One day in April 1912,
From the north of France
Mathilde Lefebvre, a 12-year-old girl
Boarded a passenger ship with her mother and siblings,
They will cross the Atlantic,
Reunited in the United States with family members who have been separated for a year.
The expected reunion did not happen,
Because they boarded the Titanic.
A few days later,
This giant ship is known as "unsinkable"
Hit an iceberg on its maiden voyage,
Mathilde drowned along with 1,500 other passengers.
Image source: wikipedia
In 2017, a Canadian family of four
Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick
Hopewell Rocks Provincial Park
（Hopewell Rocks Provincial Park）
A broken drift bottle was found on the beach,
Inside was a letter,
It is written in French:
"I threw this bottle into the middle of the Atlantic.
We will arrive in New York in a few days.
If someone finds the letter,
Please contact the Lefebvre family in Liévin.
(Liévin is a commune in northern France.)
The letter was signed by Mathilde Lefebvre,
The payment date was April 13, 1912.
It was the day before the Titanic hit the iceberg.
Image source: CBC
Image source: newsweek
After the letter was discovered,
It was immediately handed over to the University of Quebec at Rimouski
(Université du Québec à Rimouski)
of a research group,
But it was only recently made public.
Researchers have been trying to solve this mystery:
This letter really came from the sunken Titanic,
Or is someone playing a prank?
If the letter is true,
The date it was found was from the date it had written
It's been 105 years.
"So far,
We have not yet found conclusive evidence of forgery",
University of Quebec at Rimouski
Nicolas Beaudry, a professor of history and archaeology, said.
First of all
The Titanic did have a passenger aboard
Named Mathilde Lefebvre,
She is a miner from northern France
Daughter of Franck Lefebvre,
It was on this ill-fated passenger ship
One of the poor passengers in the third class,
She spent £25,9 shillings and 4p to buy a ferry ticket.
That's equivalent to $4,000 today.
Mathilde Lefebvre
(Source: facebook@Hollywood Stars)
Franck is a mine in Iowa, USA
Got a job and made enough money,
So let the wife and include Mathilde
Four young children used to live with him.
But the fate of all of them
But that changed the moment the Titanic set sail.
Later, Mathilde's encounter became
Part of the exhibition in the French Museum,
This exhibition is for
In memory of the children who died during the Titanic voyage.
furthermore
The research team also used a non-invasive approach
Chemical analysis was performed on the glass bottle containing the letter,
To the cork used to seal the bottle and the paper used to write letters
Radioactive carbon dating was carried out,
The resulting date corresponds to this time in the early 20th century.
But the researchers also said,
This result does not preclude that the letter may have been a forgery:
Someone may have been shipwrecked years later
Forged this letter with old material,
Because old paper is easy to find,
For example, you can tear a blank page from an old book.
And old bottles and even cork stoppers are not uncommon.
It is also possible that someone forged it as early as 1912.
When analyzing the handwriting in the letter and the language used,
Researchers have also generated some skepticism.
The handwriting on the letter is very beautiful,
It doesn't look like a 12-year-old elementary school student wrote it.
The researchers obtained mathilde's mother's handwriting,
It is not the same as the font on the letter,
It could also have been written for Mathilde by someone else on board.
And one more question,
It was a bottle thrown from a ship in the middle of the Atlantic,
Can you drift to New Brunswick?
Professor of Physical Oceanography at the University of Quebec at Rimouski
Daniel Bourgault analyzed the currents of the year,
One was built consisting of 100,000 virtual floats
Consists of a computer simulation system.
The results show that
The vast majority of objects on the Titanic
Eventually they all reached the shores of Europe,
But there are also a small number
It was transported along the North Atlantic to the Caribbean Sea.
There are also some separate items
Drift north along another route,
One or two of them
Eventually reached the coasts of Newfoundland and Canada.
This led Bourgault to argue that
It is not absolutely impossible for bottles to reach the north American coast,
It is possible that it will eventually flow into the Bay of Fundy,
Although the probability is less than 1%.
The bottle found the place and the home where it was found (Source: CBC)
And the reason why this letter is only now being made public,
It's because of the researchers
Hopefully, more experts or insiders will come forward,
Help prove or challenge the authenticity of a letter.
"Maybe Mathilde's handwriting is being preserved
The attic of the school she attended,
In the basement or in the archives."
Jacques Lefebvre, who lives in the south of France
The existence of the letter was learned through local media reports.
Mathilde's mother was Jacques's maternal aunt.
Before learning of this letter,
Jacques didn't know much about his family members.
Not to mention having any documents or photos about them.
Jacques Lefebvre (left) and his wife (Credit: CBC)
ultimately
The researchers put the letter in the bottle
Returned to the family who found it,
Because people may never be sure
Whether the letter came from the 12-year-old girl.
But whether the letter was written by Mathilde or not,
It doesn't matter if it's an old letter
Or a recent prank,
It's all a fascinating piece of history.
The Titanic sank at a distance
Southeast Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
370 miles of seabed
It's been more than a century.
But the mystery of its sinking still fascinates many.
Image source: dailymail
After the sinking of the Titanic,
Mathilde's father in the United States, Frank Lefebvre
Seek help from the Red Cross Relief Committee.
And that's when,
Authorities discovered that he was provided by immigration officials
False and misleading claims to enter the United States illegally.
Franck was deported back to France in August 1912,
and in 1948 in Pas-de-Calais
Haillicourt died,
Just a few miles from the hometown of Liévin mentioned in the bottle letter,
He died on December 31, 2012 at the age of 7
And his eldest son,
He died on the battlefields of World War I before him.
therefore
This mysterious letter in a bottle is also a touching reminder,
Reminding Mathilde of the tragic plight of Mathilde and her family,
And in the age of steamships,
The bitter fate of millions of immigrants crossing the Atlantic.
Source: Lohas Canada