A necklace that once belonged to a passenger on the RMS Titanic was recely found in a piece of the wreckage that was pulled from the ocean floor 25 years ago.
Because the design style of this necklace is similar to mourning jewelry, researchers believe that its owner may have lost a loved one shortly before the ship sank on April 15, 1912.
The octagonal and heart-shaped beads of this necklace are made of a type of black glass called “French Jet”; A material that was usually used in making mourning ornames at that time.
In 2000, divers unwittingly recovered the necklace while bringing pieces of the wreckage to the surface. For more than two decades, the necklace’s beads were stuck among sedimes and debris that had been compacted and consolidated by the enormous water pressure on the ocean floor.
The necklace has now been removed from the piece and is on display at the Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition in Orlando, Florida. Although the exact origin of this amazing object is still shrouded in mystery, experts have determined that this necklace most likely belonged to the Victorian era and was a type of mourning jewelry. This indication suggests that the owner of the necklace was probably mourning the loss of a loved one when he boarded the ship in April 1912.
But how did the Titanic passenger’s mourning necklace remain hidden for 25 years? Researchers still do not know who this necklace originally belonged to.
Since the sinking of the RMS Titanic on April 15, 1912, a vast collection of valuable objects has been recovered from the wreckage. In 2000, a group of divers from the RMS Titanic recovered a large piece and several smaller pieces from the wreckage field in the North Atlaic Ocean.
At that time, the team members believed that all the valuable objects in those fragmes had been discovered and collected. But recely, during a closer examination of the same recovered piece, museum guards discovered the presence of a necklace hidden in the sedimes.
This brillia work was hidden from the eyes for almost 25 years, because it was located inside a mass that was very hard and composed of sand, rocks, rusted metals and other debris that were compressed and solidified by the iense pressure of the deep sea.
After the guards realized that an object was hidden inside this mass, they carefully removed the layers of sedime and revealed black beads in the shape of an octagon and a heart. Some vertebrae were broken, but some were still together after 113 years.
After the discovery of the necklace, the RMS Titanic company tried to ideify its possible owner, but the review of insurance files related to the damages caused by the sinking of the Titanic was unsuccessful. The necklace may have been uninsured, or perhaps an insurance claim was never filed for it, as its owner was among the 1,496 who did not survive the accide.
Experts believe that this necklace is an example of Victorian mourning jewelry. Examination of the beads showed that they were made of a type of glass known as “French jet”; A material that is a cheaper imitation of the “jet” gemstone and is itself composed of a type of fossilized coal derived from fossilized wood.
Jewelry made with black stones such as jet glass or black opal were popular among mourners during the Victorian and Edwardian eras. This tradition was popularized after Queen Victoria wore jet jewelry at her husband Prince Albert’s funeral in 1861, and coinued to wear them for the rest of her life.
It is possible that the passenger who carried this French jet necklace was also in mourning. Thomasina Ray, Preside and Director of Collections at RMS Titanic, said: “This necklace is a powerful reminder that every artifact has a personal story at its heart. From the elegance of the construction to the type of materials used, they all open an irreplaceable window to the style, feeling and daily life of Titanic passengers.
