Titanic letter to return to Belfast

The descendants of a surgeon who died on the Titanic say they are delighted that a letter he penned days before the ship sank will return to his hometown, Belfast.

John Edward Simpson's family had appealed for a benefactor to buy the note, which was put up for auction earlier this month in Long Island, New York. It did not meet the reserve price of $34,000. A buyer who did not want to be named then bought it for an undisclosed sum after hearing about the family's campaign to bring the letter to Belfast for public display.

The surgeon wrote the note to his mother days before the ship sank in April 1912.

Simpson's great-nephew John Martin said Tuesday the note will soon return to the Northern Irish city, where the Titanic was built.