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Titanic, Titanic Miscellaneous

Turkish Man Claims To Have Titanic Bell

A commonly found reproduction of Titanic crows nest bell sold to museum and exhibition visitors.
A commonly found reproduction of Titanic crows nest bell sold to museum and exhibition visitors.

A news report from Turkey says a 76 year old businessman claims to have a bell removed from Titanic. It is also claimed that he has windows from Hitler’s ship. One is more likely than the other. Hitler did have a wartime yacht, Aviso Grille,that was planned to transport Hitler and other dignitaries to England to accept their surrender. Of course there was no invasion of England (except for taking the Channel Islands)so it never got used for that purpose. The ship was used to receive many high ranking Nazi’s and honored visitors but did not go out to sea much other than in the early days of the war before being converted to Hitler’s use. After the war King Farouk of Egypt desired to buy the ship but enroute it stopped for repair. Limpet mines placed by his enemies dissuaded him from purchase. It was sold for scrap in 1951 and in a sense of historic irony, its metal went to the U.S. military for use. As for windows, it is possible they were sold and ended up in Turkey.

As for the Titanic bell, one assumes it is the crows nest bell being referenced. That was recovered in the first salvage expedition in 1987 and is part of the Titanic collection (now owned by Premier Exhibitions). If there were other bells brought up, they would be there as well. So the claim is false. Most likely he either has a reproduction or possibly a bell from Olympic or Britannic.

Sources:
1. Turkish Businessman Displays Titanic’s Bell At His Office(5 Sep 2014,CIHAN)
This news story appears to be from a televised story.
2. AVISO GRILLE (Strangevehicls.greyfalcon.us)
This site deals with the lesser known and odd vehicles of Nazi Germany. Revel Barker’s essay on this ship goes into detail about its military use before it was used as royal yacht for Hitler. While visitors were welcomed, it also did perform some wartime duties but most of the time was used as operational headquarters for Grand Admiral Erich Räder of the Kriegsmarine (official name of the Nazi German Navy from 1935-1945, now called Deutsche Marine).
3.German aviso Grille (Wikipedia)
This Wikipedia entry gives general information about the ship and its use as a command ship. It has no mention of its use by Hitler.