Tag: Titanic Exhibit Winnipeg

Titanic: The Auction – How many items?

On By Sandi Krawchenko AltnerIn Halifax Titanic, Titanic, Titanic Auction, Titanic Salvage, Uncategorized13 Comments

The Titanic treasure trove is going up for auction.  Many critics will sum up the announcement by saying, “greed wins out in the end”.  After 18 years of court battles, the artifacts that have been recovered from the wreck of the Titanic will be sold just before the 100th anniversary of the sinking.  Guernsey’s of New York will conduct the auction, and makes the following announcement on their website:

“On April 11, 2012, precisely one hundred years to the day of Titanic’s maiden voyage, there will be an unprecedented auction of artifacts recovered from the wreck site of the legendary ocean liner, and related intellectual property and intangibles. Guernsey’s will be offering all of the assets and rights of RMS Titanic, Inc., a division of Premier Exhibitions, Inc. (NASDAQ: PRXI), which for 18 years has served as steward and salvor-in-possession of Titanic and its wreck site.”

The assets, according to Guernseys, “include the complete collection of more than 5,000 artifacts, as well as other extraordinary intangible assets, in the first and only sale of objects that have been recovered from the wreck site of Titanic two and a half miles below the ocean’s surface.”

The Big Piece - now on display in Las Vegas

The question of the precise number of artifacts in the “complete collection” will undoubtedly raise the ire of Titanic followers and purists.  The reported number of artifacts removed by the salvor are no longer available on the Premier Exhibitions website. However, a year ago, the website’s FAQ section was much longer and offered the following:

No. 53            How many expeditions has RMS Titanic, Inc. conducted?

RMS Titanic, Inc. has conducted seven research and recovery expeditions to the Titanic’s wreck site in 1987, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000 and 2004.

No. 54            How many artifacts has RMS Titanic, Inc. recovered?

To date, RMS Titanic, Inc. has recovered over 5,500 objects from the wreck site, ranging from delicate porcelain dishes to a 17-ton section of the hull.

The documentary Titanic Revealed, produced in 2004 states there were more than 6,000 artifacts recovered.  It also explores a number of the arguments at play in the raging debate over whether recovering artifacts from Titanic was grave-robbing or an effort to preserve history.

The rules governing the auction of Titanic salvage say all of the artifacts must be sold in one lot, so any dreams fanatics might have of successfully bidding on a Titanic teacup to display in the family china cabinet are impossible. There is also a series of court ordered covenants and conditions that are intended to ensure that the public will continue to have access to seeing the collection, or at least part of it. One would hope that there will also be strict oversight of how the winning bidder is protecting the pieces and making them available to the public. The temptation to slip a few of those items into the black market might well be exceptionally high.

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You may have been among the 22 million people who have seen some of the auction items  in the traveling Titanic exhibit that brings a couple of hundred items from spoons to plates and buttons to a town near you.

For a fee of about $20.00 you are given a “ticket” with a passenger or crew name so that at the end of the tour you can learn whether that person survived.  Six such tours are simultaneously offered in different cities at any given time and both Edmonton and Regina have shows at this writing. The tours are for profit, and done on the cheap, with little more than the bare minimum to satisfy the searching gaze of true Titanic enthusiasts, but they provide, at least, a chance to see something of what remains from Titanic.

The future of those tours, as popular as they are, is now unclear.  One can only anticipate that a fresh round of court appearances will ultimately define what is to become of the Titanic treasures and the access the public will have to appreciate them.

Ravenscraig Review: “Ravenscraig” provides fascinating insight into early Jewish migration to Winnipeg

On By Sandi Krawchenko AltnerIn Books, Canadian Writers, Family history, Ravenscraig Reviews, Ravenscraig the novel, Winnipeg, WritingLeave a comment
Bob Altner, Sandi Altner, Mary Krawchenko, Lisa Lester, Sandra Altner

With four weeks on the bestseller list in Winnipeg, Ravenscraig, is finding an audience among both family history enthusiasts as well as people who have a fascination with the Titanic and Winnipeg’s connection to the great disaster. I am grateful and so pleased that there is such a strong interest in stories about how the early immigrants managed in a city that was the fastest growing in the Dominion of Canada.

This week, Bernie Bellan posted his review of Ravenscraig in the Winnipeg Jewish Post and News saying it provides “a fascinating insight into early Jewish migration into Winnipeg.”

