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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Titanic ticket, menu auctioned off

A menu from the Titanic sold for $31,250. (Associated Press)
Verena Dobnik Associated Press

NEW YORK – A New York auction house has sold an original ticket to the 1912 launch of the Titanic and a dinner menu from the ill-fated ocean liner, plus items recovered from the wreckage miles underwater.

On the block Sunday at Bonhams were various Titanic remnants offered to mark the centennial of its sinking.

The historic admission ticket fetched $56,250, including the auction house premium. The menu, touting choices like Lobster Newburg and beef sirloin with horseradish, sold for $31,250.

Both went to private American buyers, said Gregg Dietrich, Bonhams’ maritime consultant.

He said one surprise at the auction was the comparatively low price paid for a telegraph that read, “We have struck an iceberg.”

That message – sold for $27,500 – was sent to Titanic’s sister ship, the Olympic, about three hours before the Titanic sank just days into its maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York. Only about 700 of the luxury liner’s more than 2,200 passengers survived.