Titanic passenger’s postcard sent days before sinking sells for big bucks at auction
A postcard from a victim of the Titanic sinking has sold at auction for thousands.
The rare piece of history was delivered only a few days before the great ship was taken down.
The postcard was written by Richard William Smith, a British businessman who was one of the ship’s first-class passengers, according to SWNS.
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Smith sent the card from Cork, Ireland, and it was addressed to Mrs. Olive Dakin in Norwich.
The card was postmarked on April 11, 1912 at 3:45 p.m., only three days before the passengers, including Smith, were aboard the Titanic when it hit the iceberg.
“Have had a fine run around to Queenstown. Just leaving for the land of Stars and Stripes,” Smith hand-wrote on the stationary.
“Hope you are all quite well at home,” the note continued. “Kindest regards, R.W.S.”
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The postcard was originally going for $12,000, but it eventually sold for more than $25,000 due to additional fees, SWNS reported.
The card was put up for auction by Henry Aldridge & Son Ltd., an auctioneer in Wiltshire, England, that specializes in Titanic memorabilia.
Andrew Aldridge, managing director at the auction house, believes that Smith was a tea broker and had been traveling aboard the ship with Mrs. Nicholls, a family friend, according to SWNS.
“She was only going a quarter of the way as she was getting off in Queenstown, so he must have asked her to post the card,” Aldridge told the British news organization.
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“Titanic had just stopped in Queenstown to take on a load of passengers – little was anyone onboard aware what was on the horizon just 80 hours or so into the future.”
There were several other items up for auction during the “Titanic, White Star and Transport Memorabilia” sale, including a luxury, 18-carat gold Tiffany and Co. timepiece.
There was an inscription on the inside of the case that read, “Presented to Captain Rostron with the heartfelt gratitude and appreciation of three survivors of the Titanic April 15th 1912, Mrs John B. Thayer, Mrs John Jacob Astor and Mrs George D. Widener.”
Captain Rostron is credited with saving over 700 lives during the sinking of the Titanic, SWNS wrote.
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The timepiece eventually sold for just under $2 million, which was 10 times more than the original guided price.
Today, there’s still a tremendous interest in the Titanic’s tragic story of maritime technology and adventure ending in great loss of life.
“Thanks in large part to James Cameron’s astonishingly successful 1997 film, today there is a profusion of books, DVDs, documentaries, television dramas, websites, Facebook pages, YouTube clips, IMAX movies and 3D jigsaw puzzles” devoted to the ocean liner, wrote David Dyer, author of “The Midnight Watch,” a novel based on true events surrounding the Titanic’s sinking, on his website.
“The ship has given its name to restaurants, ice cubes, academic conferences, computer games, plumbers’ businesses … harbor cruises, calendars and costume shops,” Dyer of Australia also said.
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The wreckage of the Titanic was discovered in the 1980s, further fueling intense interest in the ship’s story.
Within a couple of years of the discovery, “wealthy tourists could pay thousands of dollars to descend to the site of the wreck” and see the Titanic. It was “an experience that many likened to stepping into another world,” Smithsonian Magazine reported.
Deirdre Reilly contributed to this report.