Lillian Asplund was only five when the Titanic sank off Newfoundland in 1912, killing more than 1,500 and now her ticket for the Titanic’s ill-fated voyage has been sold to a collector from the United States for 33,000 pounds.

It was sold by auctioneers Henry Aldridge and Son in Devizes, Wiltshire.

Asplund’s family was returning from their native Sweden on the Titanic, when it struck an iceberg.

The Shrewsbury resident died two years ago at age 99 after a life avoiding publicity about the disaster.

Also among the items auctioned Saturday, was a gold watch with the hands frozen at 2:19.

The auctioneer, Andrew Aldridge, said the hands of the watch were stopped when, when Asplund’s father Carl fell into the North Atlantic, seconds before the Titanic disappeared beneath the waves. The watch was bought by a Swedish collector for 31,000 pounds

He said most of Asplund’s collection of 364 items, which included rare photographs of the Titanic and post cards printed to mark the voyage, had been sold at Saturday’s auction.

The lots were previously kept at Asplund’s home in Massachusetts, in the U.S., and have never been seen before in public, he said.

Her collection is “one of the most important of its type to be offered in recent years,” Aldridge said. Asplund’s parents, Carl and Selma, and their five children were traveling on the Titanic as they headed from their home in Sweden to the U.S. to make a new life in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Posted: 04|20|08 at 7:35 am. Filed under: UK News.