A gold watch belonging to the richest passenger on the Titanic was sold for more than $1.47 million last week.
The watch belonged to John Jacob Aster, widely believed to be the richest passenger aboard the doomed ship. Aster, who made his fortune from the fur trade, was only 47 when he boarded the Titanic in 1912. After the ship hit the iceberg and started sinking, Aster helped his wife Madeliene onto a lifeboard. However, reportedly Aster himself was under the impression that either the ship wouldn’t sink or everyone would be rescued before that. The last report of Aster from other passengers put him smoking on the deck and talking to other passengers. His body was recovered 7 days later from the wreckage.
The 22-carat watch was found on Aster’s body, carrying the initials of his wife, and given to her. From there, the watch passed on to his son Vincent and then to the son of William Dobbyn, the executive secretary at their company. On Saturday, an auction held in Devizes, England by the auction house Henry Aldrige & Son saw the watch fetching £1.175 million ($1.471 million). This is the highest amount ever fetched by a Titanic memorabilia. Previously, the record was held by one of the violins that were being played when the ship was sinking. It was sold for $1.6 million, also by the same auction house.
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Speaking of the watch’s sale, Andrew Aldrige (auctioneer) said: “112 years later, we are still talking about the ship and the passengers and the crew. The thing with the Titanic story, it’s effectively a large ship hits an iceberg with a tragic loss of life, but more importantly is 2,200 stories. 2,200 subplots, every man woman and child had a story to tell and then the memorabilia tells those stories today.”
