A trio of Titanic postcards, from a Vancouver estate, are being sold in All Nations' auction #523, at the downtown Vancouver Bay coin and stamp department, on Saturday July 30, 2005, at 1230PM PST. Scans and details are available on the auction portion of All Nations' website at http://www.allnationsstampandcoin.com. Bidders can participate by phone, fax, email, or in person, at the store. There is no buyer's premium in this sale. The R.M.S. Titanic, a supposedly unsinkable luxury liner, filled with many wealthy Americans, but also poorer Europeans seeking a better life in the new world, struck an iceberg about 400 miles from Newfoundland, and sank with the loss of over 1500 lives, on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York.
The wreck of the Titanic was found by Dr. Robert Ballard in 1985. The story of the Titanic was popularized by the award winning James Cameron film, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, in 1997.
Lot #79 is a vintage black and white picture postcard dated 1 May 1912, not long after the April 14, 15, 1912 sinking. The halfpenny stamped card to Mrs.
Stafford shows a night scene of the Titanic, lowering lifeboats amid icebergs, and is inscribed The sinking of the White Star Liner Titanic April 15, 1912 1650 passengers and crew lost. On the back the sender has written, "Dear Mother, Am sending this card of the Titanic as the shops down here seem full of them. I went to Southampton docks last night & saw the Olympic...(sister ship to the Titanic returning to the place the Titanic had set sail from only three weeks before.) Lot #80 is a vintage black and white unsent postcard with a defaced message on the back. The card front shows a steaming Titanic with a portrait of bandsman Mr. W. Hartley at the top right, the words to the last hymn "Nearer my God to Thee.," and the annotation as played by the brave bandsmen as she sank. The legend further reads The greatest disaster in maratime (sic) history, the loss of the S.S. Titanic on 14th April 1912 by striking an iceberg. More details are written on the back, though they are partially obscured by inkpen graffiti. Lot #81 is a modern card showing the First Class Smoking Room of the Titanic and it was signed by Walter Lord, authour of A Night to Remember, in 1993. Walter Lord's 1955 story of the Titanic's sinking was made into a 1958 film also called A Night to Remember. The sinking of the Titanic continues to fascinate and horrify students of maritime history today.