Who Owned the MEGALODON SHARK TOOTH Necklace on the Titanic?!? 

Even if they didn't know that rich people wore traveling clothes, it seems like a reach to just immediately assume the necklace was worn while boarding the ship.... Like what, did Magellen forget about suitcases???

Abby Cox out here doing better archaeology than the people who scanned the titanic. Also, personally, I think the jeweler who was known to have brought valuables on board is my top suspect. Followed by the guy who liked to spoil his wife with expensive, ridiculous jewelry.

Going over what was claimed for insurance would be an epic rabbit hole, shark tooth or no shark tooth

I suspect that this is a LOT more shark discussion than Abby expected when she started this channel 😂

Would someone just ask a jewelry appraiser, or anyone who owns fine jewelry if there is a possibility that this was worn any other time except a huge gala instead of asking AI to look for someone wearing this? OMG it's kind of common sense to know this is treasure, not casually worn, especially during the Edwardian Era. The rich would have been wearing great jewelry, but nothing like this.

I love a low stakes history mystery! I'm not at all impressed with with the ai component, their reasoning is very silly, but hopefully the in depth images and info they gather on all the passengers can be helpful to actual historians.

All I can think is that there HAVE to be more records of insurance claims out there that might have the answer. If I were an obscenely rich passenger/heir, I'd have filed the insurance paperwork before the lifeboats even dried off all the way.

Two points on submarine photography: 1- Definitely a wide angle lens, the only light is from the spotlights you take with you, and it doesn't travel very far under water, so you have to get very close to get a usable image. 2- The lens is full of air. This may sound an odd thing to say, but the light refracts when it moves from traveling through water to traveling through air even if there is no lens. This means the effective focal length changes when the camera is under water. Thus ends the sum total of my knowledge of underwater photography.

And I thought that producers using AI to write scripts (instead of just paying striking writers fair wages) was the most pointless and ill-suited use of AI I was gonna read about this week - But bless their little simple socks, they've managed it! Oh, why or why couldn't little Flora be around this week to tell them (at great length of course) how evening and travelling jewellery/clothing are completely different? Good detective work though Abby 🙂

I would totally watch a fashion history mystery show.

Fun fact about these ancient tooth necklaces: Back in the late 90's- early 00's, my husband wanted a (fossilized) shark tooth necklace for his birthday. (It was a surfer thing). Anyway I found a seller called "The Shark Tooth Hunter" who lived in Galvaston, TX. He told me that millions of years ago, that area of TX had been a great inland sea. He made a living by walking around, finding both mineralized shark and Megalodon teeth, making jewelry out of them. He had some that were the size of a 30 lb paperweight, plus many smaller ones. I bought a couple of the Megalodon necklaces at very reasonable prices + one fossilized shark tooth. They came with certificates of authenticity.I paid about $30 each for them- which seemed pretty reasonable. Which makes me wonder: If these were a prestige item, worn by a passenger on the Titanic- were they sourced from Texas...or elsewhere like Europe?🤔

I’m thinking it’s also possible that the tooth, beads, and boar tusk were souvenirs brought back from the South Pacific to which the gold was added later. It doesn’t necessarily stand to reason that husbands were the only suppliers of such things. They could have been gifts from a child, a sibling, a parent, or even an aunt or uncle who had travelled there. If a woman owned them, old family or societal photos would be the best place to look.

Did anyone else die of laughter when Abby revealed the Australian was either living in West Africa or Siberia??????😂😂 like, was he a villain trying to lead his pursuers astray?

Ok my cynical take was that Magellan said they were gonna use AI to solve the mystery just to entice several internet sleuths to do the grunt of the work. Then they'll take this info and go from there. They are using your anger for their own gain, just like a Sith Lord.

I am going with Indiana Jones on this one, "that belongs in a museum". Abby Cox did more to provide clues to assist in solving this mystery than AI, at least in this situation, was capable of accomplishing. I admit it, I giggled at the thought of any of those first class passengers throwing on their bespoke garments and then thinking hey going onto a ship I will wear my shark tooth.

