The Iceberg That Sunk The Titanic May Be In This Historic Photograph Taken By An Undertaker Who Was Part Of The Recovery Mission
Most of us have a specific historical event we can’t get over and have been fascinated by for quite some time now.
For instance, I’m fascinated by the life of Marie Antoinette and the French Revolution. Why? I honestly can’t tell you. But I can tell you that I’ve spent a lot of time researching those topics at home.
For a lot of people, when you ask them what historical event they’re low-key obsessed with, they’ll tell you that it’s the Titanic.
The story of the RMS Titanic is considered one of the most tragic and notable disasters in human history. Over a thousand people lost their lives in an event none of them saw coming.
Since the tragic destruction and sinking of the Titanic in 1912, researchers have tried to learn as much as they can about the infamous iceberg the ship collided with, eventually causing it to sink. Now, we may have photographic evidence of that iceberg.
Last month, a historic photograph of an iceberg taken by John Snow Jr., an undertaker responsible for gathering many of the bodies of the Titanic’s victims just days after the disaster, went up for auction. Why? Because the photograph very well may be of the iceberg, the ‘unsinkable’ Titanic hit.
John Snow Jr. was the chief embalmer for the John Snow & Co. funeral company, which was one of the most successful funeral businesses in the Maritime provinces of Canada.
Once people on land learned about the devastation of the Titanic, John Snow Jr. and his men were summoned to help collect some bodies of deceased passengers from the water.
John Snow Jr. and other funeral directors traveled out to the scene of the Titanic sinking on Cable Ship Mackay-Bennett on April 16th, 1912.
Goinyk – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only
They were quickly overwhelmed by the number of bodies in the freezing water, so much so that they had to call in additional ships.
Recovering bodies took several days, ships, undertakers, and materials. The crew of the Cable Ship Mackay-Bennett was estimated to recover a little over 300 bodies after days of searching the site of the tragedy.
The five-inch by three-inch photograph of an iceberg was taken by John Snow Jr. during his mission just two days after the sinking of the Titanic.
While no one can know for sure if John’s photograph is of the same iceberg that hit the Titanic, many researchers and scholars believe it could be. After all, the C.S. Mackay-Bennett was one of the first recovery ships to arrive at the wreckage site.
Additionally, some question why John would photograph any iceberg near the devastation if it wasn’t the one that caused the tragic event.
The photo was passed down for several generations until a memorabilia collector obtained it. It went up for auction at Henry Aldridge & Son Auctioneers of Devizes, Wiltshire, and was purchased for a sum between $5,000 to $8,800.
Do you think the photograph could be of the actual iceberg that caused one of the most famous tragedies in history?
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