Titanic's final lunch menu fetches an astounding $88,000 at auction

The Titanic first-class lunch menu that fetched $88,000 at auction.

(Image credit: Twitter.com/ABC7Chicago)

published 6 October 2015

When Abraham Lincoln Salomon tucked the first-class lunch menu into his jacket pocket on April 14, 1912, he had no idea that 103 years later, the yellowed piece of paper would sell at auction for $88,000.

Salomon was a first-class passenger aboard the Titanic, who survived the shipwreck by securing a spot on Lifeboat No. 1, dubbed the "Money Boat" because it sailed off with only 12 people aboard instead of the 40 it could fit (rumors later circulated that the wealthy passengers bribed crew members to row away from the ship instead of letting more people climb aboard). The menu was expected to bring in $50,000 when it went up for auction Sept. 30, but an anonymous buyer — who may be a relative of a Titanic survivor — shelled out $88,000 for the keepsake, Live Science reports.

During their last lunch aboard the ill-fated ship, first-class passengers enjoyed such dishes as corned ox tongue, fillets of brill, grilled mutton chops, and cockie leekie. Salomon also escaped with his ticket from the ship's Turkish baths, which recorded how much he weighed and was inscribed with the names of three of his fellow lifeboat passengers: Miss Laura Mabel Francatelli, Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon, and Lady Lucy Duff-Gordon. That tiny piece of history sold at auction for $11,000.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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