When the RMS Titanic set sail on April 10, 1912, the ship was the largest in the world, measuring nearly 900 feet and capable of ferrying 2,000 passengers across the ocean. When the ship sunk, it was one of the worst oceanic disasters in history, transforming maritime regulations to ensure such a tragedy could never happen again.

The ship's wreckage was discovered in 1985 and since then a number of dives to the wreck have explored what remains of the mighty ship. During these trips, some relics from the the Titanic have been retrieved and returned to the surface.

This specimen is a resin-sealed piece of coal dust recovered from the wreck and obtained by Mini Museum from the RMS Titanic, Inc., the exclusive steward of RMS Titanic. During its crossing, the ship required 600 tons of coal to be burnt a day, with ten times that held in reserve for the crossing.

Titanic Coal debuted in our very first Mini Museum. Now over a decade later, we're very excited to debut Titanic Coal as a solo item!

The specimen comes affixed to a 4x3" display card which contains photos and information about the ship. The Mini Museum Seal of Authenticity is also included.

The RMS Titanic was a legendary ship of epic proportions: 883 feet long, carrying nearly 2,200 passengers and crew, with a total displacement of 52,310 tons. The ship required enormous amounts of power to contend with this load. Her twin, triple-screw propulsion systems delivered 46,000 horsepower enabling the Titanic to achieve a top speed of 24 knots. By comparison, the fastest ocean liner today is the Queen Mary 2, which is capable of reaching just above 30 knots.

The ship’s boilers consumed 600 tons of coal per day. Her coal bunkers could hold 6,600 imperial tons, which was more than enough to get the fast ship from Southampton to New York in seven days. This crossing never came to pass. On April 15, 1912, the ship struck an iceberg, sinking the “unsinkable,” and killing more than 1,500 people. Eyewitness reports indicate that the engineers on board did their best to keep the dynamos and the boilers running as long as possible.

The Titanic’s coal may have contributed to the disaster. Britain’s 1912 National Coal Strike, spurred by the pitiful wages earned by coal miners, severely shrunk the supply of the fuel. To compensate, White Star Lines canceled a number of their voyages on other ships and moved passengers over to the Titanic, increasing the manifest. Additionally, a coal fire that ignited before launch and continued burning until the day before the ship sank, may have weakened the hull before the iceberg impact.

After its sinking, the wreck of the Titanic was thought lost forever, but a joint French-American expedition uncovered the ship in 1985 using a deep-sea camera sled named the Argo. This discovery and James Cameron’s 1997 film reignited interest in the ship and its disaster. Recovered artifacts have gone on display around the world, and a small selection, including this specimen, has been made available to collectors.