Coal Recovered From the Titanic and Thousands of Other Historic Shipwreck Artifacts Are Going to Auction

Before the Titanic struck an iceberg and sank to the bottom of the North Atlantic in April 1912, crew members kept her steaming along by shoveling coal into her boilers. Now, some of the ship’s 112-year-old fuel is hitting the auction block.

Lay’s Auctioneers is offering up the coal—along with thousands of other artifacts connected to nearly 150 shipwrecks—during a sale that starts on November 6.

The British auction house is selling the collection of the Shipwreck Treasure Museum in Cornwall, England. The museum was put up for sale earlier this year but has not yet found a buyer, reports Cornwall Live’s Olivier Vergnault. As a result, many of the objects in its collection are being sold to the highest bidder.

Richard Larn, a diver and shipwreck expert, founded the museum with his wife, Bridget, in 1976. They owned and curated the institution for 22 years. Most recently, it was owned by businessman Tim Smit.

In addition to selling the museum’s collection, the auction house is also offering up items from Larn’s personal archive in a separate sale.

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“Many of the objects at Charlestown are much more exciting than they first appear,” writes Lay’s Auctioneers in a blog post about the two sales. “We constantly found that once we started to look closely and learn the historical background, we became entranced by the coin, or weapon or whatever relic it was, encased in marine concretion that we held in our hands.”

Collectors will have a chance to bid on 1.6 ounces of coal salvaged from the Titanic. The coal is broken into pieces, the largest of which is a little more than an inch wide. It comes with a certificate of authenticity confirming it was recovered during an expedition in 1994. The coal is expected to sell for between roughly $500 and $800.

Another item included in the sale is a coil of tarred rope from the Mary Rose, which was built for Henry VIII between 1510 and 1511. The vessel sank in 1545 while trying to prevent French ships from landing on the Isle of Wight. Only around 30 of the ship’s hundreds of crew members survived.

In 1982, archaeologists raised the shipwreck from the English Channel. Today, the wreck is the centerpiece of the Mary Rose Museum in Portsmouth, England. Larn helped raise the Mary Rose and was given the piece of rope as a thank-you gift.

“Virtually nothing that comes from the Mary Rose ever comes on to the market,” David Lay, who owns the auction house, tells the Guardian’s Donna Ferguson. “It’s just so unusual.”

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Collectors can also bid on pocket watches recovered from the Lusitania, the British ocean liner that sank after being hit by a German torpedo in 1915. The death toll was high: Roughly 1,195 of the 1,959 passengers and crew members onboard were killed in the attack. Some of them were Americans, and their deaths were one of the factors that eventually led to the United States’ entry into World War I.

Some of the items were not recovered directly from shipwrecks, but were instead inspired by them. For instance, a replica of the blue, heart-shaped necklace from the 1997 film Titanic is also up for sale. Collectors can also bid on paintings, photographs, models, newspapers and more.

According to a notice posted on the auction house’s website, many of the artifacts included in the two sales have already found a new “institutional home.” However, individual collectors can still bid for a chance to own the remaining lots.

“I can’t imagine there’s a more important collection of maritime archaeology worldwide,” Lay tells the Guardian. “There are many wonderful, rare discoveries.”

Sarah Kuta | READ MORE

Sarah Kuta is a writer and editor based in Longmont, Colorado. She covers history, science, travel, food and beverage, sustainability, economics and other topics.