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From Paul Fraser Collectibles.com

Collectibles related to the disaster are greatly coveted, and many are now part of a travelling exhibition

The RMS Titanic was the largest passenger ship in the world when it set out on its maiden voyage in April 1912. With advanced measures built into the vessel to keep it afloat in the teeth of any eventuality, its sinking caused astonishment and horror round the world.

The event has passed into public consciousness, and whilst it is no longer in living memory the story of the Titanic holds a continuing fascination for many - not hindered by the multiple Oscar-winning Leonardo DiCaprio/Kate Winslet film.

This fascination can be seen in the tremendous influence the Titanic has on sales of collectibles, with many collectors focussing primarily or exclusively on memorabilia associated with the disaster.

We told you the story of Millvina Dean, the youngest and last survivor of the Titanic who died last year. A baby when she was on the ship, she never had any recollection of the event, (though it claimed her father's life) but Titanic followers sought her out anyway, and her autograph was and is greatly prized.

It is almost guaranteed to increase in value now that she and all the other survivors have passed on.

Items more directly associated with the Titanic are also popular.

For example, in 2005 Bonhams sold a picture frame made from Titanic driftwood by Bertram T King of the SS Minia, who helped save survivors. It brought $16,450, whilst a rare original White Star Line Titanic Return Poster (cancelled when she did not return) brought $28,200.

There was even a menu of the meals for third class passengers on board. It survived in the handbag of Sarah Roth, a Third Class Passenger, who was rescued by the Carpathia in lifeboat C. This brought $44,650.

This week has seen the Carpathia referenced again, with news that one of the medals given to a crewman on the first ship to assist the stricken Titanic is to go under the hammer.

However, perhaps the most exciting Titanic collectibles are those which actually sank to the bottom with the ship. Some have returned from the watery grave.

In 1985, a joint American-French expedition finally discovered the wreck, and in 1994 a company named RMS Titanic Inc was awarded ownership and salvaging rights to the vessel and its contents.

It has since recovered 5,500 historic objects including a 17-ton section of the hull, many or most of which have been included in travelling exhibitions. These have been seen by over 16 million people around the world, everywhere from Manchester in England to Tokyo in Japan, not to mention a swathe of US cities.


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By Andrew Dagnell - Daily Mail

The wreck of an historic Royal Navy submarine has been plundered by thieves who dived 90ft to the sea bed to remove part of it.

HMS Holland, which sank in bad weather off the Sussex coast while being towed to a scrapyard in 1912, is protected by law because of its historical importance.

Now police are investigating after divers from the Nautical Archaeology Society discovered during a routine check that its torpedo tube hatch is missing.

Thieves are thought to have floated the 66lb piece of ironwork to the surface in 90ft of water by attaching buoyancy balloons. 

Experts say it was an audacious raid which may have been carried out at the request of a collector with an interest in naval history. Both Sussex Police and English Heritage, which is responsible for the wreck's care, have appealed for the return of the artefact and hope that someone in the diving community may provide them with a lead.

Police say that whoever took the hatch, which is about 30in in diameter, is liable for prosecution under the Protection of Wrecks Act.

The Holland 5, as the wreck is known, lay undiscovered until the mid-Nineties. It is the only surviving example of five Holland class vessels commissioned by the Admiralty to test the fighting capability of submarines, which were at the time a relatively new type of technology.

They were top secret and only a few senior officers and crew knew of their existence.

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From Paul Fraser Collectibles.com

A bronze award for a crew member of RMS Carpathia heads their Marine Sale.

Tomorrow, Bonhams is holding a Travel and Exploration sale at which they're offering an exceptionally rare signed scrimshawed whale's tooth from Charles Darwin's voyage on HMS Beagle.

Not prepared to leave it at that, however, the auctioneer is preparing to offer of the largest scrimshaw collections in recent years at their Marine Sale at the end of the month, including a massive English scrimshaw whale's tooth (estimated at £8,000-12,000).

The sale also includes a hand-drawn invasion landing plan for the British forces at the beginning of the Crimean war (expected to achieve £300-500 - but surely it's worth more than this), and a more sentimental collectible: a rare love token folding comb (listed at £4,000-6,000).

However, the pieces which will be of most interest to many will be the Titanic memorabilia.

One of the bronze medals presented to the crew of RMS Carpathia, following their heroic rescue of 705 survivors of the stricken Titanic on April 15 1912 is going under the hammer. The Carpathia was the first ship to reach the survivor's lifeboats, having received an emergency transmission from the Titanic when it hit an iceberg at 11.40pm on April 14 1912.

Diverted from her passage, RMS Carpathia came to the rescue of 705 passengers and took them to safety in New York.

On arrival, the Officers and Crew were presented with medals by one of the saved First Class passengers, Margaret (Molly) Brown, to commemorate the rescue: Captain Rostron received a Gold medal and silver cup, the Officers received silver medals, and the Crew received bronze.

