Letter written aboard the Titanic up for auction

A hand-written letter found on the body of a man who died in the sinking of the Titanic is expected to fetch up to £80,000 ($135,000) at auction.

Undated handout photo issued by Henry Aldridge and Son of a letter, written by Oscar Holversson a day before the Titanic sank Source: AAP

The letter, written by first-class passenger Alexander Oskar Holverson to his mother on embossed Titanic "on-board" stationary, describes his impressions of the palatial ship, praising the food and music.

"If all goes well we will arrive in New York Wednesday A.M.," Holverson wrote the day before the ship's fateful encounter with an iceberg.

Photo with inscription: "Dec 1911 Mary Alice Holverson, Oscar Alexander Holverson leaving for South America previous to the Titanic" Source: Henry Aldrige and Son

Holverson was a Minnesota-born salesman, who was travelling on the ship with his wife, Mary Alice, who survived the sinking.

In the letter, he also describes his experiences rubbing shoulders with one of the ship's most famous passengers.

"John Jacob Astor is on this ship," he said of the American financier and real-estate investor, who was one of the world's richest men at the time.

"He looks like any other human being even though he has millions of money. They sit out on deck with the rest of us."

Letter by Titanic passenger Alexander Oskar Holverson to his mother on April 13th, 1912 Source: Henry Aldrige and Son

The letter is one of the last known to have survived the sinking - it still carries stains from its time in the Atlantic.

The Titanic was the largest ocean liner in service when it struck an iceberg on April 14th 1912 in the Atlantic while travelling from Southampton to New York. More than 1,500 people died.