White Stars, Black Sea

05/16/2026

Titanic Live: May 16th, 1912, late afternoon - From St. John's, Newfoundland, one last ship begins steaming today towards the area southeast of Titanic’s wreck site in a final attempt to recover whatever may be left adrift there, a decision doubtlessly spurred on at least in part by the recent reports of the discovery of Collapsible A in mid Atlantic by RMS Oceanic just three days ago. She is SS Algerine, a 505 ton three masted steamer built in 1880 by Harland & Wolff and presently owned by Bowring Brothers Ltd as a mixed cargo and limited passenger vessel under the command of Captain John Jackman. Also aboard are undertakers Andrew Carnell and Thomas Lawrence of St. John’s, as well as a supply of ice, canvas, embalming fluids and sawdust similar to those carried by the three previously contracted recovery ships.

After being specially fitted with a 125 mile range Marconi set (and seemingly under orders to use her new radio primarily for the transmission of official reports to the White Star Line), Algerine sets off late this afternoon to begin searching near the area where Titanic wreckage was last reported having been seen several days ago. She will steam along a large 200 mile radius circle to the south and east of the disaster scene, following currents and mixed weather in hopes of finding anyone still held adrift by a buoyant life vest. Despite three weeks of searching, Algerine will find only one body (that of twenty seven year old Titanic saloon steward James McGrady) on May 25th. Following this, no further sightings of either bodies or wreckage will be made by the recovery ship, and she will eventually return to port at St. John’s on the morning of June 6th.


Photo of SS Algerine taken from the deck of an unidentified ship via The Rooms, Newfoundland and Labrador

05/14/2026

A highlight of our visit to the Titanic exhibition in Boston last year was the chance to bring our original RMS Olympic bath floor tile (left) to meet its identical twin Titanic sisters, these examples both made by ceramics manufacturers Villeroy & Boch of Mettlach, Germany. Weighing in at a hefty two pounds, three ounces (1kg), these luxuriously smooth pieces are commonly referred to by collectors as swimming bath tiles, though they were also used widely across the vessel in her first and second class lavatories. As with every piece used to construct the Olympic Class ships, their high quality is readily apparent when in one’s hands. The last time these tiles were all in roughly the same location was on March 7th, 1912, when Olympic left Belfast following repairs to her propeller - she would never see Titanic closely again after this date.

Our Olympic tile spent twenty four years in place aboard ship before her arrival at Jarrow for breaking on the 13th of October, 1935. Shortly thereafter, as the story goes, a local workman either purchased cheaply or was allowed to bring home a wheelbarrow full of these bath tiles and used them to line the borders of his flower garden, where they remained in place for many decades. Caked soil may still be seen on close examination in the cracks on our example. Conversely, the Titanic examples seen at right show staining from their eight decades on the sea floor, these having eventually been retrieved from the debris field during the 1994 and 2000 RMSTI recovery operations.


Photo by CNE Maritime Museum/Premier Exhibitions 2025

05/13/2026

Titanic Live: May 13th, 1912, early afternoon - Aboard New York bound White Star liner RMS Oceanic, lookouts in the ship’s crow’s nest suddenly catch glimpse of a substantial piece of drifting wreckage to the northwest, the unknown object appearing to move slowly and erratically a short distance off the liner’s starboard bow. Oceanic is ordered stopped following the sighting, and one of her own small lifeboats is lowered to inspect. The wreckage in fact proves to be the remnants of Titanic Collapsible A, the broken and battered craft having drifted by wind and currents more than two hundred miles from the site of the disaster. On arrival, the crewmen also report the bodies of three men still aboard the collapsible, all now sadly blackened by the sun and falling to pieces after nearly a month adrift. When the crew attempts to move them, the arms of the three victims pull away from the bodies. With the remains unable to be properly retrieved, the crewmen gather what personal effects they can and bury the bodies at sea, joined in their brief service aboard the rotted collapsible by one of the ship’s doctors and a volunteering priest lowered along with them in one of Oceanic’s small emergency cutters.

Following the burials, the small crew then attempt to sink the wreckage with hatchets but meet with no success against the raft’s buoyant layer of granular cork. Instead, rowers will tow the collapsible back to be recovered, its rotting and smashed remains eventually being carried back to Hudson River Pier 59 where they will be deposited into attic storage with the rest of the lifeboats returned by Carpathia.

