Titanic's Letter

A note from First Class passenger Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon, who was accused of bribing crew to get him and his wife to safety, goes under the hammer

A letter from one of the Titanic's most infamous survivors slamming the "unjust inquiry" he faced after he was accused of paying to escape the ship is to go up for auction.

Landowner Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon, his wife Lady Lucy and their secretary Mabel Francatelli were among 12 wealthy passengers who were rowed to safety.

They were saved on the hastily-launched Lifeboat Number One - which had a capacity of 40 - and the couple were the only people questioned by Scotland Yard on their return.

Now a letter relating to the scandal - which is said to have turned Duff-Gordon into a recluse - is to go under the hammer at an auction of Titanic artefacts later this month.

The hand-written note from his secretary to another survivor from another boat, Abraham Lincoln Salomon, is expected to fetch £4,000.

It says: "We do hope you have now quite recovered from the terrible experience. 

"I am afraid our nerves are still bad, as we had such trouble and anxiety added to our already awful experience by the very unjust inquiry when we arrived in London.
"Lady Gordon's mother is with us and she would so much like to meet you being one who shared our boat."

Duff-Gordon was branded a coward who ignored the 'women and children first' policy to save himself.

When he was questioned on his return, he admitted promising money to the lifeboat crew, but said it was not a bribe. 

He was exonerated by a British Board of Trade inquiry into the disaster who agreed it was a charity donation.

The three-page letter was addressed to Salomon his home in Broadway, New York, and written on notepaper from the city's Plaza Hotel.
It is being sold by Lion Heart Autographs on September 30 in New York.

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