I did not expect to watch an Abby Cox video describing in detail shark anatomy and Vanuatu culture and how it relates to fashion on the Titanic, of all things, but i am HERE FOR IT

Excellent analysis. AI is only as good as the humans who set up the model and information sets. Your observation that passengers boarding the ship would wear traveling clothes simply blows away their idea to review photos. My vote is on your two top candidates (Astor and Widener). Sadly, it might be a courier who was hired to bring the collection to the US.

Dang, it almost sounds like some kids with their new toy, desperately trying to find any reason to use it. On another note, I won a group jepordy once because of knowledge of Titanic fashion. You are not alone and you never know when it can come in handy

With the museum connection, the jewelry could've been a "sample" piece for high fashion to build hype or as a way to profit off of the exhibit. Like zoo gift shops where they're selling jewelry made of horns and antlers but with a way higher price tag.

I think something important that we have to keep in mind when trying to identify the owner of these objects is where their cabin was located. The jewelry is in the debris field, not inside the wreck, so it had to have gotten there somehow. The most likely explanation is that they were kept in their owner's cabin and subsequently fell off the ship when she broke in half. Here's the cabins of the 1st Class passengers mentioned in the video as possible owners: John Jacob Astor - Cabins C-72 / C-74 - Amidships - Destroyed During the Breakup George Widener - Cabin C-80 - Amidships - Destroyed During the Breakup Archibald Butt - Cabin B-38 - Forward - Still Intact in the Bow Section Francis Millet - Cabin B-32 - Forward - Still Intact in the Bow Section John Weir - Cabin E-59 - Amidships - Destroyed During the Breakup Ervin Lewy - Cabin Number and Location Unknown Engelhart Østby - Cabin - B-30 - Forward - Still Intact in the Bow Section Arthur Gordon McCrae - Cabin Number Unknown, Somewhere Aft - Destroyed During Sinking

I wasn't quite old enough to ride the titanic movie/leonardo jack wave but one event that feels like an increasingly unique experience the older I get is having a "titanic day" in elementary school. I'm pretty sure it was third grade when you would research a passenger on the titanic, and then pretend to be that person for a day like you were on the titanic. we dressed up, had a fancy sit down meal, and it conveniently overlapped with us learning ballroom dancing in gym so we had to dance with a boy at one point lol and even though just the third graders were the ones mainly participating, the whole school got decorated for it, like they painted the windows in the common areas so they had a porthole, and the principal was the captain of the ship. I have no idea why this was a thing, when it started, or if it is still going on, but its definitely something I can only reminisce about with my elementary school classmates and no one else.

Such fun that you, Abby, and Bernadette B. and the Welsh Viking are all doing great, wonderful videos that are rabbit holes out of their 'usual' themes. I think this is great and a wonderful inspiration for all of us watchers to go find rabbit holes outside of our comfort zones. Thank you, Abby, for a very interesting video! I'd never have known about circular tusks without you!

Abby being such a titanic nerd that she has the Heart of the ocean on a Teapot. 💙

I can see JJ Astor bringing unique stuff back for museums. The Astor name is attached to many items I have seen in different museums. UVA has/had an entire exhibit on Native American Artifacts from the Astor Trust (pre covid, have not been back since Covid)

You are a fab researcher! I’ve been in the antique business, textiles and jewelry for over forty years and I think you are spot on! It’ll be fun to see how this pans out and what others come up with.

When a hair/clothes historian is better at this than the people taking the video. Wonderful video, great research put into it!

As some who does use AI I also think the Magellan approach is laughable. This was fascinating!

This is absolutely fascinating! (is it not common sense to assume that these where incredibly expensive items, and wouldn't have been worn while boarding a BOAT). That being said, I just wanted to inform you that the ABC isn't the 'Australian Broadcasting Company' its the 'Australian Broadcasting corporation' (which is kinda confusing cause the American ABC is Company).

A thought I had on it was that it was just an 'exhibit' on the ship. Even modern cruises today will have art, statues, jewelry exhibitions, auctions etc on board and as the Titanic heavily catered to the rich, something similar is very possible here.

