The ‘New’ Chair

acquired by the titanic deck chair company of nantucket in 2022

In September 2022, A.H. Wilkens Auctioneers & Appraisals of Toronto, Canada contacted Ian about an upcoming auction. Among the lots was a remarkably intact deck chair, consigned from Halifax, Nova Scotia, and purported to be from the Titanic disaster. Intrigued, Ian downloaded the provenance documents and began a new research journey—back on the hunt more than 20 years after his first Titanic adventure.

The chair’s story traces back to one of the Titanic’s recovery vessels, where it was gifted to Reverend George Ambroseand his wife, Almira “Aunt Allie” Balcom, who lived at the corner of South and Robie Street in Halifax. It remained in their family for generations until it was consigned for auction by Edward Reardon of Saint John, New Brunswick, and his siblings. Coincidentally, Ian himself had once lived in Saint John while launching the National Basketball League of Canada.

Stamped beneath the right arm with “Kaufmann Liverpool”—a cabinet maker listed in Gore’s Directory of 1911—the chair bore a striking resemblance to the earlier LeMarteleur deck chair, with only minor differences. Its provenance included documentation dating back to the 1970s, when it had even been considered for donation to the Fall River Titanic Museum. A period photograph from 1912 shows nine or ten similar deck chairs stacked aboard the cable ship Mackay-Bennett, which returned to Halifax with over 300 bodies and floating wreckage from the Titanic disaster.

Ian ultimately secured the chair at auction and brought it to his home on Cape Cod. “I always regretted parting with the first chair—especially with the way that auction went forward just after September 11, 2001,” Ian reflects. “So I leapt at the opportunity to acquire another.”

For nearly two years, the chair remained under wraps at Ian’s home. Then, in the summer of 2024, Flying Fish Exhibitsapproached him with an invitation to feature it in their new traveling exhibition, Finding Titanic: The Secret Mission. The exhibition tells the story of Titanic’s discovery through the lens of Dr. Robert Ballard’s top-secret U.S. Navy mission to document the wreck sites of two nuclear submarines—the USS Thresher and USS Scorpion—under the cover story of searching for Titanic.

We are proud to announce that this Titanic deck chair will be on public display for the first time at Finding Titanic: The Secret Mission, opening in Peoria, Illinois on September 27, 2025. For exhibition dates and locations, visit: Finding Titanic: The Secret Mission | Flying Fish Exhibits.

Follow the chair’s next chapter in a traveling exhibition — find out more here!