The medal is inscribed: "Presented to the Captain Officers and Crew of RMS Carpathia in recognition of gallant and heroic service From the Survivors of the SS Titanic April 15th 1912." and is estimated at £2,000-4,000.

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By Bert Houston - News & Star

The US Navy has launched a search for a ship involved in a legendary Solway sailor’s most famous battles.

John Paul Jones, who launched his maritime career in Whitehaven, and is now regarded as the founding father of the US Navy, was the swashbuckling hero of a clash off the Yorkshire coast at Flamborough Head in 1779 – one of the key battles in the American War of Independence.

Jones, who was born near Dumfries, was captain of the Bonhomme Richard when it engaged the British vessel HMS Serapis.

The British ship was much more heavily armed and, after dozens of Americans were killed, its commanding officer then called on Jones.

Jones replied: “Sir, I have not yet begun to fight!”

Jones managed to lash the two ships together, nullifying his opponent's greater maneuverability and eventually the British ship was forced to surrender.

The Bonhomme Richard was so badly damaged in the battle that it sank 36 hours later but Jones was able to sail the captured Serapis away for repairs.

The wreck of the Bonhomme Richard – gifted to the Continental Navy from France – has never been found. Now a team from the US Navy, in conjunction with the Ocean Technology Foundation and the French Navy, is taking part in yet another search.

The oceanographic survey ship USNS Henson, operated by the Military Sealift Command, with a survey crew from the Naval Oceanographic Office, is the primary platform for the search.

State-of-the-art underwater survey technology will be used to map the ocean floor and a free-swimming underwater vehicles will conduct underwater searches. A French Navy mine hunter will join the search to dive on any artefacts which require closer inspection.

The expedition is expected to last 10 days.

Any artefacts found would be expected to include cannon, cannon ball piles, heavy ballast and depending on the nature of the sea bottom where the Bonhomme Richard came to rest the possibility of wooden hull remains, leather and pewter tankards or even textiles.

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By Peggy Walsh-Sarnecki - Free Press

The effort to confirm whether a suspected shipwreck site in Lake Michigan is the long-lost Griffon, the first European sailing ship on the Great Lakes, just took a step forward.

Virginian Steve Libert, who discovered the site that could be the Griffon, has selected the Center for Maritime and Underwater Resource Management from Laingsburg, near Lansing, to do the Phase II archeological work on the site, it was announced today.

CMURM is a nonprofit group specializing in underwater archeology, shipwreck management and education. Their credits include work on the Titanic, and the conservation plan for preserving the bell from the Edmund Fitzgerald, Michigan’s most famous shipwreck.

The Griffon disappeared in 1679, carrying furs that were to help finance the expedition of René-Robert Cavalier, Sieur de La Salle. La Salle went on to explore the Mississippi River and much of the future Louisiana Purchase. The ship’s whereabouts have taken on almost iconic status among shipwreck hunters, who often refer to the Griffon as the Holy Grail of Great Lakes wrecks.

This next phase of the research will be non-invasive, using high-resolution sonar scans and advanced bottom profiling to make the site. It also will involve diving on the wreck and identifying artifacts in the hopes of coming up with something like the king of France’s seal on a cannon, for example, that would prove it was the Griffon.

Earlier research, including sonar scans, a magnetometer and bottom profiling of the mysterious site have indicated the site could date to the Griffon’s era, and while they have not proven it’s the Griffon, they have not ruled out the Griffon as the site’s origin.

The early work showed there could be something in the area with acoustic and magnetic signatures that are similar to those of a shipwreck.

By Matthew Deans - Coffs Coast Advocate

Photographer and diver Mark Spencer will give a presentation tonight on a recent expedition to Gallipoli that documented the underwater battlefield at Anzac Cove.

Dr Spencer's work with Australia's leading maritime archaeology team helped uncover a number of new shipwrecks, including a hospital ship on the sea bed.

In a remarkable family tie, his great uncle Victor Markey served as a stretcher bearer during the World War I campaign and quite possibly could have carried wounded to that very ship, 95 years ago.

“It was an amazing feeling to stand exactly where he stood on the shoreline and view the landscape in such a different context, then to dive beneath Gallipoli and see evidence of the underwater battlefield,” Dr Spencer said.

The Coffs Harbour-based underwater photographer is an expert in the Turkish theatre of war.

He was part of an expedition to the Sea of Marmara in 1998, which rediscovered the Australian Navy submarine, the AE2, scuttled in the Dardanelles Strait after the crew surrendered to the Turks.

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From Hurriyet Daily News

A new exhibition in Mersin is displaying artifacts from the Ottoman frigate Ertuğrul, which sank while returning from an official visit to Japan but ultimately led to longstanding and friendly Japanese-Turkish relations.

One of the striking remains in the exhibition is a small perfume bottle which is believed to have been sent by the captain’s wife

Artifacts from a famous Ottoman ship that sunk off the coast of Japan more than a hundred years ago have now been put on a display in the southern province of Mersin, the first exhibition of its kind anywhere in the world.

