Biscuit that survived the Titanic at sell

[Night Hunter]

A cracker that survived the Titanic and lives on, unmunched, today has been sold for $23,000 (£15,034).

The biscuit was saved by James Fenwick, a passenger on the Carpathia vessel that saved Titanic passengers at sea, and was kept intact in a Kodak film envelope by Fenwick along with the following notation: “Pilot biscuit from Titanic lifeboat April 1912.”

The 103-year-old biscuit was used as part of a survival kit on one of the Titanic lifeboats.

 

It has not rotted or decayed because it is similar to a hot cross bun, in that when the biscuit gets old, it dries out and fossilises.

These types of biscuit do not tend to grow mould if they are kept dry.

It was sold at the weekend Henry Aldridge & Son auction house.

Alan Aldridge, who sold the biscuit, told The Washington Post: “You might say it’s the cracker that took the biscuit,” and noted that while it is a “very much a human biscuit,” Spillers and Bakers were known as dog biscuit manufacturers.

The biscuits and other edible goods they made were austere and inexpensive and generally used as emergency rations or sustenance during times of war.

Aldridge said: “I couldn’t imagine anything less appetizing, but if you’re in a rowing boat in the middle of the ocean, you’d certainly eat it with the rest of them.”

Other artefacts from the Titanic include the last luncheon menu, which fetched £58,200 at auction.

The menu, which was saved by a first-class passenger, was sold on September 30 to a private collector, Auctioneers Lion Heart Autographs said.

 

Source http://www.telegraph.co.uk/