A letter written by a Titanic passenger days earlier than the ship sank has been offered for a record-breaking £300,000 ($400,000) at public sale within the UK.
Colonel Archibald Gracie’s letter was bought by an nameless purchaser at Henry Aldridge and Son public sale home in Wiltshire on Sunday, at a worth 5 occasions larger than the £60,000 it was anticipated to fetch.
The letter has been described as “prophetic”, because it data Col Gracie telling an acquaintance he would “await my journey’s finish” earlier than passing judgement on the “high quality ship”.
The letter was dated 10 April 1912, the day he boarded the Titanic in Southampton, and 5 days earlier than it sank after hitting an iceberg within the North Atlantic.
Col Gracie was one in every of about 2,200 passengers and crew on board the Titanic crusing to New York. Greater than 1,500 died within the catastrophe.
The primary-class passenger, wrote the letter from cabin C51. It was posted when the ship docked in Queenstown, Eire, on 11 April 1912. It was additionally postmarked London on 12 April.
The auctioneer who facilitated the sale mentioned the letter had attracted the best worth of any correspondence written onboard the Titanic.
Col Gracie’s account of the sinking is among the many greatest recognized.
He later wrote the e book The Reality About The Titanic, recalling his expertise onboard the doomed ocean liner.
He recounted how he survived by scrambling onto an overturned lifeboat within the icy waters.
Greater than half the boys who had initially reached the lifeboat died from exhaustion or chilly, he wrote.
Though Col Gracie survived the catastrophe, his well being was severely affected by the hypothermia and bodily accidents he suffered.
He fell right into a coma on 2 December 1912, and died of issues from diabetes two days later.
