Teaspoon from RMS Laurentic

Souvenir teaspoon purchased on board White Star Line's RMS Laurentic before the First World War. After war broke out, Laurentic was requisitioned by the British Government and served as a troop ship and auxiliary cruiser. In January 1917 she was sailing from Liverpool to Halifax, Nova Scotia, with a consignment of gold bullion, when she struck two mines off the Irish coast and sank. 354 men lost their lives. The Royal Navy conducted a salvage operation to retrieve the gold, worth over £5 million.