Own some coal from the Titanic: rare shipwreck artefacts go on sale

A haul of 8,000 items from 150 shipwrecks - including the Titanic and Henry the VIII's flagship, the Mary Rose - is to be auctioned after the closure of a Cornish museum

They are some of the most evocative historic artefacts that fate ever consigned to the bottom of the sea. Now, coal from the Titanic, a piece of rope from the Mary Rose and musket flints from the shipwreck that inspired William Wordsworth to write one of his greatest works are to be sold at a very rare auction.

The artefacts are among the 8,000 objects salvaged from 150 wrecks that will go under the hammer for the first time next month.