Postal Workers on the Titanic

Posted by Alex in Everything Else on May 5, 2008 at 4:44 pm


I learned something new about the Titanic today, thanks to Stamps of Distinction blog. The ship was a Royal Mail Ship (RMS) and commissioned to carry over 3,000 mailbags across the Atlantic. And when it sank, five postal workers tried in vain to save sacks of registered mails rather than saving their own lives:

The postal workers rushed to the mail room to begin rescuing the mail. It has been estimated that the workers retrieved up to 200 sacks of registered mail and had carried them to the upper decks on the slim chance that it might get rescued. Even as water began to fill the post office, the men admirably answered the postal workers call of duty to save the mail from destruction. Their admirable efforts might have cost the men their lives; as they tried to get the mail above deck, their chances of getting aboard one of the precious few lifeboats, while slim at best, vanished completely as the chivalrous call for women and children first seized the day.

Link - Thanks Tony Servies!


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8 comments to "Postal Workers on the Titanic"

  1. CheeseDuck
    May 5th, 2008 at 5:03 pm

    Honorable, but was is worth it?

  2. Tempscire
    May 5th, 2008 at 6:27 pm

    Considering that focusing on the mail probably kept them from panicking and they never had any real chance of getting on a life boat... I'd say probably worth it. What else could they have done?

  3. Viola
    May 5th, 2008 at 9:55 pm

    Should have made the bags waterproof. Then they'd have doubled as floats that the mailmen could have ridden off into the sunset.

    "I'll never let go, Mail Sorter Marcus! I'll never let go!"

  4. fsmarch
    May 6th, 2008 at 1:46 am

    Talk about taking your job too seriously!!!

  5. windowshoppist
    May 6th, 2008 at 4:12 am

    This is like something out of that Terry Pratchett novel about the post office...

  6. Rich
    May 6th, 2008 at 9:18 am

    Wouldn't it be interesting to see that kind of dedication in folks today, like at a burger place, a coffee bar or heaven forbid, at the airport.

    Reminds me of a Monty Python Sketch...
    "Oh Bicycle repair man... THANK YOU!"

  7. Jimbo
    May 6th, 2008 at 3:36 pm

    And it just cost a penny to mail a letter.

    Now, they are jacking up the price and going postal.

    Go figure

  8. matt
    May 6th, 2008 at 3:38 pm

    It's just mail.


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