A new exhibition at The Postal Museum is displaying more than 700 personal letters that have been trapped at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean for 77 years, preserved in an airlock formed as steam boat SS Gairsoppa sank.
Torpedoed off the coast of Ireland by a German U-Boat on 16 February 1941, the ship has lain undisturbed ever since, resting half a mile deeper than the Titanic. Now, visitors to the London museum’s Voices from the Deep exhibition can see items from the ship’s recently recovered cargo on display for the first time, including 12 bundles of letters, written but never delivered, supplies of tea and a silver ingot that was making its way from colonial India to the UK to help with the war effort. Of 86 crew onboard only one – Second Mate Richard Ayres – survived.