Titanic key sells for £90,000

12:24pm Thursday 27th September 2007

Comments (2)   Have your say »

WHAT has been described as the key to the Titanic disaster has been sold for £90,000 to one of the world's biggest diamond houses.

Antwerp-based Tisoro outbid all others by phone at the height of the latest sale of Titanic and maritime memorabilia at the salerooms of Henry Aldridge and Son.

The key to the crow's nest telephone office fetched £78,000, which, with the 15 per cent buyer's premium, means a price of around £90,000.

It is less than the £101,000 paid at Aldridge's last Titanic sale in April for a set of postroom keys taken from the body of postal clerk Oscar Woody after the sinking of the Titanic in April 1912.

The crow's nest key was inadvertently taken from the Titanic by Second Officer David Blair when he was transferred off the ship shortly before it set sail on its doomed maiden voyage.

By the time Mr Blair realised he still had it in his pocket, the ship was at the bottom of the Atlantic.

The key was mentioned at the board of inquiry into the disaster, because it meant that a set of binoculars inside the office was not available to the lookout, who might otherwise have seen the iceberg in time for evasive action to be taken.

A postcard sent to Mr Blair's sister-in-law fetched £10,000. In it Mr Blair told her: "Arrived in Titanic from Belfast today. Am afraid I shall have to step out to make room for Chief Officer of the Olympic who was going in command, but so many ships laid he will have to wait. I hope eventually to get back to this ship."

Mr Blair's medals fetched another £5,000 and a map of gold and silver mines in Panama realised £1,400, all making a tidy profit for the British and International Sailors' Society, who had decided to auction the items to support their members.

A ticket to the launch of the Titanic went for £32,000 and the last item in the sale, a rare postcard sent from the Titanic when it was docked in Queenstown, Northern Ireland, sold for £17,500. Messages sent from the Olympic, the Titanic's sister ship, and used in evidence at the board of inquiry, fetched £7,200.