TITANIC INTEREST, AN IMPORTANT PIECE OF TITANIC MEMORABILIA,...

TITANIC INTEREST, AN IMPORTANT PIECE OF TITANIC MEMORABILIA, ASPREY, LONDON, A 9CT GOLD CIGARETTE CASE
Presented to and inscribed ‘Ernest G.F. Brown RNR In Remembrance of Kindness SS Carpathia from Sir Cosmo and Lady Duff Gordon', bearing initials to outer upper corner 'EB' (for Ernest Brown).
(approx 6.5cm x 7cm)

N.B. this case was awarded as a gift to Ernest Brown who was Purser of The SS Carpathia, first on the scene and responsible for the rescue of survivors of The Titanic, in this instance Sir Cosmo and Lady Duff who were aboard Lifeboat One. Famously Lifeboat #1 contained only twelve survivors, capacity of the boat was forty, Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon was criticised at the time for disobeying orders and protocol of women and children first, the later inquiry also cleared him of allegations of bribes. RMS Carpathia was a Cunard Line transatlantic passenger steamship built by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson in their shipyard in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. Carpathia made her maiden voyage in 1903 from Liverpool to Boston and continued on this route before being transferred to Mediterranean service in 1904. In April 1912, she became famous for rescuing the survivors of rival White Star Line's RMS Titanic after the latter struck an iceberg and sank with a loss of 1,517 lives in the North Atlantic Ocean. Carpathia braved dangerous ice fields and diverted all steam power to her engines in her rescue mission. She arrived only two hours after Titanic had sunk and rescued 705 survivors from the ship's lifeboats