The Legend Of An “Evil Ancient Mummy” That Sunk The RMS Titanic

So the story goes, the infamous ocean liner had a very important passenger onboard: an ancient Egyptian mummy that was being shipped from the British Museum to the US. At the time, tellers of this story claimed that the sinking was caused by the vengeful spirit of the 3,600-year-old ancient Egyptian priestess whose physical possessions lay in the ship’s cargo hull. 

Of course, this is nothing more than a ghost story – an eerie tale with little basis in physical reality that was created to thrill and terrify. Yet, the origins of this fantastical legend are surprisingly captivating in their own right.

Folkloric myths of ancient Egyptian curses have been around for centuries, especially after the rediscovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun and the untimely death of Lord Carnarvon, the aristocrat who bankrolled the expeditions. 

These legends were given a boost of publicity through people like Bertram Fletcher Robinson, a British journalist in the 19th century who was good friends with Arthur Conan Doyle, the writer and physician of Sherlock Holmes fame. 

Robinson spent months investigating claims of grave misfortunes that fell upon people who handled, or perhaps just annoyed, an ancient artifact known as the “Unlucky Mummy” in the British Museum. He died in 1907 just before publishing his article, but the work appears to have left a mark on his famous writing companion.

“There are many tales about the powers of the old Egyptians, and I know I wouldn’t care to go fooling about their tombs and relics. There are many malevolent spirits,” said Conan Doyle.

Another advocate of the “mummy curse” was William Stead, a controversial journalist whose second-most famous work exposed child prostitution in Victorian London. Stead and his friend cooked up an oddly similar story after viewing the coffin lid of the Priestess of Amun at the British Museum, according to Snopes.

And here is why the story becomes supercharged: Stead died in the sinking of the RMS Titanic. Little is known about his final hours, although it’s been said that he was at a fancy 11-course dinner onboard the ship where he retold many stories, including some about a cursed mummy at the British Museum.

Stead’s link to the maritime disaster and the cursed mummy story became muddled up and intertwined – but what a story it was! The sensational tale was lapped up by the American press, including the Washington Post, which reportedly ran a story in May 1912 that suggested the Titanic was doomed because of the malign spirit of an Egyptian priestess who died in the city of Thebes in 1,600 years BCE.

Lo and behold, the story is grade-A bullsh*t. In 1985, the Titanic Historical Society claimed they got their hands on the full cargo listing of the ship, and (surprise, surprise) there was no record of any ancient Egyptian artifacts on board.

“The cargo manifest throws those myths right out the window,” Charles Haas, president of the Titanic Historical Society, told the media at the time.

You could also argue that the ancient Egyptian artifact at the center of this story isn’t as interesting as it’s sometimes portrayed. The so-called “Unlucky Mummy” can still be found today at the British Museum with the codename EA22542. The object doesn’t contain any human remains, it’s simply a painted wooden board covered in plaster that’s been designed to represent the deceased. 

The object didn’t even leave the museum until 1990 for a temporary exhibition and there’s never been any hard evidence of its supposedly bad attitude.