A rare letter penned aboard the Titanic by first-class passenger Col. Archibald Gracie has sold for nearly $400,000 at auction.
Written just days before the ship’s tragic sinking in April 1912, the lettercard was mailed from Queenstown, Ireland, one of Titanic’s final stops before disaster struck.
Gracie, who survived by clinging to an overturned lifeboat, had prophetically noted he would reserve judgment on the ship until reaching his destination.
A private U.S. collector secured the “museum grade” item during a fierce bidding at Henry Aldridge & Son auction house in England.
Gracie, the son of a Confederate officer and descendant of the builder of New York’s Gracie Mansion, later chronicled his harrowing experience in a book before dying months after the sinking due to lingering effects from the ordeal.
Some have just too much money……