On the 12th
April 1912 the Titanic on her way to New York on her first voyage. All seemed
to be pleased on the voyage. A group of eight people gathered in the first
class smoking room to discuss the meaning of life.
One of the
group was William T Stead ,
the English journalist and Spiritualist. As the evening progressed Stead began
to tell a ghost story which would open the flood gates to legends and myths
surrounding the Titanic and her sinking.
He boasted
that he was not superstitious as he pointed out that his story began before
midnight on the 12th April and ended shortly after midnight.
The story
concerned the finding of an Egyptian Mummy and the translation of the
inscription on the Mummy's case. The inscription warned that whoever should
verbally recite the inscription would meet a very violent death.
The others
listened with sinister curiosity and became very confused. Could Stead have
been serious? Was there such a curse? Where was the Mummy - surely not onboard
the ship they were travelling on?
Seven men
out of the eight went down with the ship, including Stead himself although he
had already had a premonition about his death some time before. The only
survivor from the group was Fred Seward ,
who later when asked about the Mummy story told them that he would never dare
retell it.
Over the
years there have been many different accounts of the Mummy's curse but after
careful research the answer seems quite clear.
Before I can
conclude it is important to retell the Mummy's curse as frequently told from
various sources.
The course of Mummy
The Princess of Amen-Ra lived
some 1,500 or 1600 years before Chris in Egypt. After her death she was laid in
an ornate wooden coffin and buried deep in a vault at Luxor, on the banks of
the River Nile.
In the late
1890s, four rich young Englishmen visiting at Luxor were
invited to buy an exquisitely fashioned Mummy case containing the remains of
Princess of Amen-Ra. Some people think the mummy to be a priestess.
Among them
one was Douglas Murray paid several thousand pounds and had
taken it to his hotel. A few hours later, he was seen walking out towards the
desert and never returned.
The next
day, one of the remaining 3 men was shot by an Egyptian servant accidentally.
The third
man in the foursome found on his return home that the bank holding his entire
savings had failed. The fourth suffered a severe illness, lost his job and
started selling matches in the street.
Nevertheless,
the coffin eventually reached England (causing other misfortunes along the
way), where a London businessman bought it.
After three
of his family members had been injured in a road accident and his house damaged
by fire, the businessman lately donated it to the British Museum.
As the
coffin was being unloaded from a truck in the museum courtyard, the truck
suddenly went into reverse and trapped a passer-by. Then as 2 workmen were
lifting the casket up the stairs, 1 fell and broke his leg. The other,
apparently in perfect health, died unaccountably two days later.
Once the
Princess was installed in the Egyptian Room, trouble really started. The
Museum's night watchmen frequently heard frantic hammering and sobbing from the
coffin. Other exhibits in the room were also often hurled about at night. One
watchman died on duty. Other watchmen wanted to quit. Cleaners refused to go
near the Princess too. When a visitor derisively flicked a dust cloth at the
face painted on the coffin, his child died of measles soon afterwards.
Finally, the
authorities had the Mummy carried down to the basement figuring it could not do
any harm down there. Within a week, one of the helpers was seriously ill, and
the supervisor of the move was found dead on his desk.
By now, the
papers had heard of it. A journalist photographer took a picture of the Mummy
case and when he developed it, the painting on the coffin was of a horrifying,
human face. The photographer was said to have gone home then, locked his
bedroom door and shot himself.
Soon
afterwards, the museum sold the Mummy to a private collector. After continual
misfortune (and deaths), the owner banished it to the attic.
A well-known
authority on the occult, Madame Helena
Blavatsky , visited the premises. Upon
entry, she was sized with a shivering fit and searched the house for the source
of an evil influence of incredible intensity; She finally came to the attic and
found the Mummy case.
Can you
exorcise this evil spirit? Asked the owner. There is no such thing as exorcism.
Evil remains evil forever. Nothing can be done about it. I implore you to get
rid of this evil as soon as possible.
But no
British museum would take the Mummy; the fact that almost 20 people had met
with misfortune, disaster or death from handling the casket, in barely 10
years, was now well known.
Eventually,
a hard headed American archaeologist, William T. Stead paid a handsome price for the Mummy and arranged for its removal to New
York. In Apr 1912, the new owner escorted its treasure aboard a sparkling, new
White Star liner about to make its maiden voyage to New York.
On the night
of April 14, amid scenes of unprecedented horror, the Princess of Amen-Ra
accompanied 1,500 passengers to their deaths at the bottom of the Atlantic. The
name of the ship was of course, the R.M.S. TITANIC ."
Some
accounts of the story go on to say that the American collector bribed the crew
of the Titanic to put the Mummy in a lifeboat and was smuggled onboard the
Carpathia when she picked up the Titanic survivors and landed safely in New
York.
In America
the Mummy continued to bring tragedy to those that handled the coffin and so it
was shipped back to Europe on the Empress of Ireland which then sank with the
loss of 840 passengers on the 29th May 1912.
Somehow, the
Mummy was saved again. The collector decided to ship the coffin back to Egypt
on a third ship, the Lusitania. The ship was torpedoed by a German submarine.
What happened after that is not known.
let me know my shortage ...
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