In recent years, there has been a surge in demand for memorabilia from the Titanic. And the latest item to hit the auction block is no exception. A letter written by a second-class passenger onboard the Titanic has sold for an astounding $200,000 at auction, according to new reports by the Associated Press.
“The sailors say we have had a wonderful passage up to now,” passenger Esther Hart wrote in the letter dated April 14, 1912. Her 7-year-old daughter, Eva, even added a message: “Heaps of love and kisses to all from Eva.”
Mere hours after Hart wrote the letter, the ship hit an iceberg and sank, tragically killing more than 1,500 people including her husband, Benjamin. She and her daughter were one of the 700 lucky ones that were rescued via a lifeboat.
Although more than a 100 years has passed since that fateful day, auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said he isn’t surprised by the continuous fascination of the ship and its passengers. “It was a microcosm of society,” he explained. “Every man, woman and child on that ship had a story to tell, so you have over 2,200 individual subplots to the main story. The Titanic encapsulates almost every human emotion we are able to experience.”
Photo credit: Associated Press
