"It is a fine ship, but I shall await my journey's end before I pass judgment on her."
Archibald Gracie's note to his great uncle, written on this day in 1912, expressed those thoughts about the Oceanic, a ship he sailed on during his trip to Europe.
Unfortunately, Gracie never got to complete his judgment of the ship, because he wrote the letter from the ship he was sailing back on: the Titanic.
The letter, dated April 10, 1912, was postmarked in Queenstown on April 11 and in London on April 12. His uncle received it at London's Waldorf Hotel.
Written on a lettercard reading "On board RMS 'Titanic,'" the note is up for auction by England-based auction house Henry Aldridge, and thus far has been bid up to $73,200, including buyer's premium, with 16 days until closing.
Gracie wrote the note on the first day he boarded the Titanic in Southampton on April 10.
Just days after the note arrived, in the early morning hours of April 15, the Titanic hit an iceberg and sank.
Gracie was part of the 61% of first-class passengers who survived the wreck, thanks to latching on to an overturned collapsible boat. He then was rescued by the R.M.S. Carpathia.
Gracie achieved his fame by writing the book, "The Truth About The Titanic." He died at 54, less than eight months after tragedy, having not gotten past his complications with hypothermia. His last words were reportedly, "We must get them into the boats."
Letters written aboard the Titanic with the boat's letterhead are understandably extremely rare.
A unsent letter written by first-class passenger Alexander Oskar Holverson, found on his body, sold for a record $166,000 in 2017. Letters written in English over other languages have a premium.
Another letter in the same auction, written by a Titanic passenger in Swedish on the same stationery, has a sales estimate of less than three times the value of the Archibald note.
Darren Rovell is the founder of cllct and one of the country's leading reporters on the collectibles market. He previously worked for ESPN, CNBC and The Action Network.