Titanic first class deck plan fetches €34,000 at auction

A RARE Titanic first class deck plan belonging to a wealthy New York couple who drowned at sea has sold at auction for £30,000 (€34,177).

The deck plans were handed to the 324 first class passengers as they boarded the RMS Titanic at Southampton in 1912 to help them navigate around the luxury liner.

Ida and Isidor Straus died side-by-side after Ms Straus refused a place on a lifeboat to remain with her husband. They drowned at sea along with 1,495 others.

Their maid, Ellen Bird, survived and kept the couple’s deck plan. It is thought to be only one of three in existence and has been in the hands of a private collector since her death in 1949. Despite the deck plan’s age and fragile condition, the delicate document has remained in one piece.

The plan, which folds down to a booklet, is headed “White Star Line, Southampton-Cherbourg-New York Service, First Class Accommodation”.

Mr Straus, 63, was a wealthy businessman who owned the Macey’s department store in New York.

He and his family were returning to America on Titanic following a holiday in Europe.

A photo of Mr Straus was also sold to the same buyer as the deck plan for £17,000.

The plan was sold yesterday by auctioneers Henry Aldridge and Son as part of a selection of Titanic and White Star Line memorabilia at the Devizes auction house in Wiltshire.

Other top sellers included first class D deck toilet keys, which made £43,000 and the SS Birma log archive that documented the final signals Titanic sent, selling for £32,000.