BBC Antiques Roadshow expert ‘delighted’ as Titanic survivor’s son shares future plans for £10k letter
Antiques Roadshow star Hilary Kay was left rather pleased when she heard one guest at Portchester wouldn’t be letting go of some valuable items from the Titanic.
Over 100 years on from the nautical disaster, Kay and the rest of the Roadshow team headed to Portchester back in 2022 where they heard the story of Sidney Daniels, a Titanic survivor.
In the instalment, which airs again on the BBC this weekend, Kay was all ears as the daughter and son of the Titanic survivor detailed how he’d managed to keep a hold of letters from his father that he received while on-board the vessel.
The daughter of Daniels had a photo of his father from the Titanic, along with a handful of letters he carried with him on the ship.
Describing her father’s road to survival, the Roadshow guest explained: “He was sound asleep when there was a banging and shouting and it was the night watchmen.
“They were all a bit bleary-eyed because they all thought it was a drill! It wasn’t until he got up on deck where there wasn’t that many people about at first, and then officers came and they turned to him and they said, ‘Go to these cabins!’
“But, of course, it was hard to wake people. They were asleep,” the guest continued. “Some reacted in different ways.”
The co-owner of the letters explained that her father was met by scepticism by some passengers, with many thinking the ship would live up to its “unsinkable” tag.
But Daniels was undeterred, managing to direct people to the lifeboats. “You can imagine the scene of chaos and despair,” Kay chipped back in.
“People realised there weren’t enough lifeboats,” Kay added, prompting the son to reply: “That’s right, but that was his job.
“He had to try and get people into the lifeboats, and the water was rising all the time. When all the lifeboats had gone, the water was up by his knees, he thought it was time to go.”
The guest explained how Daniels then dived off the boat before swimming into the freezing water of the Atlantic to try and get as far away from the sinking vessel as possible.
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Daniels encountered another man in the water “clinging to his lifebelt” whom he convinced to swim away from the ship. The two found an overturned lifeboat in the sea.
“They managed to cling to that. When he was on there, he said, ‘I’m tired, I want to go to sleep,’ and the chap next to him said, ‘Don’t go to sleep, boy. If you do, it will be your last,'” the son said.
Blown away, Kay weighed back in: “The fact he survived means that he was rescued. And, in fact, it is a letter that brings this whole thing together.”
The letter in question was concealed in Daniels’ uniform when the boat sank. The water damage meant the stamp attached had fallen off.
The letter was from his family to him, containing predominantly “tittle tattle”. The owners also had the envelope the letter was sent in.
Kay weighed in: “It’s an extraordinary memento. Anything relating to the Titanic has this extraordinary effect on people.
“It is an emotional moment to hold something that is so linked to such an extraordinary moment in history.
“We’re talking around 10,000 is the realistic auction figure,” Kay shared, prompting the son to reply: “That’s very nice.”
However, the letter wouldn’t be going under the gavel anytime soon. “It’s not going out of the family, it’s going into a museum.”
“I’m delighted,” Kay replied. “And then, more people will be able to share (your story).”