Titanic captain was warned about non-iceberg obstruction

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The captain of the Titanic was notified of an obstruction at sea before the British ship set sail on her maiden voyage to New York in 1912 — but it was for a sunken ship’s mast, not an iceberg.

Capt. Edward Smith was handed a note warning him that a mast from a submerged wreck in the Atlantic was “standing perpendicular, height about 10 feet,” The Guardian reported.

The crumpled note was handed back to the messenger before the ship left Southampton on April 10, 1912.

The document ended up in the offices of the lawyers who represented the White Star Line, which owned the ill-fated ship that sank five days later — 104 years ago — after hitting an iceberg.

It was prepared by Benjamin Steele, the company’s marine superintendent at Southampton Docks on April 6, 1912, and addressed to Smith.

An American collector of Titanic memorabilia who acquired the letter — worth as much as $17,000 — is auctioning it off April 23 at Henry Aldridge and Son in Devizes, Wiltshire.

The Rotterdam, a Dutch liner that had left New York, reported the presence of the mast, which “would have done some serious damage and ripped a hole in the hull of Titanic had it gone straight over it,” auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said.

“This was not a mass-produced document but a one-off report specifically for Captain E.J. Smith. One of the major attractions to it is that it would have been in the hands of Captain Smith on the bridge of the Titanic. He would have read it and then given it back to whoever brought it,” he said.

“It later helped show that White Star Line acted responsibly up until Titanic sailed.”

The Titanic received warnings from other ships about drifting ice but continued its trans-Atlantic voyage at full speed while lookouts checked for icebergs ahead.

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