• Home
• Life

ATLANTIC CITY - The Absecon Lighthouse was constructed to prevent shipwrecks. But stop by the lighthouse Thursday evening and the focus will be on what is probably the most famous shipwreck ever.

Thursday is when the lighthouse operators un-veil their newly acquired memorabilia and exhibit material related to the sinking of the ocean liner Titanic.

The exhibit includes small pieces of debris from the ship, which sank on April 15, 1912, after striking an iceberg. It also includes movie props, newspapers and books detailing the sinking and several panels telling the story of the ocean liner, its passengers and the disaster.

The collection, valued at more than $150,000, was originally assembled in the late 1990s and intended to be part of a traveling commercial show about the shipwreck. But those plans fell through and the collection's owners - Donna Andersen, of Atlantic City, and John Glassey, of West Atlantic City, approached the lighthouse about donating the items.

"We were thrilled," said Jean Muchanic, executive director of the lighthouse. "Even though the wreck wasn't part of New Jersey history, the way a nonprofit like us looks to survive is by attracting a new audience. This will definitely do that."

Andersen will be on hand Thursday, talking about the wreck and her efforts to collect the memorabilia. Vineland author W. Mae Kent will also be at the event, talking about her book, "Titanic: The Untold Story," a work of fiction based on the only black man to die aboard the ship.

The Titanic, deemed unsinkable by its owners at the White Star Line, has been the subject of popular fascination since it sank more than 90 years ago. That fascination was further guaranteed by the discovery of the ship's wreck in 1985 and the release of the 1997 film "Titanic."

The film's release is what inspired Andersen and Glassey to try mounting a Titanic exhibit. Items salvaged from the wreck, two-and-a-half miles below the surface of the North Atlantic Ocean, are owned by the R.M.S. Titanic company, which has mounted its own Titanic exhibits.

For their exhibit, Andersen and Glassey looked for items related to the ship, but had not been recovered by the salvage company.

"There were many artifacts in the hands of private collectors," Andersen said. "There's a whole almost Titanic industry of aficionados who collect."

These include items salvaged from the ocean days after the sinking.

"After word got out about the wreck there was a lot of debris, t here was stuff floating around and there were boats out there that were picking that stuff up. Even then, people were trying to make a buck," she said.

The pair's artifacts include a piece of wood moulding found at the wreck site shortly after the sinking and china plates used by White Star ships - including the Titanic - at the time of the sinking. The pair also acquired a shard of glass from a chandelier that went down with the ship and then salvaged and given to a photographer on one of the R.M.S. Titanic expeditions. The shard is small, but valuable - with an estimated worth of $10,000 - an indication of the demand for anything from the doomed liner.

There are also movie props - life jackets from a film about the sinking - and a sampling of the many books written about the shipwreck.

But the collection's centerpiece is the one item that will not be on display Thursday night - a 25-foot lifeboat that may, or may not, have come from the ship.

The ocean liner Carpathia, which rescued survivors from the wreck, also returned with 13 lifeboats from the Titanic. Twentieth Century Fox purchased the 25-foot boat in 1930, believing it was a cutter from the Titanic, according to Andersen. The boat was used in the 1944 film "Lifeboat," the 1953 movie "Titanic" and 1964's "Unsinkable Molly Brown."

This summer a professor and student from the Maritime College of the State University of New York in Throggs Neck examined the boat in an unsuccessful attempt to authenticate it. The boat was built around 1909 by Harland & Wolff, the company that built Titanic.

"No one has been able to authenticate it, but it certainly has the history behind it," Muchanic said. As is, the lifeboat has an estimated value of about $67,000. If ever authenticated as a boat that saved passengers from the sinking ship, the value skyrockets.

Because of that, lighthouse officials are keeping the boat under wraps - for now. Plans call for the eventual construction of a glass-enclosed pavilion to protect the boat but allow it to be put on display.

As it is, the lighthouse operators will have trouble finding room for the Titanic items they'd like to display. The items will be put out in the keeper's building for Thursday's event, but then taken down the next morning. After that, plans call for the items to be put on display monthly or as public interest demands, Muchanic said.

Contact Steven V. Cronin:

609-272-7242

SCronin@pressofac.com

Titanic event

What Is It: An exhibit of Titanic memorabilia and book signing by W. Mae Kent, author of "Titanic: An Untold Story" 7 p.m. Thursday at Absecon Lighthouse, 31 S. Rhode Island Ave., Atlantic City.

Admission: $20.

Info: 609-449-1360

No comments have been posted. Be the first poster!

PressofAtlanticCity.com offers everyone the opportunity to comment on published stories. However, it is impractical for editors to screen all comments.
If you believe a comment is offensive, please click on the abuse-reporting link and your objection will be considered by an editor. We encourage participants to use their real names, but inoffensive screen names are acceptable. Comments are the sole responsibility of the person posting them.
Please post responsibly. Do not post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy.
Be polite. Don’t hate. Users who don’t play by the rules may be blocked from participating.

View our full terms of service and privacy agreement

Click here to report a comment as abusive.

You must login to post a new comment