NEW YORK TIMES
16 Jan 1913

Claims for more than $6,000,000 have been filed against the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company, Limited, as a result of the loss of the Titanic.

The time for filing them has been extended to Feb. 11, and there will undoubtedly be a number of additional claims put in. The chance of any substantial sums being recovered upon them depends on the application of the British or the American Admiralty law to the case. If the British law prevails $75 per gross ton will be recoverable for proportionate distribution, which will amount to about $2,000,000. If the company succeeds in applying the American law of limitation there will be but a little more than $97,000. The claims fall into three classes-for deaths, for personal injuries, and for loss to property. The death claims amount already to $4,739,000, while the claims for personal injury run up to about $55,000 and for loss to property to more than $1,382,423, almost all of which are based on the destruction of personal baggage.

Not the least interesting part of the list of claims is the number of names which are missing from it. The heirs of John Jacob Astor, Mr. and Mrs. Isidor Straus, Benjamin Guggenheim, Charles Melville Hays, W. T. Stead, and George D. Widener have not made any claim on the steamship company for the loss either of their relatives or the property they happened to have with them. The largest claim is made by Mrs. Henry B. Harris, widow of the theatrical man. She is seeking $1,000,000 compensation for the drowning of her husband, $27,700 for the loss of her own personal property, and $4,625 for the loss of her husband's baggage. The value she places on her own belongings is caused by the number of jewels which she had with her. Among them was a string of pearls of the value of $10.000, and a diamond necklace worth $2,400. Then there was a diamond and onyx bar pin, with five-carat stones in the centre, which cost $1,000, and a bracelet with circles of diamonds, for which she asks $750. Her wardrobe was contained in five trunks, the contents of which is valued at $10,000.

Two other large death claims are put in -for Howard E. Case Managing Director of the Vacuum Oil Company, by his widow, Mrs. Elizabeth C. Case, and for Jacques Futrelle by his widow, Mrs. May Futrelle. Each of them ask $300,000. For Mr. Case it is stated that he was earning a salary of $20,000 a year. Mrs. Futrelle also seeks $4,378.60 as compensation for the loss of her own baggage, in which were the manuscripts of two stories of the value of $600, and $4,791.50 for the baggage of her husband, in which total is included an item for manuscript books, plans for books, &c., $3,000.

For Major Butt and Mr. Thayer. Claims for the loss of the personal effects of Major Archibald Butt are put in by Lewis Ford Butt of Augusta, Ga., who values his seven trunks at $1,000, and Mrs. Marian L. M. Thayer asks $14,910.50 for the baggage of John B. Thayer, but no money Is asked as compensation for the loss of either of them. Frank D. Millet, the artist, was one of the lost, and his widow, Mrs. Lucy Millet, seeks $100,000, and for Lucian P. Smith, one of the recently wedded men who were not rescued, a death claim of $25,000 and a property claim of $8,431.40 are entered.

Here and there through the legal papers with their dry formula appear hints of the stories that thrilled the world when they were first told. Thus Mrs. Helen C. Candee of Washington, in asking for $4,046 for the loss of her baggage, in which were manuscripts of the value of $600, states. That the claimant shortly after said collision was forced by the officers and agents of said company to jump from the deck of said steamship into a lifeboat at a considerable distance beneath the claimant, in which lifeboat were a number of oars and other easily movable articles; that no search or examination of said boat had been made nor any proper arrangement of said oars and other articles therein, so that passengers could safely jump therein; that upon landing in the bottom of said lifeboat said claimant without fault of her own broke one or more bones In her ankie and injured her knee, and was obliged to and did remain in said boat without attention for many hours, and was obliged to and did assist in rowing said lifeboat for a long time during the night aforesaid.

Then Mrs. Elizabeth L. Rothschild tells of seeing her husband separated from her. As her lawyer phrases her experience, it was: Claimant was made sick, sore, and disordered, and suffered personal injuries and suffered shock to her nervous system and great bodily and mental pain and anguish, and suffered further great shock because claimant's husband, who was also a passenger on said ship Titanic, was prevented from entering the lifeboat with claimant and was forced to remain on the said steamship Titanic and to thereby be separated from her and to lose his life, and the claimant was compelled to and did engage the services of a physician for treatment and suffered serious inconvenience and was damaged and injured in the sum of $20,000. Florence Angle of New York in almost the same words tells how her husband was forcibly prevented from entering the lifeboat with her, and Emilio Portaluppi of Milford, N. H., gives this claim for $25,000 for personal Injuries: That by reason of said collision I was in the water of the Atlantic Ocean for upward of two hours, suffering excruciating pain of body and agony of mind, and have been and will be caused great pain and suffering.

Strange Property Claims

Mr. Portaluppi was one of those who lost personal property of an unusual description. Among his effects which he valued at $17,524, was a picture of Garibaldi signed by him when he presented it to Mr. Portaluppi's grandfather. This he asks $3,000 for, and most of the rest of the property he lost was made up of original designs for monuments, tombs, and mausoleums. William E. Carter of Philadelphia lost among other things an automobile of the value of $5,000 and two dogs, one of which was worth $100 and the other twice as much, and Eugene Daley, who hails from Brooklyn, put in a claim for a set of bagpipes which could not be bought for less than $50. In the great mass of claims it is curlous how the extremes meet, H. Bjornstrom Steffanson of the Hotel Gotham wants $100,000 to compensate him for the sinking of an oil painting by Blondel, entitled "La Circasienne au Bain," while Miss Mary McGovern of 550 West Forty-second Street seeks $50 from the steamship company to pay for two Irish crochet collars sent out to her from Ireland by her mother. a A claim for $177,352.75 for jewels and wearing apparel is put in by Mrs. Charlotte M. Cardeza of Germantown, Penn. She had taken a cabin from Cherbourg, and had fourteen trunks. The inventory of her goods covers twelve typewritten pages, and among the items are a cake of soap worth $1.75; a ring, with Burma ruby and two diamonds, $14,000; a pink diamond of 6 7-16 carats, worth $20,000; a pendant, with a large diamond, worth $13,000. Then she had a Worth gown, for which she asks $900; a box of lace and pelts, $700; a white petticoat, $95, and eighty-four pairs of gloves and thirty-three pairs of shoes. The Countess of Rothes had with her on the voyage property of the value of only £2,485, of which her jewels accounted for £1,765, while her maid, Ruberta Maioni, would be recompensed sufficiently for her wardrobe by the payment of $400. An unusual claim is made by Mrs. Catherine Harbeck of Toledo, Ohio. Her husband was drowned, and, besides asking $25,000 for his death, she claims $55,823.34 for his belongings. The great value of these is accounted for by the fact that among them were 110,000 feet of moving-picture films. which at 50 cents a foot come to $55,000. A few claims are made on behalf of the cargo carried in the Titanic. Thus Popper, Gray & Co. of this city ask $853.23 on account of a shipment of Roquefort cheese and the Kny-Scheerer Company of this city puts in a claim for $42 on account of a package of silkworm gut. Several insurance concerns are trying to get recompense for their losses. Thus the Indemnity Mutual Marine Assurance Company would like to collect $9,924, and the Merchants' Marine Insurance Company, which had insured twenty-six different shipments, is asking for $182,000. One of the most unusual of the claims on account of goods which were lost is contained in a letter from Mayer & Muller of Berlin to Commissioner Gilchrist. in which the claim is made for $16.60 for certain books and periodicals which had been sent in the mails carried by the Titanic.