Where “Ravenscraig” excels, however, and no doubt why it has become an immediate best-seller locally, is in its description of Winnipeg at the turn of the 20th century and certain key events that are probably unknown to most readers.
For instance, a major typhoid outbreak in 1905 becomes a centerpiece of the novel. In her description of the horrible living conditions of the bulk of the immigrant population in Winnipeg, Krawchenko Altner does a fine job of evoking the misery that accompanied life for so many of our grandparents and great-grandparents.

At the same time the level of corruption in which Winnipeg’s Anglo Saxon leaders engaged is also quite astounding and is brought to life on the pages of this book. “Ravenscraig’ devotes a fair bit of space to the issue of red-light houses in the city and how it was that police and elected officials not only turned a blind eye to the prostitution that was conducted so openly, those same officials profited hugely from its practice.

Bernie Bellan is the editor of the Winnipeg Jewish Post and News, and has a particular affection for Jewish history in Winnipeg. When we talked last week I was delighted to discuss not only Ravenscraig, but also the work of his grandfather, Ruben Bellan, an economics professor who wrote a very informative history book that is in my collection of Manitoba rare books. Winnipeg’s First Century: An Economic History provides a solid road map of sources for those who are interested in further study of Winnipeg’s development.

Allan Levine, Sandi Altner

In his review, Bernie also mentions Allan Levine’s, Coming of Age: A History of the Jewish People of Manitoba. This is a fantastic work that is rich with detail and inspiring stories.  Allan has also written a most enjoyable series of historical novels set in Winnipeg that I heartily recommend. These are the Sam Klein mysteries.  Allan and I went to high school together at Garden City Collegiate and it was wonderful to see him at the Ravenscraig launch in Winnipeg. Allan’s latest book King, has also just been released.

Titanic Salvage in a Wristwatch?

On By Sandi Krawchenko AltnerIn History, Titanic, Titanic SalvageLeave a comment

Have you ever imagined what it might be like to place your hand directly on an item salvaged from the Titanic?

The proponents of salvaging the Titanic argue loudly for the historic value in bringing the artifacts to the surface so that all might share in the wonder of the world’s most famous shipwreck since Noah’s Ark.  Indeed, there are at least half a dozen touring exhibits of Titanic in the world at this very moment, in addition to a number of permanent exhibits in places like Halifax, Orlando and Las Vegas.

But what if you could actually own a piece of Titanic?

What if you could carry a tiny piece of the wreck of the Titanic on your wrist? Imagine.

Somewhere along the way, the people who have the sole salvage rights of the Titanic have gone into the watch business, or they’ve sold a chunk of salvage to allow a company in Switzerland to sell watches that are called “Titanic-DNA”.  Interesting.  I will post more on this story in the days to come.  But for now, take a look at this marketing video.  What would you pay for a watch that was made of material recovered from Titanic?  Would you think it worth $375,000?

Billed as one of the five most expensive watches in the world, the marketing campaign leaves one to wonder just what parts of the Titanic were used in the manufacture of these watches, and further, to ponder just how designer Romain Jerome acquired the material to create these treasures.

Titanic’s “Unknown Child”

On By Sandi Krawchenko AltnerIn Family history, Halifax Titanic, History, Titanic1 Comment

A small pair of brown shoes that were hidden away in a police sergeant’s desk in 1912 have provided the deciding clue to the identity of Titanic’s “Unknown Child”.

Scientists and Titanic students have been searching for irrefutable DNA evidence to positively identify the Titanic victim remembered as the unknown child. But, when it comes to examining samples from 90 year old graves, science is not as precise as we wish it could be.

The aftermath of the Titanic disaster involved a grueling recovery operation to bring the bodies back to shore.

Halifax was chosen as a convenient location for the salvage operation as it was the closest port that had a railway connection. Some of the bodies were laid to rest at sea while 209 others, many of them unidentified passengers from third class, were brought to Halifax.

150 of the dead were buried in three cemeteries in Halifax. Over 40 of them remain unidentified.

Many of the recovered bodies showed evidence of being battered in the violent break up of the great ship, but the tiny lifeless body of a young boy’s otherwise perfect body had been found bobbing in the ocean among the wreckage. The crew of the recovery vessel, The MacKay-Bennett were so moved by the sight that they took up a collection to pay for the child’s funeral and tombstone at Fairview Cemetery.  Officially, the child was known as body #4.

The marker at his grave has come to represent the lives of all 50 children who died in the sinking on April 15, 1912.

