Titanic artifacts at Oceanside auction

The fragile, yellowing letter is written on stationery that reads "On board R.M.S. Titanic" and dated April 10, 1912 -- five days before an iceberg sent the ship to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

That letter, written by surviving passenger John Snyder of Minneapolis, is one of more than 100 pieces of Titanic memorabilia to be offered for sale Friday night by Philip Weiss Auctions in Oceanside.

The lot Weiss expects to garner the highest bids is a grouping containing the letter on Titanic stationery and about 100 other items accumulated by Snyder and his wife, Nelle, and their descendants.

Weiss, who has auctioned other Titanic artifacts and often appears on "Antiques Roadshow," said the Snyder collection should sell for $50,000 to $75,000. Advance online bids had reached $35,000 by Thursday.

"Over the years, the family continually added other Titanic paraphernalia to their archives," Weiss said. A Snyder descendant brought him the collection thinking that next year's centennial of the sinking would increase interest.

The family's collection includes several letters, photographs, and newspaper and magazine articles. One photograph taken April 18 after the ocean liner Carpathia had carried rescued survivors to New York shows the Snyders wearing the same clothes they had on the night the Titanic sank.

The Snyders, returning from their honeymoon in England, traveled first class, giving them the best access to the lifeboats that could accommodate slightly more than half of the 2,223 passengers and crew. They were among 706 survivors.

Before the Titanic left London, Snyder, then 24, used the ship's stationery bearing the red White Star Line flag to write to the owner of a London tobacco shop, thanking him for supplying the cigars he was enjoying onboard.

"Any letters on Titanic stationery are going to garner a lot of interest and value," Weiss said. "You'll see them on occasion, but they're not easy to find."

Even more important in historical terms is a letter Snyder wrote to his father after returning to Minneapolis, Weiss said.

"It's a really great, four-page, handwritten, firsthand account of exactly what happens" when the Titanic hit an iceberg, he said. "When you read his letter, he says his wife woke him and he was reluctant to even go outside."

Snyder wrote that "We were both asleep when the boat hit. . . . When we reached the top deck, only a few people were about and we all were told to go down & put on our life belts. . . . We were almost the very first people placed in the Lifeboat. Only a very few people were on deck at the time and they thought it much safer to stay on the big boat than to try the life boat."

He continued that he could tell the ship was going down because he could see fewer lines of lighted portholes as time went on. "Finally, the bow went under," he wrote, and "the finest boat in the world was doomed."

In television interviews conducted before her death in 1983, Nelle Synder related how the women bailed ice-cold water from the half-filled lifeboat while the men rowed.

George Lowry, chairman of Swann Auction Galleries in Manhattan, which also has sold Titanic items, said that since the 1940s "anything that vaguely touches on the Titanic generates a lot of interest and sells for a lot of money. It's a major tragedy."

Collections have sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars, he said, adding that the coming centennial "ain't going to hurt."

Facts on the auction and the Titanic

THE SHIP

The Royal Mail Steamer Titanic, the largest passenger steamship in the world, was built for the White Star Line. It struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City and sank April 15, 1912. The death toll was 1,517 of the 2,223 passengers and crew. The ship only had enough lifeboats for slightly more than half of those aboard; many left half empty.

THE AUCTION

Philip Weiss Auctions in Oceanside Friday night will sell seven lots of Titanic memorabilia.

Among the items to be sold are:

Letters, photographs and other items accumulated by the family of John and Nelle Pillsbury Snyder of Minneapolis who survived the sinking. Their collection includes a letter by Snyder on Titanic stationery and photographs taken by a passenger on the rescue ship Carpathia. Estimated sale price for this lot: $50,000 to $75,000.

A 1906 half-dollar coin recovered from the body of Titanic victim John Gill. Estimated sale price: $1,000 to $2,000.

A portrait of the Titanic's captain in his wife's locket. Estimated sale price: $1,500 to $2,500.

A small piece of the ship's carpet taken by steward F. Dent Ray during the ship's construction in Belfast. Estimated sale price: $2,000 to $3,000.

For more detail about the auction items, go to weissauctions.com

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