Camilla Jessen
Written just days before disaster struck, a Titanic survivor’s eerie letter has set a new record at auction.
A handwritten letter by Colonel Archibald Gracie, one of the survivors of the Titanic disaster, has sold for a record-breaking sum at a recent auction in England, according to the BBC.
The letter, penned on April 10, 1912, just five days before the ship sank in the North Atlantic, was sold by Henry Aldridge & Son, an auction house known for handling Titanic memorabilia. This was reported by Aniston.
While the final price was not disclosed, the house confirmed that it fetched a six-figure amount in British pounds, making it the most expensive piece of Titanic correspondence ever sold—well beyond its initial estimate of £60,000.
A Prophetic Message from a Doomed Voyage
Gracie, a first-class passenger, wrote the letter while the Titanic was docked in Queenstown (now Cobh, Ireland), and sent it ashore before the ship resumed its ill-fated journey.
The letter was later postmarked in London on April 12.
In a passage that now reads as eerily prophetic, Gracie noted that he was “awaiting the end of the voyage”, while also marveling at the scale and beauty of the ship.
In hindsight, the letter’s tone—combined with its timing—has left many readers with chills.
Survivor’s Legacy
Colonel Gracie survived the sinking by clinging to an overturned lifeboat in the icy waters of the Atlantic.
Like many others, he endured hours in the freezing cold while dozens around him succumbed to exposure.
He later authored “The Truth About the Titanic,” one of the most detailed firsthand accounts of the disaster.
Though Gracie made it off the ship alive, he never fully recovered from the ordeal.
He died later that year, in part due to complications from diabetes, but also, some say, from the emotional trauma of the tragedy.