Titanic’s dark warning: passenger’s letter with a prophetic message sells for $400,000

A “prophetic” letter written on board the Titanic has fetched a six-figure sum at an auction in the United Kingdom.

“I shall await my journey’s end...”

The correspondence was penned by first-class passenger Colonel Archibald Gracie, who wrote of the ocean liner: “It is a fine ship but I shall await my journey’s end before I pass judgment on her.”

Then the largest ship ever built, the Titanic sank on April 15, 1912, five days after setting off on its maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City.

Widely touted as “unsinkable” after its construction in Belfast, the vessel came to grief after colliding with an iceberg in the North Atlantic ocean. Around 1,500 of the ship’s 2,200 passengers and crew were killed.

Letter sells for five times the expected price

Gracie’s letter, which was auctioned on Saturday by Henry Aldridge & Son in Wiltshire, southern England, was expected to be sold for around £60,000 ($80,000). However, it finally went for £300,000 ($400,000).

According to the auction house, the four-sided letter is dated April 10, 1912, with postmarks in Queenstown, Ireland on April 11 and London on April 12.

It was sent to the seller’s great-uncle, who Henry Aldridge & Son describes as “an acquaintance of Col Gracie”.

“One of the finest of its type”

“This letter is one of the finest of its type known,” auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said in a statement.

“Not only is it written by one of the most important first-class passengers on Titanic [… but] the letter itself contains the most prophetic line”.

Although Gracie initially survived the sinking, by clinging to an upturned lifeboat before boarding the rescue ship the Carpathia, he died eight months later.

“His health was severely affected by the hypothermia and physical injuries he suffered during the sinking,” Henry Aldridge & Son said.

Before his death, Gracie wrote an account of the disaster, The Truth about the Titanic, which was published in 1913.

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