On it is written: Erected to the memory of an unknown child whose remains were recovered after the disaster of the Titanic April 15, 1912.

A decade ago, two Canadian men, Dr. Ryan Parr of Lakehead University in Ontario, and historian Alan Ruffman of Halifax, joined forces to solve the mystery. They were granted permission to exhume the grave of the Unknown Child in May, 2001. The samples Dr. Parr had to work with for DNA testing included a small piece of bone and a few teeth. While Dr. Parr worked in his laboratory, Alan Ruffman set out on a very ambitious journey to find descendants of five boys the two believed could be the Unknown Child. The five boys were:

  • Gilbert Danbom (age five months, born in Sweden)
  • Alfred Peacock (age seven months, from England)
  • Eino Viljam Panula (age thirteen months, from Finland)
  • Sidney Goodwin (age 19 months, from England)
  • Eugene Rice (age 2 years, from Ireland)

Ruffman worked doggedly in his quest to track down the descendants he needed to find. Dozens of people from historians and genealogists to family members joined him in his effort and he was able to make the contacts needed to gain the DNA samples to be tested.

Three of the five boys were immediately identified as non-matches. But, the remaining two both came up as possible matches. They were Eino Panula and Sidney Goodwin.

However, in examining the evidence beyond the DNA, it was decided the Goodwin boy was too young to have the shape and condition of the teeth that were recovered from the grave.

In November of 2002, Alan Ruffman and Dr. Ryan Parr announced that the remains of the unknown child were most likely that of the boy from Finland named Eino Panula.

This week emerged news that Dr. Ryan Parr believes they had made a mistake and that the young victim is actually Sidney Goodwin of England. Dr. Parr is now Vice-President of Research and Development of Genesis Genomics in Ontario. He and his colleagues have written an article for the June issue of the journal, Forensic Science International: Genetics, in which they state: “the remains of the young boy are most likely those of an English child, Sidney Leslie Goodwin”.

The deciding factor was the existence of the shoes, which were donated to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax in 2002 and are now on public display.

They had been in the family of Clarence Northover for 90 years.  The following is recorded on the website of the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic:

Clarence Northover, a Halifax Police Department Sergeant in 1912, helped guard the bodies and belongings of the Titanic victims.
“Clothing was burned to stop souvenir hunters but he was too emotional when he saw the little pair of brown, leather shoes about fourteen centimeters long, and didn’t have the heart to burn them. When no relatives came to claim the shoes, he placed them in his desk drawer at the police station and there they remained for the next six years, until he retired in 1918.”
Excerpt from July 26, 2002 letter by Earle Northover, grandson of Clarence Northover.

Ultimately, the little shoes were to provide the final clue needed to determine the identity of the boy.   On examining the shoes almost one hundred years after the disaster, it was determined that the shoes were too big for a child that was only 13 months old.  Sidney Goodwin, 6 months older than Eino Paluna, had to be the boy who wore the shoes.

Titanic Strikes the Iceberg, April 14, 1912

On By Sandi Krawchenko AltnerIn Titanic, Titanic SurvivorsLeave a comment

It was 99 years ago that the Titanic was racing across the North Atlantic to break speed records for crossing from Britain to New York.  Titanic’s maiden voyage ended in disaster with more than 1,500 people on board perishing in the shipwreck of the world’s grandest steamship.  Only 705 made it to the lifeboats and safety on the rescue ship, the Carpathia.  It was on April 14th, just before midnight that the Titanic smashed into an iceberg.

The disaster is remembered in this British documentary that features survivor Edith Louis Rosenbaum who was better known as Edith Russell.  She carried a toy pig that she later credited as playing a major role in her getting into a life boat.

To learn more about Edith Rosenbaum, please see the Encyclopedia Titanica website.

Titanic: Interview with Eva Hart on the 75th Anniversary of the Sinking

On By Sandi Krawchenko AltnerIn History, Titanic, Titanic Survivors, Uncategorized3 Comments

“Over to You”, was the name of this program that must have been on cable television.  The segment was called “Titanic:  a Survivor’s Tale.”

A  school teacher in England, whose name was not recorded, conducts an interview with Eva Hart on the 75th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic in 1987. His skills are limited and she is annoyed by his handling of questions, but the information is riveting for Titanic enthusiasts.

