Lindsey Fitzharris Profile picture
Sep 16, 2018 7 tweets 3 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
(1/6) THREAD 👇Photo of an unidentified victim of the TITANIC being embalmed on the deck of the Mackay Bennett, which was one of four ships chartered by the White Star Line to collect bodies shortly after the disaster. The ship and its crew were able to recover over 300 bodies.
(2/6) When it set sail, the Mackay Bennett carried with it 100 coffins, 100 tons of ice, and 12 tons of iron bars which were used to bury badly decomposed bodies at sea. Passenger bodies in “satisfactory condition” were embalmed.
(3/6 ) When possible to identify: those of first class passengers were placed in coffins, while those of second and third class passengers were wrapped in canvas. Crew members were simply placed into the ice-filled hold.
(4/6) About half of those recovered were buried across three cemeteries in Halifax; 42 bodies went unidentified. Their tombstones contain a simple number and the date of the disaster.
(5/6) This is a photo of the crew from the Mackay Bennett with Titanic's overturned Collapsible Boat B. I realize this isn’t a typical #histmed post, but @PBSAmerica’s documentary on the ship’s lost musicians lead me adrift - pardon the pun!
(6/6) If this subject interests you, check out this transcription of an article that appeared in The Washington Times on 30 April 1912 about the MORGUE SHIP. This is a great blog too: deadbell.com/2013/02/27/an-…
The fantastic blog above belongs to @thedeadbelle. If you aren’t following her, DO IT NOW! ❤️❤️

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More from @DrLindseyFitz

Aug 30, 2018
THREAD 👇 (1/10) #FolkloreTuesday: During the 19th century, many people living in Derbyshire meticulously collected and stored their fallen or extracted teeth in jars. When a person died, these teeth were placed inside the coffin alongside the corpse. (Photo: Hunterian).
(2/11) On Judgment Day, those who failed to do this would be damned to search for the lost teeth in a bucket of blood located deep within the fiery pits of Hell. Stories like this help us to understand why people in the past feared the anatomist’s knife.
(3/11) Deliberate mutilation of the body could have dire consequences in the afterlife. For many living in earlier periods, dissection represented the destruction of one’s identity. Most people imagined the dead to have an active, physical role in the next world.
Read 12 tweets
Jul 10, 2018
THREAD: Photo of a smallpox patient, 1908. Smallpox is one of the deadliest & most contagious diseases known to mankind. The virus killed over half a billion people in the twentieth century alone—three times the number of deaths from all of the century’s wars combined.
The human species is the only natural host of smallpox. No other organism can harbor the virus. Once inside the body, it begins replicating itself millions of times over. The incubation period is around ten days, during which time an infected person shows no signs of being ill.
Afterwards, the patient develops a high fever and aches, followed by a rash on the face, hands, and feet. Smallpox blisters are hard to the touch, and filled with a clear, faintly opalescent pus. Some cases develop into hemorrhagic smallpox, which causes the skin to slough off.
Read 11 tweets

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