A postcard where a passenger on the doomed Titanic tells his wife 'this is the last thing you will hear from me' is to go under the hammer.
The message was written by second class passenger Jacob Milling from his hotel room in Southampton and was sent the day before he boarded the ill-fated liner.
Mr Milling, an engineer who was travelling to America to study railway machinery for two months, described to wife Augusta how he could see the world's biggest passenger ship from his window.
He wrote: "Dear Augusta! This is the last thing you will hear from me from this side of the Atlantic.
"I am staying at Banen's Hotel, it's not cheap but comfortable. From my window, I can see the ship in the dock."
Four days later he sent Augusta a wireless telegram from on board the ship.
He ominously told her: "All is well, calm weather, the ship is fine...a wonderful trip."
Just hours after sending the message, the liner struck an iceberg and sank with the loss of over 1,520 passengers and crew, including Jacob.
The 48-year-old's body was later recovered from the sea and returned to his native Denmark where he was buried.
The postcard he sent from Southampton on April 9, 1912, has now been consigned for auction by a private collector.
Andrew Aldridge, of Henry Aldridge and Son Auctioneers of Devizes, Wiltshire, said: "This is an exceptional handwritten postcard postmarked 11pm 9th April 1912 and sent by second class passenger Jacob Christian Milling.
"He was employed at Sydfyenske Jernbaner (Southern Fyn Railways) and highly respected for his knowledge and his ability to construct locomotive parts.
"In 1912, he was granted leave for a two-month paid study tour in the United States.
"He wrote the postcard to his wife, Augusta, and it was sent just prior to Milling's departure.
"It contains an eye-witness description of the Titanic sat in port waiting to depart.
"The message has an air of excitement about it as one can imagine Mr Milling sat in his hotel room looking out at the ship waiting to board it.
"Of course his first line of 'this is the last thing you will hear from me...' was never intended to be just that but very sadly turned out to be true.
"It most probably was the last thing he wrote to her.
"A few days later he sent Augusta a wireless telegram saying everything was fine.
"The telegram reached Augusta at the couple's home in Odense only a few hours after Milling had perished in the tragedy."
The postcard, which has a black and white photo of Titanic on the front, is being sold at auction for £7,000.
It will be sold by the auctioneers on November 19.