Eva Hart was a seven-year-old child when she was traveling on the Titanic with her parents, Benjamin and Esther Hart.  They were a Jewish family from Ilford, England, and were on their way to a future in Winnipeg, Canada.  Her father, Benjamin, had a trusted friend who had returned to Ilford on vacation in 1911.  He was full of stories of his wonderful life in Winnipeg.  In this interview, Eva recalls that her father immediately seized upon the plan to move to Canada.  He sold his business in construction, and set the path for their future in Winnipeg.

They were to have traveled on a different ship,  in the spring of 1912, but the coal strike in England placed them on the Titanic instead.  Her father was delighted, and her mother was petrified by a premonition of danger.  She chose  to sleep in the day time and stay fully clothed and sitting up at night.  Eva tells the story as she remembers it.

Eva’s father stayed with the ship while she and her mother entered lifeboat 14. Eva and her mother were rescued and returned to England, to stay with her mother’s family.  Her father disappeared with Titanic. His body was never recovered.

Throughout her life, Eva remained outspoken on her views that the wreck site was a grave that should never be disturbed.

In this interview, she also recalled her father’s shipboard friendship with Lawrence Beasley, another survivor, who became famous for his book about the disaster.

The interview is presented in three parts.

If anyone has any information on the friend in Winnipeg who persuaded Benjamin Hart to leave Britain, I would be very interested in hearing from you.

Following are the final two segments of the interview with Eva Hart in 1987.

Titanic News in 1912: Winnipeg Stirred by Ocean Tragedy

On By Sandi Krawchenko AltnerIn History, Titanic, Transportation, Uncategorized3 Comments

The shocking news of the Titanic striking an iceberg late at night on Sunday, April 14, 1912, hit the telegraph wires and fed newspaper offices throughout the world. A jumble of facts, speculation, and outright falsehoods moved steadily along the wires.  It was a tragedy of unimaginable proportions.  The world’s largest ship, termed “unsinkable” by the press, was reported to be going down by the head, with nearby ships speeding to the rescue to take the passengers off.

Winnipeg residents learned the shocking news of the Titanic disaster from the local newspapers early on Monday morning, just hours after the great ship struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic on April 14th, 1912.

The Manitoba Free Press, under Editor John Wesley Dafoe, rushed a cautiously worded story out in their Monday morning edition.  By Tuesday, the front page ran screaming headlines. People gathered in droves in front of the newspaper office at Portage and Garry  to read updates on the bulletin boards posted on the building and to grab up fresh editions of papers the minute the newsboys brought them out.

News writers, editors, linotype operators and pressmen worked around the clock to bring the story to a clamorous public.  Titanic was a story like none before.  It captivated people and sparked a relentless demand for fresh information as people demanded names of survivors and details of the sinking.

Residents argued in the street about who was at fault, and gossiped about what they knew of the local people known to be on the ship.  Everyone had a story to repeat or an opinion to express.  It was horrifying and fascinating all at the same time.  There were several Winnipeg passengers on Titanic with names that were widely known.  Hence, a great deal of attention was paid in the newspapers to “prominent people”, as in this excerpt from an article in the Manitoba Free Press on April 17, 1912.

“Mrs. Fortune and her three daughters are among the saved, but the list contains no mention of Mr. Fortune and his son Charles, nor of Hugo Ross, Thompson Beattie, or J.J. Borebank.  The lists show that a Mr. Graham,  Mrs. William Graham, and Miss Margaret Graham, of Winnipeg, were rescued.  These parties do not appear to be known here, and a dispatch received last night states that they are an English famiy, presumably bound for the Canadian Northwest.

It is not yet known definitely whether George E. Graham, purchaser for Eaton’s, was on the Titanic.  If he was, it is possible that he is the Mr. Graham who was saved.  A dispatch sent from Toronto yesterday stated that Mrs. Graham, who is at present in that city had received a Marconigram from her husband on the Titanic, dated Sunday, April 14.  This would appear to establish the fact that he was a passenger by the steamer, and that his fate is problematic.”

Winnipeg was no different in its reaction to the Titanic than any other city.  People gasped and shook their heads and waited eagerly for new details.   Titanic was the only thing anyone was talking about.

The following story appeared in the morning edition of the Manitoba Free Press on Wednesday, April 17, 1912.

Winnipeg Stirred

By Ocean Tragedy

____

Thousands of Telephone Calls

Answered Day and Night by

Free Press Office

___

Inquiries Come by Wire From Scores of Western Points—

One Topic of Conversation.