The findings included pieces like a perfume bottle sent by the wife of the captain and believed to hold tears, a food boiler and other personal belongings from the sailors, said Bodrum and Karya Culture and Art Promotion Foundation, or BOSAV, Chairman Tufan Turan, the leader of an multinational expedition that has been working on the Ertuğrul shipwreck for the past three years.

The Ertuğrul was sent by Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamit II to Japan in 1889 but sank as it was returning. The accident, which killed 533 sailors, led to profound Japanese sympathy for the Turks and laid the foundations for continuing warm relations between Japan and Turkey.

Turan said they started working on the Ertuğrul shipwreck in 2007 and added that Turkish, Japanese, Spanish and U.S. researchers study the ship at Oshima Island, near Kobe, every January and February.

The research teams work underwater two hours a day, Turan said, adding that more than 6,000 pieces have been removed from the shipwreck since 2007.

The exhibition will visit other Turkish cities in 2011 before traveling to Japan for display.

Turan said some literary documents about the Ertuğrul indicate that the wife of Capt. Ali Bey, Ayşe, wrote a letter to her husband for his journey.

“In the letter, which is mentioned in the novel ‘Vuslata 5 Kala Gidip de Dönmeyenler: Ertuğrul’ [Those who did not return right before the reunion: Ertuğrul], there are statements like: ‘I sent a bottle for you, my tears are in it. I cried a lot when I was apart from you and gathered my tears in this bottle. Now I give this bottle to you, this is the biggest memory from me. Keep it until the end of your life. This is the symbol of my dedication and love to you,’” said Turan.

“Of course this is a novel but the writer examined documents about the frigate in detail. He even read these letters. When we found a small bottle in the frigate, we remembered these lines. The bottle drew great interest from the Japanese media,” he said.

“I prefer to look at the bottle through a romantic view, rather than technical. But we don’t know if this bottle is the one mentioned in the letter. It is not possible to make this clear but we are telling people our theories in the exhibition,” he said.

Among the pieces in the exhibition was also a whistle made of bone, Turan said. “We believe that it was purchased from one of the ports that the frigate visited or that it was given to one of the crew. But we also think that it may have been carved on the frigate.”

The exhibition can be seen at the Mersin Metropolitan Municipality Congress and Exhibition Hall.

By Randy Boswell - Postmedia News

The legal battle over a recently discovered Lake Erie shipwreck — believed to be the storied, Canadian-built brig Caledonia from the War of 1812 — took another twist last week in a New York court as the U.S. salvage company that found the sunken vessel rejected accusations by state lawyers it has “plundered” the wreck site and disturbed human remains.

The struggle over the fate of the well-preserved wreck — purported to be a 203-year-old troop transport involved in the first British-Canadian victory of the War of 1812 — comes with the clock ticking toward the war’s bicentennial and amid controversial plans to raise the ship for display on Lake Erie’s southern shore near Buffalo, N.Y.

Thursday’s court hearing before U.S. District Judge Richard Arcara followed a state magistrate’s ruling in May that the wreck should be left preserved on the lake bottom — the position held by state legal and archeological officials.

But Northeast Research Ltd., the U.S. dive company that found the wreck in 60 metres water about 30 kilometres offshore of Dunkirk, N.Y., appealed the May ruling and asked Arcara to grant a full trial to determine the wreck’s future.

Northeast co-owner Pat Clyne, condemning the state’s policy of “in situ preservation” as equivalent to leaving wrecks “on the bottom to rot,” told Postmedia News if Arcara grants a trial his company could win the right to raise the wreck and create a major international War of 1812 tourist attraction.

“We were pleased with the judge’s questions as well as our attorney’s ability to explain why we believe that this historic ship should be raised, conserved and put on display for all to see — and not just for a handful of privileged few,” Clyne said.

“If the judge’s decision goes our way, we then get our chance to confront the State of New York in court with all of our evidence and extensive research to prove our case.”

Northeast’s lawyer defended the company’s dives to the wreck as respectful toward the historic artifacts and human remains known to be at the site.

While several relics were raised and preserved to help identify the ship, and a few bone fragments were inadvertently moved during a dive, Northeast contends its handling of the wreck has been thoroughly professional.

If the ship on the Erie lake bed is the Caledonia — a 26-metre, two-masted schooner with a richly documented history — it would be discovery of international importance.

Built in 1807 at a Royal Navy shipyard near present-day Windsor, Ont., the Caledonia was originally owned by the North West Company and used for hauling furs from trading posts around the Great Lakes.

It was pressed into military service when war broke out between Britain and the U.S. along the Canadian frontier in June 1812.

Just a month later, the ship carried some 400 troops — British and Canadian soldiers, conscripted fur traders and allied Indian fighters — to U.S.-controlled Michilimackinac Island at the western end of Lake Huron, a strategic prize close to the eastern entrance of Lake Michigan.

Without a shot being fired, the Americans surrendered the fort — an important event that dashed U.S. expectations of an easy triumph in the war, and largely solidified aboriginal support behind the British.

But the Caledonia fell into American hands just three months later.