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This real-life Titanic passenger’s heart did go on — in a century-old love letter.
James Cameron’s 1997 blockbuster “Titanic” famously revolved around the romance between Leonardo DiCaprio’s Jack Dawson and Kate Winslet’s Rose DeWitt Bukater — two fictional characters created by Cameron himself.
But now, a never-before-seen letter has revealed that there actually was a passenger aboard the boat pining over a woman named Rose.
Ernest Tomlin, a 21-year-old third-class passenger, boarded the Titanic in Southampton, England, on April 10, 1912, and wrote a five-page letter to his family just hours later.
The missive was sent out from Queenstown, Ireland — the ship’s last port of call — the following day.
In it, he reveals his heartbreak over a mystery woman named Rose.
“Dearest Mother and all,” the lovelorn passenger wrote. “Do not tell anybody, but I showed up to have a good cry 24 hours ago, which would give me back my Rose, but crying will not do that, will it?”
“I’m sorry to have to leave you all,” he ominously added.
Less than three days later, Tomlin was dead.
He was one of the 1,500 passengers who drowned in the icy waters of the Atlantic after the Titanic struck an iceberg and sank on April 15, 1912.
His body was subsequently recovered, and a water-stained diary was found in his pocket. The final entry says just one word: “Titanic.”
Both Tomlin’s letter and the diary have now been offered for sale for the first time by a family member.
“It is one of the most complete Titanic archives to have come to market in the past 30 years,” auctioneer Andrew Aldridge told The Daily Mail.
“In a way, Ernest does bear some similarities to Leonardo DiCaprio’s character Jack Dawson in that he was a third-class passenger, was involved in gambling on board and was apparently in love with a woman called Rose.”
The prized items are being sold by Henry Aldridge & Son of Devizes, Wilts, for a combined $66,000 (£50,000).
The sale will take place on November 22, 2025.
Aldridge added, “His pocket diary is an incredibly poignant object that has an obvious direct link to one of Titanic’s victims.”
Little else is known about Tomlin, who grew up in Notting Hill, London, with his parents, Edwin and Harriet, and six siblings.
In 1907, he reportedly moved to Des Moines, Iowa, US, where he enrolled at The Bible College of Drake University.
Tomlin took a brief hiatus from school and moved back to England, but decided to return to Drake University to complete his degree — prompting him to purchase that fateful ticket back to the US aboard the Titanic in 1912.
