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

John & Nelle Snyder’s personal letters and photos are put to auction - PHOTOS

By: KERRY O'SHEA | Published Thursday, October 20, 2011, 8:50 AM | Updated Thursday, October 20, 2011, 2:08 PM

Photo gallery: Unseen photos from the Titanic released

Almost 100 years after the sinking of the Belfast-made ship the Titanic, new photos and first hand accounts are surfacing from the night the vessel sank in the Atlantic, claiming 1,517 lives.

The Daily Mail reports how pictures from the morning after the sinking of the Titanic will be put to auction by Phillip Weiss auctions in New York and are expected to receive over £50,000. Pieces included in the auction are photographs taken from the Carpathia, the ship that came to rescue the Titanic survivors, as well as letters from John and Nelle Snyder, a honeymooning couple who were among the first to escape onto lifeboats.

Until now, the precious items have remained within the Snyder family.

The letters from John Snyder offer new firsthand accounts about the night the Titanic fatally struck an iceberg. In them, John credits his wife Nelle for urging him to go to the decks to see what was wrong after the “bump” of the collision was felt.
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He and his wife went upstairs and put on life jackets “thinking it was only a precaution.” John also writes how some passengers were reluctant to board the lifeboats at first, citing that it would probably be safer on the “big boat.”

The fact that John and Nelle were honeymooning supports a press release at the time that along with ‘men, women and children,’ putting “the brides and grooms first” into the boats was also encouraged. However, John never made direct mention of that being said in his letters.

Along with photos of the lifeboats, there are also photos of the supposed iceberg that the Titanic struck, as well as photos of the SS Californian, another rescue ship that initially ignored the Titanic’s distress calls. There is also a photograph of John and Nelle shortly after they boarded the Carpathia, wearing the clothing they escaped from the Titanic in.

The personal artifacts which have been described as “remarkable” go on auction on October 21.

Photo gallery: Unseen photos from the Titanic released