Titanic passenger’s letter reveals new details about life on board before disaster

A letter containing “absolutely fascinating” details of life on the ill-fated Titanic cruise liner is expected to fetch around $47,000 at auction, CNN writes.

Written by a passenger named Henry Hodges, the letter is dated April 10, 1912 – the day RMS Titanic set sail – according to a listing at British auction house Henry Aldridge and Son.

Hodges, a musical instrument salesman, was traveling for pleasure and was on his way to Boston to see some friends, traveling in second class. In the letter, he tells a friend, Hector, about what “a fine time” he has had on board.

“Up to now, you do not see anything of the movement of the ship, but the weather is very fine,” he writes.

“On the top deck there are about 200 boys (from 20 upwards) marching round & singing, others are playing dominoes & cards in the saloons, some reading, some writing, everything is quite different to what you would expect to see at sea,” adds Hodges, who died when the ship sank.

When the Titanic departed Belfast, Northern Ireland on her maiden voyage, she was the largest passenger ship in service and considered to be “unsinkable.”

Just four days later, on April 14, that voyage was transformed into an international tragedy when the ship struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic at 11:40 p.m. local time. She sank in less than three hours.