The handwritten letter from one of the few South Americans on board the Titanic, written a few days before its sinking on April 15, 1912, will be auctioned in Montevideo, the organizing house Zorrilla Subastas announced on Tuesday.
The missive from the Uruguayan Ramon Artagaveytia Gomez (1840-1912) to his brother Adolfo, dated April 11, 1912, was sent from Queenstown, Ireland, during the liner’s last stopover before embarking on the crossing of the North Atlantic. It will be on sale at a starting price of 12,000 dollars (some 11,000 euros).
“All I say about it is an understatement,” writes the 71-year-old agro-industrialist, a first-class passenger, describing the luxurious ship. “Everything is new and rich,” he adds, marveling at the quality of service on board.
The Titanic, which was to join Southampton, England, in New York, in the United States, for its maiden voyage, was wrecked after hitting an iceberg, causing the death of nearly 1,500 passengers and crew members on the 2,224 on board, one of the greatest maritime disasters of the 20th century. The wreck was found in 1985 650 kilometers off the Canadian coast in international waters of the Atlantic Ocean.
It still fascinates today. It was to admire it from 4,000 meters deep that an American, a Frenchman, a Briton and two Pakistani-Britons dived on Sunday aboard a submersible which remained untraceable on Wednesday and for which significant research resources were been deployed.
The missive, two three-page handwritten sheets, property of the descendants of Adolfo Artagaveytia Gomez, is written on the letterhead of the British shipping company White Star Line, owner of the Titanic.
It is accompanied by a postcard on which we see an elegant man with a cane and a hat, dated Evian and with the inscription: “A missive and an affectionate memory to my brother Adolfo. Ramon”.
The value of the lot is estimated between 15,000 and 25,000 dollars (some 13,700 and 22,900 euros), Guillermo Gonzalez, in charge of the catalog for this sale, which includes some 800 lots and will be held in Montevideo on June 30, told AFP.
About twenty pieces (binoculars and navy jacket in particular) from the German battleship Admiral Graf Spee, scuttled by its captain on December 17, 1939 after the battle of the Rio de la Plata which opposed war craft from Great Britain and Germany Nazi off the coast of Uruguay, will notably be put up for sale.
06/21/2023 19:18:35 – Montevideo (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
