In one French chateau “abandoned in time, after its owners made the fateful decision to board the Titanic, wallpaper peels away from bedroom walls, the dining table remains fully set and a child’s doll stares eerily out of a toy pram.
Norwegian businessman Engelhart Cornelius Ostby, met his end in the shipwreck. The property remains untouched with TikToker Ramy Awas, or as he’s known on PimpMyCamel, saying the castle remains “frozen in time” because “no one wants the castle as it is believed to be haunted.”
Another TikTok user @deserted_places led his 4.1million followers around the grand property situated in central France. In the kitchen, pots and pans hang on the walls, while in the study, books are left on the shelves and tables, waiting to be read.
Engelhart, aged 64, and his daughter Helen, aged 22, travelled first class on the Titanic after boarding in Cherbourg.
They each had their own cabins, with Helen in cabin B-36 and her father in B-30. As reported by Medium, they were both in their cabins when the Titanic hit the iceberg.
Startled and disoriented, they met in the corridor between their cabins before heading up to the boat deck. However, Engelhart returned to his cabin to fetch warmer clothes,leaving Helen behind.
This was the last time Helen saw her father alive as she was rescued on lifeboat 5. Engelhart’s body was later recovered at sea by a cable repair ship, CS-Mackey-Bennett.
His remains were returned to Providence, Rhode Island, and interred at Swan Point on May 11, 1912. Helen, a survivor of the Titanic disaster, hauntingly recalled her experience in lifeboat 5: “There had been no panic. But at the very end, we could see and hear that the people on board were realising there was no place to go.”
She hauntingly described the crash: “As the ship began to stand on end, we heard a big rumbling, rattling noise as if everything was being torn from its moorings inside the ship.
“All of a sudden that stopped, and she stood on end very quietly for a minute, then went down like an arrow.”
In 1914, Helen took the reins of her father’s company, Ostby and Barton, alongside her brother Harold and one of his daughters.
Awad told The New York Post: “This location was always on the top of my list,” Awad, 32, told The Post. “I was instantly in love with the rich history of the castle. I have been exploring abandoned places for eight years now and this was by far my favourite explore.”
The castle has been left untouched for nearly two decades, since 2003,since the estate was abandoned by an Indonesian family who neglected the property and stopped paying taxes, according to Awad.
“They own or have owned other properties in other countries such as Switzerland and Holland, which ended up being resold to recover their debts,” he said.
Awad said since its location was released the property has already been vandalised.
He said: “There is already graffiti which really broke my heart seeing.
“In 2020 a team was created to preserve the castle because there has been vandalism and things stolen, graffiti on the staircase. The grand piano was also damaged.”
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