The touching story of the Titanic engineer's engagement ring up for auction
More than a century after the Titanic sank, the engagement ring and letter with the touching story of brave shipbuilder Thomas Andrews will officially be auctioned with an estimated value of nearly half a billion VND.
Recently, the world media had the opportunity to recall the story of the shipbuilder mentioned in the classic movie "Titannic" (1997) when the engagement ring and letter of the ill-fated shipbuilder were about to be auctioned.
It is known that the shipbuilding engineer was Mr. Thomas Andrews. He was the person who supervised the shipbuilding and operation of the Titanic. In particular, Thomas Andrews was also the one who tried to convince his superiors that there must be enough lifeboats for all passengers and service staff on board, in case of any unexpected events. However, his opinion was rejected.
Andrews was on the Titanic as part of his regular duties. He first helped take the ship from its shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland, to Southampton, England, and then on its maiden voyage to New York, USA, which began on April 10, 1912. Four days later, the ship hit an iceberg and began to sink.
When the tragedy occurred, this noble engineer tried to help women and children get into the lifeboats, including a female servant on the ship named Mary Sloan, but he himself and many other men on the ship had no intention of saving a place for themselves to escape.In the end, Thomas Andrews went down with the ship and 1,500 ill-fated passengers in this historic maritime tragedy.
Six weeks after the sinking, a relative of Thomas Andrews happened to visit Mary Sloan in Belfast and heard her tell of his heroic actions before going down with the Titanic. The relative then wrote a letter along with Thomas Andrews' sapphire engagement ring to the engineer's grieving mother back home.
The letter reads: “Dear sister Lizzie (Mr. Thomas Andrews' mother's name), I am here to see Miss Mary Sloan - the stewardess who was on the same train with Thomas. She says Thomas was a true gentleman, very brave, very calm although he knew there was no hope for the situation that had occurred from the first moment when it began..
The engagement ring was kept by Thomas' wife as a treasure, although she later remarried. But before she died, she passed the ring to her youngest daughter, Vera Morrison.
