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A Cracker From the Titanic Was Just Sold For $23,000

A frantic mix of foresight and hunger led to the preservation of what would become the most valuable biscuit that the world has ever seen.
Photo via Wikimedia Commons

In 1912, as the Titanic sank, rescue ship passenger James Fenwick grabbed a cracker from a survival kit and stored it in a waterproof envelope for safekeeping. That frantic mix of foresight and hunger led to preservation of what would become the most valuable biscuit that the world has ever seen.

Fenwick ended up keeping the pilot biscuit as a souvenir of the nautical disaster and more than a century later, it managed to fetch a staggering $23,000 over the weekend, shattering the previous record of $4,600 for a biscuit from an early 20th-century antarctic expedition. The cracker itself is made of just flour and water, far too plebeian to serve on the lavish Titanic itself, and was intended for the ship's lifeboats.

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READ: The Menu From the Last Lunch on the Titanic Is Up for Grabs

"We don't know which lifeboat the biscuit came from but there are no other Titanic lifeboat biscuits in existence. It is incredible that this biscuit has survived such a dramatic event," auctioneer Andrew Aldridge told Xinhua News Agency. "It is the world's most valuable biscuit. I have been selling Titanic items for more than 20 years and have never seen anything like this biscuit previously."

And anyone who has been selling Titanic items for as long as Mr. Aldridge knows that the bidding can get pretty crazy especially when it comes to food-related items. Just weeks ago, an original copy of the Titanic's first-class menu sold for $88,000 at auction in New York.

It featured antiquated classics like cockie leekie, egg à l'Argenteuil, and galantine chicken, offering a rare glimpse into the opulence of the doomed ship—and the lengths that some were willing to go in order to avoid going down with the ship. The $88,000 menu was smuggled out on a notorious "money boat" paid for by aristocratic Scot Lord Cosmo Duff-Gordon, who bribed seven crewmembers to row away from the sinking Titanic rather than rescue others.

#Titanic has the most expensive cracker in the world - sold at $23 000. Read more here: https://t.co/yTzUFS2WrQ pic.twitter.com/k4T35KlCXF

— TitanicExpo (@TitanicExpo) October 28, 2015

As for the 103-year-old cracker, it was among the 200 or so items that Fenwick had kept over the years, including a journal with an short entry form April 15, 1912. "5am. Awakened by hearing man's voice 'Titanic gone down.' We are rescuing passengers and are surrounded by icebergs."

While Fenwick, who was on his honeymoon at the time, had no intention of eating the biscuit after realizing its historic value, auctioneers couldn't help but speculate about how tempting it must have been for its recent buyer. "Will the buyer take a bite out of the biscuit?" Andrew Aldridge asked. "I doubt it, it would be a most expensive nibble. I doubt we will ever see anything like this again from the Titanic."