[Shipwreck]. [Germany]. Rhodes, Sophie and Eugene

[Partially-Printed Notice, Completed in Manuscript, With Two Photographs, Detailing the Disappearance of a German-American Woman and Her Son Who Perished Aboard the Ocean Liner Elbe When It Sank in the North Sea]

Washington DC: April 2, 1895. [4]pp. on a single folded sheet, with two small photographs tipped in. In German. Quarto. Old folds, some separation along central horizontal fold, small chip to first leaf, minor soiling. One photograph chipped. Good. Item #2672

A sad document detailing the plight of a mother and son who perished in the sinking of the German transatlantic ocean liner, Elbe on January 30, 1895. The document seeks to detail exactly the times of death of the mother and son, in order to determine whether the heirs of the mother or son have title to the property belonging to the family. Translated into English, a portion of the opening reads: "She left some property here [in Germany]. If her son survived her, if by a minute, he inherited that property, and it now belongs to his heirs; but if death overtook him, before his mother, the property never belonged to him, or now to his heirs, but to other people. The matter is now before the court."

The Elbe collided with a Scottish ship called the Crathie in the North Sea on January 30, 1895 while on the way from Bremen to New York City; the Elbe was a very popular ship amongst immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe looking to make their way to the United States. The two victims detailed in the present document were a German-American immigrant mother and son who had previously settled in Indianapolis and then moved to Washington, D.C., Sophie and Eugene Rhodes. At the time of their deaths, Eugene was a student at Heidelberg University in Germany. The present document opens with a typed notice from the counsel to the family, detailing their presence on the Elbe, and asking for details of their deaths. This is followed by photographs of both Sophie and Eugene tipped to the second page, then two pages of questions attempting to locate the missing travelers. Brief answers to the questions were supplied in ink by Ernst Linkmeyer, assistant engineer on the Elbe and one of only twenty survivors of the wreck. The survivors of the wreck of the Elbe included just four passengers and sixteen crew members who crowded onto the only rescue boat that survived the collision. The death toll of the wreck of the Elbe totaled 334, including Sophie and Eugene Rhodes.

Price: $650.00