A Titanic Sale

 

Gold pocket watch recovered from the body of the richest man on the Titanic who went down with the doomed ship after seeing his pregnant wife into a lifeboat sells for more than £1MILLION

"The pocket watch of the richest man on the Titanic – recovered when his body was fished out of the Atlantic seven days after the tragedy – was sold a record-breaking £1.175 million yesterday.

"The timepiece belonged to John Jacob Astor IV, a US business magnate who was among more than 1,500 people who died when the ship struck an iceberg in the early hours of April 15, 1912.

"His 14-carat gold Waltham watch was sold at Henry Aldridge & Son auction house in Wiltshire for a record-breaking £1.175 million, six times the guide price, matching the record paid for a Titanic artifact – the violin played by bandmaster Wallace Hartley."

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I've been fascinated by the tragic story of the Titanic ever since I read Walter Lord's "A Night to Remember" at age 12. The movie version of the same name starring Kenneth More was the most realistic portrayal  I've seen, but I hated the James Cameron film.

Robert Ballard's 1985 discovery of the wreck of the Titanic was something I never expected to see.