See Rare Letters From a Titanic Passenger, Who Called the Vessel a ‘Fine Ship’ Days Before It Sank

Archibald Gracie’s letter, which recently sold at auction, is part of a new exhibition at the Molly Brown House Museum in Denver

Sarah Kuta | Daily Correspondent

August 8, 2025

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“It is a fine ship, but I shall await my journey’s end before I pass judgment on her.”

Archibald Gracie wrote these foreboding words in a letter to a friend while sailing aboard the Titanic in April 1912. A few days later, the brand new vessel famously collided with an iceberg and sank into the chilly waters of the North Atlantic.

Though 1,500 passengers and crew members died in the accident, Gracie survived—and so did his letter. He had mailed it from Queenstown (now Cobh), Ireland, which was one of the two places the Titanic stopped before heading across the Atlantic. His friend, A.P. Brooks, received the letter at the Waldorf Hotel in London, then kept it for the rest of his life. Eventually, the letter passed into the hands of one of Brooks’ descendants, who sold it in April for roughly $399,000 (£300,000).

The buyer’s identity remains a mystery. But whoever acquired the letter wants to share it with the world.

It’s now on display at the Molly Brown House Museum, an institution in Denver dedicated to preserving the life and legacy of Titanic survivor Margaret Brown, the American philanthropist and activist who later became known as the “Unsinkable Molly Brown.”

After the Titanic disaster, Gracie began writing a book about the harrowing ordeal called The Truth About the Titanic. During that process, he reached out to fellow survivors—including Brown—and asked them to share details about their experiences. Gracie died eight months after the Titanic’s sinking, and his book was published posthumously the following year.

The museum, which is located inside Brown’s former home, has two letters Gracie wrote to Brown just weeks before his death in its permanent collection. It also has a substantial selection of Titanic-related artifacts. So when the letter Gracie wrote while on board the ship became available this spring, the museum’s curators kept a close eye on the auction results.

“We were quite surprised—and delighted—to learn that the Gracie letter had been purchased by a private collector known to the museum, and then to hear that it was their intention to loan the letter to us for its public debut,” Andrea Malcomb, director of the Molly Brown House Museum, tells Smithsonian magazine in an email. “We were … thrilled and honored to have been chosen to be the very first museum to have such a significant artifact on display.”

Gracie’s letter—written on White Star Line stationery and bearing the words “On board RMS Titanic”—is now on display next to his other letters as part of “See Justice Done: The Legacy of the Titanic Survivors’ Committee.” The exhibition tells the story of Brown’s Titanic experience, including her work organizing the Titanic Survivors’ Committee on board the rescue ship, RMS Carpathia. The committee provided support and funds for the Titanic’s remaining crew members, as well as the immigrant survivors who had lost everything, says Malcomb.

On November 13, 1912, Gracie wrote to Brown and asked if she would share which lifeboat she was on the night of the sinking. In the bottom left corner of the typed correspondence, he added a handwritten note that read: “I hope you have fully recovered from your fearful experience.”

Brown wrote back, sending along a copy of a manuscript she had written about the Titanic. Gracie replied on November 20, 1912, thanking Brown for lending him the manuscript, which both he and his wife read with “the greatest interest.”

“We both hope to have the pleasure of meeting you some day,” he wrote. But Gracie didn’t live long enough to make Brown’s acquaintance in person. He died on December 4, 1912, from health complications related to his diabetes and exposure to the freezing Atlantic waters.

The recently auctioned Gracie letter is “extra special,” as there are fewer than ten letters in existence written on Titanic stationery, says Malcomb. But perhaps more importantly, letters like these “give us a glimpse into the thoughts and feelings of those who had been excited and hopeful about their Titanic journey only to then perish,” Malcomb adds. “Or those who had survived this tragic disaster and were trying to reconcile their experience and perhaps even personal trauma with what they were reading in the press and hearing from other fellow survivors.”

In addition to the Gracie letters, the exhibition also includes an Egyptian talisman souvenir that survived the sinking in Brown’s pocket and a mysterious handmade flag that was likely given to Brown as a gift from the Titanic crew.

Guests can also see a letter Brown wrote to her daughter, Helen, in the weeks after the Titanic disaster. Brown was nicknamed the “Heroine of the Titanic” for her work on the committee—a title, she joked in the letter, that was starting to go to her head. Brown also asked her daughter to send hair dye from Paris so she could be ready for publicity photos.

Also on display are three medals the committee presented to the crew of the Carpathia as a thank you for their heroic efforts after the sinking.

“See Justice Done: The Legacy of the Titanic Survivors’ Committee” is on view at the Molly Brown House Museum in Denver through September 22.

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Sarah Kuta is a writer and editor based in Longmont, Colorado. She covers history, science, travel, food and beverage, sustainability, economics and other topics.