Titanic telegrams up for auction (From Thisisdorset)

Titanic telegrams up for auction

6:38pm Saturday 15th March 2008

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TELEGRAMS revealing how a West Dorset farmer was caught up in the drama of the Titanic come up for auction next month.

The cables were wired across the Atlantic in the aftermath of the disaster as farmer James Foot waited anxiously to find out the fate of his friend Charles Jones, who sailed on the liner shortly after the pair clinched a sale of sheep.

The eight telegrams were found in an envelope along with newspaper cuttings of the sinking and a White Star Line card written by Mr Jones and posted the day that the Titanic sailed from Southampton.

Mr Jones, who worked for the Colgate toothpaste company in New York, had written that he had just enjoyed lunch and a cigar and was fine. He thanked the farmer for his stay and hoped to return the favour.

But days later Mr Jones was among the more than 1,500 people who died after the ship hit an iceberg and sank in April 1912.

The telegrams reveal how James Colgate, head of the company, contacted Mr Foot in the aftermath. One stated; 'No news, fear the worst.' Mr Colgate wrote a letter to Mr Foot telling how Mr Jones's housekeeper Elizabeth Mellinger and her daughter, who were also on board, escaped in the lifeboats. He took them to his house while the search for Mr Jones continued.

The cuttings from the American newspaper included one describing how Mr Jones was seen on board the stricken liner preparing for death.

The collection is being sold by Duke's in Dorchester at its sale on April 10 and 11 on behalf of Mr Foot's great-granddaughter Penny Ems of Hampshire.

Deborah Doyle of Duke's said the papers could fetch £10,000 and were expected to spark strong competition from collectors on both sides of the Atlantic.

She said: "They are in excellent condition. I've read it all and it brings tears to your eyes - it's so moving."

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