It will later be determined that the bodies discovered aboard the collapsible had been left in the boat by 5th Officer Lowe shortly before the rescue by Carpathia after it was found that the three men had perished sometime over the course of the night. One is identified as 37 year old First Class passenger Thomson Beattie, while the other unidentified two appear to have been crewmen, likely stokers. Washed off Titanic’s deck in the final moments of the sinking, Collapsible A had become a desperate place of refuge for many with no other option for survival, though without time to properly raise the boat’s canvas sides it offered little protection against the freezing sea. By morning, only half of those who had clung to each other aboard were still alive, these survivors being picked up by Lowe in mostly emptied Lifeboat 14.

See individual photos for additional captions.


Photographs via Henry Aldridge & Son Ltd./AP

05/11/2026

Titanic Live: May 11th, 1912, morning - Harper’s Weekly publishes today a single page report on the arrival of CS Mackay-Bennett on the afternoon of April 30th in Halifax, where all of these six photographs were taken within a few hours of each other as the first phase of the recovery operations concluded. The higher end printing processes employed by the illustrated newspapers of the time meant that a nearly two week gap has elapsed between the return of the dead and the publication of these photographs, with the negatives having been transferred to New York City by train before the long job of producing their halftone copper reproduction plates could begin. The process was slow by modern standards but highly effective, and produced images of high quality and clarity for a public still ravenous for any news of the Titanic disaster and its aftermath around the world.

Note - These photographs were originally printed in black and white in the May 11th, 1912 issue, and ordinarily I would prefer to share them here on this page in their most original forms. However, as these printed materials from Harper’s Weekly were so sharp and clear in quality, I was able to colorize them without changing anything else about the images. Many thanks are therefore extended to our donors and subscribing contributors this year, who have allowed us to purchase an original copy of this publication to properly photograph and reproduce for all of our readers.


Photos originally published by Harper’s Weekly - May 11th, 1912
Colorized by White Stars, Black Sea 2026

05/10/2026

A note for our readers - thank you so much to all of our very kind supporters who have helped to sustain this project already through the purchase of one of our new patches. I have decided that the shipping price was too high, so I am pleased to announce that these limited run pieces are now a flat $5 each or five for $20 with free shipping both in the US and internationally. If you have already purchased one of these, I have included extra materials in your package to hopefully help make up the difference - but if you would prefer a refund on shipping, contact me and I would be happy to do so instead.

And for our remaining Patreon members and Facebook subscribers who would like a patch of your own free of charge, please send along a message with your mailing address and I will get them off to you this week. Thank you again so much for your support, it makes all of the difference in the world.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/4499326666/white-stars-black-sea-iron-on-patch

This Patches & Appliques item by CNEMaritimeMuseum has 7 favorites from Etsy shoppers. Ships from Wilton, NH. Listed on May 5, 2026

05/10/2026

The giant hull of Titanic looms up out of a cloud of dust and mist kicked up by her launch just moments before this photo was taken by Harland & Wolff engineer John Kempster, 31st of May 1911. Note the spectators standing at the base of the towering gantry at left, as well as the bits of washed up wooden debris on the slipway in the foreground. Temporary observation platforms had been constructed for the occasion in front of the hull and to her port bow, though these were largely for dignitaries and specially ticketed viewers. As such, a number of the nearby crowd (estimated at 100,000) watched from improvised perches and adjacent dockyards, some coming much closer to the active slipway than would ever be allowed in any modern shipyard today.

Following this, Titanic was tied up to the fitting out wharf while the previously mentioned dignitaries including Bruce Ismay, Thomas Andrews and JP Morgan joined RMS Olympic and tenders SS Nomadic/SS Traffic - all leaving Belfast for the first time. Certainly a red letter day for both shipyard and White Star Line.


Photo by John Kempster/NMNI

05/09/2026

Illuminated in a beam of light cast by Mir 2’s powerful array is this open hinged window which remains in place here alongside Titanic’s Officers Promenade on the port side Boat Deck. Unique to Titanic among her class were six First Class staterooms at this level, nestled in next to the cabins of the ship’s officers and the famous Marconi wireless rooms, and lettered T, U, W, X, Y and Z. This window looks into the 5th Officer’s room, occupied at the time of the voyage by Harold Lowe and located directly adjacent to the stateroom of 3rd Officer Herbert Pitman, whose still closed identical window is just barely visible in the shadows of the beam at left. Note the remaining traces of white paint on the wall of the deckhouse, well yellowed with age by the time of this photograph which was taken during the late summer of 2001.

Following the success of his 1997 film, Canadian filmmaker and deep sea explorer James Cameron employed the twin Finnish-built Russian Mir submersibles for twelve dives to the site over the course of seven weeks in 2001, his first visit since his original filming expedition of 1995. Equipped with both better funding and more advanced imaging tools, this second expedition eventually produced more than nine hundred hours of high quality video showing many areas previously unseen both in and outside the wreck. This work eventually became the critically acclaimed documentary “Ghosts of the Abyss”, released to the public just prior to the 91st anniversary of the disaster in April of 2003.


