Irishman sent a message in a bottle as the Titanic sunk

Jeremiah Burke from Co. Cork sent his family a note of farewell

Larger Text

Print

E-mail

4 Comments

The RMS Titanic

Tweet

The chilling last words of 19-year-old Jeremiah Burke from Glanmire, Co. Cork, were slipped into a bottle not read until a year after his death on the Titanic. Now, the emotional artifact is on display at Cobh Heritage Centre.

Using the bottle of holy water that his mother gave to him when she saw him off in Cobh, Burke used one of his very own shoelaces to tie it up and threw the letter overboard.

The letter simply reads: "From Titanic, goodbye all, Burke of Glanmire, Cork.”

Miraculously, the bottle made its way to shore only a few miles from his family's house, according to the Belfast Telegraph. It was kept within the family until now, when his niece decided to donate it.

Speaking of how the loss affected her family, Mary Woods explained that, "Jeremiah's mother was at a removal several days later when a person came up to her and said 'I'm sorry for your loss.' It was only then that she found out what had happened. She died of a broken heart within the year.”

Jeremiah was just one of the 1,521 other passengers that died on April 15, 1912. The ship struck the iceberg at about 11:40 pm on April 14th, and sank around 2:20 am the following morning.

_________________________

READ MORE

New photos reveal scenes of the Titanic survivors after the great Belfast ship sank

Film crews for miniseries ‘Titanic - Blood and Steel’ take to the streets of Dublin

New Titanic 3D images show Captain Smith’s bathtub

Print

E-mail

Tweet