Titanic menu set to fetch record price
Fifth Officer Harold Lowe, who was responsible for saving more lives than anyone else on board, slipped the historic menu into his pocket after dinner in the first-class restaurant on the first day of final sea trials on April 2, 1912.
On the bottom he scrawled the words, 'This is the first meal ever served on board', and posted it to his fiancee Ellen Whitehouse on April 10 when the ship called at Queenstown (Cobh) on the Belfast-built ship's ill-fated maiden voyage.
The menu offering a choice of soup, salmon, sweetbreads, roast chicken, spring lamb and braised ham is now being offered for sale by his family at auction in Southampton in April.
Aldridge's of Devizes, Wiltshire, have put an estimate of £30,000-£40,000 on the historic memento, but auctioneer Alan Aldridge believes it could fetch up to £50,000.
The highest price so far paid for a piece of Titanic memorabilia, an album containing the last photograph of the ship, was £37,000.
"Officer Lowe was undoubtedly the real hero of the disaster, albeit relatively unsung, and this is one of the most important Titanic artefacts ever to appear on the market," Mr Aldridge said.
Officer Lowe joined the crew of the Titanic in Belfast and was one of only two officers to survive. He was played by Welsh actor Ioan Gruffud in the Oscar-winning film Titanic and was seen plucking Kate Winslet to safety from the sea.
In real-life, too, Lowe was the true hero of the disaster, famously rounding on owner Joseph Ismay, firing his revolver to warn off stampeding male passengers and returning to the wreckage to save scores of lives.
Lowe from Conwy, North Wales, was 29 at the time of the disaster which claimed 1,523 lives.
In 1913 he married Ellen Whitehouse and they had two children, Florence and Harold. He became a commander in the Royal Naval Reserve during World War I and retired to Deganwy in North Wales. He died in 1944 and was buried at Llandrillo Yn Rhos, Conwy.
His story is told in a new book by Australian writer Inger Sheil entitled "The Real Hero of the Titanic."
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