Emily Chan
History geeks and fans of the Titanic will be interested to hear that artifacts from the famed vessel itself have been sold at the British auction house Henry Aldridge and Son Ltd. Some of the items were found at the depths of the ocean, where they settled after the ship sunk.
In April of 1912, the Titanic struck an iceberg on its journey from Southhampton, England, to New York City. The luxury passenger liner did not have enough lifeboats for the 2,200 people on board. As a result, the accident claimed the lives of more than 1,500 people.
One of the pieces of memorabilia was a first-class menu dated April 11, which was three days before the ship sank. It has been described as a “remarkable survivor.”
The menu was from the first dinner after the Titanic left Queenstown. Queenstown had been the ocean liner’s last stop before its intended arrival in New York.
The menu itself appeared to have several water stains and offered a variety of food items, such as oysters, salmon hollandaise, spring lamb with mint sauce, and roast chicken with bread sauce.
The dinner menu offers a glimpse of the glamor and decadent delights that first-class passengers on the Titanic must have experienced.
After speaking with Titanic memorabilia collectors and consulting with numerous museums, the auction house was unable to locate any other first-class dinner menus from April 11, making it one-of-a-kind.
The menu was found in a photo album from the 1960s that belonged to Len Stephenson, a community historian who lived in Nova Scotia, Canada.
His daughter, Mary Anita, discovered it after he passed. The auction house estimated that the menu would sell for between £50,000 and £70,000, which would equate to about $86,000.
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