A letter written just days before the Titanic disaster has been sold at auction in the United Kingdom for a record price of £300,000 (approximately $400,000). The auction took place on Sunday at Henry Aldridge & Son auction house in Wiltshire, England, and the letter was purchased by an anonymous buyer. Auctioneers reported that the letter sold for five times more than the expected value, which had initially been estimated at £60,000.
The letter was written by Colonel Archibald Gracie on April 10, 1912, the day he boarded the Titanic. Addressed to an acquaintance, he mentioned that he would “wait until the end of the trip” to give his full opinion about the ship, describing the Titanic as a “magnificent ship.” Because of this comment, the letter is considered somewhat prophetic.
Gracie was a first-class passenger and wrote the letter from Cabin C51. It was posted the next day, April 11, when the Titanic stopped at the Irish port of Queenstown. The letter was later sealed in London on April 12.
The auction house stated that this is the highest amount ever paid for a letter written from the Titanic.
The Titanic was carrying around 2,200 passengers and crew on its journey to New York. After colliding with an iceberg, the ship sank, resulting in the deaths of more than 1,500 people.
Colonel Gracie was among the survivors. He later wrote a book titled “The Truth About the Titanic” where he described his experience, including how he survived by clinging to an overturned lifeboat in freezing water. However, despite surviving the disaster, Gracie’s health was severely damaged due to hypothermia and other complications. He eventually fell into a coma and died on December 4, 1912.