The last known letter written aboard the Titanic has auctioned for £119,000 ($200,464) at Henry Aldridge & Son in the UK.
Survivors Esther Hart and her young daughter Eva wrote the letter to Esther's mother just eight hours before the ship hit an iceberg and began to sink in April 1912.
 The only surviving letter written on the day disaster struck |
"Tho they say this Ship does not roll on account of its size. Any how it rolls enough for me, I shall never forget it," Esther wrote fatefully.
The letter survived in the pocket of her husband's coat, which he had given Esther to keep her warm during the sinking. He did not make it out alive.
In auctioning, the item has become the most valuable Titanic letter ever sold, surpassing the £93,000 ($152,854) achieved last year by a letter home written by Wallace Hartley, the ship's bandmaster, by 28%.
Henry Aldridge and Son explains why the present letter achieved its record price.
"The importance of this legendary item cannot be overstated, being the only known surviving example of its type to have been written on that fateful day, surviving the sinking, and having belonged to such a well-known survivor [Eva]", the company said.
Eva, just seven at the time of the tragedy, would later in life openly criticise the White Star Line, who owned the Titanic, for the lack of lifeboats on board.
"I never closed my eyes. I didn't sleep at all. I saw it, I heard it, and nobody could possibly forget it," she once said.
A rare second class breakfast menu made £87,000 ($146,500) at the April 26 sale, beating the previous record for a Titanic menu by £13,000 ($21,900).
Last year, the same auction house sold the violin that Hartley played as the ship sank for £1m ($1.7m) - an auction record for any item from the Titanic.
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