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AN INDIGNANT LETTER from a British aristocrat who survived the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 has sold for $11,875 today.
Lady Lucy Duff-Gordon, a target of public outrage after she fled the doomed ocean liner on a near-empty lifeboat, penned the two-page letter in London a month after the disaster.
“How kind of you to send me a cable of sympathy from New York on our safety,” the fashion designer wrote to a stateside friend.
“According to the way we’ve been treated by England on our return we didn’t seem to have done the right thing in being saved at all!!!! Isn’t it disgraceful.”
RR Auction, which regularly handles Titanic memorabilia, had expected the letter to fetch as much as $6,000 at Thursday’s live auction in Boston, which followed a week of online bidding.
“We remain fascinated by the Titanic tragedy and will for years to come,” the firm’s executive vice president Bobby Livingston said in a statement Friday.
Duff-Gordon, 48, and her husband Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon, 49, were traveling first class on the Titanic on its ill-starred maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York.
They became the subjects of derision when it emerged that their lifeboat carried only 12 people, including seven crew members, despite having room for 40 souls.
Some 1,500 died when the Titanic went down off Newfoundland on April 15, 1912 after hitting an iceberg, in what remains the most storied maritime tragedy of all time.
The couple were alleged to have bribed the crew in order not to go back to rescue other survivors — a claim that a British inquiry concluded was unfounded.
They were the only passengers called to testify before the inquiry, conducted by the British Wreck Commissioner in London from May through mid-July 1912.
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The attitudes of the well off haven’t changed
Amd will never change. If it did, there wouldnt be the ’1%’ bracket.
Humans can be the most evil beings on the planet.
That’s bull, most humans are loving and caring about people close to them, and sometimes strangers, cats are the most evil, if a cat was bigger than you, it would torcher you to within an inch of your life, then leave you to die, or reptiles, they are evil
Cats have learnt how to use fire??
Interesting fact…..if the Titanic hit the iceberg straight on, the ship would not have sunk.
And if the iceberg wasn’t there it also wouldn’t have sunk. In other news if my aunt Maeve had balls I’d call her Dave.
How is your aunt Dave these days Jason. ;)
Who in their right mind would pay that for a letter, some people have more money then cents
*than sense*. If you’re going to resort to clichés, at least try to spell them properly. Otherwise the fatuous points you try to make will look even more stupid.
It would make a good investment, once its insured it will more than hold its value, Titanic memorabilia is highly collectable.
Well actually Mike it is you that is stupid. In your effort to look intelligent and demean someone else you have made the amazing faux pas of stating ‘more money than sense’ is a cliche. The term can not be described as a cliche. It is idiom. You thick ass.
Ha ha Mike, make sure you know your stuff before letting some of that badness out.
Well imagine that, an enquiry by the British hirorcy finding nothing untoward with a lifeboat with room for forty ( and a pony outside) only had five of their own in it,. Seven crew it must have been a first class life boat, no wonder they didn’t turn back for them ones.. tut.
Nowadays it wouldn’t be women and children first.
So at least the feminist movement achieved something for us men!
Except if your a Caucasian man. We would have to wait till last in order to show we are not racist.
lol Graham…you seem to have an issue with women @big willy
The second a ship goes down there won’t be a feminist to be found, but seriously, men have a deep desire to protect women in these situations, idiot feminists haven’t changed that. That’s male nature.
Actually most of the survivors were male and usually are in these disasters as the women beneath ship don’t leave their children. Most bodies found were women and children in the bunks.
Ok Lisa, so men bad, women good, got it. So women would not get into lifeboats with their kids? Would love to know where you got that factoid from
Ok Lisa, total women dead 108, total men dead 649 http://www.icyousee.org/titanic.html, simple google search. But thanks for those feminist facts
There is a letter sent by a passenger on display in The Poitin Still,Rathcoole,Dublin.
Louis Fitzgerald has long been interested in the subject of The Titanic.
There is some fantastic memorabilia there,well worth a visit.
STOP CHANGING THE EFFING HEADLINES !!!!!!!!!
Jaysus, she’s the spit of Thatcher.
The Titanic Museum in Belfast is well worth a visit.
You should check out 9/11 amusement Park – it’s great. Or Holocaust 3D experience in the imax.
Some knob deleted my comment.
Your comment probably deserved to be deleted, judging by some of the comments that have survived culls over time
“probably deserved” – keep living your life based on assumptions.
My comment also got deleted. I was pointing out that it was a bit odd to call the couple to an inquiry 100 years after the ship sank.
@Rory – Nous sommes Charlie.
Inquiry ran from May to mid-July 1912. Think they were trying to do you a favour deleting your comment so maybe say ‘Thanks guys’
Thanks for this. The article originally said 2012 but has since been changed to 1912. Rather than deleting comments, a note to say “thanks for identifying our error” would have been more appropriate. My original comment had the original text quoted.
My fathers sisters brothers uncles wife is the women in question. And if ya have a problem with it ya can deal with my fathers sisters brothers uncles wives husbands family!!
“The objects of derision” not subjects.
In terms of attitude The world sadly has come full circle
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