A SELDOM-SEEN photograph of the ill-fated luxury liner Titanic leaving Southampton is about to cross the Atlantic.

The image has been snapped up by an American buyer at an auction in Devizes, Wiltshire for £9,000.

The poignant image captures the atmosphere as the liner, described as the unsinkable ship, left the city on her maiden voyage.

It has come under the hammer 94 years after the Titanic sank in the cold waters of the north Atlantic on April 15, 1912. More than 1,500 people died on that freezing April night, including about 500 crew from Southampton.

The photograph was among memorabilia of one of the world's worst shipping disasters which were sold at auction by Devizes-based Titanic specialists Henry Aldridge and Sons.

A unique telegram sent by the owners of the Titanic within hours of the disaster, stating all was safe and well fetched £10,000.

The infamous message was sent to a US Senator whose daughter and son-in-law were on board the liner after they were forced to cut short their honeymoon.

Bought by a European buyer, the telegram was put out at 8.27pm - 18 hours after the ship hit an iceberg and sunk on her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York.

The telegram became a historic document because it was featured at the official inquiry into the disaster.

At the auction, another European buyer paid £18,000 for an eight-page letter written by first class passenger Edward Colley. Written on April 10,1912 it gives a unique tongue-in-cheek snapshot of life on board the class-ridden vessel.

In it he wrote: "They also have a restaurant where you can pay for meals if you get tired of ordinary grub."

As reported in last night's Daily Echo a mystery British buyer paid £43,500 after winning the global bidding war for one of the few lifejackets recovered from the Titanic.

The weekend auction for the Titanic lots triggered off a frenzy of bidding, attracting worldwide interest with seven phone lines jammed. Forty extra chairs had to be moved into the auction rooms.