Titanic’s Forgotten Love Letter Hints at Hidden Threats Just Before Tragedy Struck
Andrew Aldridge said that the contents of the letter and the stationary that it was written on made it incredibly valuable.
“It’s an exceptional letter on many levels,” Aldridge said. “First and foremost it was written on board the Titanic, it has its envelope, the lot also contains official paperwork relating to Mr. Geddes and, finally, the content is superb, describing the near-miss that Titanic nearly suffered that would have changed history.”
The seaman’s letter was written on original Titanic stationary that was provided on the ship and still has its original White Star Line envelope. On April 10, 1912 – a mere day after the Titanic left port – Geddes wrote to his wife to describe a near-collision with the SS City of New York.
The two vessels came within feet of each other as the Titanic left the docks. The suction from the propellers of the Titanic caused the City of New York’s ropes to snap, releasing it aloft and nearly causing a major collision between the ship and the 882-foot-long Titanic.
Addressing the letter to “My dearest Sal”, Geddes wrote of the near hit: “We got away yesterday after a lot of trouble… I could see visions of Belfast it must have been a trying time for the Captain.”
According to Encyclopedia Titanica, electricians Albert George Ervine and Alfred Middleton, who were perched atop the massive vessel’s fourth funnel, witnessed what could have been an earlier disaster for the Titanic.
Henry Aldridge & SonRichard Geddes letter to his wife.
“Middleton and myself were on top of the after funnel, so we saw everything quite distinctly. I thought there was going to be a proper smash up owing to the high wind; but I don’t think anyone was hurt,” Ervine wrote in a letter to his mother. Unsurprisingly, some onlookers took the incident as a bad omen for what lay in store for the Titanic.
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