A Titanic passenger’s letter, written mere days before the ship’s sinking, has achieved a record-breaking sale price of £300,000 ($400,000) at a UK auction. Colonel Archibald Gracie’s letter, acquired by an anonymous buyer at Henry Aldridge and Son in Wiltshire, surpassed its anticipated value of £60,000 by five times.
The letter has been hailed as “prophetic,” with Col. Gracie expressing his intention to “await my journey’s end” before judging the “fine ship.” Dated April 10, 1912, the day he boarded the Titanic in Southampton, and penned five days prior to the ship hitting an iceberg in the North Atlantic, the letter offers a chilling glimpse into the events that would unfold.
Approximately 2,200 passengers and crew were on board the Titanic when it set sail for New York, with over 1,500 losing their lives in the subsequent disaster. Col. Gracie, a first-class passenger, authored the letter from cabin C51, which was posted in Queenstown, Ireland, and postmarked in London.
According to the auctioneer, the letter holds the record for the highest price ever achieved for correspondence written aboard the Titanic. Col. Gracie’s personal account of the sinking is among the most well-known, later documented in his book, “The Truth About The Titanic.”
Gracie chronicled his ordeal, including how he survived by climbing onto an overturned lifeboat amidst the icy waters. Sadly, more than half of the men who initially made it to the lifeboat succumbed to exhaustion or hypothermia. While Col. Gracie survived the disaster, his health sufferedm greatly due to hypothermia and physical injuries. He slipped into a coma on December 2, 1912, and passed away two days later due to complications from diabetes.
Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckg1pm54xzvo
