During the week of April 3-10th 1912, crew members and others prepared the RMS Titanic, the World’s Largest Ship, for its scheduled April 10th departure from Southampton across the Atlantic to New York. During this week crew members loaded supplies, 20 lifeboats, as well as state of the art wooden deck chairs that outline the ships 10 decks. What was a joyous and record setting day on April 10th, 1912 at the Ocean Dock in Southampton as a small crowd of onlookers watched as Titanic pulled slowly away from the ocean dock at the start of her maiden voyage.

During the night of April 14th when the ship struck an iceberg, it immediately began to sink, snapping in two and becoming completely submerged within only hours. The tragedy claimed the life of over 1,500 passenger who were reported to have been throwing the ships deck chairs and other buoyant articles overboard when the 20 lifeboats were used up by only just over 700 members of the cruise. Unfortunately, the freezing waters and hypothermia ultimately made survival impossible and the Ocean was left with debris from one of its greatest and certainly most famous maritime tragedies.

This wooden deck chair was found drifting in the North Atlantic in all of the wreckage following the disaster, drifted to Nova Scotia, Halifax where it was found beached by Bessie Taylor of Cooks Cove. The chair is missing some palings on the back-support area which are included, but not secured to the chair. Additionally, the chair shows evidence of repair in several areas as well as an unrepaired crack across the lower support bar at the base of the seat where it meets the back of the chair. According to the documentation that accompanies the chair from Walter Lord author of “A Night to Remember”, the chair was kept in a shed and passed down to family members for nearly 80 years prior to being acquired by Mr. Lord. Accompanying the wooden deck chair is the letter from Mr. Lord to Ken Schultz, the original receipt of purchase from Ken Schultz to our consignor in the amount of $80,000, as well as a photograph of the exact style of chairs aboard the titanic prior to its departure on April 10th, 1912. Additionally one of these chairs has sold publicly for $150,000. After thorough research, there is a nearly identical chair on display at a renown Titanic Museum and is shown in the photos in the listing, but not included. Additionally, an article on the Titanic deck chairs was also located showing a chair which identically resembles this chair. The Walter Lord signature has been verified by Beckett Authentication services and comes with a full LOA.

About Ken Shultz: Mr. Schultz was regarded as a pioneer and leader in the field of ocean liner memorabilia. He was featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and several books on ocean liner collectibles. His Oceanic Catalogs are still used as references and he was a world-renowned antiques dealer. As an expert in ocean liner memorabilia, he was a highly regarded consultant and sought-after speaker and often quoted in leading media publications such as Antiques and the Arts Weekly. He also served as an advisor on the film Titanic and was curator of the Hoboken Historical Museum’s “Destination Hoboken: The Great Ocean Liners of Hamberg-American and North German Lloyd” in 2002.

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