An Original Letter from a Passenger on the Titanic Sold at Auction for $400,000

by Bridgett Mcpark, age 12

A letter that was written by one of the Titanic survivors, Archibald Gracie, sold for $399,000 during an auction by Aldrige & Son in April of 2025.

Colonel Archibald Gracie was one of the most well-known passengers on the Titanic. The letter was written on April 10th, 1912, just four days before the Titanic sank. In the letter, Gracie was staying in a first-class cabin and wrote to his friend describing how luxurious everything was.

On the ship, he reportedly spent much time reading books from the first-class library and chaperoning many unaccompanied women during the voyage. On the night the Titanic sank, he went to bed earlier than most passengers, since he wanted to play squash the next morning.

He awoke when the iceberg struck the ship around midnight. The Colonel helped the women and children into lifeboats. He managed to survive by climbing on a collapsible upside-down boat with about a few dozen other men, until they were rescued by the RMS. Carpathia was taken back to New York City.

After the crash, Archibald Gracie wrote a book called The Truth about the Titanic detailing the tragic incident that killed 1,500 people. Never recovering from hypothermia, he fell into a coma on December 2, 1912. Gracie passed away two days later. His health never fully recovered after the disaster due to a preexisting condition. His book was published posthumously in 1913 under its original title.

Despite the tragedy of the Titanic, Colonel Gracie’s acquaintance still managed to get the letter. It was their great-nephew who put it under the hammer for printing at Henry Aldridge and Son, in Wiltshire, United Kingdom.

[Sources: WorldAtlas; Madison.com; Associated Press; Henry Aldridge & Son]