A TELEGRAM that helped save the lives of hundreds of passengers aboard the ill-fated Titanic has been sold for a record £20,000.

Guglielmo Marconi, considered to be the father of wireless radio, sent the message to Carpathia asking about the rescue operation, which was being kept secret because of a news blackout.

Written in pencil, the historic document read: "Wire news dispatches immediately. If this is impossible, ask captain why there is no news available, signed Guglielmo Marconi."

Carpathia received the SOS distress call from the stricken liner and sailed at top speed to reach Titanic, which had struck an iceberg some 300 miles east of Newfoundland on her maiden voyage to New York in 1912. She arrived at the scene some two hours after the ship sank but rescued some 750 passengers and crew who had taken to lifeboats. Some 1,500 others, however, were lost. The telegram, sold at auction in Devizes, Wiltshire, was bought by an American bidder.

The number of Titanic survivors has dwindled yet further with the news that a woman who claimed to have been conceived aboard the vessel has died, aged 92.

Ellen Walker claimed she was the daughter of a Henry Morley who had eloped with Kate Phillips on the ship. He drowned but Phillips escaped on the last lifeboat and gave birth nine months later.