A menu from the last lunch served aboard the doomed ship Titanic, was recently sold at auction for an astonishing $88,000, the Associated Press reports.
The menu, which lists offerings for corned beef, dumplings and chicken, was saved by Abraham Lincoln Salomon, who boarded the RMS Titanic Lifeboat 1. The lifeboat, also referred to as the Millionaire’s Boat, is infamous because wealthy first class passengers allegedly bribed the crew to leave instead of trying to rescue more passengers.
The online New York auctioneer Lion Heart Autographs also auctioned off a ticket to the Titanic’s Turkish baths that went for $11,000, and a letter written by Titanic survivor Mabel Francatelli to Salomon that went for $7,500.
These items were not previously known about until shortly before the auction the AP reports. (RELATED: Titanic Artifacts Headed To Auction)
The British Wreck Commissioner’s inquiry ultimately determined that nobody on the lifeboat bribed the crew leave immediately instead of saving passengers, but that ultimately more lives could have been saved if the lifeboat hadn’t left so soon.
The only passengers of the “Millionaire’s Boat” to testify were fashion designer Lucy Duff-Gordon and her husband Lord Cosmo Duff-Gordon. (RELATED: Han shot first, and the blaster is up for auction)
The seller of the lunch menu has not been identified except from the fact that the seller came into possession of the items from the descendant of a Titanic survivor.