Titanic’s Last Lunch Menu To Be Auctioned In New York To Mark 30th Anniversary Of Ship’s Wreck Discovery

The last lunch menu of the Titanic is set to be auctioned in New York on Sept. 30 to mark the 30th anniversary of the discovery of the fateful ship’s wreckage in the Atlantic Ocean, the Associated Press (AP) reported Monday. The menu, saved by Abraham Lincoln Salomon, one of the passengers who survived the tragic incident, is likely to fetch between $50,000 and $70,000.

New York auctioneer Lion Heart Autographs will auction the menu and two other artifacts -- a ticket from the Titanic’s lavish Turkish baths and a letter written after the disaster. The items are being auctioned by the son of a man who was given the items by a direct descendent of one of the survivors of Lifeboat 1, the Titanic’s fourth lifeboat, the AP reported.

The lifeboat was dubbed the "Money Boat" or "Millionaire's Boat" by the press following rumors that one of the first-class passengers bribed seven crew members to quickly row the boat away from the sinking ship instead of rescuing others.

Salomon was one of the passengers on the Lifeboat 1 and is believed to have had lunch with fellow first-class passenger Isaac Gerald Frauenthal on the Titanic in 1912 on the day it sank after hitting an iceberg. The food items listed on the menu are corned beef, dumplings and other savory items and the back of the menu is signed in pencil by Frauenthal, according to the AP.

The other items for auction are Salomon’s printed ticket from the Turkish baths and a letter written by another first-class passenger Laura Mabel Francatelli six months after the Titanic’s sinking on April 15, 1912. The ticket recorded a person’s weight when seated in a specially designed lounge chair and is one of four weighing-chair tickets known to exist. It is estimated to fetch $7,500 to $10,000.

In her letter to Salomon, Francatelli enquired about his recovery from the disaster. "We do hope you have now quite recovered from the terrible experience," she wrote, according to the AP. "I am afraid our nerves are still bad, as we had such trouble & anxiety added to our already awful experience by the very unjust inquiry when we arrived in London."

The letter is expected to bring between $4,000 and $6,000.