A good new years tale as shown in the
below:
This story is mentioned in "Guy's Tales of the SWs" - but he did not have
the cutting - so missed some details. It reads:- At 386 On one occasion before the Kaiser's War the Sims Williams children found down on the Back Strand at Murvagh, a bottle which had been washed up there by the tide and which apparently had a piece of paper in it. The children took the bottle home with them to Murvagh and it was found to contain a piece of paper on which was written (in pencil?) the following message; “Our ship, Titanic, sinking. Please inform Mrs. Blank of Blank Street, Liverpool”, or words to that effect. Frederick Sims Williams wrote a letter to “The Times” reporting this find. His letter was printed there, but there was a footnote by their Shipping or Liverpool correspondent, that he had made enquiries, that Blank Street had been demolished some few years previously and that there was no record of any seamen on board of that name. So that the family was left with the fact that it was not possible to say, but that, perhaps the whole thing was a hoax. Elsie Sims Williams rescued the original piece of paper and had it in a Family Album. Anja had a look on the crew list but... Had a bit of a look for him. If he used his real name then he was not a
stoker/fireman or in fact any of the crew members on the Titanic. So it was a hoax, however if I was Peepa, I will have reported it as he will have had no knowledge on the name or address. |