We received a call from Ladner Watler, nephew of iNews Cayman publisher Joan Wilson, with a story of an old painting he had seen when he was a child of 8years old. He and his two year older brother, Donny, used to visit two elderly ladies who lived close to the family home just off North Church Street, George Town.

Ladner explained that Donny and he were fascinated with this painting and would stare at it for hours as it conjured up such imagination in their young minds. It showed a passenger ship that had hit a huge iceberg and was sinking. There were lifeboats filled with survivors, all women, and people in the water with a hand outstretched ‘crying’ for help surrounded by small icebergs.

On the bow of the ship was the name ‘TITANIC’ and an insert that said ‘TITANIC LOST APRIL 15 1912 LOSS OF LIFE 1500”.

Ladner said the painting was not historically correct but it crudely showed the nightmare the passengers went through and how cold the sea was.

This nightmare picture stayed with him and it was by chance, many years later, when his brother was a police officer, a man entered his office and they started talking. The man, Captain Arlen McCoy, mentioned the elderly ladies and their house that was close by to his family’s home. After the ladies had died the house had been sold and eventually knocked down but Arlen had obtained some of the furnishings and other items. He said “There was a painting of the Titanic” and he still had it.

Of course Donny was very interested and related all this to Ladner. When the 100^th anniversary of the Titanic disaster was making all the news Ladner decided to make a call to Captain Arlen’s home and spoke to a family member asking if he could come up and see the painting after explaining why his interest. He was very grateful when the lady said “yes”.

When he saw the painting for the first time after all these years ago, it had not changed a bit. Even the frame holding the picture was exactly the same and the condition was excellent.

Ladner wants to publically thank Captain Arlen and his family for all their kindness in allowing him to not only view the painting, but to take photographs of it. His visit coincided exactly to the day of the tragedy 100 years ago.

We thank Ladner for such an interesting story. And the mystery? No one knows who painted it or when. If you can throw any light on this Ladner and ourselves would love to know.

Footnote:

Titanic construction began in March 31, 1909 in Belfast, Ireland and was the project of White Star Liners and was built at the Harland & Wolff shipyard. Length of the Titanic construction spanned about three years and cost nearly $7.5 million to build. A technological marvel of its time, the Titanic contained eighteen water tight containers fitted with steel doors designed to close within 25 seconds in order to keep water out of the ship’s interior. Construction of the Titanic took the work of about 3000 laborers and nearly 3 million rivets. White Star had also constructed a smaller version of the Titanic called the Olympic just a year earlier. Both ships were designed to be the most luxurious ocean liners in operation at the time.

On the Titanic’s maiden voyage, the ship embarked from Southampton, England destined for New York on April 10, 1912. With the passengers all aboard waving to loved ones from the port-side rails, the most luxurious cruise liner set sail for the U.S. The sheer power of the vessel was enough to snap the moorings of the vessel called New York with the amount of water the Titanic displaced. The Titanic sailed to Cherbourg in France and later to Queenstown in Ireland to pick up additional passengers. There were 1320 passengers and 907 crew. The first few days were uneventful and Captain John Smith continued to increase speed day by day.

Many Titanic history buffs contend that the Titanic’s downfall came due to the increase speed through iceberg rich waters.

They also believe that multiple warnings were sent out by vessels traversing the same waters as the Titanic warning of large iceberg sightings in the water. Some accounts speak of the wireless operator ignoring these messages stating that he had bigger concerns on his hands, and others believe that Captain Smith simply ignored the warnings. The Titanic history has stated that beyond a shadow of a doubt that when the Titanic did finally collide with the iceberg, the blow was glancing and popped out thousands of rivets that held the plating to the hull. This caused the hull of the Titanic to buckle and take on large amounts of water. This is when the Titanic disaster began.

A 3D release of the original 1997 Oscar winning movie “Titanic” starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet and directed by James Cameron has just been released and is currently playing at Hollywood Theaters, Camana Bay.