Titanic letters to be auctioned

Letters from Titanic passengers up for auction

Two letters from Titanic passengers are to be auctioned in New York this month, one of them featuring an excited description of the doomed ship just moments before setting sail.

Letters on White Star Lines stationery inscribed with "On board RMS Titanic"are "extremely rare and are among the most prized artefacts from the disaster," said Robert Litzenberger, a specialist at Spink Smythe auction house. The sale will be held on January 16, and the letters are expected to sell for between ten thousand and twenty thousand dollars each.

One is a hurried note scribbled by businessman Adolphe Saalfeld to his wife just before the Titanic left Southampton on her 1912 maiden voyage. "I just had an hours roaming abt on this wonderful boat," he wrote. He approved highly of his cabin, which was "like a bed-sitting room and rather large."

Saalfeld survived the sinking in lifeboat number three, which was crammed mostly with women and children.

The other letter was written by George Graham, a department store salesman,who perished. In a brief letter sent just before embarking, he apologized to a business associate that he had been too busy to make contact earlier, and added, "I hope that you will accept my good wishes now even if they are a bit late. I hope to see you next year."