Tag Archives: Archibald Gracie

Titanic Artifact Conservation; Titanic Survivor Letter Written Before Sinking Fetches Record Amount at Auction; Titanic Digital Recreation

Rachel Garbus, “Inside the Atlanta Warehouse That Helms Many of the Titanic’s Artifacts – Atlanta Magazine,” Atlanta Magazine, last modified April 28, 2025, https://www.atlantamagazine.com/news-culture-articles/inside-the-atlanta-warehouse-that-helms-many-of-the-titanics-artifacts/.

Rare Cherub statue makes its Las Vegas debut at Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition inside Luxor Hotel and Casino (PRNewsFoto/Premier Exhibitions, Inc.)

At first glance, the fluorescent lighting and the long metal shelves look like the interior of any storage warehouse. The white porcelain dinner plates, stacked in neat rows, could be from any restaurant—until one sees the logo stamped in red ink on their faces: White Star Line. The company has conducted nine recovery expeditions in the past 30 years, gathering more than 5,500 artifacts. Many are in astonishingly good condition. A champagne bottle, cork intact, still retains the original alcohol. “Glass did really well underwater,” Ray explains. “It’s extremely dense, so as long as it didn’t have a void in it, the pressure couldn’t crush it.” Even well-preserved objects are at risk of deterioration, however. “Once we recover things from underwater, they’re more susceptible to corrosion,” Ray explains. Her team works closely with conservationists specializing in materials like leather and paper to protect the collection into the future.

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Richard Whiddington, “‘Letter Written Aboard the Titanic Sells for Record-Setting $400,000.,’” ArtNet, last modified April 28, 2025, accessed April 29, 2025, https://news.artnet.com/art-world/titanic-letter-archibald-gracie-breaks-auction-record-2637223.

Colonel Archibald Gracie, survivor of Titanic’s sinking
Picture is from his book on Titanic sinking. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

On the day that Archibald Gracie boarded the Titanic in Southampton, England, he wrote a letter to an acquaintance in London offering his first impressions of the ship. Gracie, a former American soldier and amateur historian, was not completely convinced. This letter, dated April 10, 1912, has sold for £300,000 ($399,000) at Henry Aldridge and Son, an auction house specializing in Titanic memorabilia. It smashed its pre-sale estimate of £60,000 ($80,600) and has set a record for a letter written aboard the Titanic.

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Darcie Zudell, “Titanic Still Has Secrets, and a New Doc Has Bigger Answers Than You Might Expect | Den of Geek,” Den of Geek, last modified April 23, 2025, https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/titanic-still-has-secrets-and-a-new-doc-has-bigger-answers-than-you-might-expect/.

After 113 years, Titanic is still a source of innovation. Dives to the wreck have provided glimpses into its tragic story, but now technology unveils the full picture with Titanic: The Digital Resurrection, a groundbreaking special from award-winning Atlantic Productions and National Geographic, which shows how we can preserve the past and protect the future. Using exclusive access to cutting-edge underwater scanning, the special, now streaming on Disney+ and Hulu, reveals the most accurate digital twin of the Titanic ever created– built from over two years of research, 715,000 images and 16 terabytes of data painstakingly pieced together. Parks Stephenson, a featured Titanic analyst, hopes audiences will go in not only hoping to learn more about that fateful night in 1912, but also observe how we can engage with history going forward, using it as an avenue for education.

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Suggested Titanic Reading

Behe, G. (2012). On board RMS Titanic: Memories of the Maiden Voyage. The History Press.

Lord, Walter, A NIGHT TO REMEMBER, Holt Rinehart and Winston, New York, New York, 1955. Multiple revisions and reprints, notably Illustrated editions (1976,1977,1978 etc.)

Lord, Walter, THE NIGHT LIVES ON, Willian Morrow and Company, New York, New York, 1986 (First Edition)

Rossignol, K. (2012). Titanic 1912: The Original News Reporting of the Sinking of the Titanic. Createspace Independent Publishing Platform.

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Titanic news to Start the new year

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year celebration. To get the year off, here is some Titanic news for your consideration.

Shutterstock

The Titanic’s Forgotten Sister (Forbes, 1 Jan 2019)
Olympic’s story illustrates an important lesson that technologies generally evolve gradually and not in sudden spurts. As Henry Petroski reminds us, engineers learn from failure and innovate to avoid making mistakes in the future. From the sinking of the Titanic, naval architects learned how to properly design watertight compartments, company managers realized the business value in having fancier staterooms and of course, everyone saw the necessity of having more lifeboats, safety drills and radio communications. Olympic, in large measure, was only able to have a long and successful career because her owners and captains had learned from the loss of her younger sister.
Source:https://www.forbes.com/sites/berniecarlson/2019/01/01/the-titanics-forgotten-sister/#3e3bad942706

Book Your Place For The Last Chance To See The Titanic Shipwreck (Forbes, 31 Dec 2018)
And now, more than a century after her sinking, the Titanic is about to welcome new guests courtesy of OceanGate’s Titanic Survey Expedition, conducting six missions to the wreck between June and August 2019 in its appropriately named Titan submersible. And while such expeditions are usually reserved for experts and researchers, OceanGate has opened up its invitation to regular citizen explorers like you and me.
Source:https://www.forbes.com/sites/duncanmadden/2018/12/31/book-your-place-for-the-last-chance-to-see-the-titanic-shipwreck/#20eaee4537ca

‘Night to Remember’ featured Titanic survivor from Alabama (AdvanceLocal-Alabama,21 Dec 2018)
As the ship slipped under, Gracie jumped into the frigid water, eventually managing to cling to an overturned collapsible lifeboat until he was rescued and taken aboard the Carpathia. He was traumatized and injured, however; his body covered with cuts and bruised. He never fully recovered from the ordeal and died in Dec. 4, 1912. Before he died, he completed a rough manuscript of a book of his experiences called “The Truth about the Titanic.” It was published in 1913.Gracie IV is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in New York. His headstone is etched with the words “Hero of the S.S. Titanic.”
Source:https://www.al.com/alabama/2018/12/night-to-remember-featured-titanic-survivor-from-alabama.html

https://youtu.be/iJ-ZU1QBkHY