Titanic blueprints fetch £12,000

The plumbing blueprint is thought to be the only one of its kind

The original blueprints of the Titanic's plumbing system have fetched £12,000 at auction.

Specialist auctioneers Henry Aldridge and Son sold the diagrams at a convention in Southampton on Friday.

A 12-minute nitrate film of the ill-fated liner in Belfast which was recently discovered in a loft in Glasgow was sold for £15,000.

A White Star brochure also fetched £5,000 at the auction held as part of the British Titanic Society event.

The blueprints were owned by William Wilson, a naval architect on Titanic's maiden voyage.

He got off in Cherbourg to help repair another ship, taking the blueprints with him, and avoided the 1912 disaster which claimed 1,500 lives.

Alan Aldridge said that the 10ft long plans of the liner's plumbing were thought to be unique.

"We only know of these ones in existence," he said.