Let me sum up

I’m not a blogger – but I love Titanic – and this is the easiest way to put up pictures of my Titanic collection as well as pictures of pieces that I really enjoy.  Let the Titanic obsession continue.

Tell me which one you like the best.

Wine Bottles

I’ve been to many Titanic exhibits and was just impressed by these wine bottles that were brought up from wrecksite.  It’s amazing that these bottles went through hell and survived, in some cases even with the wine still inside.

image found here

Titanic Wreckwood

Here is an enlarged photo of extraordinarily rare pieces of wreckwood that was part of the wood fitted within Titanic’s first class cabins of either C-79 or C-81. A prisoner to the sea for decades, these phenomenal artifacts shows the wear and tear of being subjected to the elements from which it came, with deep scars and a weathered texture.

Olympic Tile

I’d like to thank my beautiful wife who gave this to me for my birthday, so technically I don’t “get” this for another two months.

This type of tile was found throughout the ship anywhere where high traffic was expected. Green wasn’t the only color used, there are also brown, crimson and blue tiles.

You can’t buy tile like this from the Titanic, so this one comes from her sister ship, the Olympic. You can also see the damage to this tile from the renovations the Olympic went through when carpet was added to these high traffic areas. But it’s still beautiful to me and you can smell what the Olympic would have smelled like, which I love.

The One That Started it All

It was this model that got me started with everything.  Helped me to realize I can start my own collection.

A picture of it all lit up. This is still one of my favorite pieces.

I got it from this guy. You should check it out.

Titanic Coal

For many Titanic collectors they frown on something like this because it doesn’t cost $10,000, so is just not their “thing”. But as for me I love it, especially the rust.

This coal was brought up from the ship wreck in 1994. They brought up large pieces of the coal and cut it into small pieces as a more inexpensive souvenir from the Titanic.  I love the rust on here because this piece was from the outside of the large chunk and years of sitting at the bottom of the ocean left it’s mark on this piece.

Titanic Tools

The latest addition to my Titanic collection are tools that were used to build the beautiful ship. I got them from a good friend of mine, Steve Santini.  Thanks to Steve for the chance to get such amazing items.

The story of the tools is this:

The man who worked on the Titanic was Thomas McCauley.  He worked in the Harland and Wollf shipyard as a woodworker and cabinet maker. His grandson Ernest Mcgookin inherited these tools from his grandfather. Ernie sold these tools to Steve Santini 12 or so years ago.  And now I’ve purchased them from Steve.

Green Fabric

I got home from work and found this beautiful piece in my mail.  My good friend Kevin was very generous and sent this piece.  Words can not express my excitement and gratitude  It’s better than Christmas!

The story of this piece is purported to come from one of the workers on the Titanic.  Knowing that working on such a famous ship was a pretty important event this worker took a large piece of fabric from the ship before she set sail.  This fabric was most likely used on the Smoking Room tables.  The worker later gave this fabric to his sister who used it for curtains for years and eventually my friend Kevin ended up with it.

Check out Kevin’s site for other impressive pieces from the Titanic: titanicitems.com.

Wood Slice

My newest and one of my current favorite pieces is this wood slice, from her deck.  This was given to me from a good friend.  I was speechless and still am when he gave it to me.  I’m going to reunite it with it’s mother piece (a larger piece of the deck I’m hoping to get).

Thanks Kevin!  You’re freakin’ awesome!

You should check out his stuff – it’s incredible!

Smoking Room Tile

When they were building the Titanic the ordered a surplus of tiles to use in her smoking room.  The extra tiles were later used in some of the executive offices at Harland and Wolff (the company that built her).

There is a beautiful stoy in getting this tile.  When I found this tile I found a two sites that were selling them, one was an auction and one a buy it now price.  Thinking I might get a better deal I started with the auction.  Well there was one other buyer who would not let it go. And the bidding war began.  He won the auction, and let’s just say he paid almost twice as much as I did. YES!

Also, if anyone is interested I do have an extra tile that I am looking to sell.  If interested leave a comment.

Original Newspaper – Front Sheet

The San Fransisco Call published April 16th, 1912

1300 Perish in the Wreck of the Titanic

The reverse side includes pictures of famous people who were aboard the ship – it was not known at the time which of them survived and which ones perished.

Survivor’s Telegraph

When the Carpathia picked up the survivors most of them tried to send telegraphs to loved ones.  There were so many requests that many were not transmitted like this one.

This survivor is Mrs. Ella White.  She traveled first class on the Titanic (cabin C-32).  She traveled with a manservant and a maid and shared a room with a Miss Marie Young.  She, Marie and her maid were rescued by the Carpathia.

Pre-sinking Postcard

This postcard advertised the Olympic (sister ship to the Titanic) and the Titanic for White Star Line prior to the sinking of Titanic.  It says:  “The Largest and Finest Steamers in the world” “882 Feet Long, 45,000 Tons Registeres 921 Feet Broad”Actually the Titanic was larger than the Olympic in tons.  She and the Olympic were very similar, but the Titanic was still more luxurious.

My Hero

While this isn’t a relic from the ship, to me this is still an important part to my collection.  My hero is Ken Marschall for bringing Titanic to life for me. His painting of her are gorgeous. This one is my favorite.  It’s called Titanic at 1:20am.

Ken Marschall drew this sketch of her on my print. Can you believe that probably only took him five minutes?

Ken Marschall signed my print!

Gifts from Friends

My sister-in-law painted this for me for Christmas.

On my mission one of the members drew this picture for me.

Smoking Titanic Model

I love the smoke. I had a guy I know doctor up the model so that it smokes.  Best thing I’ve done.

This model, “Little T”, is more like the real ship, “Big T” than you would think.  She sank on 4/15 like the Big T. I had to go into water straight from the snow caps to rescue it. Little T was trying to model after the Big T as much as she could.

There’s even some of the wreckage floating away. . .

Olympic-sized Wood . . .

. . . from the Olympic herself.  This bad boy is 42″ long!! While it’s not the Titanic, it’s the next best thing. This wood is from the Olympic’s Grand Staircase, which was identical to the Titanic.As the Olympic was remodeled over the years her wood was painted the sage green.  Later on the paint was stiped off from this piece, but you can still see you can seek residue of the paint in the nooks and crannies.