'Titanic iceberg' photograph set for auction today

A photograph said to show the iceberg that sank Titanic is expected to fetch over £10,000 when it is sold at auction later today.

The photograph was taken by the chief steward of steamer the Prinz Adalbert, one of the ships said to have sighted the iceberg, the day after the the "unsinkable ship" sunk.

At the time the photographer was not aware of the tragedy that had unfolded a night previous.

More than 1,500 passengers and crew were killed when the luxury liner sank on 14 April 1912 as it journeyed across the Atlantic to New York.

A previously unseen statement by the chief steward of the Prinz Adalbert reads: "The Titanic disaster was not yet known by us.

"On one side red paint was plainly visible, which has the appearance of having been made by the scraping of a vessel on the iceberg."

The photograph is expected to fetch between £10,000 and £15,000 at Henry Aldridge & Son in Wiltshire.

Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said: "The photograph was acquired not long after the Titanic's sinking by Burlingham, Montgomery & Beecher, attorneys for Titanic's owners, White Star Line.

"This photograph, regarded by generations of Burlingham maritime lawyers as "The Titanic Iceberg" hung on the firm's walls from 1913 until it closed its doors in 2002."

Mr Aldridge said expressions of interest for the photo had come from all over the world.