Fire & Ice: Zeppelins, Aerophilately and the Titanic #643

Facing Slip from Oscar Scott Woody, postal clerk on board R.M.S. Titanic
April 10, 1912, recovered from his body and stamped with his name. This slip marked mail going to "WASHINGTON D.C. / From Sea Post Letters", and bears the postmark "Trans Atlantic Post Office / AP 10 / 12" & "TITANIC / O.S. WOODY" two-line personal handstamp, 3 1 / 8 in. x 5 in. (8 corner margin. x 12.7 corner margin.), Extremely Fine, a similar slip from mail from NY realized $21,250.
Estimate $10,000 - 15,000

Facing slips were used on board royal mail ships (RMS) to mark bundles of mail by their destination. They allowed the postal clerks to organize mail and account for any sorting errors. As required by the postal service, Woody stamped his name on his slips so that any errors in sorting could be charged to him.

On the night of April 14, 1912, O.S. Woody and the other four postal clerks were celebrating his 44th birthday, but after the ship hit the iceberg they refused to leave their post and struggled to save the mail in their charge. They were last seen carrying sacks of mail from G deck to C deck to save it. All five men perished in the line of duty, only two of their bodies were recovered, Mr. Woody and Mr. March, both Americans.

In order to honor his memory, President George W. Bush signed a Bill on June 25, 2004, designating the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 223 South Main Street in Roxboro, NC as the "Oscar Scott Woody Post Office Building".