A ‘prophetic’ letter by a passenger on the Titanic sent days before it sank has been sold for a record amount.
Colonel Archibald Gracie – who survived the sinking but died months later from injuries he sustained in the freezing water – told his great uncle he would ‘await my journey’s end’ before judging his experience on the ‘fine ship’.
The hauntingly eerie letter sold for £300,000 ($400,000) – five times higher than it was expected to.
It is also the most expensive piece of correspondence from the Titanic bought after its sinking.
The letter has been described as ‘prophetic’ as the 54-year-old was one of the 2,200 passengers and crew on board when the ocean liner struck an iceberg in the Atlantic five days into its journey.
An anonymous buyer nabbed the moving artefact at Henry Aldridge and Son auction house in Wiltshire today.
The wealthy American wrote the letter on the first day of the Titanic’s sailing, 10 April 1912, from the first class passenger’s cabin C51.
It was then posted when the ship docked in Queenstown, Ireland, the next day before the Titanic carried on with its journey to New York.
Colonel Archibald Gracie told a friend he would ‘await my journey’s end’ before judging his experience on the ‘fine ship’
The hauntingly eerie letter sold for £300,000 ($400,000) – five times higher than it was expected to
The piece of correspondence arrived in London the day after.
Colonel Gracie survived the tragic sinking that saw more than 1,500 die by clinging onto an overturned lifeboat.
His accounts of what happened that fateful night are some of the most famous, detailing how more than half the man who also reached the boat died from exhaustion or froze.
His book The Truth About The Titanic described his lifestyle in the luxurious first class accommodation where he was a chaperone for several unaccompanied women.
He enjoyed squash and reading in the library during the first part of his trip and when the boat began sinking, the business man helped women onto the lifeboats.
The former soldier was trying to free the trapped lifeboats when the front part of the ship dipped below the water.
He was sucked down by the undertow but managed to free himself from the shop and surfaced near the lifeboat.
Colonel Gracie and the other survivors began paddling away from the masses of pleading swimmers for help but no one gave him hardship for not letting them on.
He 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 refusal] was met with the manly voice of a powerful man… “All right boys, good luck and God bless you”.’
When dawn broke, an officer who survived the night clinging on began to blow his whistle so that the other lifeboats could find them.
Colonel Gracie was so exhausted that he was unable to make the jump himself and was pulled onto lifeboat No. 12 before reaching the RMS Carpathia – the first ship to arrive.
Although Colonel Gracie’s perseverance that night saved him, the impact of being in the freezing water drastically affected his health.
He caught hypothermia as well as suffered physical injuries the night of the sinking and fell into a coma months later.
He died from complications from diabetes on 4 December 1912 two days later.
Andrew Aldridge, auctioneer at Henry Aldridge & Son, said: ‘It really was a fantastic sale that shows the appeal of one of the most important events of the twentieth century.
‘It is impossible to overstate the rarity of the Gracie lot. It was written by one of the highest profile survivors, with excellent content and on the rarest of mediums a lettercard and for it to bring £300,000 is an amazing result.
‘It really was a sale full of museum-quality items.’
Also at the auction was a gilt silver and brass watch that was found among the possessions of Danish second-class passenger Hans Christensen Givard.
The ladies pocket watch was recovered from the 27-year-old’s body, who had been travelling to the US with two friends who also died.
‘The watch’s movement is frozen in time at the moment the cold North Atlantic waters consumed not only its owner but the most famous ocean liner of all time, Titanic, on 15 April 1912,’ Mr Aldridge said.
His other belongings, like a savings book, some cash in his wallet, his passport, keys and a compass were sent back to his brother in Denmark after the disaster.
Th descendants of his family decided to put the items on sale and was set to fetch £50,000.
Other auction items included the violin used by the bandmaster in the iconic 1997 epic film Titanic.
British actor Jonathan Evans-Jones played Wallace Hartley in the movie that starred Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet.
The meal ticket for another passenger, Ernest Tomlin, for the third-class restaurant sold for £65,000
Tomlin’s immigration inspection ticket that revealed how he was moved from the RMS Adriatic to the Titanic at the last moment due to a coal strike sold for £90,000
Tomlin carried $14 with him at the time of the sinking, which were put on auction this weekend
Some of Tomlin’s letters were also recovered that he had sent to his family
The waterlogged artefacts were put on auction at Henry Aldridge and Son auction house in Wiltshire today
Ernest Tomlin’s body was among the few that were recovered but he was buried at sea after his possessions had been recovered
The instrument – which sold for £50,000 – was used in one of the most poignant scenes, as the band famously played on while the luxury liner sank.
A Titanic-related archive that belonged to tragic passenger Ernest Tomlin was also sold, including his water-stained immigration inspection ticket that revealed how he was moved from the RMS Adriatic to the Titanic at the last moment due to a coal strike.
The item, that was recovered days later from his drowned body, sold for £90,000.
His meal ticket for the third-class restaurant was also found in his pockets. It sold for £65,000.
Other items in the Tomlin collection included two US dollar notes he had intended to use in America sold for a combined £25,000.
A collection of items belonging to first-class passenger Erik Lind sold for £38,000.
The archive included a hand-written letter by Erik, who was sailing to New York to escape loan sharks in his native Sweden.