White Star Line archives

[yeotaw]

Would anyone know if the White star line records exists?. I'm trying to find out about my inlaws who would have travaled on the titanic but cancelled, I take it that you could book a boarding pass at Liverpool because the white star line offices were based in liverpool, and also if you wanted to cancel and get a refund you could do it there?, I just wonder, would there have been some kind of book where a white star line admin person would have written the names of passengers who booked and paid to board a white star ship? and if somebody wanted to have a refund/cancel the booking, there names would have been crossed off?.

[VW1956]

Hello Yeotaw. Some on here posted that the Harland and Wolff archives are now at Liverpool Maritime Museum. I just tried to find it but couldn't but it is there some where. Hope this helps. Ken.

[yeotaw]

Thanks VW1956 most helpful.

Yeotaw

[pat toms]

Ken,Interesting I would like to see the White Star Line Archives,if they do exist and better still would like to see the log book of the Titanic,as well.Pat

[VW1956]

Hello Pat. You would have to get in the very long queue to see the log book of Titanic. In fact if it were to be found (and it's down there somewhere) it would be months before anyone got to see what was inside it as the conservation of it would take that long just to open it up. Ken.

[Dave Gittins]

What I would like to see is records of the civil claims brought against White Star in Britain. We know the details of the four claims brought in 1912 as a sort of class action. (See my e-book for the story). We know White Star lost and had to pay out. We also know other people brought claims against White Star in Britain. Presumably these were settled out of court in view of the earlier cases. I'd like to know how things went and how the results compared with the results in the US courts. I believe my chances are zero!

[George Lorton]

I remember reading about the civil suits in England but the only one I remember is Farmer Ryan who brought suit against White Star for the loss of his son, Thomas Ryan. I think some Americans thought about bringing suit against White Star in Great Britain because it was thought judges in the UK would be more sympathetic.

[Dave Gittins]

It was Thomas Ryan who sued over the loss of his son, Patrick Ryan. The case was one of the four I mentioned.

I can document that claims were withdrawn in US courts with the obvious intention of bringing them in Britain. White Star got mad but a court ruled against it. The mystery is what claims were made in the end. I fear the documents were destroyer long ago.

[George Lorton]

Ah Ha Thanks Dave for the info, I knew a Thomas Ryan was in there somewhere, I sold all my Titanic books so I am doing this all from memory. I thought there would of been more then four cases brought in UK but I guess most of the people who really needed the money were in New York. That is too bad about the documents getting destroyed, perhaps they might be on micro-film somewhere??? I wonder when they first started making microfilm of documents?

[VW1956]

Hello Dave. If the records of cival claims and any other records of interest were kept but had to remain secret. Maybe they might come to light as 100 years will have passed since the claims were filed. I do realise that that wont be until 2013 or later. And then thats only if wherever they might be stored that some one knows whats in them.

Hello George. As far as I can remember micro film started to be used in the 1960's although I could be wrong as thats when I first heard about it. I at the time worked in a processing house for peoples holiday pictures. There was talk about how busy were all going to be when industry want all there records put onto micro film. It never did happen. Ken.

[Dave Gittins]

The was no reason to keep the documents secret, except White Star wouldn't like to advertise it was paying out money. The court records of the civil claims were open from the start. My guess is that they were simply dumped at some stage.

[VW1956]

Hello. I dont know if Andrew has already posted this up in the news section. On the BBC news site there is a story about 200,000 Titanic related documents are to go-line. Hope I got that right. Ken.