I LOVE that movie!!! I first heard about the sinking with MGM/Debbie Reynold's The Unsinkable Molly Brown. (after moving to Colorado I learned that Mrs. J.J. Brown would deck anyone who called her "Molly")I remember that tickets to Titanic was the first time I ever bought movie tickets ahead of time, via Movie Phone. I married my second husband in a white version of the Jump dress. I think that the recent sub-incident is the perfect definition of an ironic travesty.

Damn, I'm actually really impressed by the amount of detective work you did for this! And yeah, even with the context of the bracelet, that just doesn't look like a megalodon tooth to me. I feel like so many companies these days are soooo desperate to shoehorn AI into their business, that they don't actually stop to think about whether it's actually a good idea, or remotely necessary for achieving their goals.

Actually this discovery isn't weird at all the Victorian age literally had this whole thing called The Bone Wars of these two fancy rich guys trying to discover as many dinosaurs as possible and discover more than the other guy. Victorians and the people like at the turn of the century were completely obsessed with figuring out the past! Look up Mary Anning and the real story behind the song she sells seashells by the seashore. It's all really interesting stuff honestly I would be more surprised if there are a s*** ton of fossils and stuff that these rich people collected found in the wreckage of the Titanic. The fact that a Megalodon tooth is in there isn't shocking at all

Loved this video, the amount of research you do is amazing! I just noticed that you mention New Guinea was a British colony, but as far as I know it was German at the time. Maybe there is some German passenger that had connection to the missionary work in New Guinea who brought the jewelry. Damn, this is probably going to send me down a rabbit hole...

(Hey Im just here to let you know that Maori isn't pronounced with English vowels, and the a is pronounced like ahh and o is pronounced like ohh (like oar without the r) so its pronounced pronounced more like m-ow-r-ee (with a slightly rolled r). You should be able to find videos online really easily showing how to pronounce it but foreigners always pronounce it wrong so I just wanted to put this here for educational purposes thank you :))

This might be my favorite video you've ever done. Can this please be the start of a series on historical fashion mysteries?? (Or a series on the Titanic - I'd be 100% down for that too lol)

I really love your rabbit holes. Any time you post them, I love them.

There's various resources to search historical records of people who were coming to and going from Australia by ship. They aren't complete and some of them are held nationally and some state by state...but if anyone was seriously trying to work out the possible previous Pacific travels of Australians who ended up on the Titanic that might be a longshot possibility to get started on it

Thank you Abby for addressing the actual likelihood of this being a Megalodon tooth. You discussed the major problems I have with that in the video 😊 I 💯% think that it's likely a very large great white shark tooth.

I'm mentally clocking all the different things Abby uses in various videos to clip the lapel mic to because, girl, I feel this on such a deep level. The fuzzy noise from fabrics and wind and jewelry and just the ambient sounds in the room. 😭 It satisfies something deep in my soul to see someone else who just gave up and created an insider's meme so she could laugh instead of cry while editing.

People who use AI to scan Edwardian Era Passengers are the same people who say: “YOU DON’T NEED INTERNS ‘COZ CHATGPT.”

Omg you’re giving voice to my exact thoughts and what I said out loud to my cats (and doggo) (pertaining to AI as a reasonable solution to this - I swear they just come up with this ridiculousness for the trendy key words and headlines) smh 🤦🏼‍♀️ thank you! 🙏

Love this video!! And it opened a rabbit hole for me, because now I’m searching for any published insurance claims from the Titanic, because now I’m just randomly curious about what sort of items were claimed by people. 😂

Did they say what area of the wreck the necklace was found? i.e. in a stateroom vs where the purser's office would have been vs out in the middle of the debris field?

When you started talking about the sheets on the Titanic, my brain immediately went to old Rose saying “the sheets had never been slept in” when she starts the story.

I was waiting for you to mention Molly Brown. She is known to have brought an ancient Egyptian Ushabti on the Titanic. She seems to be eccentric and rich enough to own something like a megalodon tooth and bring it on the ship.

