Exhibit celebrates 97th anniversary of Titanic sailing
On April 14, 1912, the RMS Titanic violently collided with a submerged iceberg. The once-pristine ship sank 963 miles northeast of New York, two and a half miles under the freezing Atlantic Ocean.
While more than 1,500 people perished in 28-degree waters that night, their memory was not lost, but their belongings that told their story were. The exact location of the wreck was unknown until it was discovered Sept. 1, 1985, by Robert Ballard.
As the 97th anniversary of the sinking approaches, Utahns may be curious to know that several Titanic passengers were Utahans themselves. Cheryl Mure’, director of Education for Premier Exhibitions, Inc., said two Utahans perished in the sinking.
Mure’ said Irene Corbett was the daughter of Bishop Levi Colvin of Provo. Corbett traveled to London in the winter of 1911 to study nursing, leaving her children with her parents. On April 15, 1911, Corbett sent her parents a letter saying she was taking passage on Titanic, boarding in Southampton.
After hearing of the sinking, Colvin telegraphed New York. Mure’ said he received two telegrams April 19, 1912. The first stated, “New York, April 19, Levi Colvin, Provo, Utah. Neither the name of Mrs. Irene Corbett nor anything like it appears on the Titanic’s second cabin list of passengers as having sailed from Southampton. WHITE STAR LINE.”
Mure’ said minutes later a second telegram arrived, “New York, April 19, Levi Colvin, Provo, Utah. Now find name of Mrs. Irene C. Corbett is on the list of passengers having sailed from Southampton, but regret is not a survivor on Carpathia. WHITE STAR LINE.”
Corbett was one of 14 second-class passenger women who perished in the sinking.
Scotland native Colonel John Weir, 60, had made a fortune in Western mining. Mure’ said Weir was president of the Nevada-Utah Mines and Smelters Corporation and a member of the Alta Club in Salt Lake City.
Mure’ said Weir was planning a trip to Salt Lake in 1912. He told his friend, Morris P. Kirk of Salt Lake, in a letter that he was crossing on the Philadelphia. The two planned to go to California to look over mining areas. However, the sailing of the Philadephia was postponed by the coal strike, so Weir transferred to the Titanic. He boarded in Southampton as a first-class passenger. But Weir never made it to Utah. He died in the sinking and his body, if recovered, was never identified.
Mure’ said since the discovery of the Titanic, The French Oceanographic Institute and the P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology have made seven expeditions to recover artifacts from the debris fields. RMS Titanic Inc., owned by Premeir Exhibitions, now possesses 5,500 Titanic relics which have been preserved, Mure’ said. The lost belongings have resurfaced the story of the grand ship and her passengers and the curiosity has lured more than 22 million people worldwide to see their story.
From March 5 to Sept. 7, people will have the chance to see this story again. One of the six Titanic artifact exhibitions will be on display at the Museum of Idaho in Idaho Falls.
Kelsey Salsbery, director of marketing for the Museum of Idaho, said the exhibition will show more than 120 relics recovered from Titanic’s debris field. The display will be guided and follows the chronology, construction, voyage, sinking and the aftermath of the Titanic.
Salsbery said the artifacts that correlate with these sections are displayed accordingly, such as the nuts and bolts for the construction. Each visitor will receive a boarding pass with the name of a Titanic passenger and what class of ticket they were. At the end of the exhibit, a giant list of first-, second- and third-class passengers will allow viewers to see if the person named on their pass survived, Salsbery said.
The exhibit is brought to life by many details to recreate the most authentic experience possible. Large pictures of passengers hang all around, and music heard on the Titanic hums in the background.
Toward the end of the display in the iceberg gallery, Salsbery said there will be an actual 8 foot by 18 foot iceberg set against a blackened starry night that viewers can touch. In the voyage section, exact replications of a third-class room and a first-class room show the contrast of quality passengers experienced.
“People can see where the Kate Winslet would’ve slept compared to Leonardo DiCaprio,” Salsbery said.
Adolphe Saalseld was a passenger on his way from Manchester to New York to be a perfume salesman. Saalseld survived the sinking, but he lost his perfume. Today, the vials still contain perfume, and Mure’ said, “it still emits odor, a flowery smell.” While viewers can’t smell the perfume due to its fragile nature, they can see them, Mure’ said.
Mure’ said another relic of interest belonged to Howard Irwin, a sheet of music entitled, “My Dear.” Irwin stayed out too late the night before boarding, and consequently never made it aboard. His music case with his instrument and music did, however. The sheet music was protected by the leather case, and still displays its lines of notes.
Salsbery said bank notes, a porthole window, socks, coins, a shoe brush, a metal chandelier and a leather bag containing tools are a few more of the revealing artifacts that viewers can consume with their eyes to sense the people behind them.
“The clash of technology and ignorance won’t allow Titanic to remain just a ship that sank. People want to solve the mystery,” she said.
–storee.powell@aggiemail.usu.edu