'Titanic is a fine ship': letter of doomed liner's bandmaster sold for £93,000

A letter written by the bandmaster of the Titanic who carried on playing as the doomed ship sank has sold at auction for £93,000.

Wallace Hartley, 33, has became a key figure in popular images of the disaster as – together with his seven other band members – he carried on playing until the very last moments.

The violinist, who travelled as a second-class passenger on Titanic, wrote a letter to his parents as the ship set off from Southampton on Wednesday 10 April 1912.

Experts estimated that the letter would fetch about £50,000 but a bidding frenzy saw the hammer go down at £93,000 at Henry Aldridge & Son in Devizes, Wiltshire, on Saturday.

Hartley, from Colne in Lancashire, wrote: "Just a line to say we have got away all right. It's been a bit of a rush but I am just getting a little settled.

"This is a fine ship & there ought to be plenty of money on her. I've missed coming home very much & it would have been nice to have seen you all if only for an hour or two, but I couldn't manage it.

"We have a fine band & the boys seem very nice. I have had to buy some linen & I sent my washing home today by post. I shall probably arrive home on the Sunday morning.

"We are due here on the Saturday. I'm glad mother's foot is better."

The band, and Hartley in particular, have been depicted as the ship's heroes in virtually every genre, including postcards, song sheets, books, stage and films, for carrying on playing while the Titanic went down.

Titanic left Southampton on the start of a journey that ended in tragedy in the cold North Atlantic four days later, with the loss of more than 1,500 lives.

Incredibly, Hartley's letter to his parents is mentioned in a newspaper interview with his mother Elizabeth in the Dewsbury News on 27 April 1912.

It is written on adjoining sheets of on-board Titanic stationery with a company watermark and is hand-dated by Hartley. The note also bears the red embossed White Star Line house burgee, or flag.

The auctioneer, Andrew Aldridge, said: "We are unaware of any other surviving letter written by Hartley on board the ship.

"Clearly, this letter, which mentions the band and alludes to the wealth on-board the ship – implying that some of it would make its way to the band in the form of gratuities – elevates this letter to perhaps the most desirable and important on-board Titanic letter extant."

Hartley did not survive the sinking ship and his body was later recovered and returned to his home town of Colne, where he received a large funeral.