I have absolutely no experience in fashion history and even I was like, “Why do I feel like that AI thing isn’t going to work? That totally looks like a necklace you’d put in your luggage and not on your body.” I just simply cannot understand the reasoning behind their decision. Even today, as a not rich person at all, I pack all of the jewelry I take on a trip, because flying sucks and I want to be in my jammies when I do it. They could scan me for days and never know I’m carrying a wealth of Star Wars and Halloween jewelry with me in the middle of July, because those two things are my vibe all year round.

AI hype bros: We can use AI for literally everything! Like using our special robot vision to X-ray footage from over a hundred years ago! Historians: or you could just talk to us and look through records like normal people?

baring in mind the ship leaving the dock footage is Titanic's sister ship Olympic not Titanic herself so yh good luck with that

@AbbyCox Thanks to you I have just found out I had an ancestor on the Titanic! I am a descendant of Georgianna McCrae, Arthur's grandmother, her sons and herself were the first McCrae's to settle in Australia. Where they settled is now called McRae in honour oftheir family, after they lived their for over a century! Thank you!!!

Great video, yeah, the moment you said they were gonna analyze boarding footage I was like: good luck, not gonna be worn for that. And I know almost nothing about fashion history. Either Magellen is just doing a publicity stunt or they don’t bother hiring experts in this field, which is a shame A few questions/ideas: Would this kind of thing possibly be worn for dinner or dances onboard or is it too fancy even for that? I didn’t quite follow why you decided it could only have been brought as a permanent relocation. Could you expand on that? Megalodon babies were born, fully bitey, at around 6.5 feet long. So, while the exhibit at the museum was obviously correctly choosing larger teeth for their huge jaw display, I expect subadult megalodons might shed teeth in this ‘white shark’ size range as they had a lot of size overlap with white sharks. Maybe a paleontologist can clarify if this is correct. Were there any people onboard who were South Pacific natives? As crew or entertainers or ‘exotic servants’ who might own such pieces as part of their native dress? Are there resources for the exact insurance claims for passengers? Seems like it would be interesting to match these against scan footage in general. Were there fancy dress parties planned that might make this a collection to do with a costume rather than exciting statement pieces… Though I’d love to see the kinds of non-costume outfits daring people would have made utilizing these items!

I feel like there were a lot of ways Magellan could have jumped on the ai train...this was not it.😂 Also, I love a niche video topic and is one of my favorite things about the internet.

I found a Titanic magazine at Target on Monday all about the ship, voyage, some survivor and passenger stories, the tragedy. It’s really interesting! Did I already know some of it? Yes. Did I still buy it because I am fascinated by Titanic’s story? Absolutely. And then I watched this video! This week has a theme, it seems!

I feel like one of the most obvious places to start in terms of research for Magellan is where they found the necklace on the ship. If it were in the remains of a stateroom, then we could map out roughly which room that might have been and crosscheck that with manifests to see who was staying in that location during the trip. The AI method seems like a complete waste of time. I loved this video so much, it’s such a weirdly fascinating topic.

I love this kind of thing! Make a documentary five hours long, and I will be here watching. Damned interesting.

Happy Shark Week 2023, Everyone!

The interesting thing is that wild boar, according to Wikipedia, originated in the Philippines/Indonesia and then spread to the Pacific, Asia, Europe and North Africa. In all these regions there are boar tusk adornments in collections that date back to Ancient and even fully prehistoric times. However the most likely source of the gold-set tusk from the Titanic is not the antiquities market, but the international exotic goods market of the nineteenth century, which as Abby rightly says, places the origin in the Vanuatu region --- which was producing tusks at the time in mercantile quantities to meet demand in the region. It doesn't follow however that the owner of the Titanic tusk had to have connections in or have visited the Vanuatu region. Rudyard Kipling, a Titanic contemporary, specifically talks about the origin of tribal artefacts in his Just So Stories, describing how a narwhal tusk carved by Inuit (I think that's what it was) might end up in a shop in London. The point he makes is that anyone travelling by ship, a sailor for example, might purchase a boar tusk or two directly from the maker at a market stall in Vanuatu, and then onsell them to a shop in a major western city. Ivory, in the form of elephant tusks, coral, animal horns and antler and whale bone had been popular in Europe for many centuries. And Monarchs wanted their ivory items bejewelled, so I gather that western jewellers have a long history of setting bone items in metal.. And being set in metal, their last owner can't have been someone interested in collecting "authentic" tribal artefacts from Melanesia. I think that the Titanic owner of the tusk and tooth most likely bought them from a western jeweller in a major city. Such as a stopover port like Singapore or Colombo, where wealthy tourists doing a tour of The Far East might buy locally-made gold or silver jeweller with an exotic twist. The tusk and tooth would have been fascinating and conversation-starting mementos of that part of the trip.

