Rare artifacts from the Titanic stored in a secret warehouse (11 photos)

An alligator-skin handbag and tiny bottles of perfume that still exude a powerful scent are just a few of the precious artifacts recovered from the wreck of the world's most famous ship, the Titanic.





The exact location of the warehouse where they are stored is a closely guarded secret due to the value of its contents. All that can be said is that it is located somewhere in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

Inside, shelves are lined with thousands of items, from an upturned bath and a dented porthole to intricately etched glassware and tiny buttons.

The BBC was given a rare chance to tour the vault and learn the stories behind some of the items.



The Titanic sails from Belfast for sea trials, 1912

An alligator bag with tragic history

"It's a very beautiful, fashionable little bag," says Thomasina Ray, director of collections at RMS Titanic Inc, the company that has been restoring the artefacts. The American company holds the salvage rights to the ship and has recovered 5,500 items from the wreck over the years, some of which are on display around the world.

The bag is made from alligator skin that has survived decades in the depths of the North Atlantic. The fragile objects inside were also preserved and revealed a little about the life of its owner, a third-class passenger named Marian Meanwell.

"She was a 63-year-old milliner," says Thomasina. "She was traveling to the United States to be with her daughter, who had recently been widowed."





Among the items stored inside was a faded photograph believed to be of Marian Meanwell's mother.

Also inside were the documents she would need for her new life in America, including a handwritten letter of introduction from her former landlord in London. It reads: “We have always found Miss Meanwell a good tenant, paying her rent promptly.”

Also inside was her medical clearance card, as all third-class passengers had to certify that they were not bringing diseases into the United States. But the water-stained document reveals a tragic twist of fate.

Marian Meanwell had booked passage on the Majestic, another White Star Line ship. But it never sailed, so the Majestic’s card is crossed out, and her ticket shows she was transferred to the Titanic, one of the 1,500 who died.

“Being able to tell her story and have these items is very special,” says Thomasina.

“Otherwise, she’s just another name on the list.”



Perfume that still works

Items belonging to survivors have also been recovered from the depths.

Tomasina opens the plastic container, and a sickly sweet smell fills the air. “It’s very strong,” she admits.

Inside are tiny bottles of perfume. They are sealed, but their strong scent is noticeable even after decades on the seabed. “There was a perfume salesman on board, and he had more than 90 of these little bottles,” Tomasina explains.

His name was Adolf Saalfeld, and he was traveling as a first-class passenger.

Saalfeld was one of 700 people who survived. But because women and children were to be prioritized during the evacuation, some of the men who managed to leave the ship carried the guilt of taking their place.

“By the time we found these spirits, he was no longer alive,” says Thomasina. “But from what I understand, he lived with guilt—survivor’s guilt.”



A Champagne Lifestyle

The collection also includes a bottle of Champagne, with the drink inside and a cork at the top.

"A little bit of water probably got in through the cork when it was compressing and equalizing the pressure. And then it just settled to the bottom of the ocean," says Tomasina.

When the Titanic sank in 1912 after hitting an iceberg, the ship broke apart and its contents spilled out, creating a huge debris field.



"There are a lot of bottles on the ocean floor, and also a lot of pots and other kitchen utensils, because the impact actually hit one of the kitchens," says Tomasina.

There were thousands of bottles of champagne on board. The owner of the liner wanted first class passengers to experience the utmost luxury in a first-class setting, with the best food and drinks.



The bow of the sunken Titanic

"It was like a floating palace. The Titanic was supposed to be the most luxurious liner," says Tomasina. "So having champagne, a gym, all these amenities and wonderful things for passengers was very important."



The Titanic had a gym with exercise machines

Rivet display

The Titanic was on her maiden voyage from Southampton to the United States when she hit an iceberg. The ship was equipped with the most modern safety systems of the time and was known to be unsinkable.

Tomasina shows off some of the ship's rivets - thick metal pins that held thick steel plates together. There were more than three million of them.

"When the Titanic sank, there was a theory that maybe they used inferior materials and that's why the ship sank faster," explains Tomasina.



Some of these rivets have been tested for impurities.

"They were found to have a high concentration of slag, which is a glass-like material that makes them maybe a little more brittle in the cold," she says. "If these rivets were brittle and one of the rivet heads came off more easily, that could have allowed the seam to open up where the iceberg hit and make it bigger."

Tomasina says there is still much to learn about how exactly the ship sank: “We can help to explore theories, so being able to contribute to science and history is something we are very happy to do.”

Class divide

Life on board was different for different social classes, right down to the cups and plates passengers drank and ate from.

The third-class mug is plain and sturdy, with a bright red White Star logo. The second-class plate is decorated with a blue floral pattern and is a little more ornate. The first-class dinner plate, however, is made of more delicate porcelain. It has a gold border and, when held up to the light, an intricate garland pattern can be seen. “It was supposed to be coloured, but because it was on top of the glaze, it was able to wash away,” says Tomasina.

The wealthy first-class passengers got the finest of everything, but third class was a different story. “Stephen passengers were likely to be self-catering – and the crockery would certainly have been much more durable and much rougher to handle than other china,” explains Tomasina.



RMS Titanic Inc is the only company legally allowed to recover items from the wreck, a right granted by a US court in 1994. But it must do so under strict conditions – the items must remain together at all times so they cannot be sold separately, and they must be properly preserved.

So far, all the artifacts have been collected from the wreckage on the seabed. But recently, the company has stirred controversy by announcing its desire to take one item from the ship itself: the Marconi radio equipment that transmitted Titanic's distress signals on the night of the sinking.



A bathroom at the Titanic wreck

Some people believe that the wreck is a burial site and should be left alone.

"Titanic is something we want to respect," Tomasina says. “We want to make sure we preserve the memory because not everyone gets to experience the Titanic, and we want to be able to share that with the public.”

The shelves in this secret warehouse may soon need more space. The company’s latest expedition took millions of images of the wreck to create detailed 3D scans. In addition to studying the current state of the Marconi radio room, the team also identified objects in the debris field that they would like to recover in future dives.

Who knows what they will find and what untold stories each item may reveal about the ill-fated Titanic and its passengers.