Titanic Passenger's Keepsakes: First-Class Passenger List Included
Notification from Passenger Line Delivered to Family Right After the Disaster
"First-Class Fare Must Be Paid to Transport the Remains"
The Titanic, which sank in April 1912, has once again appeared on the auction market. On October 28 (local time), the New York Post reported that "rare items, including the 'first-class passenger list' of the Titanic, have been put up for auction," and predicted that the winning bid would exceed $100,000 (about 140 million won).
The list of first-class passengers who boarded the Titanic has been put up for auction. Henry Aldridge & Son
The owner of these auction items is Frederick Sutton, a 61-year-old first-class passenger from New Jersey, United States. He lost his life in the Titanic disaster on April 14, 1912, and his body was never recovered. However, some of his personal belongings were salvaged after the accident and returned to his family, who have kept them for over a century. Among these items is the only surviving first-class passenger list.
Also included is an "important notification" sent by White Star Line, the passenger ship company that operated the Titanic, to Sutton's family. This notification was one of the official letters delivered to bereaved families shortly after the accident, and it stated, "To safely transport Sutton's remains, a first-class fare must be paid." At the time, Sutton's family was asked to pay the fee along with incorrect information that his body had been moved to Nova Scotia, Canada.
Andrew Aldridge, head of Henry Aldridge & Son, the auction house handling this sale, said in an interview with the BBC in the United Kingdom, "It is extremely rare for the Titanic's first-class passenger list to survive in such a complete form," adding, "The fact that the official letter from White Star Line is also present further enhances the rarity of this collection."
Sutton, a father of three, had visited the United Kingdom in March 1912 to recover his health and boarded the Titanic on his return journey. According to the testimony of a surviving passenger who dined with Sutton at the time, he was reportedly in poor health for several days before the sinking. As for the cause of his death, there are suggestions that he may have drowned after being trapped in his cabin, or that he died of hypothermia while floating in the sea.
The auction includes not only Titanic-related items but also Sutton's personal belongings, such as a gold ring engraved with his initials and a silver whistle. In addition, a second set of Sutton's memorabilia is scheduled to be auctioned next April to mark the 114th anniversary of the Titanic's sinking.
Items related to the Titanic continue to be popular in the auction market. The highest auction price ever recorded for a Titanic item was for the violin played by bandleader Wallace Hartley and his eight-member band to calm passengers during the sinking. This scene was also depicted in the movie 'Titanic.' The violin was sold in 2013 for 900,000 pounds (about 1.546 billion won at the time), setting the record for the highest price ever paid for a single Titanic item at auction.
The Titanic, which departed from Southampton, United Kingdom, on April 10, 1912, and was bound for New York, was the largest luxury passenger ship in the world at the time. Praised as the "unsinkable ship," it struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic on the fourth day, April 14, and sank two hours later. About 1,500 people lost their lives in the disaster, with only around 700 survivors.
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