Editor’s Note: RealClearLife, a news and lifestyle publisher, is now a part of InsideHook. Together, we’ll be covering current events, pop culture, sports, travel, health and the world.
More than a century after the sinking of the Titanic, everything, along with every word, connected to the doomed liner’s transatlantic crossing remains fascinating. That includes a letter written by one of the doomed ship’s crew to his wife a few days before the liner went down in the North Atlantic up for auction in the U.K., Fox News reports.
Written by steward Richard Geddes to his wife Sarah, the day after Titanic left the port of Southampton, U.K., on April 10, 1912, the letter recalls a near-collision with the SS City of New York. The two liners reportedly missed each other by just a few feet as Titanic set out on it maiden voyage.
“We got away yesterday after a lot of trouble,” Geddes wrote. “As we were passing the New York and Oceanic the New York broke her ropes and very nearly ran into us, but we just happened to avoid a collision.”
Had that near-miss actually occurred it would have prevented Titanic’s doomed journey to New York, reports Fox News. It “would have changed history,” auctioneer Andrew Aldridge, who described the letter as “exceptional on many levels,” told the outlet. Titanic hit an iceberg on April 14, 1912, and sank just over two hours later. Geddes, and 1,500 others, died in the disaster.
The letter, expected to fetch between $155,885 to $233,827, will be auctioned on April 27.
Thanks for reading InsideHook. Sign up for our daily newsletter and be in the know.
