A Biscuit From the Titanic Is Going Up For Auction

When the Titanic sank over a century ago, James Fenwick was a passenger aboard the nearby SS Carpathian, which helped save survivors of the wreck. Somehow, Fenwick, who was on a honeymoon to Europe at the time, ended up with a strange memento from the tragedy: a biscuit from one of the survival kits found on the Titanic lifeboats. For over a century, the item sat in a Kodak photographic envelope at his family’s home. But this month, Fenwick’s family plans to put the historic treat up for auction. 

According to auctioneer Andrew Aldridge, the relic is likely to sell for up to $15,000. “It is the world’s most valuable biscuit,” Aldridge told The Guardian. “We don’t know which lifeboat the biscuit came from but there are no other Titanic lifeboat biscuits in existence, to my knowledge. It is incredible that this biscuit has survived such a dramatic event.”

In addition to the wheat and water Spillers and Bakers "Pilot" biscuit, Fenwick’s family is also selling his collection of Titanic rescue photos and his own first-hand account of the rescue, an excerpt of which reads: 

“5am. Awakened by hearing man’s voice Titanic gone down. We are rescuing passengers and are surrounded by icebergs. This is time to be up and doing. Going on deck we found boats at our side, crowded with those rescued, plus other boats coming from all quarters, just beyond and on all sides of us ... were the ’bergs.”

The biscuit certainly isn’t the only item to be auctioned from the Titanic disaster—the Titanic’s last lunch menu and other items were recently put on the market—but it's definitely one of a kind.