Titanic expert coming to Cork for 'Oceantiques Roadshow'

A Titanic and White Star Line expert will be in Cork on Saturday to offer his help to people who may have potentially valuable ocean liner material discarded in their attics.

Senan Molony, who has written several Titanic books and made TV documentaries, is convinced there is plenty of unconverted cash in people’s homes.

“Cork has an unbelievable maritime heritage, going back to the days when James Joyce’s father was going out to meet the transatlantic liners at Queenstown,’ says Senan, author of The Irish Aboard Titanic and Lusitania: An Irish Tragedy.

“That was in the middle of the 19th century and the liners have been coming ever since, even if these days they are of the cruise variety.”

After a 35 year career as a journalist, Senan says he now has more time to indulge his passion for all matters maritime — and that means ferreting out gems in Cork that may not have seen the light of day in decades.

“I’ve bought and sold a lot of stuff privately and of course monitored auctions and the marketplace for many years,” says Senan.

“I once chased down a claimed Titanic menu that was reported by the Irish Times as turning up unexpectedly at a market in Athy. But it was a disappointing clumsy counterfeit, so a real case of fake news, unfortunately.

“But there is plenty of material still around and I am seeing one or two items. It is a privilege sometimes just to see an authentic item that has survived for over a century — whether it be a Cunard badge of the type sold in barbershops on board, or a sailing schedule or passenger list from the golden age of the liners.

“The Titanic was in Cobh, or Queenstown as it then was, for just one morning, on Thursday April 11, 1912. She had turned out of the harbour for the Atlantic crossing from which she never returned by 1.30pm that day.

“But in that time a large number of visitors went aboard - port dignitaries and hoteliers and a delegation from the thriving local press, even a mysterious Cork schoolboy who has turned up in photographs.

A local ferryboat captain named Whyte is known to have taken pictures from his vessel and they have since disappeared, but there is every reason to think that some items relating to that famous day have crossed the seas of time into 2019. It would be nice to think so.

He is calling this Saturday's event a one-man ‘Oceantiques Roadshow’.

"I’m happy to give my best estimates based on long experience just for the chance to see and hold some precious mementos.”

Senan points out that the Cobh agents for the White Star Line, James Scott & Co, produced a bewildering array of paper items, from calendars to brochures, letterheads and tickets.

“There’s a market for the most humble items, as we can see with contemporary ship postcards on eBay. But there’s also heavyweight stuff in Cork — literally in the case of portholes and tiles and all sorts of hardware salvaged from the RMS Celtic, once the largest ship in the world and also a White Star liner, which went aground on the Cow and Calf rock off Queenstown in December 1928.”

Senan Molony can be contacted on 086 8540170 or [e-mail].