Watch gifted to captain who saved 700 Titanic passengers sells for record fee

A gold watch gifted to the captain of a boat which rescued Titanic passengers has sold for a record-breaking £1.56m.

The 18-carat Tiffany & Co pocket watch was given to Captain Arthur Rostron by three widows of high-profile and wealthy businessmen who died when the ship sank in 1912.

Captain Rostron helped save the women, along with hundreds of other passengers, when he changed the course of his Carpathia ship after hearing a distress call from the Titanic after it struck an iceberg.

The timepiece was sold to a private collector in the US on Saturday by auctioneers Henry Aldridge and Son in Wiltshire, who paid the highest-ever fee for Titanic memorabilia.

The previous record was set in April when another gold pocket watch, recovered from the body of the richest man on the ship, John Jacob Astor, sold for £1.175m at the same auction house.

Mr Astor died aged 47 when the ship went down, after seeing his new wife Madeleine on to a lifeboat.

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Mrs Astor was one of the widows who gifted Captain Rostron his watch, presenting it to him at a lunch at the family's mansion on Fifth Avenue, New York, according to the auction house.

An inscription on it reads: "Presented to Captain Rostron with the heartfelt gratitude and appreciation of three survivors of the Titanic April 15th 1912 Mrs John B Thayer, Mrs John Jacob Astor and Mrs George D Widener."

Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said: "It was presented principally in gratitude for Rostron's bravery in saving those lives, because without Mr Rostron, those 700 people wouldn't have made it."

The violin that was played as the ship sank held the previous record for 11 years after being sold for £1.1m in 2013.

More than 1,500 people were killed after the Titanic hit an iceberg, with just 705 survivors.

(c) Sky News 2024: Watch gifted to captain who saved 700 Titanic passengers sells for record fee