NEW YORK CITY — Artifacts and memorabilia from the doomed White Star Line’s Titanic passenger ship continue to excite bidders from around the world, as they bid fast and furious on the ship’s artifacts and various other historical documents and autographs. These were presented on September 30 by Lion Heart Autographs, a New York City-based dealer of autographs and manuscripts focusing on art, history, literature, music and science. Highlights of the auction included the original menu of the last luncheon served aboard the Titanic, which sold for $88,000. A letter and envelope written by Lifeboat No. 1 survivor Mabel Francatelli (1880-1967) on New York’s Plaza Hotel stationery sold for $7,500, and one of only four known printed tickets from the Titanic’s Turkish Baths sold for $11,000. All three Titanic pieces sold for more than the original estimates and were recovered from survivors of the ship’s infamous Lifeboat No. 1, known the world over as “The Millionaire’s Boat” or “The Money Boat.”

Other highlights of the auction included a CIA traitor Aldrich Ames manuscript, which sold for $4,000, a lot of 170 letters written by Ames from prison to his sister at $9,000 and a Washington Free Frank that fetched $7,500.