An astonishing letter from the Titanic's owners to the family of a dead officer asking for a huge sum of money to return his dead body to England has been uncovered 103 years on from the tragedy.
The letter, dated May 7, 1912, was sent from White Star Lines to Christopher Moody, the brother of 24-year-old officer James Moody, who died after the Titanic hit an iceberg on its maiden voyage.
In it, company bosses demand £20 - the equivalent of £2,000 in today's money - to return his body to England, and state that Christopher Moody will have to pick up the tab from there.
The letter, from bosses at Ismay Imrie & Co, the parent company of White Star Line, read: 'We have your further letter of the 6th instant, and while we will be prepared to transport the remains of your brother across the Atlantic to either Liverpool or Southampton we regret that it is not possible for us to do any more.
'Should you after further consideration desire the remains of your Brother to be returned will you kindly telegraph us in the morning at the same time sending us a deposit of £20 for any expenses and land charges on the other Side and we will at once cable New York asking then to arrange this if practicable.
'We also think it right to point out that the arrangements and expenses for taking charge of the remains after arrival of the steamer at Liverpool or Southampton would be on your account.'
Instead, the company suggests that Mr Moody's remains be buried in Halifax with the other survivors, but they offer to send his family 'a photograph of the tombstone', if they want one.
Even more shocking is the fact that Mr Moody's body had not been recovered by the time the letter was sent, and bosses would have known that, as all remains were cataloged.
The remains of Mr Moody, who was on watch when the ship struck the iceberg and later helped passengers into the lifeboats while declining a space for himself, have never been found.
Mr Moody was among the 1,500 passengers and crew to die aboard the Titanic when it sank in the north Atlantic on April 14 1912, two days into her maiden voyage.
He had been serving as the Titanic's sixth officer, and was the only junior officer to perish after staying behind to help evacuate the passengers after the other officers left.
Born in Scarborough in 1887 to John Henry Moody, a town councillor, and Evelyn Louise Lammin, James was privately educated before being sent to King Edward VII Nautical School in London.
He passed his masters exams there in 1911 before becoming an officer. He was originally stationed on the Oceanic, the Titanic's sister ship, but transferred just months before the disaster in 1912.
The letter has come to light after being listed for auction by a collector who acquired it directly from Moody's family. Andrew Aldridge, from the auctioneers, said: 'White Star Line is asking for £20, which was a colossal amount of money in 1912, for the return of the body of one of their own officers.
'The mere concept of requiring payment for the return of the body of anyone who died on Titanic - let alone one of the ship's officers - is just beyond comprehension.
'It is an horrific act on the part of White Star. You can't imagine how Christopher Moody must have felt to have been greeted with a letter like this when he was grieving for the loss of his brother.
'What's more, the £20 White Star were asking for did not cover getting the body home or to the undertakers once it arrived in England. 'But where this letter is most shocking is the fact that Moody's body had not been - and never was - recovered in the aftermath.
'When this letter was sent the recovery ships had already arrived in New York and the bodies they had found had been identified and catalogued. 'You would like to think the sending of this letter was an administrative error but it's open to a lot of interpretation. 'The implications are huge - how many families of the deceased did White Star ask for payment from?
'James Moody was an incredibly brave man, helping to get passengers into liferafts and choosing to stay with the ship until the bitter end. 'It appears that White Star treated his body as a commodity, which callous in the extreme.'
Wednesday 15 April 2015
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3038296/Amazing-letter-reveals-time-Titanic-owners-demanded-huge-sums-grieving-families-reunited-bodies-ship-s-crew.html
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