Jun 29, 2007 5:00 am US/Eastern
Witness Account Of Sinking Titanic Fetches $16,800
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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Christie's auction house displayed souvenir photographs taken on the Titanic. (File)
Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images
In eight handwritten pages, a 16-year-old passenger recounted the Titanic's last hours, starting with the moment the ill-fated oceanliner hit an iceberg.
From a lifeboat, Laura Marie Cribb watched the luxurious vessel's lights go out and listened to the "most terrible shrieks and groans from the helpless and doomed passengers who were left on the wreck of the great ship."
Her account, written soon after the disaster, fetched $16,800 at a Christie's auction of Titanic memorabilia Thursday. The 18 lots - including letters, postcards, telegrams from survivors and photographs of passengers - sold for a total of $193,140.
The Titanic, the world's largest passenger steamship at the time, was on its maiden voyage when it struck an iceberg on April 14, 1912, and sank early on the following day. At least 1,496 people were killed.
Cribb, a third-class passenger from Newark, N.J., was rescued by the RMS Carpathia, but her father perished.
The deck log from cable ship SS MacKay-Bennett, the second ship on the scene after the Carpathia, was up for auction at a pre-sale estimate of $30,000 to $50,000. It sold for $102,000.
The auction also included the ship's first-class passenger list, which bears such prominent New York names as Astor, Guggenheim and Straus. The list sold for $48,000, topping a pre-sale estimate of $15,000 to $20,000.
All prices include a 20-percent buyer's premium.
Those unable to purchase pieces of Titanic history can see artifacts on display at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science through Jan. 6, 2008.
Artifacts from another famous shipwrecked luxury liner, the Andrea Doria, were also auctioned. Christie's also sold items such as silverware and posters from the SS Normandy, a French oceanliner that capsized and burned in New York Harbor during World War II.
(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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