Yesterday's new documentary Titanic: Stories From the Deep traces the history behind items recovered from the famous shipwreck…
Experts trace the owner of a black alligator-skin handbag discovered in the wreck of the Titanic in the intriguing first episode of Yesterday's new four-part documentary series Titanic: Stories From the Deep.
It was found 3,800m deep in the Atlantic Ocean in the year 2000 and, incredibly, experts manage to discover it belonged to 63-year-old Marian Meanwell from Yorkshire, who was on her way to New York to join her daughter, Margaret, when the ship sank in 1912, killing 1,517 people.
Sadly, she didn’t survive.
Also featured are the Titanic’s whistles, which were restored in 1999, and the story of Fifth Officer Harold Lowe, who rescued 27 passengers and whose cabin window was also discovered.
Victor Garber, who starred in the 1997 Titanic film, presents…
‘If you get personal artefacts that have been recovered and you can identify the owner, that gives you a story about that person – why they were travelling, what their hopes and dreams were.
'You have an understanding of a life that was lost,’ says conservator Alex Klingelhofer.
‘Each artefact recovered from the wreck has something important to say.’
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But as Victor reveals, the Titanic is crumbling and some secrets may never be uncovered.
‘Hungry fish feed off the ship’s iron, creating what’s known as rusticles,’ he explains.
‘It’s only a matter of time before it becomes an iron-ore shadow on the sea floor.’
TV Times rating: ****
