Titanic survivor's "prophetic" letter sells for £300,000 at UK auction

A handwritten letter by Titanic survivor Colonel Archibald Gracie, penned days before the ship's sinking, has sold for a record-breaking £300,000 ($400,000) at an auction in Wiltshire, England.

The letter, dated April 10, 1912, was written aboard the Titanic and posted from Queenstown, Ireland, during one of the ship's final stops before it struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic.

Gracie, a first-class passenger in cabin C51, described the vessel as a "fine ship" but said he would "await my journey's end" before giving his full judgment.

Auctioned by Henry Aldridge and Son, the letter exceeded its estimated value of £60,000 by five times.

The buyer, an anonymous collector from the United States, secured what experts describe as the only known letter written by Gracie aboard the doomed liner.

Gracie, who survived the 1912 disaster by clinging to an overturned lifeboat, later chronicled his ordeal in The Truth About the Titanic.

Despite surviving the initial sinking, he died in December 1912 from complications related to hypothermia and diabetes.

Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge called the letter an "exceptional museum-grade piece" and noted it drew significant international interest.

The sale marks the highest price ever achieved for Titanic correspondence.

The Titanic, bound from Southampton to New York, carried over 2,200 passengers and crew when it sank, resulting in the deaths of more than 1,500 people.

The emotional power of Gracie’s words and the historic significance of the artifact contributed to the record-setting auction.