A gold pocket watch given to the ship captain who rescued 700 survivors from the Titanic has sold at auction in London for nearly $2 million, setting a record for memorabilia connected to the shipwreck. The 18-carat Tiffany & Co. watch was given by three survivors to Capt. Arthur Rostron for diverting his passenger ship, the RMS Carpathia, to save them and others after the Titanic struck an iceberg and sank in the north Atlantic on its maiden voyage in 1912. "It was presented principally in gratitude for Rostron's bravery in saving those lives," auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said, per the AP. "Without Mr. Rostron, those 700 people wouldn't have made it."
Auctioneers Henry Aldridge and Son handled the sale to a private collector in the US on Saturday for 1.56 million British pounds, including taxes and fees paid by the buyer. The watch was presented to Rostron by the widow of John Jacob Astor, the richest man to die in the disaster, and the widows of two other wealthy businessmen who went down with the ship, the AP reports. Astor's pocket watch, which was on his body when it was recovered a week after the sinking, had previously set the record for a Titanic keepsake, fetching nearly $1.5 million in April.
The Carpathia was sailing from New York to the Mediterranean Sea when a radio operator heard a distress call from the Titanic early on April 15, 1912, and woke Rostron in his cabin. The captain turned his ship around and headed at full steam toward the doomed vessel, navigating through icebergs to get there. By the time the Carpathia arrived, the Titanic had sunk and 1,500 people had perished. But the crew located 20 lifeboats and took more than 700 passengers and took them back to New York. Rostron was hailed a hero, and his crew also was recognized for its bravery. He was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by President William Howard Taft and knighted by King George V. Madeleine Astor, who had been helped into a lifeboat by her husband, presented the watch to Rostron at a luncheon at her mansion in New York. The inscription says it was given "with the heartfelt gratitude and appreciation of three survivors." It lists Mrs. John B. Thayer and Mrs. George D. Widener alongside Astor's married name.
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