The Last Days of the Titanic - 1997
Front Cover: The Last Days of the Titanic: Photograph and Mementos of the Tragic Maiden Voyage - 1997. GGA Image ID # 1022bec599
The Last Days of the Titanic takes in the full sweep of the liners celebrated departure from England and Ireland, from boarding the Titanic Special rail car at Waterloo Station, to port activity at Queenstown, and ultimately to final photographs of the ship as it disappeared from view off the coast of Ireland.
From the Inside Flaps
THE LAST DAYS OF THE TITANIC Photographs and Mementos of the Tragic Maiden Voyage E. E. O’Donnell,
Foreword by Robert D. Ballard
In the same year (1985) that oceanographer Robert D. Ballard discovered the wreck of the White Star liner Titanic at a depth of over 12,000 feet in the North Atlantic, a cache of 42,000 photographs—among them, remarkable images and mementos of the Titanic’s ill fated voyage—was uncovered in a Dublin basement by Irish Jesuit archivist E.E. O’Donnell.
All the product of a single photographer, Francis (“Father”) Browne, this collection is considered one of the most important photographic archives in Ireland, and contains the sole visual chronicle of the Titanic’s passage from Southampton to Ireland (where Father Browne fortuitously disembarked), and thence to its doom at the bottom of the Atlantic.
A photo essay by Browne, titled “The Day a Liner Sailed,” chronicles the bustling life of an Irish seaport, and includes snapshots of illegal traders, packets transferring passengers, mail bound for America being loaded into holds, and authorized Irish vendors selling their wares aboard ship.
Father Browne's own “ Titanic Album,” assembled as a commemorative gesture in 1920, portrays crew and passengers at work and play, and contains such rare interior shots as a typical state room, the dining room, gymnasium, and a “reading and writing room.”
Hauntingly, che book also features the last photograph ever taken of Captain Smith, looking ominously down at Lifeboat Number two as a tender delivered passengers at Queenstown.
Unique mementos, such as Titanic brochures, menus, and floorplans are further supplemented by ephemera from the Olympic, the Titanic’s sister ship and near duplicate.
By way of conclusion, The Last Days of the Titanic chronicles the evolution of the tragedy as it was reported in Ireland and England, from the first desperate telegrams to scenes of Queenstown in mourning, flags at half-mast over deserted quays.