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Titanic locker key to be auctioned | |
(about 3 hours later) | |
More than 200 items from the Titanic, including a locker key and letters, are to be auctioned later. | |
The key to a life-jacket cupboard was used by a steward to save lives as the liner sank in 1912. It could fetch up to £50,000, according to estimates. | The key to a life-jacket cupboard was used by a steward to save lives as the liner sank in 1912. It could fetch up to £50,000, according to estimates. |
A letter to be sold reveals a senior officer had a "queer feeling" about his posting to the ship. | A letter to be sold reveals a senior officer had a "queer feeling" about his posting to the ship. |
Saturday's auction in Devizes is one of the biggest involving Titanic memorabilia for many years. | |
RMS Titanic had been four days into a week-long transatlantic crossing from Southampton to New York when the supposedly "unsinkable" ship struck an iceberg on 14 April 1912. | |
The ship sank less than three hours later at about 02:20 on 15 April. More than 1,500 passengers and crew were killed. | |
The letter is part of a collection written over a 20-year period by Chief Officer Henry Wilde, who was second in command to the ship's skipper, Captain Edward Smith. | |
Wilde had been expecting to take command of another ship, the Cymric, and only signed on to the Titanic on 9 April 1912, the day before it sailed. | |
On 31 March 1912, he said he was "awfully disappointed to find the arrangements for my taking command of the Cymric have altered. I am now going to join the Titanic until some other ship turns up for me". | On 31 March 1912, he said he was "awfully disappointed to find the arrangements for my taking command of the Cymric have altered. I am now going to join the Titanic until some other ship turns up for me". |
In another letter to his sister, written onboard Titanic and posted at Queenstown (now Cobh) in Ireland, he indicated he had misgivings about the new ship. | In another letter to his sister, written onboard Titanic and posted at Queenstown (now Cobh) in Ireland, he indicated he had misgivings about the new ship. |
"I still don't like this ship... I have a queer feeling about it," he wrote. | "I still don't like this ship... I have a queer feeling about it," he wrote. |
After the collision, Wilde took charge of the even-numbered lifeboats, and oversaw their loading and lowering into the water. He was among those who died in the tragedy. | |
Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge, of Henry Aldridge & Son, said: "It is without doubt one of the finest Titanic-related letters, written by one of the liner's most senior officers on Olympic stationery. | Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge, of Henry Aldridge & Son, said: "It is without doubt one of the finest Titanic-related letters, written by one of the liner's most senior officers on Olympic stationery. |
"This lot reveals previously unknown details and shows Wilde's obvious disappointment in being transferred to Titanic. | "This lot reveals previously unknown details and shows Wilde's obvious disappointment in being transferred to Titanic. |
"What is certain is that he worked diligently to load the boats once the seriousness of the situation was clear to him." | "What is certain is that he worked diligently to load the boats once the seriousness of the situation was clear to him." |
Also included in the sale is a postcard from the ship's senior wireless operator, 25-year-old Jack Phillips, from Farncombe in Surrey, who carried on sending distress messages to other ships as the Titanic sank. | |
Phillips, who drowned, was described as "the man who saved us all" by survivor and fellow wireless operator Harold Bridge. | |
The card, signed "Love all, Jack", describes the weather as the ship left Cowes, Isle of Wight. It is expected to fetch about £20,000. | |
Rare photos of Smith could sell for £1,000 each, the auction house has estimated. |