Previous Lot Next Lot

Auction: 12013 - The Collector's Series sale
Lot: 2053

Great Britain Postal History 1912 (15 Aug.) envelope with enclosure, both with the red embossed crest of "the cunard steamship company limited" bearing 1912 1d. with "gibraltar/19 au 12/paquebot" cancellation (Hine-Haycock type iii), addressed to Cairo "Care of Thos Cook & Sons", "cook´s post office/cairo" arrival, re-addressed to Port Said, the enclosure with embossed "Royal Mail Steamship Carpathia". the four page letter to "Dear Papa + boys" includes ".... Last night a lady from Kansas and I had a long talk with the Captain. This is his first run since the rescue of the Titanic. He is very simple & modest, & said he found in the dictionary the meaning of Titanic was a race of men vainly trying to overcome nature..." (The Captain of the Carpathia was Arthur Henry Rostron, later knighted by King George V); the envelope a little stained. Most unusual with this Titanic association, and a timely reminder, given that the centenary of the sinking of the "Titanic" falls on 15 April. Photo Estimate £ 1,000-1,500 note: R.M.S. Titanic departed from Southampton on her maiden and only voyage on 10 April 1912. On 15 April she struck an iceberg and sunk with the loss of 1,517 lives. R.M.S. Carpathia picked up the majority of the survivors; she was sunk by a German U-Boat on 17July 1918.

Sold for
£700