1912 linen map of Titanic sells for nearly a quarter-million bucks

A 1912 linen map of the Titanic used for an inquiry into the famed ocean liner’s sinking has sold at auction for $243,000.

The 33-foot long map, prepared by the White Star Line’s Naval Architects Department, still has the red and green chalk marks that showed where the fateful iceberg broke through five of the massive ship’s water-tight bulkheads, according to CNN.

The auction house that sold the artifact, Henry Aldridge and Son Ltd, told the network in a statement that the map was “quite simply one of the most important and well documented pieces of Titanic memorabilia in existence today.”

The item’s hefty selling price reflects not only the rarity of the material but also the “enduring appeal of the Titanic story,” said Andrew Aldridge, managing director of the auction house.

“She sank 111 years ago, but the memory of those passengers and crew lives on through the memorabilia,” he said.

The Titanic, the largest ocean liner of its era, struck an iceberg April 14, 1912, killing more than 1,500 people and stranding hundreds of others in the frigid waters of the North Atlantic.

The map was used during an investigation later that year into what doomed the liner, which a White Star Line vice president once called “unsinkable,” according to the BBC. Holes from where cables once tied the map to the ceiling for display are still visible in the fabric, CNN said.

Transcripts of the inquiry often referenced the plan, the network said.

When investigators finished their work — which included testimony from 100 witnesses, among other things — they concluded that the ship struck the iceberg because it was moving too fast to dodge it in time.

Other bits of Titanic memorabilia were sold at the auction as well, including an accommodation plan detailing its living space, which fetched $75,000, and a collection about the rescue ship the Carpathia that went for $106,000.