Section of Titanic Hull offered by Heritage Auctions May 21 auction features 7 x 4 inch piece of hull, fossilized impression of railing and rope and other never-before-offered Titanic relics consigned by famed deep ocean archeologist and Hollywood cons
News-Antique.com - May 09,2011 - DALLAS, TX – An actual 7 x 4 inch section from the hull of the doomed ship R.M.S. Titanic, modern history’s most famous shipwreck – consigned by famous author, Hollywood consultant and deep sea archeologist Charles Pellegrino – is expected to bring $4,000+ as part of Heritage Auctions’ May 21 Americana & Political Memorabilia event. A minimum of 10% from proceeds will be donated to the Firefighter's Burn Center.
“This is the first time these relics have ever been offered,” said Tom Slater, Heritage’s Director of Americana, “Pellegrino, one of the world’s foremost experts on the doomed ship, has chosen now to share this treasure with the world, and we expect that collectors will be clamoring for a chance to make this theirs.”
The actual wreck of the Titanic is, of course, strictly protected, making portions of the ship itself virtually unavailable in the private market. This section, however, was part of the "crackage" of the great boat, which sheared away from the vessel as it broke in half, and was recovered from the ocean floor some distance from the wreck. A semicircular depression in one corner of the piece is evidence of the force with which the ship cracked, sufficient to pop a rivet completely away from the hull. It has become essentially fossilized after the bio-absorption.
Also included in Pellegrino’s consignment is a fossil impression of rope from H. M.S. Titanic measuring 1.5" x 2", in which original rope strands became imbedded, found inside rusticle formations growing around the davit bit (the rib or buttress-like appendage from which lifeboats were suspended) that was used to lower the #8 lifeboat, expected to bring $4,000+, along with a 2.5” sample from the railing of the Titanic's "#8 Lifeboat" davit, also estimated at $4,000+. A minimum of 10% of the proceeds of these lots will also be donated to the Firefighter's Burn Center.
“The #8 Lifeboat railing is particularly significant,” said Slater. “The Titanic's band played near this location and this is also where Mrs. Isador Strauss gave her maid, Ellen Bird, her fur coat, saying she would not be needing it, then stepping away from the boat and joining her husband behind the rail saying, ‘Where you go, I go.’”
ABOUT CHARLES PELLEGRINO:
Charles Pellegrino is one of the most well-known and influential scientists and authors in the world, often crossing over between the fields of astrobiology, primordial biology, and deep-ocean bio-archaeology. He has published reports ranging from the 1988 AAAS Symposium on International Cooperation on Large Scale Space Ventures to the New York Times best seller, Her Name, Titanic, a non-fiction source for James Cameron’s Titanic. He was an on-screen scientist/historian in James Cameron’s 3D documentary Ghosts of the Abyss, and one of a small army of scientific consultants used during the filming of Avatar.
Pellegrino was part of the first expedition to explore the wreck of the Titanic, where he came up with the “down-blast” hypothesis about the bow and stern sections’ first moments of contact with the
