Coal from the Titanic has been sold at auction for £1,500.
The fuel was recovered from the wreck of the RMS Titanic in 1994 and came with a certificate of authenticity from the Titanic Research and Recovery Expedition of that year.
It was sold in the Charlestown Shipwreck Museum sale at Lay’s Auctioneers in Cornwall.
The sale catalogue was dramatically rewritten last week when the Maritime Archaeology Sea Trust came in to buy up many of the lots in a planned sale of the contents of the museum near St Austell.
That removed 500 lots from the sale, but left hundreds more for maritime collectors.
The Titanic coal was listed with a £400 to £600 estimate.
The most valuable item sold was a cross-section model taking the viewer inside a 100-gun ship from the 17th century.
This model has extraordinary detail and tempted one buyer to pay nearly £6,000. Image courtesy of David Lay’s Auctioneers.
It realised £5,800.
The two-day sale was a clearance of the museum owned by Eden Project supremo Tim Smit.
The museum is closing
David Lay said: “We had the highest number of bids left in advance for any sale we’ve ever held, over 2,000 bids, an incredible number, and bidders from all over the world bidding live online and over the phone during the auction, it was very exciting!”
The Titanic continues to fascinate collectors.
Adding the name of the ship, that went down after striking an iceberg on its maiden voyage in 1912, to a lot brings buyers from around the world.
In 2013, a violin owned by the ship’s bandmaster realised £900,000 at auction. Around 5,000 items have been recovered from the wreck, while many more may remain under the sea, including millions of pounds worth of jewellery stored by the ship’s wealthy passengers in safes.
Around 1,500 people died in the disaster on April 15, 1912.
