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A BISCUIT cracker that survived the sinking of the Titanic has sold for £15,000 (US$22,968) at auction in England and has been dubbed the “most valuable biscuit in the world.”
The plain cracker, sold by Henry Aldridge & Son auctioneers in Devizes in Wiltshire, fetched £5,000 more than was expected. A collector in Greece bought it, the BBC reported.
Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge told The Salisbury Journal, “It is the world’s most valuable biscuit. We don’t know which lifeboat the biscuit came from but there are no other Titanic lifeboat biscuits in existence to my knowledge.”
The Spillers and Bakers “Pilot” biscuit survived the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 in which over 1,500 people died after the “unsinkable” ship hit an iceberg.
According to auctioneers, the sweet was part of a survival kit that was stored within one of the ill-fated ocean liner’s lifeboats.
James Fenwick, a passenger onboard the SS Carpathia, which went to the aid of survivors from the ship kept it as a “souvenir” of the disaster.
He put the snack in a Kodak photographic envelope and wrote a note which stated “Pilot biscuit from Titanic lifeboat April 1912.”
Aldridge added, “It is incredible that this biscuit has survived such a dramatic event — the sinking of the world’s largest ocean liner — costing 1,500 lives.
“In terms of precedence, a few years ago a biscuit from one of Shackleton’s expeditions sold for about £3,000 and there is a biscuit from the Lusitania in a museum in the Republic of Ireland.
“So we have put an estimate of between £8,000 and £10,000 that makes it the most valuable biscuit in the world.”
Another other item that went under the hammer was a “loving cup” which was presented to the captain of the Carpathia, which came to the Titanic’s aid.
It was given to Captain Arthur Rostron by survivor Molly Brown and was paid for by donations from wealthy passengers after the disaster.
It sold for an incredible £129,000 — making it the third most expensive Titanic item ever. (SD-Agencies)
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