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 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 April 10, 1912.
Poignant letter: Wallace Hartley, the violinist onboard the Titanic, travelled as a second-class passenger
A letter home from Wallace Hartley, the bandmaster on the ship, penned on April 10, 1912, four days before the luxury liner sank to the bottom of the Atlantic after hitting an iceberg
Experts estimated that the letter would fetch around £50,000 but a bidding frenzy saw the hammer go down at £93,000 at Henry Aldridge and 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.
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'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.
Wallace Hartley pictured with his violin, which was found after the disaster and returned to his grieving fiancee
'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.
Within minutes of the Titanic striking an iceberg on April 14, 1912, the 24-year-old was instructed to assemble the band and play music in order to maintain calm. The eight musicians gallantly performed on the deck while passengers lined up for the lifeboats.
The band carried on until the bitter end, famously playing the hymn Nearer, My God, To Thee.
Titanic left Southampton on April 10 1912 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 April 27 1912.
It is written on adjoining sheets of on-board Titanic stationary with company watermark and is hand-dated by Hartley on April 10 1912.
The note also bears the red embossed White Star Line house burgee.
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.'
The Titanic leaving Southampton on her ill-fated maiden voyage on April 10, 1912
The instrument used by Wallace Hartley was thought by some to have been lost in the Atlantic but was unearthed in 2006
Heartbreak: Maria Robinson, Hartley's grieving fiancée kept the violin in a shrine to him at her home
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.
In 2006 his violin was discovered in an attic by the son of an amateur musician in an attic, complete with a silver plate showing its incredible history.
The instrument used by Wallace Hartley was thought by some to have been lost in the Atlantic in the 1912 disaster. After seven years of testing, costing tens of thousands of pounds, the water-stained violin was proven to be the one he played earlier this year.
The musician’s fiancee Maria Robinson had given the violin to her sweetheart in 1910 to mark their engagement and had it engraved: ‘For Wallace on the occasion of our engagement from Maria.’
She had requested its return because of the emotional connection with him and kept it in a shrine to her late fiance. She died from stomach cancer in 1939 aged 59 at her home in Bridlington, East Yorkshire.
Last words: A letter to Hartley from his mother was also found on his body when he was pulled from the sea