A postcard written on the Titanic to a friend in Norwich has been listed at auction with an estimate of up to £10,000.

The card was written on board the famous ocean liner just three days before it sank on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York in 1912.

Richard William Smith, a tea merchant from London travelling in first class, wrote the postcard to a Mrs Olive Dakin of 2 Albemarle Place, Newmarket Road.

The message was written in pencil (Image: Henry Aldridge & Son Ltd) The pencilled message reads: "Have had a fine run around to Queenstown.

"Just leaving for the land of stars and stripes.

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“Hope you are all quite well at home. Kindest regards, R.W.S.”

Before embarking on its journey across the Atlantic, the Titanic made stops in Cherbourg in France and Queenstown, known today as Cobh, in Ireland to take on more passengers.

The card was posted in CorkThe card was posted in Cork (Image: Henry Aldridge & Son Ltd) ​Mr Smith had been travelling with a family friend, Mrs Emily Nicholls, who is understood to have posted the card for him after she disembarked at Queenstown. 

The 57-year-old merchant was one of around 1,500 people to lose their lives when the ship hit an iceberg off the coast of Canada just three days later on April 14.

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Henry Aldridge & Son, a Devizes-based auction house specialising in Titanic memorabilia, describes the postcard as "unique" due to it being the only known example to bear a Cork postmark, rather than the postmark of the Titanic or of Queenstown. 

Managing director, Andrew Aldridge, said: “It’s a very powerful and poignant object because this is one of the last things that Mr Smith wrote, first and foremost.

Mrs Nicholls and Mr Smith aboard the TitanicMrs Nicholls and Mr Smith are believed to be the subject of a photograph found on page 65 of Father Browne's Titanic photo collection (Image: Francis Browne) "Little was anyone onboard aware of what was on the horizon just 80 hours or so into the future."

The postcard will go under the hammer as part of a wider “Titanic, White Star and Transport Memorabilia” sale of more than 300 lots at 12pm on November 16.