One of the last poignant letters sent from onboard Titanic emerges – with chilling omen from its doomed Brit teen author
A HAUNTING letter written by a tragic teen aboard the Titanic just three days before the ship sunk has been revealed.
The letter written by 16-year-old passenger, Thomas Cupper Mudd, is set to fetch tens of thousands of pounds at auction later this month.
Thomas’ final letter to his mum was sent from the vessel’s final port of call in Queenstown, Ireland.
In the letter the excited teen told her about life aboard the magnificent ship.
Thomas wrote: “The ship is like a magnificent palace. The lounge & dining hall are very beautiful. We are having excellent food.
“I have made friends with a young English gentleman and he is very nice indeed.
“The beds are very nice also with plenty of covering to keep warm also they have spring mattresses.”
Thomas admitted that there had been “very rough weather” aboard the boat, and said “the ship is rolling a good bit”.
But he reassured his mum the ship was “so steady you would hardly know it was moving, was it not for the throbbing of the engines”.
Thomas signed off the letter with a heartfelt note, writing: “With love to all. I remain, your loving son Tom.”
The heartbreaking letter is written on Titanic-branded paper, complete with the iconic White Star Line emblem at the top.
Thomas boarded the Titanic on April 10, 1912 after purchasing a second-class ticket for £10.
He was on his way to join his older siblings, James and George, who had already emigrated to America.
James left for Radnor, Pennsylvania in 1907, where he took up work as a gardener, before George followed in 1911.
Thomas was one of 13 children of Thomas and Elizabeth Coe Mudd, who were from Huntingfield, Suffolk.
The teen was one of the youngest of the 1,500 people lost in the Titanic-sinking, making his final words all the more tragic.
The deputy chairman and international head of books at Forum Auctions, Rupert Powell, described the letter as a “rare” piece of history.
Powell said: “When reading the letter today we thus feel hauntingly close to one of history’s greatest tragedies.”
He added: “Sent by a young man to his mother in which he enthusiastically describes the opulence and magnificence of the Titanic, this letter is a rare first-hand testament to the awful tragedy which befell the ship a matter of days later.”
The letter is expected to fetch up to £30,000 under the hammer.
The highly anticipated auction will take place on March 27 in London.
The sinking of the Titanic was one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history.
More than 1,500 people died when the doomed ship sank after it hit an iceberg on its voyage to New York.
The Titanic’s wreckage was found 73 years later, when American oceanographer and marine geologist Robert Ballard and French oceanographer and engineer Jean-Louis Michel discovered it.
The ship was found lying in two main pieces about 2,000ft apart.
It now sits 12,500ft below the surface of the North Atlantic Ocean.