World
India
A letter written onboard the Titanic just days before it sank has sold for 300,000 pounds ($399,000) at auction, The Associated Press reported on Saturday. The handwritten note, penned by first-class passenger and well-known survivor Archibald Gracie, fetched a price far exceeding its original estimate of 60,000 pounds, the report said.
The letter card, written on April 10, 1912, was addressed to the sender’s great-uncle. In it, Gracie remarked about the ill-fated steamship, “It is a fine ship, but I shall await my journey’s end before I pass judgment on her.”
Auction house Henry Aldridge & Son, based in Wiltshire, England, confirmed the sale to a private collector from the United States on Saturday. Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge described the letter as an “exceptional museum-grade piece.”
The Titanic, which sank off the coast of Newfoundland during its maiden voyage after being struck by an iceberg, claimed the lives of about 1,500 people. Gracie’s letter is believed to be the only known surviving piece of correspondence he wrote from onboard the ship, AP reported.
Gracie, who boarded the Titanic in Southampton and was assigned to first-class cabin C51, survived the disaster by jumping into the sea and scrambling onto an overturned collapsible boat, the report said. He was later rescued by passengers in a lifeboat and taken aboard the R.M.S. Carpathia.
After his return to New York City, Gracie wrote The Truth about the Titanic, a highly detailed account of the tragedy. Auctioneer Aldridge noted that Gracie’s work remains one of the most significant firsthand accounts of the sinking. However, Gracie never fully recovered from the hypothermia he suffered that night and died from complications related to diabetes later in 1912.
According to the report, the letter was postmarked from Queenstown, Ireland — one of two stops the Titanic made after departing Southampton and before its final, ill-fated journey across the Atlantic.
ALSO READ: Trump Says US Ships Should Be Allowed To Pass Through Panama And Suez Canals ‘Free Of Charge’
