Rare photo showing Atlantic ties to Titanic up for auction

HALIFAX – A rare photo from the sinking of Titanic is up for auction in England, and it shows the important role Nova Scotia played in the days after the disaster.

The photograph was taken on-board the cable ship Mackay-Bennett, which was sent from Halifax to retrieve the bodies of victims in April of 1912.

Most of the crew members were Atlantic-Canadians.

The image shows bodies in bags on the deck of the ship, as Rev. K.C. Hind conducts a service.

The ship and her crew recovered 306 bodies, 116 of which were buried at sea.

“There’s always been a bit of a myth built up that it was a very organized process, and I think when you look at this photograph and you can see bodies piled three plus high, I think it really does dispel that myth,” said Andrew Aldridge, an auctioneer from Henry Aldridge and Son.

The company, based out of Wiltshire, England, is holding the auction.

However, Garry Shutlak, the senior reference archivist at the Nova Scotia Archives in Halifax, disagrees with that notion.

“I think you had a very small ship. You have a great many bodies that you’re trying to bury and obviously there’s not enough space to have the crew members, the minister and various officers aboard the ship,” he said.

“So obviously, the bodies are stacked up so they can be systematically buried at sea.”

The photograph belonged to fourth officer Westy Legate. The seller in this particular auction bought it from his family.

It’s a rare photo, and only the second photograph from the Mackay-Bennett that Shutlak has come across in his research.

“It is my understanding that the White Star Line, which hired the ships to go out, told them not to have any cameras on board. So the fact that someone snuck a camera on board and the fact any photos survived are very rare.”

The pre-sale estimate for the photo is between £3,000 and £5,000.

The auction will take place Oct. 16.