A menu from the last lunch served on the Titanic just sold for more than $88,000

If you were a passenger on an ocean liner that was sinking into the frigid waters of the North Atlantic, you might not think to pocket that afternoon's luncheon menu before climbing into a lifeboat – but someone did. A menu from the last lunch served on the Titanic was just sold in an online auction for £58,200 ($88,500), which, in the high-dollar world of Titanic memorabilia, is practically a bargain. In 2012, one of the three other surviving copies of the menu was sold for more than $120,000.

This just-auctioned menu was taken from the ship by Abraham Lincoln Salomon, a first-class passenger who escaped the sinking 'unsinkable' ship on a lifeboat derisively known as "The Millionaires' Boat." The well-heeled passengers who were rescued by that boat reportedly paid the crew to row them to safety instead of stopping to save anyone else. (As the saying goes "Women and children first, unless you're holding a wet bag of cash.") As a result, neither Salomon nor his menu were among the 1,157 fatalities on that freezing April night.

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Just hours before the ship struck that iceberg, Salomon and his fellow first-class passengers were served cockie leekie (a Scottish chicken soup), grilled lamb, roast beef, veal and ham pie, two other kinds of ham and the always appetizing corned ox tongue. According to the Telegraph, meals on the Titanic could last up to five hours, and after looking at that lengthy menu, that's not a surprise. Conor McClelland, an Irish chef who has recreated some of the Titanic's elaborate meals, said:

"Some of the food wouldn’t have suited diners today. For example, they often had a lamb dish immediately followed by a fillet steak, which I thought was a bit too much. They would also have had patés and terrines just before dessert, which I didn’t think people would like today."

No, the meals might not be appealing, but the chance to have a menu from the ill-fated ship is apparently still in high-demand. The price of that menu far exceeded the cost of a first class ticket on the ship; those who traveled first class on the Titanic paid $2,500, which is the equivalent of more than $60,000 today.