Three million iron & steel rivets were used in the construction of S.S. Titanic, themselves weighing 1.200 tons. This steel divot stamped on the head with “S.S. Titanic 1912”, was scrap metal being a steel plug pressed out of the hull plate hydraulically for the rivet to be inserted into the hole at a later stage.
Divots like the one illustrated here, were fragments from the construction of Titanic, many were taken as souvenirs by shipyard workers of which many felt a deep sense of shame and grief subsequent to the sinking of R.M.S. Titanic in 1912. A divot similar to the one illustrated here accompanied by a letter of provenance, was sold this year in Boston for the sum of $3,600.00
Joseph Bell, Chief Engineer on the R.M.S. Titanic 
April 16, 2014 at 1:15 pm |
Hello I was looking at this rivet and have a general question. Is this from the wreck site or a surplus rivet? There are no tooling marks on the head and I know the rivets were not stamped “Titanic 1912” ifthey were stamped before going into the hull the tooling head of the rivet gun weather hydralic or hand tooled would of been hammered out. Any update would be grand David
April 16, 2014 at 9:15 pm |
Hi David, I do not know the the original source of the rivet, but for the reasons you have stated it must be more likely to have been a unused rivet. My information was sourced from an article in todays daily ‘Guardian’ Newspaper that you might like to take a look at.
May 5, 2014 at 8:53 pm |
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May 7, 2014 at 8:53 am |
Glad you like the website. Be confident and do your own thing with your writing and as to your future website, I would go for WordPress to start with and see how it goes before you commit your self to a more expensive option.
September 9, 2014 at 10:19 pm |
This item is not a “rivet” (or a “rivet head”)…
It is a so called ‘divot’, a hydraulically punched out plug from the hull plate.
At later stage a rivet would go into the hole, for connecting hull plates together.
A divot would only be found at the shipyard as scrap metal.
I know of roughly 10 differently inscribed Titanic divots.
November 1, 2016 at 4:43 pm |
I’ve got one, same shape the rounded top is engraved with a star on matted ground and “Left Belfast 2,4. 1912”, the tapering sides are engraved with clover or perhaps shamrocks again on a matted ground and with a shield shaped cartouche “Lost 15 4 1912” In a narrow band around the base it says RMS Titanic it is mounted on a square stepped mahogany base.I bought it in Ottawa about 20 years ago. What does RMS stand for?
November 1, 2016 at 5:03 pm |
An ordinary ship would be SS (Steam Ship) or MV (Motor Vessel). RMS stands for Royal Mail Ship – not steam ship. A sailing vessel can be RMS as well as can be a steamer. It’s a distinction because of the carriage of the mails.
These are very rare now – there are fewer than 5 in active service.
It is the ship prefix used for seagoing vessels that carry mail under contract to the British Royal Mail. Any vessel designated as “RMS” has the right both to fly the pennant of the Royal Mail when sailing and to include the Royal Mail “crown” logo with any identifying device and/or design for the ship.
It was used by many shipping lines, but is often associated in particular with the White Star Line, Cunard Line, Royal Mail Lines and Union-Castle Line, which held a number of high-profile mail contracts, and traditionally prefixed the names of many of their ships with the initials “RMS”.
Hope that this is helpful in answering your question. Will you be putting it up for auction or keeping it as a special memento ?