Titanic Survivor’s Letter Sells for £300,000 at UK Auction
A letter penned by Colonel Archibald Gracie, a survivor of the Titanic disaster, has fetched a record-breaking £300,000 ($400,000) at an auction in Wiltshire, United Kingdom.
Sold through Henry Aldridge and Son auction house, the letter was expected to go for around £60,000 but soared to five times that amount, with an anonymous bidder securing the historic piece on Sunday. Auctioneers described the document as “prophetic,” noting that Col Gracie expressed caution in judging the “fine ship,” writing that he would “await my journey’s end” before making any conclusions.
Dated April 10, 1912—the day Gracie boarded the Titanic in Southampton—the letter was posted from Queenstown, Ireland, a day later as the ship made a brief stop before continuing its ill-fated voyage. The Titanic would sink just days after, claiming over 1,500 lives.
Gracie, a first-class passenger occupying cabin C51, survived the sinking by climbing onto an overturned lifeboat amid the freezing Atlantic waters, though he later described how many others died from exposure. His detailed recounting of the tragedy was later published in his book The Truth About The Titanic, considered one of the most significant firsthand accounts of the disaster.
Despite surviving, Gracie’s health never fully recovered. He fell into a coma and died in December 1912, just eight months after the Titanic tragedy, due to complications from diabetes worsened by the ordeal.
Auctioneers confirmed that the letter achieved the highest price ever paid for a piece of correspondence written aboard the Titanic.
