Resource Pack 1: 1912 Titanic
2 Cork City & County Archives: Through War and Rebellion: Cork 1912-1918
Year 1912 PR33/2 Shipping Agent’s book with Titanic Entry
Background Everyone knows the Titanic story. Claimed to be ‘unsinkable,’ the largest passenger ship in the world left Southampton and called at Cherbourg in France and Queenstown in Ireland on its way to New York on its maiden (first) voyage. On 14 April 1912, four days into the crossing and about 375 miles (600 km) south of Newfoundland, she hit an iceberg at 11:40 p.m. Three hours later the ship broke apart and sank with more than 1,000 people on board. The wreck was found in 1985 an expedition led by Robert Ballard.. However, the Titanic story hides a much greater story of the movement of more than twenty-nine million Europeans (including three million Irish) who immigrated to the United States between 1821 and 1912. The Document Even short documents can provide a huge amount of information. This is a single page from the ledger of a passenger shipping agent based at Queenstown, Co. Cork in 1912. It records the date on which the ship arrives, who owned it, its name, where it came from and where it was going and how many people got on and off the ship.
Instructions
1. Read through the document 2. Highlight the names of people, sentences, or words you do not understand. 3. Highlight any words you cannot read. 4. Fill in the recording sheet supplied and attach it to the document 5. Store the completed work as directed by your teacher.
6. Optional: The hand writing changes in the middle of the document. Which do you find easier to read. Draw your own ledger and transcribe three lines of the document in your own hand-writing. Invite someone else in the class to read it. If they find it difficult to read do you think you would have got a job with this firm? 7. Optional: A note added to the top left corner of the page many years after 1912 mentions the Titanic and ‘A Night to Remember’. Look up and explain this reference.
SP1912-18, 1912 Titanic
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