My first thought when I saw the picture was "does anyone else see the duck?😂" My second thought is could the collection have been a display for a library or gentleman's club room and belonged to the company that owned the Titanic. I never read the article and I have not gone down the Titanic rabbit hole so I don't know what we don't know and what we do know outside this video.

It could also be a missionary or former sailor emigrating to the USA that had worked in that region of the Pacific. The beads look similar to a shell bead necklace I have from the Solomon Islands.

I have a Megladon tooth! One is an inch long. I have smaller ones too. I found them in North Carolina on a beach while visiting my sister on the base Camp Lejeune. There are tons of them there, mostly very little ones. There are also lots of them at Calvert Cliffs, MD. 😊

I'm glad that you mentioned the Widener's, because if you found any information about the home, there were collections of art and jewellery in their home, so I feel that maybe it was his and he was bringing it back home in order to show it off to people who came a visit his house to see the very large collection of paintings.

I love the tiny detail of the Heart of the Ocean necklace on the mantel 💙

I remember the first time I found a shark tooth in Belvedere. Quite common near where I live (S.E. London).

You missed that Benjamin Guggenheim was traveling with his mistress, whom he lavished with gifts of gowns, jewels, shoes, purses, I believe even a tiara. Madame Leontine Aubert. While her claims of what was lost, didn't include a shark tooth, explicitly, there was a lot.

*Helicopter suddenly arrives outside Abbys home *Senior agent from MAGELLAN exits said helicopter *Knocks on door "Abigail Cox, expert on Fashion History. Old Clothes. Sewing and Shenanigans, please come with us"

Very cool analysis of Magellan's theory to identify the owner(s) of the necklace! Speaking of necklaces, I like the appearance of the Heart of the Ocean on your fireplace mantel. It's like it is just peeking out over your left shoulder, saying "Hey!!! I'm here!!! Don't forget about me!" Love your videos. Please keep up the great work!

This dive down the rabbit hole was super interesting, actually! And the idea of using AI to identify the owners in the described way might work in other scenarios - I could envision security video of boarding planes being used to identify remains in a plane crash scenario. (Where the passengers wouldn't be changing clothes en route.)

It's so impressive how Abby narrowed it down from the 2240 people on the Titanic to just a handful purely through research

16:45 LOL at Archibald Butt and Francis Millet being "Besties" - of course there's no way to be 100% certain, etc. but they were both "confirmed bachelor" types who lived together. Like, for a long time. There's even a memorial fountain dedicated to the two of them ❤

One thing I don't get. They have all this data from the ship. Why don't they use the existing data, to figure out where the necklace is in relation to the wreck? It's still there, so I think it's fair to say it wasn't worn when the ship went down. By comparing the data they have against the blue prints of the ship, they could find more or less the exact location of the necklace. Is it in a suite? In a cabin? In the captain's quarters? Next task would be to compare the travel manifest. Who stayed and where. If the necklace was for some reason moved from the cabin (to let's say for safekeeping with the captain) shouldn't it say somewhere in the travel manifest? If it is located in what used to be a travel suite, we could find out the person staying in that suite. This wouldn't be easy. But it would be easier than finding someone, who would not carry the bags containing the necklace themselves, mind I add, who was wearing the necklace through AI 111 years later.

It’s nice to be early here. Nice to see you and Max Miller covering sub topics of the Titanic. It’s always fun to learn about that era.

What a fascinating mystery! I haven't delved into this myself, but my bet would be that they belonged to Eleanor Elkins Widener. After she survived the Titanic, she remarried a South American explorer and travelled the Amazon with him. She was a very adventurous spirit that I definitely could imagine wearing these pieces from the South Pacific!

