The biscuit (or cracker, by today’s American terms) was part of a survival kit on one of the Titanic’s lifeboats used by (some) passengers after the famed ship struck an iceberg and sank in the Atlantic on April 15, 1912.
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The world’s oldest cracker, which manged to outlive the Titanic has just sold for $23,000, according to Mashable.
To the best of the auction house’s knowledge, it is the only biscuit to have survived the Titanic’s sinking, a listing said.
Meet the most valuable biscuit in the world.
The biscuit shows signs of wear and tear but remains in one piece after being stored in an envelope as a souvenir by James Fenwick.
More than 700 people were rescued by the Carpathia, but a further 1,500 passengers and crew from the Titanic perished.
Labelled “the most valuable biscuit” by the auction house, the item fetched $11,000 more than the auctioneers expected.
Fast forward more than a century later and the cracker, also known as a biscuit, was purchased by a Greek collector.
“You might say it’s the cracker that took the biscuit”, Alan Aldridge told The Washington Post, referencing a Britishism that uses “take the biscuit” to mean arriving at a pinnacle – similar to Americans’ “take the cake”.
“We don’t know which lifeboat the biscuit came from but there are no other Titanic lifeboat biscuits in existence”.
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Henry Aldridge & Son auctioneers were in charge of the bidding, and chose its starting price based on the item’s rarity and unique origin.
