Rare artifacts from Titanic are hidden in secret location only a few people can ever access
If you've ever been curious about the real-life stories of the Titanic's passengers, there's a secret warehouse that is a treasure trove of the ship's many tales.
The Titanic is history's most famous shipwreck — and yet despite all our efforts to study it — it still sometimes feels like we've barely scratched the surface of its lore.
But, there is a secret warehouse that holds many answers on who was aboard the Titanic.
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Located somewhere in Atlanta, Georgia, the warehouse stores thousands of items and artifacts that survived the shipwreck.
Per the BBC, the warehouse's shelves are packed with recovered items from glassware, to buttons, to a dented porthole, to even an upturned bathtub.
The RMS Titanic Inc, the firm that recovered all these artifacts, told the BBC they've managed to retrieve 5,500 items from the shipwreck, with some being displayed publicly in museums or exhibitions across the world.
One precious item is a handbag made from alligator skin that belonged to a 63-year-old passenger called Marian Meanwell.
"It's a really beautiful, fashionable little bag," said Tomasina Ray, director of collections for RMS Titanic Inc, to the BBC.
"She was a 63-year-old milliner," she added. "She was traveling to the US to be with her daughter who was recently widowed."
The items inside Meanwell's bag also managed to survive the shipwreck, including a faded photograph that's thought to be of her mother and the paperwork she needed for her new life in America.
Other incredible items stored at the warehouse include tiny vials of perfume that are apparently still 'very potent' according to Ray.
"There was a perfume salesman on board and he had over 90 of these little perfume vials," she explained. They belonged to a passenger called Adolphe Saalfeld who was one of the 700 people to survive the shipwreck.
"He had passed by the time we found this," said Ray. "But it's my understanding that he did live with a bit of guilt — survivor's guilt."
The warehouse also stores a champagne bottle that still has champagne inside and a cork on top.
"A little bit of water probably would have gotten in through the cork as it compressed and equalized the pressure. And then it just sat on the bottom of the ocean," Ray explained.
"There are a lot of bottles on the ocean floor and a lot of stock pots and kitchen pots too, because Titanic actually broke up around one of the kitchens," she added.
The warehouse also reveals the different cups given to passengers based on their class.
Third-class passengers received simple mugs that had a bright red White Star logo. Second-class passengers had cups with blue floral decorations. While first-class passengers had plates made from a more delicate china.
RMS Titanic Inc is the only company that is legally allowed to recover items and artifacts from the shipwreck. The firm recently announced its plans to retrieve the Marconi radio equipment that transmitted the Titanic's distress calls from the site.
"Titanic is something that we want to respect," Ray shared. "We want to make sure that we're preserving the memory, because not everyone can go down to Titanic, and we want to be able to bring that to the public."
Topics: Titanic
Yasmeen Hamadeh