A collection of poignant Titanic memorabilia which went on show in Belfast to 20,000 people broke a world record at auction.

Among 370 items that went under the hammer was a miniature portrait retrieved from the depths which sold for £58,000, and a letter written onboard by 1st class passenger Stanley May, in which he calls the Titanic a “Floating Palace” and mentions the near miss with the liner “New York” as the Titanic left Southampton Water on the April 10. That sold for £22,000.

The sale was held by Henry Aldridge and Son of Devizes, Wiltshire, the leading auctioneers of Titanic and White Star Line memorabilia in the world.

One hundred and fifty people attended the Devizes auction and bidders from across the globe jammed seven phone lines.

Andrew Aldridge, auctioneer and head of the Titanic and maritime department, said that although the Titanic sank over 90 years ago with great loss of life, it still generates a lot of interest partly due to the stories of courage, heroism and sacrifice that were shown by so many of those on board and who helped to design and build the ship.

He added that the auction had topped impressive levels at a previous September sale and interest is increasing as the 2012 centenary approaches.

He said: “The fascination with the Titanic I think, is that there is the one big story that a ship hits and iceberg and sinks, but then there are also over 2,000 people on that ship, men, women and children, who all had their individual tales too.”

Many of the lots centred around Helen Churchill Candee, an American First Class Passenger on board Titanic and a renowned travel correspondent and a prolific authoress.

Helen survived the sinking in Lifeboat Number 6, having broken her ankle getting in.

The archive included letters and telegrams relating to Helen after the sinking and her unique 36-page hand written account of the disaster that fateful week of April 1912 which sold for £47,000.

Posted: 05|1|06 at 8:16 am. Filed under: UK News.