A water-stained ticket stub for the third class restaurant on the Titanic that was found on the body of a passenger who was only on the doomed ship because of a twist of fate has been discovered 113 years later.
The item belonged to Ernest Tomlin and is part of a remarkable unseen archive of documents relating to him and the Titanic disaster his family have kept hold of.
Ernest had originally purchased a third class ticket for the RMS Adriatic, but was moved to the Titanic - which was bound for New York on its maiden voyage from Southampton - along with some other passengers because of a coal strike.
The change of ship is evidenced by Ernest's immigration health card, which lowlythird class passengers were given as they boarded the luxury liner.
It shows the name of the Adriatic crossed out and replaced with the Titanic.
Had the vessel reached its destination, the card would have been shown to US authorities to prove Ernest had a clean bill of health.
But it was instead used to identify his body.
Also recovered from his body were two one dollar bills he had sewn into the inside of his waistcoat that he intended to use in the US.
A water-stained ticket stub for the third class restaurant on the Titanic that was found on the body of a passenger has been discovered 113 years later
The item belonged to Ernest Tomlin and is part of a remarkable unseen archive of documents relating to him and the Titanic disaster his family have kept hold of
There are also letters sent from the White Star Line to Ernest's grief-stricken mother Harriet back home in England.
One confirms to her the death of her son and says that his body had been identified using the immigration card.
He was among 1,517 passengers and crew who died when the Titanic sank on April 15, 1912 after hitting an iceberg.
There is a letter dated May 13, 1912, from the Salvation Army in Halifax, Canada, confirming to his family that Ernest had been buried at sea.
Another letter was sent from the White Star Line passenger department on May 23 that states that Ernest's effects were still with the Halifax coroner but they would be forwarded on in due course.
And there is a handwritten note made by Ernest's brother, William, detailing the items that were later returned.
The archive was previously unknown to Titanic experts and collectors, having been passed down through descendants of the Tomlin family over the last century.
It is now being sold at Henry Aldridge & Son Auctioneers of Devizes, Wilts, for £150,000.
Ernest Tomlin's immigration health card, which third class passengers were given as they boarded the luxury liner. It shows a line through Tomlin's original form of transport, the SS Adriatic
A letter sent by the passenger manager of the White Star Line to Ernest Tomlin's family, telling them that he had drowned
One of the 14 US dollars that Ernest Tomlin was carrying when he drowned in the disaster
Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said: 'It is one of the most complete Titanic archives to have come to market in the past 30 years.
'It has been within the Tomlin family since 1912, having only been looked at sporadically over the past 113 years.
'The items have been kept in a locked safety box and have never been seen before. They are fresh to the market and previously unknown to Titanic collectors.
'The table ticket is remarkable and is a very rare object.
'There are obvious signs of it being immersed in water having been in Ernest's possession when that ship went down.
'Third class passengers had to show these tickets whenever they went to eat during the crossing, so it was very important.
'The immigration inspection card is printed 'SS Titanic' with his ticket number '364424' and his full name.
A letter sent from the executor of Ernest Tomlin's will
Water-stained letters that were found on the body of Ernest Tomlin
'It also bears significant signs of water damage.'
The national coal strike that hit Britain in 1912 began at the end of February and lasted until early April.
A lack of coal was a severe problem for liners such as the Titanic, which needed hundreds of tonnes of it to power the engines.
The Titanic's maiden voyage was set for April 10.
Because it was the biggest and most luxurious ship in the world, its owners the White Star Line did not want to delay its departure.
So they took coal from other ships, including the liner the Adriatic.
It meant the Adriatic's voyage to New York was cancelled and its passengers were transferred to other Whit Star liners.
Mr Aldridge added: 'All of a sudden he was going to America not on the Adriatic, which was just another ship, but on Titanic, the most luxurious ship in the world.
'I bet he couldn't have believed his luck.'
Ernest was aged 21 at the time of the disaster.
He was born to parents, Edwin and Harriet who lived in Notting Hill, London, and had six siblings.
In 1907 he moved to Des Moines, Iowa, US, where he enrolled at The Bible College of Drake University in the city.
He later returned to England but by early 1912 he had decided to go back to Drake University and complete his degree.
His body was recovered by the recovery ship the Mackay Bennett.
The sale takes place on April 26.
At just before midnight on April 14, 1912, the RMS Titanic hit an iceberg while travelling on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York. Within three hours, the 'unsinkable' ship had slipped beneath the waves of the freezing Atlantic Ocean, killing more than 1,500 people
DISASTER IN THE ATLANTIC: HOW MORE THAN 1,500 LOST THEIR LIVES WHEN THE TITANIC SUNK
The RMS Titanic sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on April 15, 1912, after colliding with an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York.
More than 1,500 people died when the ship, which was carrying 2,224 passengers and crew, sank under the command of Captain Edward Smith.
Some of the wealthiest people in the world were on board, including property tycoon John Jacob Astor IV, great grandson of John Jacob Astor, founder of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.
Constructed by Belfast-based shipbuilders Harland and Wolff between 1909 and 1912, the RMS Titanic was the largest ship afloat of her time
Millionaire Benjamin Guggenheim, heir to his family's mining business, also perished, along with Isidor Straus, the German-born co-owner of Macy's department store.
The ship was the largest afloat at the time and was designed in such a way that it was meant to be 'unsinkable'.
It had an on-board gym, libraries, swimming pool and several restaurants and luxury first class cabins.
There were not enough lifeboats on board for all the passengers due to out-of-date maritime safety regulations.
After leaving Southampton on April 10, 1912, Titanic called at Cherbourg in France and Queenstown in Ireland before heading to New York.
On April 14, 1912, four days into the crossing, she hit an iceberg at 11:40pm local time.
James Moody was on night watch when the collision happened and took the call from the watchman, asking him: 'What do you see?' The man responded: 'Iceberg, dead ahead.'
By 2.20am, with hundreds of people still on board, the ship plunged beneath the waves, taking many, including Moody, with it.
Despite repeated distress calls being sent out and flares launched from the decks, the first rescue ship, the RMS Carpathia, arrived nearly two hours later, pulling more than 700 people from the water.
It was not until 1985 that the wreck of the ship was discovered in two pieces on the ocean floor.
