At a UK auction, a letter written by a Titanic passenger just days before the ship sank brought in a record-breaking £300,000 ($400,000).
At the Wiltshire auction house Henry Aldridge and Son, Colonel Archibald Gracie’s letter was bought by an unidentified buyer on Sunday for five times the £60,000 it was predicted to bring in.
The letter, which documents Col. Gracie assuring an associate that he would “await my journey’s end” before making a judgement on the “fine ship,” has been characterised as “prophetic.”
Five days before the Titanic sank after colliding with an iceberg in the North Atlantic, on April 10, 1912, he joined the ship at Southampton.
About 2,200 people, including Col. Gracie, were on board the Titanic as it sailed to New York. The tragedy claimed the lives of over 1,500 people.
The letter was written from cabin C51 by a first-class traveler. On April 11, 1912, it was posted when the ship anchored in Queenstown, Ireland. On April 12, it was also postmarked London.
According to the auctioneer who oversaw the transaction, the letter sold for the most money of any letter sent on the Titanic.
One of the most well-known accounts of the sinking is that of Col. Gracie.
He later recalled his time on the tragic ocean liner in his book The Truth About the Titanic.
He described how, in the freezing waters, he managed to survive by clambering into an upturned lifeboat.
He said that almost half of the men who had initially arrived at the lifeboat perished from cold or weariness.
Despite surviving the catastrophe, Col. Gracie’s physical injuries and cold had a serious negative impact on his health.
On December 2, 1912, he went into a coma, and two days later, he passed away from complications related to his diabetes.
