A letter written aboard the Titanic before it sank is to be auctioned off in England on Saturday, the Associated Press reported.
The letter was written by Esther Hart, who in 1912 traveled on the Titanic with her husband and 7-year-old daughter with the hopes of resettling in Canada. The letter, written on Titanic stationary, was supposed to be sent to Hart's mother in Essex, England, the Irish Examiner reported
"The sailors say we have had a wonderful passage up to now," Hart, a second-class passenger, wrote that Sunday, April 14 as the voyage began.
"[Though] they say this Ship does not roll on account of its size. Any how it rolls enough for me...It is very nice weather but awfully windy and cold. They say we may get to New York Tuesday night but we are really due early Wednesday morning, shall write as soon as we get there," Hart wrote, the Irish Examiner reported.
But hours later the Titanic struck an iceberg in the northern Atlantic Ocean and sank, killing 1,500 of the ship's passengers and crew. Hart, her daughter Eva Hart and the letter survived. Esther's husband and Eva's father, Benjamin, died when the ship sank, the AP reported.
The letter, which includes a postscript from little Eva, is expected to sell for up to 100,000 pounds, or $128,000 dollars, according to the AP.
"Heaps of love and kisses to all from Eva," the child wrote in the letter.
Esther died in 1928. Eva went on to become one of the most prominent Titanic survivor, estimated to be about 700 people. Eva includes her mother's letter, and her description of that historic day, in an autobiography titled "Shadow of the Titanic," the AP reported. She died in 1996.
Andrew Aldridge, from Henry Aldridge and Son Auctioneers, where the auction will take place, said the letter is remarkably well preserved and is "the only known surviving example of it's type," the Irish Examiner reported.
"It is quite simply the jewel in the crown of Titanic manuscript ephemera."
