Purser's Office

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George Pastarmatzis

Member
I was just wondering: did the first class women who claimed their valuables from the purser's office finally took them with them in the boats or are they just in their staterooms never to be found again? What about those who made no such effort to retrieve their jewels?
George ...
 
George,

The Titanic's safes were not overflowing with gold and diamonds like popular legends attest, however there were a few well known items stored such as the jewel encrusted copy of the Rubiyat. More likely than not the First Class women took their jewelry with them, however during the chaos later in the night when it became clear that the ship was indeed sinking in several accounts, it is said that the pursers refused to return jewelry after a certain time stressing getting to the boats as being more important. So it is plausible that some treasure went down with the ship but none has been found in the wreckage so far.

Brian
 
Hi Marykate!

I wouldn't say the valuables "perished" so to speak, however they are most likely buried too deep in the wreckage to be salvaged and are probably layered over with many layers of mud, silt, rusticles and marine life. This is of course an educated assumption based on the condition of the interior views of the wreck I have seen, however I will not rule out that any jewels could very well have been smashed and destroyed during the breakup and the ship hitting bottom as well.

Brian
 
There is also the fact that there were few "important" jewels aboard the Titanic - Mrs. Widner's pearls being an exception. Most "fashionable" jewelry is worth what it is more from taste than actual value, so even though there may have been claims of pricy jewelry, what price it could actually command is a completely different question.
 
The only jewels that command a large price tag over any amount of time are the large jewels such as the Star of Africa, the Kimerly Twins (earrings) the Hope diamond, that kind of thing. Precious stones under 3-5 carats do not have the history of rising values that these do.
 
Does anyone else have any other information about Mrs. Widener's pearls? (shape, cost etc)Also, how did she keep them with her at all times and where are they nowadays? Thanks in advance, George ...
 

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