A letter written onboard the Titanic before it sank sells for almost $400,000 at auction

LONDON AP A lettercard penned by one of the Titanic s majority well-known survivors from onboard the ship days before it sank has sold for pounds at auction In the note written to the seller s great-uncle on April first-class commuter Archibald Gracie wrote of the ill-fated steamship It is a fine ship but I shall await my journeys end before I pass judgment on her The letter was sold to a private collector from the United States on Saturday according to auction house Henry Aldridge Son in Wiltshire England The hammer price far exceeded the initial estimate price of pounds The letter is concluded to be the sole example in existence from Gracie from onboard the Titanic which sank off Newfoundland after hitting an iceberg killing about people on its maiden voyage Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge described it as an exceptional museum grade piece Gracie who jumped from the ship and managed to scramble onto an overturned collapsible boat was rescued by other passengers onboard a lifeboat and was taken to the R M S Carpathia He went on to write The Truth about the Titanic an account of his experiences when he returned to New York City Gracie boarded the Titanic in Southampton on April and was assigned first-class cabin C His book is seen as one of the greater part detailed accounts of the events of the night the ship sank Aldridge announced Gracie did not fully recover from the hypothermia he suffered and died of complications from diabetes in late The letter was postmarked Queenstown Ireland one of two stops the Titanic made before sinking