A letter from the Titanic written before the disaster is set to be sold in Britain

A letter written by “Titanic” passenger Henry Price Hodges just a few days before the famous ship’s sinking is set to be auctioned in the United Kingdom. The letter is dated April 10, 1912—the very day the “Titanic” set sail on its first and final voyage from Southampton. The letter was addressed to Hodges’ friend, Hector Young, a member of the Newtown Conservative Association in Southampton.

In it, the second-class passenger described his first impressions of the voyage and noted that there was a pleasant atmosphere on board. “Dear Hector, thank you very much for your telegram and kind wishes. We’ve been having a wonderful time so far. The ship’s motion is barely noticeable, but the weather is very nice,” Hodges wrote in the letter.

Henry Price Hodges boarded the *Titanic* in Southampton. He had a second-class ticket, No. 250643, which cost £13. His destination was Boston, where he planned to visit relatives. However, just a few days later, the voyage turned into a tragedy. On the night of April 14, 1912, the Titanic struck an iceberg and sank in the North Atlantic. Hodges perished along with more than 1,500 others. His body was later recovered and buried at Fairview Cemetery in Halifax, Canada.

The letter will be put up for auction at Henry Aldridge & Son in Devizes, Wiltshire. Organizers expect the historic document to sell for approximately £35,000. Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge noted that letters from second-class passengers on the *Titanic* are extremely rare historical artifacts. “This letter gives us a historically invaluable insight into life aboard the most famous ship. It describes the ship, its passengers, and how they spent their time. However, a little more than four days later, the Titanic was already lying at the bottom of the North Atlantic,” he said.

According to the organizers, such items are of special value not only because of their rarity but also because they offer a glimpse into the final days of people who set out on an ordinary journey but found themselves at the center of one of the 20th century’s most famous disasters.

Items related to the passengers of the “Titanic” have been sold at auctions before. Among them were personal belongings of the victims, documents, and items from aboard the ship. Some of these items have fetched record prices among historical artifacts related to the tragedy, according to The Independent.

In the United Kingdom, a life jacket belonging to a female “Titanic” passenger who survived the 1912 disaster will be put up for auction, and it could become one of the rarest historical items related to the legendary liner ever to go on sale. The lot is already being called unique, as such artifacts almost never appear on the open market