TalkSport The final manuscript of an eight-year-old manuscript of The Titanic’s last voyage has been found at a storage facility in Ireland, and was found in a warehouse owned by a company that owns the property.
The manuscript, published by the author of The Lost World: A Voyage to the South Pole in 2015, has been stored in the Dublin Stock Exchange since June 2018, but its fate is uncertain.
Speaking to RTÉ’s Six One, Mark Tully, a specialist in maritime history, said the manuscript was discovered in the storage facility at St Mary’s College, Dublin, where the author had stored his work since 2015.
“It was found on June 30th, in storage, in an old warehouse,” he said.
“The manuscript is in a state of very good condition, but we are waiting for the legal processes to take place to actually see if it can be shown that it has been destroyed or stolen.”
Mr Tully said he was told that it was the final voyage of The Black Pearl, the fourth voyage of the ship.
“We’ve been trying to get the manuscript to the people that have been working on it for the last eight years, and we’ve been unsuccessful in that regard,” he told RTÉ.
“There are a number of people who have been looking at it, and a lot of the work that has been done has been on it as a book, and not as a manuscript.”
They’ve been very interested in it, they’ve been able to get it out of the storage, and they’re hoping that someone can bring it to us, so we can have it in good condition for someone else to read it.
“He said it was an important book to have preserved, and said that “at least in part” the manuscript had been used for the book The Black Pearls.”
If there’s a reference to this manuscript in the book, that’s a good thing,” he added.”
And so I think that it’s very important to have it, because it’s a real landmark in history, and I think it’s something that needs to be preserved.”‘
A real landmark’The manuscript was found at the storage unit owned by John Gribbin, owner of the Dublin Ship Yard.”
I think that if somebody were to take the book and just go out into the sea and have a look at it and then look at the picture, it would be a real milestone,” he explained.”
Because there would be people out there who would know about it and who would be interested in seeing it.
“To see that the book is preserved and the author has put it in a secure location is very significant to me.”
Mr Gribin said he would look at whether to preserve the book.
“This manuscript has been in storage for a very long time and I’m not aware of anybody taking it to the bottom of the sea for that purpose,” he replied.
“But I think if we can get somebody to bring it out to the surface of the ocean and have it on the surface, I think I’ll be quite interested to see what happens with that.”
Mr Strydom said that if the book was to be restored to its former glory, the authors intention would be to “use it as part of the heritage of Ireland and its people”.
“I’ve read about it, I know the book as well as I can, I’ve got a very good interest in it,” he continued.
“So it’s important that it be preserved for as long as possible, so it’s going to be very exciting to see the book on the bookshelves.”
Hopefully, people will be interested and I’ll see what we can do with it.
“The Lost World, a book that had a worldwide sales of nearly £100 million, was published in 2015.
It tells the story of the Black Pearl as it sank to the ocean floor in the Atlantic Ocean on her maiden voyage.
