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| I urged them to leave
their work. They shook their heads and continued at their work. It might
have been an inrush of water later that cut off their escape, or it may
have been the explosion. I saw them no more.
Albert Theissinger Steward aboard R.M.S. Titanic and survivor |
| Although the drama
of one of the greatest maritime disasters -- the sinking of R.M.S. Titanic
-- was played out over the course of just a few hours, the tragic event
has captivated our imaginations for decades. What few remember, however,
is that Titanic was more than the largest and most luxurious vessel
of her time. She was also an “R.M.S.,” a “Royal Mail Ship.”
During Titanic’s frantic final hours on April 15, 1912, Titanic’s postal clerks, along with steward Albert Theissinger and several others, desperately tried to save the 200 sacks of registered mail by dragging them to the upper decks and possible safety. Theissinger was the only survivor to recall seeing the mail clerks alive. When he finally abandoned the seemingly suicidal task, the five mail clerks -- Americans Oscar Scott Woody, John Starr March, and William Logan Gwinn and British postal workers James Bertram Williamson and John Richard Jago Smith -- were still frantically at work, sloshing waist-deep in freezing water. |
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Woody  |
March  |
Gwinn 
[artist's representation] |
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| None of the sea
post clerks survived Titanic’s fatal collision with the iceberg.
This exhibition is dedicated to their memory. |
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