This and That – A Bejeweled Book, a Naked Lady, and a Mummy’s Curse.
Deep within the submerged, rusting hulk of the Titanic rests one of the world’s rarest books, a monumental painting of a naked lady and a mysterious mummy’s curse. Because the Titanic was practically unsinkable, so said the White Star Line, she was considered a safe haven for everything from objets d’art to expensive touring cars.
“Oh! My beloved! Fill the cup that clears today of past regrets and future fears.” In one of my yellowing William Carey College yearbooks, a long-forgotten someone wrote that quote from Omar Khayyam’s book of poetry, the “Rubaiyat.” An 1859 copy of that book was on the Titanic. Its cover of Moroccan leather, inlaid wood, and ivory was encrusted with precious jewels and 24-karat gold. If the book still exists in its watery grave and was discovered and restored, it could easily be worth over three or four hundred thousand dollars today. (The book in the picture is a colorized photograph of the original book.)
I can only imagine the sneers and jeers of the Titanic’s crew as they loaded aboard a 9 by 5-foot crate that cradled “La Circassienne au Bain,” painted in 1814 by Merry-Joseph Blondel. The massive painting gained notoriety in the press at the time of the sinking, not so much for its artistic merit but because it was the largest insurance claim against the White Star Line. The owner’s claim was $100,000 (equivalent to over $2.6 million today), making it by far the most highly valued single item of cargo lost due to the sinking. Alas, the owner received only a fraction of his claim. (The painting shown in the picture is a copy of the original painting by another artist.)
One of the strangest stories surrounding the Titanic was a tale about an unlucky mummy, whose curse was more responsible for the ship’s sinking than the floating island of ice that scraped its hull. In truth, there was a mummy purchased near Luxor by an Englishman; it was said to be cursed. However, the Titanic’s shipping records indicate no mummy was on board. How the cursed mummy ever made its way on board the Titanic is…well…a mystery as well. Perhaps Margaret “Molly” Brown’s crate of ancient Egyptian artifacts—small wooden and clay models of everyday life that were entombed with the pharaohs to help them in the afterlife—was the slender thread of truth that fueled the tale of the mummy and its curse. Molly had intended to donate the artifacts to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.
In the aftermath of the Titanic’s sinking, the survivors and the families of those lost filed claims totaling about $16 million. (In today’s dollars, that would be over 400 million.) However, the White Star Line contested the claims, alleging a clause in the passengers’ tickets that absolved the line of liability. Additionally, White Star stated that the circumstances leading to the accident were unforeseeable. Lastly, it was claimed that things like visibility, warning telegrams, and the Titanic’s speed should not be considered by the court. Eventually, the plaintiffs and defendant settled for a total sum of only $664,000.
One last tidbit of Titanic insurance trivia: the sinking also resulted in the first and only insurance claim for a car hit by an iceberg. Mr. William Carter filed a five-thousand-dollar claim for his 25-horsepower Renault, lost at sea. It was in that car that Jack lost his…well, you know…to Rose.
(Originally posted April 5, 2021)
