A rare holiday brochure for the Titanic has resurfaced just weeks before the 110th anniversary of the tragedy. The century-old flyer, which dubbed the infamous liner as "the epitome of security", was published a year before the Belfast-built 52,000 tonne linker sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on her maiden voyage, resulting in the loss of 1,522 lives.
The 72-page mainly illustrated brochure is expected to sell for £6,000 at auction later this month and is being sold by a private collector who uncovered it in Northern Ireland several years ago. It was printed by Liverpool Printing and Stationery Co Ltd and published in May 1911, likely to coincide with Titanic's launch by Belfast's iconic shipbuilders Harland & Wolff - which also launched sister ship Olympic 18 months before.
The immaculate bright red brochures claimed the two vessels were the "most important maritime development of the time" and "without a peer in the ocean". They boasted that the ship reached levels of "prestige and beauty" never seen before, adding that both Titanic and Olympic were the perfect example of comfort, elegance and security.
