In April 1912, the RMS Titanic, a luxury passenger liner billed as unsinkable, took its maiden voyage and was felled by an iceberg. Lifeboats were scarce, and more than 1,500 passengers perished in the icy seas of the North Atlantic. The tragic irony of the surrounding circumstances are fit for a movie ... but we'll get to that later.

A Christie's auction in New York City last week featured memorabilia from the ill-fated voyage, including a lengthy handwritten description of the ordeal, penned by a 16-year-old survivor. The account, which mentions witnessing the "most terrible shrieks and groans from the helpless and doomed" from her perch in a lifeboat, attracted $16,800. The auction featured 18 lots in total, including telegrams, letters, and deck logs. In all, the products fetched $193,140. An original list of the first-class passengers aboard the ship fetched $48,000, surpassing pre-sale estimates.

Sunday night, flipping through cable stations, I came across James Cameron's epic blockbuster tribute to the sunken ship, which was released by News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) 20th Century Fox and Viacom's (NYSE: VIA) Paramount Pictures almost 10 years ago. It remains the highest-grossing film of all time, with worldwide box office receipts of over $1.8 billion.

I'll admit, with mild sheepishness, that I was among the throng of Titanic devotees that took multiple trips to the theater (my count was five) to follow the story of Jack and Rose. While it's a rare moment that I pull out my DVD to spend more than 3 hours in anticipation of a teary finale, it's still a good movie, made great through the performances of Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet before they were superstars.

Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.