—

Seldom in the history of the city has the heart of Winnipeg been so stirred as by the news of the wreck of the giant liner Titanic.  Since the first work became public on Monday morning the intense interest of the whole city has been evident, but it was not until the full extent of the disaster was first indicated on Monday night, and it became known that prominent Winnipeg citizens were among those believed to have perished, that the keen interest of citizens in all walks of life was made apparent.  It has been evident in many directions, but probably in none so strikingly as in the great crowds that have surged about the bulletin board in front of the Free Press building at all hours of the day and evening.  From early Tuesday morning until after midnight there was never a time that there was not an eager mass of people keen for the latest news as it trickled slowly through its sources from the wireless instruments of the great liners far out in the Atlantic through telegraph and newspaper offices and the headquarters of the big shipping offices, until if finally found is way to Winnipeg.    Special telegraph services from every available source were pressed into service by the Free Press, and every scrap of news that would give any indication of the actual happening that resulted in the greatest marine disaster in history has been served to Winnipeg.

Prominent Winnipeggers.

Interest in Winnipeg was naturally heightened by the prominence of t the Winnipeg people known to have been aboard the Titanic.  Mark Fortune, Hugo Ross, and Thompson Beattie were among the best known businessmen of the city, all old-timers, and numbered their personal friends by the hundreds and their acquaintances by the thousands.  There were many other names well known in Winnipeg in the published lists of passengers and the demand for  the latest news therefore came from every direction. Thousands of inquires have been answered through the big battery of telephones in the Free Press editorial rooms since Monday morning, and dozens of these have come from anxious friends of passengers at all hours of  the night.

Avoid Criticism.

A notable feature of these inquires and of the general comment heard on the streets has been the disposition to avoid criticism fothe captan and officers of the Titanic, or to lay blame on anyone until the full facts are known.  In the streets, in offices and stores, in restaurants, in fact wherever people congregated, the disaster was the one topic.  Never before in Winnipeg has there been such sustained interest in a world happening of any kind.

That Winnipeg’s interest is shared by the whole west has been shown by the innumerable inquires that have come from all parts of Manitoba an dSaskatchewan.  Long distance messages asking for the latest news have come to the Free Press offices from dozens of points at all hours of the day and night, and it has been made evident that the whole country feels the stunning effect of the news so great a catastrophe.

Newsboys’ Harvest

Newsboys have reaped a veritable harvest in the past two days as regular and special editions have been issued.  IN most cases the boys have simply started out with all of the papers they could carry and always they have come back for more.  All editions have been exhausted before the demand on the streets has been satisfied.

The Fortune Family: Winnipeg Titanic Survivors

On By Sandi Krawchenko AltnerIn Books, Family history, Films, History, Titanic, Transportation, Winnipeg12 Comments

Only four people from Winnipeg, Canada, made it home after escaping the sinking of the Titanic. In all, there were about thirty people on the ship who were heading for Manitoba. Some were residents, others were immigrants, and still others were planning to stop and visit relatives while on their way further west.

All four survivors from the province of Manitoba were women, all from the same family: Mary Fortune and her daughters, Mabel, Ethel and Alice. Two other family members were lost in the shipwreck. They were Mary’s husband, Mark Fortune, a Winnipeg real estate tycoon, and their youngest child, 19-year-old Charles, affectionately known as Charlie.

The Titanic was the most luxurious ocean liner in the world. It left Southampton, on Wednesday April 10th, amid a great deal of fanfare and celebration for its maiden voyage to New York. The press had widely praised the ship as “unsinkable”.

According to newspaper reports, the Fortune women were incredulous that the Titanic sank before a rescue ship could arrive to save everyone who was on it. Two thirds of the 2,200 people on Titanic died as the vessel drifted down to the bottom of the ocean in a sea filled with icebergs off the coast of Newfoundland. It was a tragedy of colossal proportions.

Shocked and grieving the Fortunes returned to the new home Mary’s husband had so proudly built for his large family. With thirty-six rooms the wood and stone mansion at 393 Wellington Crescent was a very impressive addition to the exclusive Winnipeg neighbourhood on the Assiniboine River. It was a home built for parties and celebrations, and the laughter of grandchildren yet to be born. In the aftermath of the catastrophe it was a huge empty house, painfully silenced by the aching grief that came home with Mary and her daughters. The dramatic change in their lives was nothing they ever could have imagined would happen.

