Posted on 03/16/2013 6:26:44 AM PDT by scrabblehack
A salt-stained violin that sank with the Titanic a century ago may soon come up for auction, the New York Post reports. Experts have authenticated the instrument, and say that bandmaster Wallace Hartley played it in the ship's final moments as he led his eight-member group in performing "Nearer, My God, to Thee." The violin turned up 10 days after the disaster, strapped to Hartley's body in a leather valise engraved with his initials.
A gift from Hartley's fiancee, the violin had three owners before the current anonymous owner discovered it in his mother's attic seven years ago. "When we first saw the violin, we had to keep a lid on our excitement, because it was almost as if it was too good to be true," said a Titanic auctioneer who spent seven years authenticating the instrument. "It is the most important artifact relating to the Titanic to ever emerge, and probably the most valuable." Estimated to be worth six figures, it will remain on display in the English town of Devizes for now.
Now if the band actually stopped playing well in advance of the sinking (as alleged by one of the posters), I find it more likely that the violin was genuine. I can't see anyone throwing a violin on a lifeboat as the last thing off the ship.
Hmmm....maybe it was found by the Californian or one of the other rescue ships (does a violin float?) but if so it seems there would be less doubt about its authenticity.
You need to change your tagline like I had to...
I have been doing that since 1998
Sign of a true FReeper. Post without reading entire article!
like
perhaps, like I, he took the “evln wd spd rding crse”
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| GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach | |
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Thanks scrabblehack. Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution. |
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Damn, I read that once and knew exactly what you said.
Hopefully there isn’t a 12 step for FReepers. That would be a dark day in hell!
I read the entire article. There’s two sentences not in the excerpt, adding nothing about how the provenance was authenticated. Only who did the research and how long it took. Certainly nothing to settle the debate as to whether the band played “Nearer My God To Thee” or “Autumn.”
Did I miss something?
I don’t know. I didn’t read the article! =)
It should be brought and then played 24/7 in front of the White House.
Not to mention grim speculation as to when Wallace Hartley ceased playing, cased his instrument, & strapped it to himself knowing he would not long survive in the icy waters of the North Atlantic.
My MIL’s mother was an adult in 1912. When I suggested the final tune was “Autumn”, she got out an ancient hymnal & exclaimed, “My mother sang that hymn all the time when I was a child! She said it was her way of remembering the Titanic victims.”
The Band Who Played On
Dang, I went ahead to the comments....I’m sure I read it but it didn’t sink in. OK, so it was strapped to his body.
Yes, with a strap.
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