R.M.S. TITANIC: First-Class passenger archive relating to Er...

Estimate

£15,000 - £20,000

R.M.S. TITANIC: First-Class passenger archive relating to Erik Gustaf Lind. From Gryt in Sweden, Erik did not survive the sinking. The archive includes a handwritten letter and envelope on Titanic stationery, signed photograph, US Military citation, medal, rare extract relating to the supposed death of a passenger on Titanic and other ephemera. The letter reads as follows:

"Good morning sweetheart. I didn’t send yesterday's letter from Cherbourg but is sending it now from Queenstown Ireland where we also have passed. I have now properly started my diet and put away all liquor. Slept pretty well, dreamt of you and that Liljeholm was out and drove us. It is now 10:30 a.m., so you are in the henhouse taking care of your little protégés. Speaking of Johns friend Mr. Nilsson wanted a couple score 25 öre a piece. Maybe John has written. Well you don’t have such interest when you don’t own it yourself.

The night before yesterday I dreamt of you and that Jansson Fellow. So remember what I swore you. Should I know of such would I shoot him right away. Yes my dear love I know that I can believe and trust you. I could never be unfaithful. You are for me ever and to all women on earth could not compensate you. You maybe have to…"

In 1887 Erik travelled to the United States with a Master's and Maritime pilot's degree and acquired American citizenship in 1892. For the sake of simplicity, he changed his name to Lind. He eventually received a position as Pilot Captain in the port of New York. At the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, Eric enlisted in the navy. When the Spanish Admiral Pascual Cervera saw his fleet defeated, he threw himself into the sea. Eric discovered the admiral and threw himself after him and saved him. The admiral gave him his sword as a thank you which is still in the family’s possession. Eric himself was appointed a second lieutenant in the navy and at the end of the war he was hailed as one of the heroes of the day in New York. Later he was sent as commander of one of the navy's rescue ships to the East Asian Ocean (now the Pacific Ocean/Indian Ocean) and managed to salvage four large American battleships that were grounded during the Boxer Rebellion in China. For this he was further promoted. When Mont Pelé erupted in 1902 on the island of Martinique, where 40,000 people died, Eric Lind was sent to rescue the survivors. It was a risky mission. Through a rain of red-hot lava, he was the first of all to get to the island. Photographs that he took bear witness to the immense destruction of the island and its buildings. He later resigned from the navy and received the rank of Captain Commander in the reserve.

After a few years of devoting himself to business, Eric longed to return home and managed to purchase his beloved estate Jordanstorp in 1908 for SEK 150.000:- He thus fulfilled the promise he had made to his mother on the very same day that his father was buried. Back at Jordanstorp Eric reunited with Elsa Dubois née Karsten (1868-1966), whom he had known since his youth. The Karsten family lived in Stockholm and had the nearby estate Fastmyra Estate as their summer house. Elsa was divorced from Cavalry captain Hjalmar Dubois and had four children whom the youngest Raoul Åke Dubois (1904-2001) became Eric's stepson. Eric and Elsa were married in 1909.

After a few years, however, worries began to mount. Eric had started doing business again but was sadly unsuccessful. He took loans from moneylenders and in the end there was no other way out for him than to go back to the United States to resume business there. He had previously been married to an American woman, and he did not want her to know about his arrival there as lists of First-Class passengers were published in the newspapers. However, it was not possible to wait for a different transit than Titanic. For his journey in First-Class Eric Lind called himself Edward Lingrey since he wished to travel incognito. Due to travelling under a different name, it was difficult for the family to prove that Eric had been on board the Titanic, but letters to his wife Elsa, to his mother and to his mother-in-law Therese Karsten on Titanic stationery that were posted in Queenstown in Ireland proved this.

Erik also made the acquaintance of another First-Class passenger Mauritz Björnström-Steffanson on board and revealed his identity to him and mentioned that he was the brother-in-law of Captain Karsten, his wife Elsa's brother. Mauritz Björnström was later able to confirm that Eric Lind had been on board. He could tell how they had helped their fellow passengers on board in the lifeboats, when the Titanic listed so much that the water came up to the deck where they were, they had no choice but to jump into the icy water. Mauritz Björnström managed to get into a lifeboat but Eric Lind perished. Eric Lind was not only an excellent sailor and skilled horseman, but he also had a great interest in poetry. He translated many famous Swedish poets into English and wrote poetry himself in English which he had printed and bound in suede bindings with gold trim which he gifted to his friends. Three copies remain, one of which is also included in the lot. Erik’s wife Elsa mourned her great love Erik Gustaf Lind deeply and wore only black until her passing in 1966, 54 years after his death.

A superb archive that has remained in the ownership of the family since 1912.