A new exhibit has recently opened at the Postal Museum in London — Voices from the Deep. The exhibit features undeliveredd letters retrieved from the wreck of the SS Gairsoppa, a British merchant ship which was sunk by a U-boat 300 miles southwest of Galway Bay in 1941. The SS Gairsoppa is best known for her cargo, which as well as pig iron and tea included 240 tonnes of silver.  Between 2012-2014, Odyssey Marine Exploration, under contract with the UK government, recovered close to 99% of the insured silver from the wreck which is almost three miles deep. 

Remarkably, something far more rare than silver was also recovered from the wreckage.  Twelve bundles of mail bundles of letters, over 700 letters and postcards, were miraculously preserved in an air pocket in the hold of the ship. 

Emma Harper, curator of the Voices From The Deep exhibition told the Express: “It is remarkable that they have been preserved.” 

As the ship sank to the seabed the pressure sent debris far and wide and the water was pushed out of the hold. “Sediment settled on top of the bag holding the letters, which acted as a protective layer, so there was no contact with water or light, both of which are corrosive.

“Letters like this are incredibly rare. There was a ship that sank in the early 20th century and letters carried by a person on it were recovered, but not a collection like this. This is one of the largest finds of its kind.”

Ironically, as the letters were in solid bundles the archaeologists had to put them into water to peel them apart. 

Among those on display at the museum in Clerkenwell until next January is one from Private Pete Walker to his “most precious sweetheart” Phyll after she accepts his proposal of marriage in a previous letter. 

He was stationed in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, and on December 1, 1940, wrote: “I wept with joy. I could not help it. If only you could know how happy it made me darling to know that you accepted me and that you will be mine for ever.”

Another letter written on November 14, 1940, was from an unnamed German who was being kept in a parole camp in the Indian Himalayas. He told friends or relatives Ellen and Walter, in Los Angeles, about his mother: “She is really well looked after, in lovely surroundings, Himalayan snow views from her house.”

Other letters included photos and Christmas cards for families in the UK and America, with one containing a photo of a boy and a girl in a garden accompanied by a letter from one of the children whose “Daddy is very ill”.

Emma says: “The letters have a breadth of subjects being discussed in them but, overall, they show the power of the need to communicate. They show there was a real worry among British people in India over what was happening at home.

Voices of the Deep will run through January 13, 2019, at the Postal Museum in London. 

Thanks to Irwin Bryan for contributing to this post.