By Tim Binnall
A mirror that once belonged to the captain of the Titanic and is said to be visited by the doomed man's spirit on the anniversary of the ill-fated ship's sinking will soon go up for auction in England. The eerie piece of history was reportedly given to Captain Edward John Smith's housekeeper, Ethelwynne, following his death as both a memento of her former employer and a means of payment for services rendered, since the man's untimely death presumably meant that there was no way for her to get paid.
Attached to the mirror is a rather chilling story revealed by the housekeeper's sister in a letter to a friend. In the missive, she muses that Ethelwynne "always spooked me when she said that at times she could still see Captain Smith’s face in it on the anniversary of when the Titanic was sunk." The possibly enchanted mirror was subsequently passed down to Ethelwynne's heirs in the years that followed until it ultimately wound up in the hands of a man named David Smith.
After keeping the object locked away for five years, Smith is now looking to cash in on his macabre artifact by putting it up for auction. Based on the appeal of the Titanic story, experts expect the mirror to garner significant interest and could net "well in excess of" ten thousand pounds, which translates to roughly $13,000 American dollars. It remains to be seen whether the new owner will attempt to see the captain next April on the anniversary of the Titanic disaster, but we're really hoping that they give it a shot.