Rare Titanic first-class menu offers glimpse into lavish last supper before tragic voyage

WASHINGTON (TND) — A water-stained menu from the Titanic offers a rare look into what first-class passengers ate on the night of April 11, 1912 -- four days before the ship struck an iceberg and sank.

Food such as oysters, lamb and mallard duck are featured on the menugoing on sale on Saturday for up to 70,000 pounds ($86,000).

"This snapshot into dinner on the evening of April 11th illustrates the glamour and opulent culinary delights that Titanic's First-Class passengers would have experienced," British auction house Henry Aldridge and Son Ltd. said in a description.

After consulting museums with Titanic collections and speaking to lead memorabilia collectors, the auction house added there seems to be no other surviving menus from that specific night.

"The fare was served hours after Titanic left Queenstown, her last port of call, when night had fallen and the last sight of land extinguished," the auction house said.

The menu was found in a photo album from the 1960s, according to the auction house, after the passing of the late Len Stephenson by his daughter Mary Anita and son-in-law Allen.

Other items up for bid include a tartan blanket that a survivor used to stay warm on a lifeboat and was called “one of the rarest three-dimensional objects we have seen” by the auction house. It is expected to sell for up to 100,000 pounds ($123,000).

The blanket previously belonged to Frederick Toppin who acquired it at a New York pier when he met rescued passengers coming ashore, according to the lot listing.

Additionally, a pocket watch belonging to second-class Russian immigrant Sinai Kantor marks the moment he entered the water and later died.

The auction house said his body was recovered by the C.S. MacKay-Bennett and labeled Body No. 283" before being embalmed on the ship.

The items represent some of the lives that were lost on April 15, 1912, when the Titanic sank in the early morning hours after hitting an iceberg off Newfoundland in the North Atlantic.

While the exact number of people killed is unknown, the U.S. committee investigating the sinking states that 1,517 lives were lost.

The wreck was discovered in 1985 and lies some 12,500 feet under the sea, about 435 miles off the coast of Canada.