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As the days slowly tick by, passengers go about their business, and while some lounge in their cabins, others take advantage of the distractions on board.
Only mealtimes disturb the peace and quiet of this little world. The table services break down as follows: |
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April 11 (1st cl.)
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April 11 (1st cl.)
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April 11 (2nd cl.)
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April 12 (2nd cl.)
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April 12 (3rd cl.)
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April 14 (1st cl.)
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April 14 (1st cl.)
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April 14 (2nd cl.)
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April 14 (3rd cl.)
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April 14 1st cl. (recto) April 14 1st cl. (verso) 
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An authentic menu On a yellowed piece of paper dated April 14, 1912, is the menu for the last lunch enjoyed by first-class passengers aboard the Titanic before she sank. This last gourmet meal was reserved for passengers in the liner's most luxurious class. It belonged to first-class passenger Abraham Lincoln Salomon (1868 - 1959), a wholesale stationer with offices in New York and Manhattan, residing in Manhattan's Central Park West. Surviving the shipwreck, he kept the menu with him as he made his way to lifeboat no. 1. The document is signed on the reverse by another first-class passenger, Isaac Gerald Frauenthal (1868 - 1932), a New York lawyer and probable lunch companion of Salomon, who also survived the disaster by jumping from the deck of the Titanic into lifeboat no. 5. Put up for auction on September 30, the 103-year-old paper was expected to fetch €50,000. But this was without counting the €88,000 paid by an anonymous buyer. Although his identity is being withheld, he may well be a descendant of one of the 700 or so people who survived the sinking of the Titanic, according to the auction houses that orchestrated the sale. Only three other menus from Titanic's last luncheon are known to exist. One was donated to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich by Walter Lord, author of “A Night to Remember”, and the other was sold for £76,000 (around €120,000) in 2012. A second document also belonging to Salomon was sold for $11,000 (€10,000). It is one of four tickets for the Titanic's Turkish bath weighing chair. A meal as sumptuous as the ship's décor. Like the decor, the food served on the Titanic was equally sumptuous. Every evening, a bugler called passengers to dinner, to the tune of “The Roast Beef of Old England”, a White Star tradition for first-class passengers, whose menu included up to 13 courses. The importance attached to meals on the Titanic was reflected in the salary of its head chef, Charles Proctor, the highest-paid crew member after the ship's captain. The menu for what would be the last lunch on board the ship included: farmer's consommé, cock-a-leekie (traditional Scottish soup with leeks and potatoes in chicken broth), brill fillets, Argenteuil egg, Maryland chicken, corned beef, vegetables, dumplings, grilled mutton chops, mashed potatoes, French fries, jacket potatoes, custard pudding, apple meringue, pastries. Because of the table seating assigned throughout the journey, it's possible that passengers dined with the same companions during the trip. It is therefore likely that Frauenthal wrote his name on the back of the menu and gave it to Salomon, so that they could keep in touch after their return to New York. Source : Bateaux.com |
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A rare second-class breakfast menu from the Titanic is to be auctioned for $135,000 (€97,500), reports New York Daily News. On April 11, 1912, during a stopover (the last, in fact) in Cobh, Ireland, Jacob Gibbon, a crew member working in the saloons, had sent a breakfast menu to his girlfriend, Miss L. Payne, living in Studland, England. He wrote that he had had “a good voyage so far”. Three days later, the liner sank ( Jacob Gibbon survived). On the back of his personal note, the offer of breakfast:
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This rather gargantuan breakfast menu will be auctioned off on April 26, along with other Titanic memorabilia. At an exorbitant price, because "second-class menus are extremely rare, only a handful have been found, and only two for the date of April 11", said the auctioneer. Some twenty Titanic menus still exist, but most are first-class menus, dating from the day of the sinking, April 14. "This is because a higher percentage of first-class passengers survived. Many of the menus thus remained in the pockets of the survivors on the lifeboats", explains New York Daily News. A menu from the last first-class dinner was bought by a collector in 2012 for the princely sum of 91,000 euros. It featured Argenteuil eggs, farmhouse consommé, chicken galantine and grilled mutton chops. According to Le Figaro, auctioneer Andrew Aldridge - the same auctioneer responsible for the breakfast menu - explained that the paper provided "a fascinating insight into the culinary life of Titanic's elite passengers". On the occasion of the centenary of the sinking, a New York chef even proposed a menu that was supposed to be an exact reproduction of the Titanic's agape. The menu featured oysters, scallops, roast duck with apple sauce, lamb with mint and pistachio sauce... and much more. Source : slate.fr |
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