Titanic tussle over auction of deckchair

THE grandson of the man supposed to have taken a deckchair from the Titanic poured cold water on the story last night ahead of its auction in America, where it’s expected to fetch up to €82,500.

The wooden chair is said to have been taken as a souvenir, moments before Titanic left Queenstown (now Cobh), Co Cork, by local photographer Thomas Barker - the man who took the only known photographs of Titanic passengers embarking.

Mr Barker, the first staffed photographer in any Irish newspaper, was working for the then Cork Examiner.