Ghost note from Titanic
On the auction block
A “Wish You Were Here” letter written aboard the Titanic could fetch thousands of dollars at auction this weekend.
Four days before the ship sank, Alfons SimoniusBlumer penned the missive to his wife and daughter — in which he expressed regret they were not aboard, too.
The 56-year-old Swiss banker, who rode first class, gushed about how the luxury liner was “as good as the best hotel” and immune to the effects of chilly North Atlantic winds on its maiden voyage, the Daily Mail reported.
“Although the wind is blowing strongly, the ship is not heeling over one bit, and I certainly think that not even you would get seasick because everywhere the air is excellent,” Simonius-Blumer wrote in the letter, part of a catalogue of Titanic memorabilia up for auction by auctioneers Henry Aldridge & Son in Wiltshire, England.
Simonius-Blumer was sailing to New York on business with a colleague, Max Staehelin, but without his wife, Alice, and their daughter, Ella.
He wrote the letter the morning of April 11, 1912, as the supposedly unsinkable White Star Line flagship steamed between Cherbourg, France, and Queenstown, Ireland, its last stop before the fateful Atlantic crossing.
As a first-class passenger, Simonius-Blumer was able to get on a lifeboat after the ship struck an iceberg late at night on April 14 and was among the about 710 survivors rescued by the RMS Carpathia the next morning.
Simonius-Blumer died in 1920 from heart failure.
His letter, still in its original envelope, is expected to command a $28,000 price tag at the Saturday auction.