As a titanic obsessed kid I LOVED this video! Love deep dives into odd mysteries!

I didn’t even notice the shark tooth until halfway through. Great detective job.

I saw someone left a link to this vid on the original Magellan vid, and you answered lots of my questions, thank you. I did figure that it was from Pacific Islanders, the bears, tooth, and boar's tusk, but did you see there was other things next to them? Like copper items, and gold items that if zoomed in on might tell us more. There's that roman dagger looking thing with writing on it, and all this looks like its in a bag with leather straps to tie it up. Too bad they didn't scoop it up, but imagine the uproar over that

Titanic stuff usually gives me nightmares, but this is one piece of content about it that will let me rest easy :D

Titanic is my favor movie and I had a HUGE Titanic perseveration from like. 3rd-10th grades. This gives my younger self so much joy

Abbey thank you! It really sounds like you made a real effort to pronounce South Pacific names correctly, you got Maori right!! It's lovely to hear x

As someone who has a rumored family connection to Titanic, a love of history, other local connections to the ship and her passengers, and past experience helping to tell their stories, I love this video so much! In fact it’s getting shared to our cast page, where many of my other friends probably already know of you, if not follow you! 💜

Even without social etiquette people who could have a megalodon necklace would have multiple necklaces to choose from they are not going to be wearing the same necklace all the time to every event, outing, or wherever. they will switch it to match their dress, hair, the statement they want to make. Most average people even will wear different pieces of jewelry. It also could have just been in transit to its new owner as well. Their logic makes no sense no matter how you look at it.

Lol not the Couple Bonding Activity that is recreating the Door Scene.

Ever since they release the pictures of the necklace I've been praying for someone with historical knowledge to deep dive into it! (pun absolutely intended) Thank you! Also, I wonder if the necklace is a populist excuse for the Magellan to spend money on the AI scan of the passengers. Like they wanted to do it anyway but the necklace allowed them to justify it to their accountants.

I love your videos! They're also so interesting and always make me happy! Thank you so much for making these, and thank you for all the smiles they provide 💖. Also Titanic vids are awesome! I liked this mystery. I hope you make more!

This was an absolutely fascinating watch - would love to see you do more content like this!

I sincerely love you so much for spending time on this and making a video of it

You are such an amazing researcher, and I really appreciate all the effort you go to in finding all this information! Love learning about this era and The Titanic. ❤

Well researched Abby!! It was a very interesting video learning about the situation and the passengers! ❤

Ok, I will say that at first I went "what??" but after watching the video, it was fascinating. Love your research skills Abby :) Now, I also "spy with my little eye" a replica Heart of the Ocean necklace...well done. I am also fascinated by the Titanic, what is it about it??

Interesting and educational video. The cluster of items looks like a curated collection. The shark tooth appears small, like a normal shark tooth. My favorite is the little discs used as currency.

I love niche subjects like this, and I love that you put so much effort into the research.

I’m always down for some Titanic info! Fascinating topic! I’m impressed with your detective work❤

This is one of my favorite videos you made. Thank you for sharing!

This was both fascinating and very well done! I enjoyed it immensely!

I enjoyed the analysis lol i have not done a huge detailed analysis of the titanic but i should consider that it has always fascinated me 😅

I would have liked to see other size comparisons with the other known items in view. That being said, Abby did an amazing job! This was way better than I thought it could be.

Also.... some of the largest current collections of Vanuatu artefacts from that era are French.

10/10 video Abbey, I vote for more niche mystery whodunnits and whoseisits on this channel. Loved it, loved the work you put it to it , loved everything.

I used to be a titanic nerd, too- eventually became a Maya archaeologist tho. Haha. Loved me some of those early titanic computer games and of course, the Nat geo mags for kids… that’s what got me hooked on the subject as a kid!

I loved this piece!!! Thank you, Abby! I would watch EVERY SINGLE ONE of these videos if you made a series! (I watch them all anyways… but you know what I mean!) very interesting! ❤

Love your analysis. Something to ponder, there is a very long history of artefacts not being collected legitimately. They were simply taken because collectors could.

Really interesting video! You’re great at presenting info like this would love to see more