"A Kind of Death..."

Saalfeld Perfume Vials

"' The one thing I'll remember about Titanic artifacts till the day I die is when the Saalfeld perfume vials came up. When you recover stuff from the Titanic, it's wet, it's rusty and it's rotten. And the smell that comes off it, is perfectly alien, perfectly fetid. You know its a kind of death you have never experienced. And so the lab is kind of unpleasant. And then all of a sudden somebody opens up this satchel, this leather satchel and out comes the fragrance of heaven. It's all these flowers and fruity flavors and it's delicious. It's the most wonderful thing you've ever had. Umm..  It was just a complete overwhelming experience. It was like all of a sudden the fragrance of heaven kinda moves though the room. So instead of being surrounded by all of these dead things- for those few minutes the ship was alive again.'" - Bill Sauder Historian, Director of Research, RMS Titanic, Inc.

Titanic's Grand Staircase

I was so taken by Sauder's words that I had to post them. As I listened to him tell this story, I was immediately struck by his emotion and connection to the historical objects he is charged with keeping safe. Although I haven't yet developed that same deep connection with any one piece or period in history, I completely understood the emotion behind his words. I imagine that not everyone would be so moved or taken with the temporary life that overwhelmed the smell of death that usually encompassed the room. But, as a lover of history I can appreciate the feeling of being apart of something from long ago, feeling as if you're apart of it in real time; especially in a case as this, with such a tragedy and then experiencing the other side of that horror. 




Bill Sauder's quote was taken from "Titanic: The Final Word with James Cameron," which aired on the National Geographic Channel

The only surviving deck chair from the ship