Two letters from the Titanic are in the news. One is a letter from Dr. John Edward Simpson, who died when the ship sank, He wrote to his mother on April 11, 1912, on notepaper headed RMS Titanic, and had it mailed from Cohb, Ireland, the last port of call prior to the ship sailing across the North Atlantic. The letter, which was owned by a collector in Long Island, NY will be returning Belfast to be part of a new Titanic exhibition.
A second, somewhat controversial, letter was written by Titanic survivor, Emily Richards, a second class passenger, who claims to have seen Captain Smith a drinking few hours before the collision. The letter written on board the Carpathia, which rescued survivors from the sinking, blames the captain for the sinking:
‘The Captain was down in the saloon drinking and gave charge to some-one else to stare(sic) the ship. ‘It was the Captan(sic) fault. ‘My poor brother George … drowned as far as we know now.’
Captain Smith who went down with the ship, was exonerated by by the British enquiry into the disaster and not all believe Ms. Richard’s account.
Was the captain of the Titanic drunk on the night the ship struck an iceberg? Letter written by survivor claims skipper was in saloon bar before liner sank
Continue reading