A passenger who died in the Titanic disaster had written to his wife from the liner, saying that he thought it was unsafe.

While most of his fellow passengers in first class were awestruck by their palatial surroundings, Alfred Rowe — his mood perhaps soured by a bad cold — sat down to write to his wife Constance, confiding that he thought the ship “too big” and a “positive danger”.

Mr Rowe, 59, a British businessman, was on his way to his ranch in Texas and had been on the ship for only 24 hours. His letter has come to light for the first time in 95 years.

Writing on Titanic-headed notepaper, he described a near-miss with the SS New York and admitted that he would prefer to be on another ship, adding: “The Mauretania and Lusitania are quite good enough and big enough for me.”

In an elegant copperplate hand, Mr Rowe described how the Titanic’s wake caused the New York’s moorings to break. “We had the narrowest possible escape of having a hole knocked in us yesterday by the New York,” he wrote. “The two ships actually touched and but for a steam tug that had a little hold on the New York we would have had a hole knocked in us.”

The letter was posted from Queenstown, Cobh, near Cork in Ireland — the Titanic’s last stop — on April 11, 1912. On April 14, the ship struck an iceberg and sank. According to contemporary reports, Mr Rowe swam to a piece of ice where he was found frozen to death. His body was picked up by the cable ship Mackay-Bennett and returned to his native Liverpool, where he was buried.

The letter, which runs to four sides, has been made public for the first time after Mr Rowe’s family decided to auction it. It is expected to fetch £60,000, alongside the diary of his widow, Constance, and a letter written to his brother.

Andrew Aldridge, of the auctioneers Henry Aldridge and Sons of Devizes, Wiltshire, said that the letter was unique. “Most other passengers on the Titanic wrote about how splendid and magnificent the ship was and described her as a floating palace,” he said. “Alfred Rowe clearly wasn’t impressed and described her as a danger. He appears to have something of a premonition of what was going to happen.”

However, Mr Rowe was still able to enjoy his luxurious surroundings. He told Constance: “The cold is better and voice is coming back. I took a lovely Turkish bath yesterday and that did me good.” He also complained: “She is too big. You can’t find your way about and it takes you too long to get anywhere.”

Mr Rowe had moved to Texas in 1879. Such was his influence the Texan town of Rowe took its name from him. He had returned to Liverpool in 1910, visiting his ranch twice a year.

His widow’s diary related her turmoil as she waited for news. On April 16, she wrote: “Looked at paper, all of my hopes of Alfred’s possible safety crushed, no news.”

Three days later she wrote: “Dr Sewell came after two, letting me know my dear boy had gone.”

Lost giant

1,523 people died

1,178 capacity of lifeboats

3,320 passenger capacity

22 knots speed on impact with iceberg

882.75 length in feet (300 metres)

46,329 gross tonnage

7 decks on the ship

5 number of workers who died building the Titanic

11 Oscars won by the 1997 film

$600m (£300 million) box-office takings in US (£69 million in Britain)

Source: National Maritime Museum, International Movie Database, Times archive

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