Titanic item offers 'priceless snapshot' of ship life

A letter written by a passenger on the Titanic just days before the ship sank is expected to sell for up to £35,000 at auction.

Henry Price Hodges wrote the letter - dated 10 April - to his friend Hector Young, of the Newtown Conservative Association in Southampton.

Hodges, passenger number 250643, was heading across the Atlantic to visit family in Boston, but became one of the estimated 1,500 people who died when the ship sank on 15 April.

A spokesperson for auction house Henry Alridge and Son in Devizes, Wiltshire, said the letter gave a "historically priceless snapshot" of what life was like on the ship.

Hodges boarded the ship on her voyage to New York City from Southampton on 10 April 1912, having spent £13 on his second-class ticket.

His letter was postmarked Queenstown, the former name for the Irish port of Cobh, the Titanic's final stopping point before heading out to the Atlantic.

In his letter, Hodges wrote about the "fine" weather and the atmosphere on the ship.

It said: "Dear Hector, very many thanks for the telegram and for the good wishes. It was a kind and thoughtful act and much appreciated, and you will please convey my thanks to the members of our association.

"Wasn't it good of the President to come and see me off? I almost believe I could have persuaded him to come along. We have had a fine time up to now.

"You do not see anything of the movement of the ship, but the weather is very fine."

He also described that everything was "quite different to what you would expect to see at sea" and said he saw about 200 boys marching round and singing, playing dominoes and cards on the top deck.

"Tell your dad I am very disappointed he did not come, but I know he could not help it, and it was more than expected by your brother coming instead.

"I am going to bed early, for I feel as tired as a dead dog," he added.

Hodges was among those who died when the ship sank in the North Atlantic on 15 April 1912 after hitting an iceberg.

His body was recovered and buried in Fairview Cemetery, Halifax, in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia.

Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said: "This letter gives us a historically priceless snapshot into what life was like onboard the most famous ship ever to take to the seas for a second class passenger.

"He describes the ship and fellow passengers and how they passed the time.

"Yet a little over four days later the Titanic was lying at the bottom of the North Atlantic," he added.

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