Lifeboat of Titanic Survivors Were Guided by One Woman's 'Flashlight' Cane

Ella White used this cane to light the way for her lifeboat on the night of the Titanic's demise.

(Image credit: Guernsey's)

As the sinking Titanic took on freezing water near Newfoundland in 1912, a lifeboat of survivors used the battery-operated light on a woman's cane to illuminate the way to safety. That cane — made with some of the world's first synthetic plastic — is now hitting the auction block at a minimum price of $100,000.

The cane's original owner, Ella White, used the illuminated walking stick to guide her lifeboat, as well as alert rescuers to their whereabouts.

However, White had injured her foot while in Europe, prompting her to buy a cane to help her walk. The black-enamel walking stick had a tip of amber-colored synthetic plastic, known as Bakelite, and a battery-illuminated crown, according to liveauctioneers, the auction house selling the item. "Unforeseen to her, this cane would serve a historically valiant and fortuitous purpose beyond aiding her injury," the company wrote on the bidding site.

White stayed in her first-class apartment during the Titanic's voyage, exiting only on April 14, 1912, when the ship struck an iceberg. In later testimony about the catastrophe, White described the sensation as a slight tremor. "There did not seem to me that there was any very great impact at all. It was just as though we went over about a thousand marbles. There was nothing terrifying about it at all," she said, according to the auction house. Her small party went to the upper deck to see what had happened, and they found that it was crowded with passengers who were also waiting for information.

Finally, Captain Edward Smith (who died later that night) told the passengers to don life jackets. But many did not grasp the seriousness of the situation; White recalled that men were smoking cigarettes, and husbands and wives were saying farewell with the idea that they would soon see each other again, according to her testimony. Sea captains even told passengers to keep their passes so they would later be able to reboard the Titanic.

Laura is the managing editor at Live Science. She also runs the archaeology section and the Life's Little Mysteries series. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Scholastic, Popular Science and Spectrum, a site on autism research. She has won multiple awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association for her reporting at a weekly newspaper near Seattle. Laura holds a bachelor's degree in English literature and psychology from Washington University in St. Louis and a master's degree in science writing from NYU.