not turned off, it caused short circuits and explosions. That is, if it were not for the explosions, then most likely the ship could still be afloat for a long time and many more people could be saved, and perhaps even all. But, unfortunately, history cannot be rewritten.

Is it possible to raise the "Titanic" from the bottom of the ocean

For the first time, they tried to lift the Titanic literally a couple of days after the tragedy, as it was necessary to find the bodies of the dead, give them to loved ones and bury them. There were no problems with financing such an operation, since there were many wealthy and influential people on board the sunken ship and their relatives were ready to pay any money. But this did not help, as experts could not determine the exact coordinates of the sunken "Titanic". This was due to the fact that the liner, when diving to great depths, noticeably shifted from the indicated place.

It was only in 1985 that the sunken liner was discovered by the American explorer Robert Ballard, using deep-sea bathyscaphes. Moreover, he started looking for a ship back in 1977. The wreckage of the Titanic was scattered along the bottom over an area of 5 × 8 kilometers at a depth of 3800 meters. But it was not possible to lift the liner, and it will not be possible, since its hull is in such a state that it will collapse when it rises to the surface of the water. So the Titanic will remain at the bottom forever. Although, according to experts' forecasts, in 20 years almost nothing will remain of it, very quickly rust covers the sunken liner.

The cost of items from the sunken "Titanic"

Researchers managed to lift more than 5,500 objects from the liner, with a total value of more than a hundred million dollars. Among them are jewelry, dishes, watches and other things that were on board. It is worth noting that the excitement at auctions has not subsided to this day. Since many passengers of the Titanic were very wealthy people, the finds themselves were not cheap, and since they were also raised from the bottom of the ocean, and even from the famous Titanic, their prices are skyrocketing.

As you can see, organizing underwater expeditions to the Titanic is a very profitable business. The entrepreneur George Tullock, who invested $ 20 million in this, recouped his expenses quickly enough and made huge profits. Considering that he managed to make money even on the coal lifted from the liner. It was packed in small boxes and sold for $ 25. And he was able to earn much more on the things of passengers and equipment. For example, a life jacket went under the hammer for 55 thousand dollars. And the watch of the stewart, which stopped at 2:16, was sold for 154 thousand dollars at the moment the Titanic was submerged. In 2006, at an auction for 72 and 60 thousand dollars, two bronze plaques with the words "S. S. Tititanic" and "Liverpool" were taken away. But the most expensive lot associated with the "Titanic" is the drawings of the liner, which were bought for 220 thousand euros.

According to survivors of that terrible disaster, the musicians of the liner tried to raise the morale of the crew and passengers of the Titanic and played until the last minute. One of the violins of this orchestra was taken at auction for 900 thousand pounds. The history of this violin is very romantic and tragic. The bride gave it to her fiancé 2 years before the disaster, and the musician, dying, tied this gift dear to him to himself.

Of course, not all items at auctions are in demand. For example, in 2009, several items of Millwin Dean were put up for sale - the last surviving passenger on the Titanic. At the time of the disaster, she was only 2 months old, and at the time of the auction she was already 97 years old. Due to the fact that she had nothing to pay for living in a nursing home, she decided to put up for auction the things that were with her on the ship. But they sold only one thing - a canvas bag, in which the baby was wrapped, loaded onto a boat. The amount for it was 1.5 thousand pounds. The buyer not only gave the money, but also nobly returned this bag to the hostess as a gift.

Also, it was not without theft. In 2001, at the exhibition, where items from the Titanic were presented, 9 bills and 10 coins were stolen.