Some of you may remember the above line from Walter Lord’s “A Night to Remember” about Mrs. J. Stuart (Ella) White. A first class passenger traveling o board the Titanic. White was most known for her battery operated walking cane that she happened to carry with her into the life boat, waving it around in an attempt to signal ships.
Coming up in approximately a week, this cane and other shipping memorabilia will be up for auction at Guernsey’s nautical auction “Centuries at Sea” in Newport, Rhode Island. (On the auction’s website, you can see all the lots up for sale over the two day auction.) It will be sold with other White Star, Cunard and Red Star Line items, to name a few.
Ella’s cane has a pre-sale estimate of $300,000-$500,000. A blank pursers receipt of one of the Titanic’s survivors, is estimated to bring in between $6,000-$8,000.
Another notable item up for auction: a first edition copy of The Wreck of A Titan: Or, Futility by Morgan Robertson.Written in 1898, it had eerie similarities, to the circumstances to the sinking of the Titanic, which sank 14 years later. Some even believed Robertson to be a clairvoyant.
Notable similarities:
Similar ship names
Both were described as the largest and greatest ships made by men
Described as “unsinkable
Hit an Iceberg, and sank
The majority of her 2,500 passengers and crew died.
Links to credit Fox News Guernsey “Centuries at Sea” Auction The Wreck of a Titan: Or, Futility