Twelve printed and hand-stamped facing slips, dated 10 April 1912

Name-stamped “O. S. Woody” and circular date-stamped “Transatlantic Post Office 7 AP 10 12”, the number “7” identifying the vessel and “AP 10 12”, the date April 10, 1912

4.75 x 3.2 in. (12 x 8 cm.)

The RMS Titanic was the finest ship of her time, the very best in “naval architecture and marine engineering”. She was built for comfort, providing luxurious transatlantic travel for her first-class passengers with palatial suites, beautifully-decorated dining rooms, extensive promenades for strolling, and various spa treatments. She was superior to the competition for even her second and third-class passengers, with better accommodation and food. The Titanic however was much more than a passenger ship and the clue to this was in her name: the RMS in RMS Titanic stood for Royal Mail Steamer. The Titanic was designated as an official Transatlantic Post Office, contracted to both the United States Government and His Majesty’s Royal Mail to transport millions of letters and parcels between Britain, France, Ireland, and the United States.

The twelve post-office facing slips that comprise this collection of Titanic memorabilia are among the rarest of items: works on paper that survived the icy, salt waters of the North Atlantic, and a sinking ship, and which made it back to shore. These twelve slips belonged to Oscar Scott Woody, a United States postal sea clerk who was stationed on board. Woody was one of five clerks, two British and three Americans, who were responsible for every item of mail on the ship. Facing slips were official documents whose use was stipulated by Acts of Congress and implemented by the Post Office of the United States government. Sea postal clerks had to follow rules and procedures – and no detail was too small not to be mandated. This included everything from what to wear while on duty to how mail was processed and organized. Facing slips were an important element of this.

On Wednesday, 10 April 1912, the Titanic set sail on its maiden voyage. From Southampton in England, it sailed to Cherbourg, in southern France and then on to Queenstown (now Cobh), near Cork, in Ireland. In each location, tens of thousands of pieces of mail was brought on board. The post office proper was on one of the upper decks “with a view of expediting the reception and dispatch of the mails on the departure and arrival of the ship”. Many decks below this, on deck nine (Orlop deck) was the mail sorting and storage room.

The postal clerks had to sort, record, bundle and store all the new mail brought on board. Letters and parcels were organized according to their final destinations. Once this was completed, the clerks would bundle these individual items until they had a large enough stack to tie together with a twine string. Before the twine was knotted a piece of paper would be placed face-up, on the top of the bundle. This paper was called the facing slip. Individual bundles were then placed inside a sack and an identical facing slip was placed in a special label slot. The facing slips indicated the destination, the name of the person who made-up the bundle, the date, and the post office’s postmark. Providing this information was a legal requirement (even the number of knots made in the twine that held the bundles together was pre-determined). On the twelve surviving slips it is possible to read Woody’s hand-stamped name, “O. S. Woody”, and the date of embarkation “AP 10 12”. The facing slip served several important purposes by both indicating to every worker the destination and making every clerk accountable for the accuracy of their own work. Postal Regulations stipulated that “all facing slips be of uniform size” and “be prepared before going on duty” which is why the dates on the surviving slips coincide with the first day the Titanic set sail.

Once the mail had been sorted into bags and tagged with the facing slips it was transferred to the storage rooms on Orlop deck for the remainder of the journey. When the ship struck the iceberg at 11:40 on the night of Sunday, 14 April 1912 while sailing 400 miles south of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, it was dark and extremely cold. It must also have been chaotic and disorientating, but Woody and his four co-workers attempted to save the sacks of registered mail. These must have weighed around 125 pounds each and had to be carried up from the 9^th deck (Orlop). They prioritized rescuing the mail over their personal safety. One ship steward recalled last seeing them waist-deep in water on a ship that had been engineered to be “water-tight”. At 2:20 AM on Monday, 15 April – the same day that Woody would have celebrated his birthday - the Titanic sunk. 

The White Star Line, the Titanic’s owners, requested the assistance of any available ships for rescue and recovery. The Cunard line’s CS Mackay-Bennet came to help and this cable ship (CS) quickly became a morgue. None of the postal clerks survived but Woody’s body was recovered wearing a cork lifejacket that made his body buoyant in the water. His personal belongings were gathered from him and returned to his widow including a set of keys used to secure registered mail and a collection of his unused facing slips. It has been suggested that the slips survived intact because they were stored in an oil skin pouch in his breast pocket. Woody was buried at sea on 24 April 1912. 

Much has been written about the causes of the tragic sinking of the Titanic. Soon after the tragedy people started apportioning blame to those they felt were responsible for the deaths of over 2200 people on this “unsinkable” ship. It is a moment in history that has resonated through time. These twelve postal slips provide a personal connection and insight into the real life and duties of one man – Oscar Scott Woody – during the five days that the Titanic stayed afloat.