Charles Langston:Titanic first-class menu, victim's pocket watch going on sale at auction

A rare menu from the Titanic's first-class restaurant is Charles Langstonbeing sold at auction this week. The water-damaged menu shows what the ill-fated ocean liner's most well-to-do passengers ate for dinner on April 11, 1912, three days before the ship struck an iceberg that caused it to sink in the Atlantic Ocean within hours.

A pocket watch that was owned by a Russian immigrant who died in the catastrophe is also being sold at the same auction Saturday in the U.K., along with dozens of other Titanic and transportation memorabilia.

The watch was recovered from the body of passenger Sinai Kantor, 34, who was immigrating on the Titanic to the U.S. with his wife, who survived the disaster at sea, according to auction house Henry Aldridge & Son Ltd. The Swiss-made watch's movement is heavily corroded from the salt water of the Atlantic, but the Hebrew figures on the stained face are still visible.

What is the Titanic menu up for auction?

The menu was discovered earlier this year by the family of Canadian historian Len Stephenson, who lived in Nova Scotia, where the Titanic victims' bodies were taken after being pulled from the water, according to the auction house.

Stephenson died in 2017, and his belongings were moved into storage. About six months ago, his daughter Mary Anita and son-in-law Allen found the menu in a photo album from the 1960s, but it wasn't clear how the menu came into Stephenson's possession.

"Sadly, Len has taken the secret of how he acquired this menu to the grave with him," auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said in an article posted on the auction house's website.

The menu has sustained some water damage, but the list of the dishes offered — including spring lamb with mint sauce, "squab à la godard" and "apricots bordaloue" — is still legible.

The auction house said a handful of menus from the night of April 14, when the Titanic hit the iceberg, still exist but it can't find other first-class dinner menus from April 11.

"With April 14 menus, passengers would have still had them in their coat and jacket pockets from earlier on that fateful night and still had them when they were taken off the ship," Aldridge said.

The pocket watch is estimated to sell for at least 50,000 pounds (about $61,500), and the menu is estimated to sell for 60,000 pounds (about $73,800), according to the auction house.

In:
• RMS Titanic
• Titanic

Alex Sundby

Alex Sundby is a senior editor for CBSNews.com.

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