Photo via Walden Media/KRT/ABACA 2003

05/07/2026

Lusitania 111th Anniversary, May 7th, 1915 - Today we remember the 1,198 passengers and crew of RMS Lusitania who lost their lives on this date in 1915 after the liner’s torpedoing by German submarine U-20, and remember as well the 761 of those aboard her who survived.

Lusitania’s sinking was chaotic and rapid, with only eighteen minutes elapsed between point of impact by torpedo and the vanishing of the giant vessel beneath the waves (compared with Titanic’s two hours and forty minutes). Notably, two separate explosions would doom the ship, followed by a near immediate list to starboard and a complete loss of electrical power within the first few minutes. This power cutoff would mean that many hundreds of her carried passengers and crew found themselves trapped below decks in dark rooms and unable to use the stalled elevators - including, critically, a majority of the ship’s deck crew members trained to launch the lifeboats. Pandemonium broke out above on deck as a result, and many perished as the liner’s boats were tipped fully loaded into the sea or smashed to pieces upon her decks.

Similarly to recent efforts portraying the Titanic disaster in real time, this recreation of the sinking of Lusitania at the link below by Mike Brady of Oceanliner Designs has been very well done and comes highly recommended here. It is difficult to imagine the jarring change suffered by the ship and those aboard her in so short a time, so to be able to watch it unfold as it did in reality helps a great deal. https://youtu.be/H5YPlcrAiV4?si=BDRXH-UwR18X2Pej


Lusitania animated by Jack Gibson via Titanic: Honor & Glory

05/06/2026

It was an honor last year to get the chance to photograph up close some of Titanic’s most poignant artifacts during our visit to RMSTI’s Boston exhibition on April 19th, 2025. Amongst them perhaps most prominently was the crow’s nest bell, famously rung three times by lookout Frederick Fleet after his sighting of the ice ahead of Titanic just prior to 11.40 PM ship’s time on April 14th. Standing just slightly over 15 inches (38cm) tall and weighing in at around 150 pounds (68kg), this bronze bell was cast by founders Thomas Utley & Co of Liverpool, who also supplied a number of other brass fixtures for the liner including most of her portholes. When rung, the bell produced a clear and even tone capable of being heard over the din of the operating vessel - an effect likely heightened on the night of the disaster by both the cold, clear air and the quiet of the late hour. Quarter master Alfred Olliver in fact reported hearing the three warning bells rung from as far away as the ship’s compass platform directly amidships, where he was on duty at the time trimming oil lamps in the moments just before collision.

Wrenched away from the fallen foremast and crow’s nest during the night of the disaster, the bell was discovered on the sea floor a short distance from the wreck during the summer of 1987 and was recovered by the same expedition a short time later. Also found simultaneously nearby was the crow’s nest telephone, used moments after the ringing of this bell to convey Fleet’s warning directly to the bridge. Both artifacts have been on display at different times in various locations in the years since their recovery.


Photograph by CNE Maritime Museum/RMSTI 2025

05/06/2026

Titanic Live: May 6th, 1912, morning - At Halifax, the small lighthouse and buoy tender CGS Montmagny is loaded with yet another full cargo of block ice, sawdust, coffins, embalming fluids and canvas transferred from CS Minia, and leaves just before noon as the third vessel to embark for the site of Titanic’s wreck. She has made the more than one thousand mile (1600km) journey to Halifax up the St. Lawrence River from Sorel, Quebec under the dual command of captains Peter Crerar Johnson and François-Xavier Pouliot, who will both oversee the recovery efforts of the coming weeks. Captain Johnson has been brought aboard specifically to guide the small tender vessel whilst out on the open Atlantic, supplementing the expertise of the ship’s regular captain Pouliot, who has only ever commanded the undersized Montmagny within calm coastal waters.

Also aboard the recovery vessel is undertaker John R. Snow, who has only recently returned from his previous efforts aboard CS Mackay-Bennett. He will be assisted in his work by fellow embalmer Cecil Zink of Dartmouth, NS, though by the time of their arrival at the site there will be very little left to be done by either of them. Through stormy, rain soaked weather and still drifting ice, Montmagny will find only four bodies, one of which will be buried at sea. The remaining three will be returned to Louisbourg, Nova Scotia on May 13th before Montmagny once again resupplies and leaves for the wreck site - the only one of the four recovery vessels to search the area twice. She will find only scattered broken wreckage on this second voyage to Titanic, and will resume her usual work as lighthouse tender shortly thereafter.


Photo of CGS Montmagny via the Nova Scotia Archives