£100,000 for tiny menu of Titanic’s first-ever meal
AN incredibly rare menu for the first meal served on the Titanic has sold for £100,000.
The postcard-size item was for lunch on April 2, 1912, the first day of the doomed liner’s sea trials in the Irish Sea, when senior officers, officials from shipbuilders Harland and Wolff and VIPs sat down in the main dining saloon.
In keeping with the opulent surroundings, the small group indulged in only the finest food. There was consumme mirrette and cream of chicken to start, salmon for the fish course, spring lamb, roast chicken and braised ham for mains, followed by pudding sans souci and peaches imperial, then coffee.
Fortunately, Titanic sailed at “dead slow” while all this was being served.
The menu was kept by Second Officer Charles Lightoller, the most senior officer to survive the disaster. When the White Star liner arrived in Southampton on April 3, he gave his wife Sylvia the menu as a souvenir.
He rejoined Titanic before she left on her maiden voyage to New York on April 10, 1912. She hit an iceberg and sank on April 15 with the loss of 1,522 lives.
Lightoller, in charge of a lifeboat, escaped death when a funnel toppled towards him. His family kept the menu until about 15 years ago.
Andrew Aldridge, of auctioneers Henry Aldridge in Devizes, Wilts, said: “We know of only one other Titanic menu for April 2 in existence.” An extremely rare key from the vessel fetched £70,000 in the sale.