Sale of letter to Titanic victim’s family
The letter, dated May 7, 1912, was sent from White Star Lines to Christopher Moody, the brother of 24-year-old officer James Moody, who died after the Titanic hit an iceberg on its maiden voyage the previous month.
The company asks for a £20 deposit — the equivalent of €2,900 today — to return his body to England and state that Mr Moody will also have to meet the remaining costs from there.
The letter, from parent company Ismay Imrie & Co, read: “We have your further letter of the 6th instant, and while we will be prepared to transport the remains of your brother across the Atlantic to either Liverpool or Southampton we regret that it is not possible for us to do any more.
“Should you after further consideration desire the remains of your Brother to be returned will you kindly telegraph us in the morning at the same time sending us a deposit of £20 for any expenses and land charges on the other Side and we will at once cable New York asking then to arrange this if practicable.
“We also think it right to point out that the arrangements and expenses for taking charge of the remains after arrival of the steamer at Liverpool or Southampton would be on your account.”
Instead, the company suggests Mr Moody’s remains be buried in Halifax, Nova Scotia, but they offer to send his family “a photograph of the tombstone”, if they want one.
When the letter was sent, Mr Moody’s body had not been recovered, and the parent company would have known this as all remains were catalogued.
The remains of Mr Moody, who was on watch when the ship struck the iceberg and later helped passengers into the lifeboats while declining a space for himself, have never been found.
The letter is due to be sold at the weekend at Henry Aldridge & Son in Devizes, Wiltshire and is expected to fetch up to €35,000.
It is being sold by a private collector, who acquired it directly from the Moody family.
