A SMALL key for a locker on the Titanic is expected to be sold for up to £35,000 at auction.
The key was used by Sidney Sedunary, 23, from Shirley, Southampton, second third class steward on the doomed vessel.
Mr Sedunary was one of 1,500 passengers and crew who died when the passenger liner hit an iceberg in April 1912.
His body was later recovered and his possessions, including his pocket watch and keys to his cabin - number 45 on E deck - were sent to his pregnant wife, Madge.
Some items were donated to the Southampton Maritime Museum by Mr Sedunary's son Sidney but many remained in the family.
One such item was Mr Sedunary's corroded iron locker key, with a brass tag stating Locker 27 E Deck, which was recovered from his body.
It will now be sold by Titanic memorabilia specialists Henry Aldridge & Son, in Devizes, Wiltshire, on Saturday.
Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said the "extremely rare" key should fetch between £30,000 and £35,000 in the auction.
"This very corroded iron key with brass tag Locker 27 E Deck was recovered from his body and remained in the family.
"It was acquired by the present vendor, a leading Titanic historian and author directly from Sidney's son alongside several other items and has remained in his collection since.
"They have gone on display in various Titanic conventions and events over the years."
Also being sold on Saturday is a deck plan and the only surviving menu from the Titanic's first-class restaurant, expected to fetch up to £100,000.
A letter written by the Titanic's chief engineer, Joseph Bell, describing a near-miss the ship had as it left Southampton, is estimated to be sold for between £10,000 and £15,000.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article