Relative of Titanic Passengers in Cobh

Sally Anne Odell, a direct relative of the Odell family who disembarked at Cobh when the Titanic called here in 1912 completed a private Titanic Trail guided tour yesterday with the Trail’s author and creator, Michael Martin. The 5 members of the Odell family were among seven passengers that disembarked when RMS Titanic called briefly at Cobh on 11th April 1912. They came on a motoring holiday and met the famous Father Francis Browne.

Both Father Brown and Kay Odell were prolific photographers and Sally Anne said ‘they met at some point on board and I’m sure their common interest in photography was a topic of conversation’.  The private tour for the esteemed visitor was arranged at short notice when Sally Anne came to Cobh on the Independence of the Seas cruise ship. Knowing that Sally Anne was a generous benefactor to the Royal National Lifeboat Institute (RNLI) Michael did the tour complimentary and said ‘the RNLI are a fabulous volunteer based organisation of which I am a member, it gives me great pleasure to enlighten such a distinguished guest to our town about the valued Titanic heritage that we enjoy’.

Sally Anne and her party thoroughly enjoyed the tour and were amazed at the numerous sites they were brought to and the fact that so much of the town is just as it was at the time their relatives came here. Sally Anne thanked Michael and commented ‘we will definitely be back to do your Trail again’. Many others from the ship chose the one hour daily public tour from the Commodore and yet others chose the deluxe extended 3 hour tour that leaves from the ship itself and includes Irish coffees and a copy of Michael’s book, The Titanic Trail Cobh (Queenstown).