The National Maritime Museum has used X-ray scans to reveal more about a musical toy pig that was saved from the 1912 sinking of the Titanic.
 Rosenbaum (later Russell) and her beloved toy pig some years after the disaster |
The toy belonged to Edith Rosenbaum (1879-1975), a successful player in the fashion world, who was travelling first class on the historic voyage.
Initially reluctant to abandon the ship, Rosenbaum's (who later changed her name to Russell) life was saved by a sailor who grabbed the toy from under her arms and threw it into a lifeboat, knowing that she would follow.
Rosenbaum spent the next seven hours aboard Lifeboat 11 entertaining children with the pig's music, until they were picked up by the passenger liner Carpathia.
The pig - now in the possession of the National Maritime Museum - was recently taken, along with an 18-carat gold pocket watch, to Nikon Metrology in Hertfordshire, UK, in order to learn more about its construction.
The items are both too fragile to be taken apart, so the team enlisted state of the art CT scanning equipment to reveal more about their workings.
The X-ray machines showed that the pig's curly tail, used to turn its mechanisms, had become detached. They were then able to insert a small brass rod into the device, which revealed the song.
The museum is now appealing to the public to help identify the tune, and hopes to learn more about the pig's makers and history.
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