A menu for the last first-class passenger luncheon served on the RMS Titanic sold for £76,000 at a British auction Sunday at the Henry Aldridge and Son saleroom in Devizes in southwest England.
The menu that sold one day before the 100th anniversary of the doomed ship’s launch is dated April 14, 1912—the night the ambitious ship and symbol of modern industrialism struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean, killing 1,514 people. It was the star item in the auction of Titanic memorabilia.
A British-based collector bought the menu, which had been on the table of American banker and passenger Washington Dodge. Dodge had slipped the menu into his wife’s handbag after lunch, unable to predict that she would be carrying it onto a lifeboat that evening. The couple and their son survived the tragedy, and the menu stayed in their family ever since.
The dishes listed in the menu include chicken a la Maryland (fried chicken with creamy gravy) and eggs Argenteuil, a plate of poached eggs with asparagus. Other dishes on the menu, which included over 40 options in total over several courses, included galatine of chicken and grilled mutton chops.
“The menu carries the all-important date of April 14 and gives the reader a fascinating insight into the culinary life of Titanic’s elite passengers,” said auctioneer Andrew Aldridge.
Source: The Malaysian Insider
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