Rare Titanic survivor Edwina Troutt signed 1976 handwritten Letter, with original mailing envelope. Edwina ...

Rare Titanic survivor Edwina Troutt signed 1976 handwritten Letter, with original mailing envelope. Edwina therefore purchased a second-class ticket aboard Oceanic, but was transferred to Titanic (ticket number 342818, which cost £10, 10s) due to the ongoing coal strike. Whilst aboard Titanic Edwina shared a cabin with two other women: an older Irishwoman named Nora A. Keane, a Pennsylvania resident but native of County Limerick, and Susan Webber, an unmarried Cornishwoman en route to relatives in Connecticut. Their shared cabin3, Edwina recalled, had two bunks and a couch, the latter of which transformed into a bed which she took at night. A small corridor led to their porthole. Nora Keane, a nervous and superstitious woman, claimed to have dropped her rosary and prayerbook while boarding, and as a result firmly believed that the Titanic would not reach New York. Susan Webber spent much of her time at the gate separating second from third class, conversing with a friend from home, whom Edwina wrongly assumed was Miss Webber's brother. During the voyage Edwina sat at the same table in the dining saloon as Danish engineer Jacob Milling, and the young Argentine student, Edgar Andrew, among others. A genial young woman, she made numerous other acquaintances. At the time of the collision Edwina had been in her bunk. Feeling the collision she went on deck, where she learned about the collision and witnessed crewmen begin to ready the lifeboats. She went below, where she knocked on the doors of those she knew, helped others put on their lifebelts, and encountered Jacob Milling and Edgar Andrew to whom she confided that she feared it was to be a sad parting and a watery grave for them all. Eventually she returned to her cabin where she assisted Miss Keane in getting dressed. The older woman wanted to take the time to put on her corset, but Edwina grabbed it from her, threw it down the corridor leading to their porthole, and cried, "There's no time for that, Miss Keane!" The two ladies went up to the boat deck, and while Miss Keane left in a lifeboat, Edwina, resigned to her death, simply watched boat after boat being loaded and lowered. Eventually a man approached with a baby, saying that its mother and her other children had already left the ship, and asked if someone would take the child into a lifeboat. Realizing it was the only hope the child had to survive, Edwina accepted the baby, and finally left the sinking Titanic. In recent years there has been disagreement among researchers as to exactly which lifeboat carried Edwina to safety, some proposing collapsible D, others a boat that left from the stern of the ship. After the disaster Edwina eventually took a position as a waitress at a café at Norumbega Park in Boston. In 1916 Edwina relocated to California for that state's fairer climate. During the first World War she picked apricots for use in the manufacture of gas masks. She was married on 1 October 1919 to Alfred Thorwald Petersen4 (born 12 March 1871), a former baker to the Danish royal family. Alfred had come to the United States in 1900 from Copenhagen. Good condition. All autographs are genuine hand signed and come with a Certificate of Authenticity. We combine postage on multiple winning lots and can ship worldwide. UK postage from £5.99, EU from £7.99, Rest of World from £10.