The Fortunes had left Winnipeg three months earlier. They had traveled by train to New York where they boarded the Franconia, bound for Trieste, a popular landing point for tourists, and the main seaport in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. They were in the company of several friends, who were also well-known in Winnipeg: Thomas McCaffry, J.J. Borebank, and Thompson Beattie. Together the group was embarking on the Grand Tour, a fashionable extended vacation enjoyed by the wealthy class in the Gilded Age.

Throughout the early months of 1912, the Fortunes traveled to many places in Greece, Italy and France and toured exotic locations in the Middle East. The holiday was Mark Fortune’s gift to his family. Charlie had recently graduated from Bishop’s College in Lennoxville, Quebec and was planning to continue his studies at McGill. Mark Fortune may well have considered this to be the ideal time, and perhaps his only opportunity, to persuade his adult children to join him and their mother for such a tour. His two eldest children, Robert and Clara had already married and declined the invitation to join them. Two of the Fortune daughters, Ethel and Alice had fiancées waiting for them, and Mabel was said to have been in a serious relationship with a jazz musician her parents did not approve of.

The Fortune family vacation was apparently splendid. They trekked through Egypt to see the pyramids, and toured ruins, museums and chateaus throughout Europe. They stayed at the finest hotels and the ladies shopped for high fashion and the latest in trousseau trends in Paris. It appears they were denied nothing.

Their tour ended in London where they rested for a few days and celebrated Easter with a fantastic dinner at a London hotel. From London, they took the boat train to Southampton and witnessed the Wednesday festivities to launch the magnificent new ship. Titanic fever was running high throughout the country. Alice was even able to persuade a fellow tour companion, William Sloper, to change his ticket from the Mauretania so that he might enjoy her company on the crossing.

From Wednesday through the end of the weekend, the experience on Titanic was everything the passengers had believed it would be. There were sumptuous surroundings, fine entertainments and exquisite meals for the first class passengers. Throughout the ship there was much to admire about Titanic. Even the third class passengers were treated to steerage accommodations that were widely hailed as well superior to the norm.

By Sunday night, April 14th, Titanic was in the North Atlantic approaching Newfoundland. The temperature had plummeted to near freezing. Dark and cold was the night when the ship steamed into the ice field. Warnings of ice had come from ships in the area, but were not heeded by the captain. No order to slow the engines was given.

When the ship struck an iceberg shortly before midnight, there was no mass call for “all hands on deck”. There was confusion and “polite urging” for the passengers to put on their lifebelts. Continue reading “The Fortune Family: Winnipeg Titanic Survivors” →

George Graham – Winnipeg Passenger on Titanic

On By Sandi Krawchenko AltnerIn Books, Family history, Films, History, Titanic, Transportation, Winnipeg4 Comments

Many years ago I was on a bus on Graham Avenue, a very well known street in downtown Winnipeg. I was seated next to a man who knew a lot about Winnipeg history. As we passed the Eaton store, he said, “Graham Avenue is named for a man who went down on the Titanic. His name was George Graham and he worked for the Eaton’s Company. Did you know that?”

I didn’t, and said so. I was eleven and terribly impressed by the story. I knew about the Titanic, but to think there was someone from Winnipeg in the great ship disaster was very exciting indeed.

It was decades later that I became truly captivated by the Titanic, in doing research for my novel, Ravenscraig. I read books, articles and old newspapers, watched every movie, documentary and video clip I could find, and I became totally immersed in the articles and discussion boards on the website Encyclopedia-Titanica as I learned the stories of Winnipeg passengers such as Eva Hart and the Fortune Family. I came across the story of the Graham Avenue tribute to the Titanic passenger countless times.

All the while I was adding to my collection of rare books from Manitoba. One day, while visiting Burton Lysecki’s book store in Winnipeg, Burton handed me an old book of maps he thought I would find interesting: Winnipeg in Maps 1816-1972 by Alan F.J. Artibise and Edward H. Dahl.

In peering at the maps in the book I came across the startling revelation that Graham Avenue had nothing to do with George Graham.

The street had been called Graham for forty years or so before the Titanic sank.

The evidence is seen in this map from 1874, “Plan of the City of Winnipeg”.

Click here to link to the source image and see a high quality image of the map.

The map was compiled and drawn in 1874 by John D. Parr and is made available by Manitoba Historical Maps on Flickr.

