Apr 12, 2018 - Sale 2473

Sale 2473 - Lot 211

Price Realized: $ 910
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
(TITANIC.) Omont, Alfred Fernand. Marconigram from a Titanic survivor sent from the Carpathia. Manuscript message in pencil on printed telegraph blank headed "The Marconi International Marine Communication Company," 5 3/4 x 8 1/2 inches; minor wear, with 2 contemporary inked "Carpathia" stamps and numerous annotations regarding charges and transmission. Aboard the Carpathia, 8:22 a.m., 18 April 1912
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Additional Details

The passengers rescued from the Titanic were eager to send word home to their loved ones. Aboard the rescue ships, they lined up at the offices of each ship's Marconi wireless telegraph operators and scrawled out or dictated their messages. In 1989, a group of these original messages was unearthed, going on exhibit at an English maritime museum before hitting the auction block. Offered here is a message by passenger Alfred Ferdinand Omont (1882-1948), written out aboard the RMS Carpathia three days after the sinking. It begins with his family's address, "Omont 8 Rue Hulme Elbeuf France," and then reads in full "Sauve serai New York Jeudi baisers, Fernand"--informing them of his expected imminent arrival in New York on Thursday (the day of his message). It was sent by the Carpathia's lone telegrapher, Harold Thomas Cottam, who initialed it "HC."
According to testimony he gave in the British inquiry, after the collision Omont had been told by the first mate to put on his life-preserver "as a precaution," went up to the deck, found it chilly, and returned to his cabin to change into his overcoat before jumping into a lifeboat. He was picked up at dawn by the Carpathia, the first and most effective of the ships which came to the Titanic's rescue. Provenance: Part of the Booth Titanic Signals archive sold in a Christies sale, 14 April 1992, lot 6; and sold to the consignor in 1999 with a certificate of authenticity. Reference: Coughlan, Titanic: Signals of Disaster, private message #91 (page 109).