A message in a bottle, supposedly thrown from the RMS Titanic by Irish emigrant and Titanic victim Jeremiah Burke, washed ashore near his family home in Cork and later surfaced in the family’s possession. But historians and Titanic scholars remain divided over its authenticity. The man, the voyage, and the tragedy TIL Titanic victim Jeremiah Burke threw a message in a bottle overboard that read "From Titanic, goodbye all, Burke of Glanmire, Cork". It washed ashore a year later only a few miles from his family home in Ireland. It then remained in his family for nearly a century before being donated to a museum byu/tyrion2024 intodayilearned Burke, who was 19 when he died, was born in County Cork and was one of seven children in a farming family. In April 1912, he journeyed to Queenstown, Ireland, to board the Titanic as a third-class passenger, intending to join sisters who had already emigrated to the U.S. He was accompanied by his cousin, Nora Hegarty. On the night of April, 1912, the Titanic struck an iceberg and sank, killing over 1,500 people. Burke and his cousin were among the victims; their bodies were never identified. But roughly 13 months after the disaster, in the summer of 1913, a small bottle was found on a beach near Cork Harbour, at a place called Dunkettle, a few miles from Burke’s home. Inside was a pencilled note: “13/4/1912, from Titanic, Goodbye all, Burke of Glanmire, Cork, Aleteia.” Burke’s mother recognized her son’s handwriting Note cast overboard in bottle by passenger Jeremiah Burke from Cork as Titanic went down on this day, 1912. pic.twitter.com/ojSgB8QAEp— RareIrishStuff (@RareIrishStuff) April 15, 2016 After its discovery, local authorities passed the bottle to the Burke family. Burke’s mother, Kate, recognized her son’s handwriting and also identified the container as the holy water bottle she had given him before his departure. According to family tradition, she had filled a small bottle with holy water for him to keep as a token of protection. And the bottle was tied with one of Burke’s own shoelaces. Meanwhile, the last word of the note is sometimes cited as “Aleteia” which, in Greek, means “truth.” Its potential significance, though debated, is sometimes included in the discussion of the note’s authenticity. The note came to be interpreted by the family as a final farewell: a supernatural echo from a doomed voyage. And for decades, the message remained a family heirloom, passed down through the generations in Cork Finally, in 2011, Burke’s niece donated the bottle and note to the Cobh Heritage Centre, where it went on public display. At that time, the centre’s manager declared the artifact a “fantastic addition” to their Titanic collection. It remains part of the museum’s Titanic exhibit. The controversy: real message or myth? Jeremiah Burke, un passager du Titanic âgé de 19 ans, a envoyé un message d'adieu dans une bouteille pendant le naufrage juste avant sa mort. Un an après, cette bouteille a échouée, … près de son domicile. Son écriture et la bouteille ont été reconnue par sa mère. pic.twitter.com/4BNvCI0631— Bouteflikov (@Bouteflikov) March 8, 2020 While the Burke family has long accepted the note as genuine, today, some Titanic historians and skeptics are more cautious. One of the most obvious problems is the date. The message is dated “13/4/1912” — that is, April 13, which is before the Titanic’s collision, which occurred during the night of April 14–15, and even before the ship had fully left port. Moreover, the date is hard to make out. It’s most often thought to be dated April 13, but some think it’s dated April 10, which is before Burke even boarded the ship. This raises doubts about whether Burke could have thrown it during the sinking. Some suggest that he may have tossed it overboard on April 12 while the ship was still near the Irish coast or even while docked, nearly four days before disaster struck. While Burke was indeed aboard the Titanic on April 13, the date raises questions about where and when the message was thrown, since the ship was already far from Ireland, making it highly unlikely that a bottle tossed that far out at sea could drift back to so near Burke’s home shores. Whether he misdated the message may never be known. The Burke note and Titanic hoaxes Over the decades, the Titanic’s mythos has produced many alleged messages in bottles, and many have been exposed as fakes or forgeries. For example, the so-called “Mathilde Lefebvre letter,” purportedly from a Titanic victim and found in a bottle years later, was later exposed as a hoax. Critics argue that the Burke bottle shares traits common to maritime legends: dramatic narrative, emotional resonance, and just enough ambiguity to elude definitive proof. Those who defend the Burke note emphasize the family attestations: Kate Burke’s recognition of her son’s handwriting and the bottle’s provenance. Detractors counter that without independent forensic analysis, like ink dating and handwriting comparison by neutral experts, the authenticity remains uncertain.