More on the person for whom Graham Avenue was truly named later, but first, the story of George Edward Graham:

He was born on a farm near St. Mary’s, in southwestern Ontario, on June 11, 1873, the sixth of seven brothers. As the story is told, he was 17 when he went to work as a clerk at a hardware store. He went on to become a salesman in Galt and then, in 1903 he moved to Toronto and began working for the Eaton’s Department Store. Timothy Eaton, the founder of the successful enterprise also had a history in St. Mary’s. It was the location of his first dry goods store before he bought the Toronto store in 1869.

George did well. He married Edith May Jackson from Harriston, Ontario and a year later, in 1906, he moved his bride to Winnipeg, having accepted a promotion and transfer to the big new Eaton’s store on Portage Avenue where he became the manager of the fine china and crockery department. Life was bustling and interesting for the wealthy class in Winnipeg in the years the Grahams lived there. It was a fast growing city filled with vibrant attractions in theatre, fine restaurants, musical societies and many entertainments to be enjoyed.

While George’s career was soaring in Winnipeg, the couple also was made to suffer heartbreaking losses. Their three year old son, John Humphrey, died in 1911. Edith became pregnant again a few months later, but miscarried.

One can imagine the discussion in the Graham home when George was told Eaton’s needed him to go on a buying trip to Europe in 1912. According to family reports, with Edith still frail and recovering, the couple decided it would be best for Edith to stay with her family while he was abroad, so Edith returned to Harriston.

George boarded the Titanic at Southampton as a first class passenger. According to family legend, he was scheduled leave on the Mauretania three days later, but changed his ticket to the Titanic to get home sooner. He spent time with other traveling salesmen. They had dinner together, and each signed the back of a menu.

George was one of the many passengers on Titanic who dropped by the wireless room, Sunday, April 14th, to send a marconigram to his wife. The message went out just hours before Titanic struck the iceberg in the North Atlantic.

The website, Encyclopedia-Titanica, posts the following news item, said to have appeared on April 16th, 1912, in The Evening Telegram:

“New York Wednesday Morning, Wire Me Sandy Hook. Well.”

It was Sunday afternoon when Mrs. Graham received the Marconigram given above. She had come down from Winnipeg a few days previously to meet her husband, and was planning happily the return journey when she retired Sunday night. On Monday morning came the terrible news of the collision. Later despatches roused in her heart a hope–more, almost a certainty–that her husband would be saved. This morning, weeping, sorrowing as bereaved ones alone can sorrow, she has learned what took place off the Newfoundland Banks.

Edith was never to see her husband again. We know that George Graham did take time to strap on a life jacket. His body was recovered by the MacKay-Bennett (#147). He was wearing a black overcoat, and a blue serge suit. He was carrying the following items – Memo book; cheque for $300.00; pocket book; credit book, T. Eaton & Co.; silver pencil case; fountain pen; pencil case; keys; gold watch; fob and locket; 7 shillings and 3 pence; $105.00; 2 pocket knives; 1 gold collar button.

George Graham had also taken time to look after one more piece of business before he set sail on Titanic. He dashed off a quick letter to a business contact and popped the letter into the mail before the ship sailed. The letter was written on Titanic stationary, and is famous for having fetched the largest sum ever paid at auction for a letter associated with Titanic.


To learn more about Canadian passengers, I highly recommend Alan Hustak’s excellent book: Titanic: The Canadian Story, in which he details the lives of 130 Canadian passengers on Titanic.

Now for the matter of Graham Avenue in Winnipeg.

It is named for James Allan Graham, a fur trader who worked for many years with the Hudson Bay Company. The Manitoba Historical Society Website has details of his life and his contributions to Manitoba.

And the Downtown Winnipeg Biz website offers the following history of Graham Avenue, which I include here, primarily because of my fondness for Winnipeg buses:

Graham Avenue has its roots in the Hudson Bay Company (HBC). Named after an HBC factor, or trader, James Allan Graham, the prominent department store still anchors one end of the avenue. The City of Winnipeg designated the street as a central bus corridor in 1994, and the Graham Avenue Transit Mall was born. Today, 29 of Winnipeg Transit’s 87 routes converge on the avenue. The area is popular with surrounding downtown workers, shoppers, people attending medical appointments, area residents and loyal customers.

In closing, if you are new to Titanic enthusiasm, please do visit the Encyclopedia-Titanica website, which I have found to be tremendously helpful in my research.

Salvaging Titanic Artifacts – Grave Robbing or Preserving History?

