A Touching RMS Titanic Memorial Card: In Sacred Memory of "The Titanic"

Origin: English
Period: Early Twentieth Century
Provenance: Unknown
Date: 1912
Height: 3.1 inches
Width: 9.1 inches (when open, or 4.55 closed)

Printed and published by the East London Printing Co., 7, Houndsditch, London E.C, the memorial card, with double ruled border in ebony and steel blue, opening to depict picture and script: ' In Sacred memory of " The Titanic" which collided with an iceberg off cape race, on April 15th 1912. The most appalling disaster in maritime history with a loss of over 1000 lives.'

The card is in very good condition, preserved in a sleeve (not shown), with only mild faintness to some lettering, there are no nicks or tears. When closed, the front of the card reads, “Thy Will be done” on a placard amongst flowers and crucifix though most poignantly, verso, there is a beautifully written poem that reads:

She struck where the white and fleecy waves,
Looked soft as carded wool,
But the cruel rocks, ‘they gored her side,
Like the horns of an angry bull.

Her rattling shrouds, all sheathed in ice,
With the masts went by the board,
Like a vessel of glass, she stove and sank,
Ho! Ho! The breakers roared.

Owned by the White Star Line, RMS Titanic was the largest passenger steamship in the world when she set off on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, U.S.A., on 10 April 1912. Four days into the crossing, at 23:40 on 14 April 1912, she struck an iceberg and sank at 2:20 the following morning, resulting in the deaths of 1,517 people in one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history.

In many locations there are memorials to the dead of Titanic. In Southampton, a memorial to the engineers of Titanic may be found in Andrews Park on Above Bar Street and opposite the main memorial is a memorial to Wallace Hartley and the other musicians who played on the ship. A memorial to the ship's five postal workers, which says "Steadfast in Peril" is held by Southampton Heritage Services whilst a memorial to the liner is located on the grounds of City Hall in Belfast, Northern Ireland not to mention several memorials in the United States.

Just a year away, on 15 April 2012, the 100th anniversary of the sinking of Titanic is planned to be commemorated around the world. By that date, the Titanic Quarter in Belfast is due to have been completed and the area will be regenerated, and a signature memorial project unveiled, to celebrate Titanic and her links with Belfast, the city that had built the ship.

In addition, the cruise ship Balmoral, has been chartered to follow the original route of Titanic, intending to stop over the point on the seabed where she rests on 15 April 2012. Interest in RMS Titanic has always been strong but with the arrival of the one hundredth anniversary merely a year away, this interest promises to continue to rise.

With the added presence of the moving poetry this is a truly heart wrenching piece of Titanic ephemera, that is both a joy and a sorrow to behold.