Last Titanic survivor auctions mementoes

The last living survivor from the Titanic disaster will auction some mementoes of the ship today.

Millvina Dean – who was lowered from the deck of the sinking ship as a two-month-old baby – is trying to raise money to help pay for her nursing home fees.

A canvas bag used to carry her belongings back from New York after her family was rescued are among the items being sold off by 97-year-old, who lives in Southampton.

She is also selling a model and some rare prints of the famous ship.

The Titanic sank in the Atlantic in 1912 with the loss of 1,517 lives. Miss Dean’s father Bertram was among the victims.

Her possessions go under the hammer at a sale of nautical memorabilia by auctioneer Henry Aldridge in Devizes, Wiltshire.

Other lots include a flask one Titanic passenger used to give hot milk to his wife and two daughters.

The man climbed down a rope of a lifeboat to hand over the container, before returning to the ship and perishing when it sank.

A chunky key to a door on the ship’s E deck is also up for sale.

There are also relics from the Carpathia – which steamed to the rescue of Titanic survivors – and from the liner Lusitania, which was torpedoed by a German U-Boat in 1915.