On By Sandi Krawchenko AltnerIn Titanic, Winnipeg4 Comments

Titanic: The Artifacts Exhibition opened in Winnipeg  amid much excitement from Titanic enthusiasts. To gaze upon a plate, imagine walking up the grand staircase, and to learn how the ship proclaimed by the press to be “unsinkable” was so quickly taken by the sea are tantalizing thoughts indeed.

Over 22 million people have seen the RMS Titanic exhibit since it first came to the public a decade and a half ago. The exhibit could not exist without the salvage efforts.

But is this grave robbing or preserving history?

As this video clip shows us, without doubt, the interest in Titanic is raising a consciousness and curiosity that is both awe inspiring and profound.

Fifteen hundred people on Titanic died in that cold night, on April 14/15th, 1912. It was the world’s largest and most elegant ship. Titanic was carrying more than 2200 people on its maiden voyage, and it was doomed. On its fourth night at sea, it struck an iceberg and in less than three hours, it broke apart and sank. Only 705 people made it to New York on the rescue vessel, the Carpathia, after spending the night in lifeboats.

But how is it that these artifacts have come to the surface to be placed in a traveling exhibit? Who owns them? Who has the right to make money on them?

Simple questions with complicated answers, steeped in controversy and, many would say, a good deal of greed.

“I opened a Pandora’s box,” said Dr. Ballard who took nothing but images and spine tingling memories away from the wreck site when he discovered it in 1985. The respect he paid to the Titanic was heartfelt and true. It was also costly, in his mind. It was just two years later that the first artifact was scooped off of the ocean floor, setting in motion a series of events that would forever allow the path for disturbing and dismantling the Titanic’s resting place on the ocean floor.

The first salvage operation, which brought 1,500 items out of the wreck site, was conducted by a group of private companies. The details are described in a posting by Titanic-Titanic.com.

Today, there is only one company that has the right to the Titanic salvage operations: RMS Titanic, Inc., which is owned by Premier Exhibitions of Atlanta, Georgia. It bought that exclusive privilege from the other salvage operators who were involved in the 1987 visit to Titanic. The company does not, at this time, have the right to sell any of the items they salvage. Auction items that are gathered by private collectors come from memorabilia that was either possessed by passengers, or found floating on the ocean in 1912. The purists among Titanic collectors would frown, at least publicly, at the opportunity to acquire an item from the salvage operation.

In answer to the question of how the traveling exhibition company came to have the sole right to the artifacts, RMS Titanic has posted this on their website:

“On June 7, 1994 the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia declared RMST salvor-in-possession of the wreck and wreck site of the RMS Titanic, excluding all others from going to the site for the purpose of recovery. RMST is the only entity that has recovered and conserved items from the Titanic.”

The RMS Titanic company says it has completed eight salvage missions at the wreck site, the most recent being in the summer of 2010.

The salvage operations have had both supporters and critics from the outset. Eva Hart, one of the Titanic survivors, who was on her way to Winnipeg with her parents, was quite outspoken about her objection to removing anything from the wreck. She considered it to be the gravesite of the victims, including her father, Benjamin Hart.

Dr. Robert Ballard feels the same way. In a 2004 interview, he lamented having lost the opportunity to protect Titanic from salvage, saying, “It’s ironic that had I taken something, it would have been mine.”

Others believe important historical objects will be lost forever if not placed in museums.

It is interesting to note that the exhibition company that carries sole salvor rights to the Titanic does not count the Titanic exhibit as its only moneymaker. The company has another exhibit that has proven to be a strong source of revenue for the parent company. It is called “The Bodies”.

One does not have to look very deeply into the operations of the company behind the Titanic exhibit to discover a compelling story about driving profits. Salvaging Titanic, human bodies on display, and cutthroat battles in courtrooms make for fascinating reading.

One final word. As you watch the documentary called Titanic Revealed, you may notice in the video that musician Rick Springfield shows off his Titanic treasure. He apparently paid a lot of money for a plaque from a Titanic lifeboat. In the video we clearly see it says S.S. Titanic. But, the Titanic was called the RMS Titanic, which stood for the Royal Mail Ship Titanic.

I suppose it is possible that the lifeboat plaques were misnamed. If someone has further information on this, please do let us know.

For more information on this topic:

To learn more about the battle for ownership, start with this 2005 news article by Jeff Testerman, of the St. Petersburg Times in Florida.

The legal summary of how RMS Titanic won its right to be sole salvor is described here: