Titanic Letter From Its Last Days Up for Auction
A letter reveals the final hours of the Titanic.
Henry Aldridge & Son will auction a letter written aboard the Titanic right after the massive ship hit an iceberg. Second Officer Charles Lightoller, who survived, wrote his letter to a a friend of assistant surgeon Dr. John Simpson on May 1, 1912:
“I deeply regret your loss, which is also mine,” Lightoller writes, in the letter sent to Simpson’s friend R.W. Graham of Holt & Co. in New York. “I may say I was practically the last man to speak to Dr. Simpson, and on this occasion he was walking along the boat-deck in company with Messrs. McElroy, Barker, Dr. O’Loughlin and four assistant pursers.”
“They were all perfectly calm in the knowledge that they had done their duty and were still assisting by showing a calm and cool exterior to the passengers,” he added. “Each one individually came up to me and shook hands. We merely exchanged the words ‘Goodbye, old man.’ This occurred shortly before the end and I am not aware that he was seen by anyone after.”
They will also auction off a letter from Simpson, a British Army reserve doctor, to the Adjutant of the First Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment asking “a transfer to the military’s inactive list so that he can perform his duties on the Titanic.” The auction group considers these letters as some of the finest artifacts:
“The content of these letters is among the most important we have ever handled, to have an account of the last moments of the ship written by the ship’s most senior surviving officer on his return from the American Titanic enquiry is unprecedented,” Henry Aldridge & Son auctioneer Andrew Aldridge told FoxNews.com.
A glimpse into #Titanic's final moments as rare letters go up for auction in the UK #FNSciTech https://t.co/vNlaObOcVr
— James Rogers (@jamesjrogers) October 6, 2016
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