1 week Ago By [email protected] (Pol Allingham, Lauren Haughey)
An astonishing letter penned by a famed Titanic survivor has been auctioned off for an eye-watering £300,000, setting a new record. Colonel Archibald Gracie was a first-class passenger on the ill-fated voyage disaster that resulted in over 1,500 deaths. The significant letter card, which dates back to the day he embarked the Titanic, April 10, 1912, shows postmarks from Queenstown at 3.
45pm on April 11 and London on April 12. "It is a fine ship but I shall await my journeys end before I pass judgment on her," the letter reads. When it went under the hammer at Henry Aldridge and Son in Devizes, Wiltshire, on April 26 this year, it fetched five times its expected value of £60,000.
The auction house states that this price is unprecedented for a letter originating from aboard the Titanic. "It is impossible to overstate the rarity of this lot," the auctioneers said. "It is written by one of the highest profile survivors, with excellent content and on the rarest of mediums a lettercard.
..A truly exceptional museum-grade piece.
" Colonel Archibald Gracie is renowned for his work 'The Truth About The Titanic', in which he recounted the harrowing events of the April 15, 1912 disaster. Letters from 'survivors of Gracie’s profile' rarely, if ever, come to market, and the item has never before been offered for sale. The seller's great-uncle, an acquaintance of Gracie, received the note at the Waldorf Hotel in London.
Spanning four pages, the letter offers further sentiment: " The Oceanic is like an old friend and while she does not possess the elaborate style and varied amusement of this big ship, still her sea worthy qualities and yacht like appearance make me miss her. " It was very kind of you to give me this kindly send off, with best wishes for your success and happiness, Archibald Gracie." The listing stated that the colonel 'spent much of the voyage chaperoning various unaccompanied women' including a survivor, a woman and three sisters.
On 14 April, he engaged in a game of squash and took a dip in Titanic's pool before partaking in church services and mingling with fellow passengers. At about 11.40pm, he was startled awake by a sudden stop and realised the ship’s engines had halted.
He devoted himself to aiding women and children onto lifeboats and made sure they were warmly covered before the Titanic submerged beneath the ocean. Gracie succeeded in climbing aboard an overturned collapsible boat, joining around other men for safety. As swimmers were nearby, those on the boat paddled away, fearing capsizing due to overcrowding.
The colonel later wrote: "In no instance, I am happy to say, did I hear any word of rebuke from a swimmer because of a refusal to grant assistance." One rejected swimmer responded with strength, saying: "All right boys, good luck and God bless you", as reported by Gracie. He noted that over half the men who initially found refuge on the collapsible succumbed to elements or exhaustion, eventually slipping from the keel into the darkness.
Henry Aldridge and Son described The Truth About The Titanic as 'one of the most detailed accounts of the events of the evening'. The auction house highlighted the exceptional nature of this piece and, after its sale, stated: " The record-breaking prices and global participation from collectors are a testament to the enduring interest in the Titanic the world over, the stories of those men, women and children are told through the memorabilia and their memories are kept alive through those items." The sale of the letter from April 10, 1912, fetched a total of £300,000, including tax.
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