Galveston daily news february 19127/8/2023 ![]() ![]() In 2014, that letter was also sold at auction. The letter was in the coat that Esther wore when she was rescued. Second-class passenger Esther Hart wrote about her trip on Titanic stationery, along with a PS from her 7-year-old daughter Eva. Advocate (Baton Rouge, Louisiana), 23 October 2017, page 2 The letter was sent to his family and was auctioned off in 2017 for $166,000. One letter, written by first-class passenger Alexander Oskar Holverson to his mother, was found in his pocket notebook when his body was recovered. Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), 17 April 1912, page 13ĭid all the mail sink on that fateful night? While most of the mail was lost, there are a few known letters carried by passengers that survived. While we may never know the full extent of what mail was destroyed in the sinking, historical newspapers estimated that 7 to 10 million letters and packages were lost in the disaster. (3) Oregonian (Portland, Oregon), 21 April 1912, page 1 Unfortunately, neither the mail nor the mail clerks survived the sinking. They took their duty to “protect the mail at any cost” seriously and went to work, hauling mail bags to the top deck in an effort to save what they could. When the ship struck the iceberg, the clerks hurried to the mail room to find that there was water on the floor. the mail clerks were celebrating fellow clerk Oscar Scott Woody’s 45 th birthday in their private dining room. The night of the sinking (the Titanic struck an iceberg shortly before midnight on 14 April 1912). Tucson Citizen (Tucson, Arizona), 17 April 1912, page 1 These mail clerks consisted of three Americans (William Logan Gwinn, John Starr March, and Oscar Scott Woody), and two Englishmen (John James Bertram Williamson and Richard Jago Smith). The Titanic carried five mail clerks tasked with the care and sorting of approximately 3,364 bags of mail. Regarded as the best of the best, these men typically sorted more than 60,000 letters a day, making few errors.” (2) Most were selected from the ranks of the Railway Mail Service or the Foreign Mail Section. “Sea post clerks were highly skilled and respected postal workers who sorted, canceled and redistributed the mail in transit. In 1877 White Star ships (the company that owned the Titanic) began using “RMS” to designate their status.(1)Īccording to the National Postal Museum’s blog post on the Titanic mail clerks: National Archives’ blog explains that the era of mail-carrying ships started in 1839, and by 1859 post offices were added to steamships. The Titanic had both a mail room and a post office where five employees worked. Credit: National Maritime Museum Wikimedia Commons. Illustration: the sinking of the Titanic. Mail was collected at all ports of call as well as from ship passengers. As part of that duty the ship carried mail clerks who prepared the mail for sorting and delivery at ports. RMS is the abbreviation for “Royal Mail Steamer,” or later, “Royal Mail Ship.” RMS ships were tasked with transporting mail. That acronym “RMS” is important when we consider the duties entrusted to the Titanic and other RMS ships. That’s how the infamous ship is referred to, but the official name is the RMS Titanic. Gena is a genealogist and author of the book “From the Family Kitchen.” You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use.Introduction: In this article, Gena Philibert-Ortega describes an aspect of the passenger liner “Titanic” that most people don’t know: it was also a mail ship. Physical Description Lithographs Offset lithographs Type of Resource Still image Text Still image Languages English Identifiers NYPL catalog ID (B-number): b15262620 Universal Unique Identifier (UUID): 80d9a510-c52f-012f-9d6b-58d385a7bc34 Rights Statement The copyright and related rights status of this item has been reviewed by The New York Public Library, but we were unable to make a conclusive determination as to the copyright status of the item. Names Allen & Ginter (Publisher) CollectionĪmerican editors : First series (Allen & Ginter) Dates / Origin Place: U.S.A Library locations George Arents Collection Shelf locator: Arents Cigarette Cards Topics Allen & Ginter Editors Genres Cigarette cards Trade cards Advertising cards Advertisements Cards Prints Notes Citation/reference: Cartophilic reference books: A36-1 Content: Allen & Ginter. ![]()
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