A water-stained third-class restaurant ticket from the Titanic was discovered on the body of a passenger 113 years after the disaster. The document, belonging to Ernest Tomlin, is part of an extraordinary archive of previously unseen documents related to Tomlin and his family’s connection to the Titanic tragedy.
According to the Daily Mail, Ernest initially purchased a third-class ticket for the RMS Adriatic, but due to a coal strike, he, along with several other passengers, was transferred to the Titanic for its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York. The change of ships was documented by an immigration health card given to third-class passengers as they boarded the luxurious Titanic. The name "Adriatic" was crossed out, replaced with "Titanic."
Had the Titanic reached its destination, this card would have been shown to U.S. authorities to prove Ernest’s clean health record.
The Titanic collided with an iceberg on April 15, 1912, sinking and claiming the lives of 1,517 passengers and crew members, including Ernest. Letters sent from the White Star Line to Ernest’s grieving mother, Harriet, in England confirm his death and state that his body was identified using his immigration card.
Additionally, a letter dated May 13, 1912, from the Salvation Army in Halifax, Canada, confirmed that Ernest had been buried at sea. Another letter from White Star Line’s passenger department, sent on May 23, mentions that Ernest's belongings were still at the Halifax coroner's office but would be sent to his family in due time.
A handwritten note by Ernest's brother, William, detailing the personal items that were later returned, is also part of this collection.
This archive had remained unknown to Titanic experts and collectors until now, passed down through generations of the Tomlin family over the past century. The documents were kept in a locked safe and had never been seen publicly until recently. Now, they are up for auction at Henry Aldridge & Son Auctioneers in Devizes, Wiltshire, where they are being sold for 150,000 pounds.
Interestingly, the ticket was used to identify Ernest's body and two $1 bills, sewn into his vest and intended for use in the U.S., were also retrieved from his remains.
Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge described the archive as “one of the most complete Titanic archives to surface in the last 30 years.” This remarkable collection has been in the Tomlin family since 1912 and has only occasionally been reviewed over the past 113 years. The items were kept securely in a safe and had never been seen before, now emerging for the first time into the public eye.
