On board the Titanic, the tragic love story of Cissy and a young employee

It is a simple object but charged with a tragic history. British auction house Henry Aldridge & Son Ltd will soon put on sale a brooch worn by an employee of the Titanic. The small badge in the shape of a white star – representing the White Star Line, the shipping company to which the liner belonged – had been offered by a steward working on board to a young woman he had fallen in love with during the cruise. The starting price is estimated at around 28,000 euros and could go up to 72,000 euros.

The story of the two young people is often compared to that of Jack and Rose, in James Cameron’s cult film. On April 10, 1912, Roberta Maioni boarded the dream liner first class from Southampton. Originally from Norwich, the 21-year-old works in the service of Lucy Noëlle Martha Dyer-Edwardes, the Countess of Rothes. Maid of the rich Briton, Roberta, nicknamed “Cissy” by those close to her, quickly meets the steward in charge of their cabin, with whom she gradually falls in love. But their love story will only last a few days. On April 14, the Titanic struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic. The crew’s lack of preparation for such a situation, when the boat does not have enough lifeboats, turns this freezing night into hell. While the passengers try by all means to flee the liner, Cissy is rescued by her young lover. “He escorted her from her cabin to dinghy number 8 and made sure she was safe,” writes the Henry Aldridge & Son Ltd site. It is just before turning his back on her, after having done everything to help her, that the young man offers her his badge. “He gave her this brooch in the shape of a white star, which he wore on his uniform, to ask her to remember him, as he then turned around,” explains the auction house, which adds that the steward did not survive the tragedy which killed around 1,500 people. Cissy, she will come out of it, just like the countess she accompanied.

Throughout her life, Roberta Maioni made it her duty to honor the memory of the man to whom she owed her life. “She told her family how she survived the Titanic and talked about this young steward she met on board. She said she fell in love with him and that he fell in love with her,” auctioneer Andrew Aldridge told the Daily Mail. The latter adds that Cissy – who died in 1963 – did not give anyone the name of the Titanic employee, “perhaps because after the tragedy she got married”, “but she kept this little girl. pin”. “She told her family that he had given it to her, either as a sign of their love or to remember him when he had probably already figured out what was about to happen to her. But whatever the reason, it is an incredibly poignant object, which has a direct link with the Titanic”, continues Andrew Aldridge.

“Still not realizing the danger I was in…”

Years after the sinking of the liner, Roberta set out to tell her story aboard the Titanic, in a moving text. She repeatedly approaches the young man she fell in love with, but also mentions Captain Edward Smith. She says she spent the beginning of the night of April 14 in a music room before returning to her cabin, where she lost her balance after the shock with the iceberg. She remembers being informed of what had just happened but that at the time there seemed to be no danger. “Then, a few minutes later, the steward came back to tell me not to be afraid but to get dressed quickly, put on my life jacket and go on deck”. “Still not realizing the danger I was in, I joked with him about the funny way the vest had been arranged. He didn’t answer but smiled very sadly and shook his head. Then I knew that something serious had happened”.

To read : “The screams of the crowd…”: The poignant letter from a Titanic survivor

She then recounts the ice everywhere on the ground, the people panicking and the men scared of having to leave the women and children on the canoes. Once away from the liner, with 35 other people aboard boat number 8, she remembers “the terrible cries of the twelve hundred men, women and children left behind. Then came an awful silence – even more awful than the sound that had just occurred just before”. Several hours later, Roberta and her boss were picked up by the RMS Carpathia, all the way to New York.

Because the young woman was registered as the Countess, her family only learned weeks later that she had survived, in a letter sent by the White Star Line. “We are happy to inform you that among the list of those rescued is Miss Maioni, who there is no doubt is your daughter,” it read. She was finally able to return to England. In 1919 she married London businessman Cunliffe Bolling. The White Star Line letter is also auctioned. The Aldridge House says these records are being sold by a private collector, who managed to purchase them from Roberta’s descendants some 20 years ago. In total, the collection surrounding the young maid is estimated at around 90,000 euros.