Not the Menu but the Menu Board Costs 130 Million Won... Titanic First-Class Dinner Ticket

Passenger Menu Board Sold for ?83,000
Includes Various Dishes Such as Oysters, Salmon, and Beef

A dinner menu provided to first-class passengers on the Titanic three days before it sank was sold at a British auction for ?83,000 (about 130 million KRW).

On the 11th (local time), the British daily The Guardian reported that the menu offered to first-class passengers on the Titanic on the evening of April 11, 1912, was sold for ?83,000 at an auction hosted by the British auction house Henry Aldridge & Son.

The menu provided to first-class passengers just three days before the sinking of the Titanic, which was the most luxurious passenger ship, is going up for auction.
[Photo by Henry Aldridge & Son]

April 11, 1912, was three days before the Titanic sank. The dinner took place as the ship was leaving Queenstown, Ireland, heading towards New York. The Titanic sank in the middle of the North Atlantic on the 14th of the same month.

The menu included a variety of dishes such as oysters, salmon, beef, squab, duck, and chicken, followed by pur?e made from rice and parsnips. Desserts at the time included Victoria pudding and ice cream. Victoria pudding is a dish made by mixing ingredients and spices such as flour, brandy, apples, and cherries.

At the top center of the menu is the logo of the White Star Line, the shipping company that built the Titanic. There are also water-stained marks scattered across the paper.

According to The Guardian, this menu was discovered in a photo album from the 1960s owned by Canadian Nova Scotia-born historian Len Stevenson. Andrew Aldridge, the manager of the auction house, said, "I have spoken with museums worldwide and Titanic memorabilia collectors, but nowhere else has anything like this (menu) been found."

However, criticism has been raised about individuals owning items found on the Titanic, where over 1,500 first-class passengers lost their lives.

Harry Bennett, an associate professor of maritime history at the University of Plymouth in the UK, pointed out, "Owning items presumed to have been recovered from victims' bodies is a matter of 'morality.' It would be better for such items to be in museums rather than in private hands."