Dec 01, 2011 - Sale 2263

Sale 2263 - Lot 640

Price Realized: $ 6,240
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
(WHITE STAR LINE.) "Titanic." Landing or Custom Card issued to Mrs. Cassebeer onboard the "Carpathia" after being rescued from the "Titanic," 3 1/2x4 inches; accomplished in manuscript with Cassebeer's name, identifying her as being on list 3, 29th on list, being a saloon passenger, and having embarked at Southampton on 10 April 1912 [sic]; in a hard plastic case; from the collection of "Titanic" historian Walter Lord, with his label on verso of a backing card. At sea, 10th April 1912
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Additional Details

Mrs. Henry Arthur Cassebeer of New York City, boarded the "Titanic" as a first class passenger in Cherbourg (rather than Southampton as indicated on the landing card). She gave an interview to a reporter for the Binghamton Press on 29 April 1912 while visiting her mother. Cassebeer was headed for New York City to board a train to Washington, D.C. where she would give testimony to a Senate subcommittee regarding the disaster.
Cassebeer was laying down in her cabin on the starboard side of D deck when the ship hit the iceberg. She clearly felt the impact and in her lounging kimono went outside to find out what had happened. She encountered Thomas Andrews, representing the builders of the ship Harland & Wolff, who assured her that the ship was safe and unsinkable. She was approached shortly thereafter by a purser on the ship advising her to return to her cabin, dress in warm clothing and prepare to enter a lifeboat. She did as advised and reappeared on deck in warm clothing and wearing a life preserver. She again encountered Thomas Andrews who led her to a lifeboat. She entered the lifeboat which was lowered shortly thereafter with 37 passengers.
Her account of boarding the lifeboat adds important information regarding the actions of Bruce Ismay (chairman and managing director of the White Star Line) during the sinking. Detractors maintain that Ismay was one of the first to leave the ship, but Cassebeer reports that he assisted her into the lifeboat (the 6th to be launched). She further maintained that the crew of her lifeboat attempted to return for passengers in the water but was unable to do so because other passengers on the lifeboat forcibly prevented them.