A rare never-before-seen black and white photograph showing victims of the 1912 Titanic disaster being buried at sea has now been made public and is expected to fetch 5,000 pounds at an auction in the UK.

The picture was taken on board the Mackay Bennett - one of the body recovery ships - during a mass funeral service of dozens of the dead.

The image, which shows body bags stacked on the windswept deck while two crewman tip up a stretcher to drop a victim over the side, is going under the hammer, on October 19, at Henry Aldridge and Sons in Devizes.

It was taken days after the doomed liner Titanic hit an iceberg on April 15, 1912, on her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York, and sank in the icy waters of Atlantic Ocean killing more than 1,500 passengers and crew.

The photo shows the ship's priest, the Reverend Hind, conducting the service, 'huffingtonpost.Co.Uk' reported.

"This picture blows away the myth the burials were dignified," Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said.

Records show 166 out of 306 bodies from the Titanic retrieved by the Mackay Bennett were buried at sea.