Gold watch recovered from body of richest man on the Titanic sells for £1.2m
A gold pocket watch that was recovered from the body of the richest man on the Titanic has been sold for a record-breaking £1.175 million.
The watch was sold to a private collector in the US at Henry Aldridge & Son in Devizes, Wiltshire, for the highest amount ever for Titanic memorabilia, the auctioneers said.
The timepiece was expected to fetch between £100,000 and £150,000.
Its original owner, John Jacob Astor, 47, went down with the ship on 15 April 1912 after helping his wife on to a lifeboat.
Rather than try his luck with another lifeboat, the impeccably dressed businessman, a prominent member of the wealthy Astor family, was last seen smoking a cigarette and chatting with a fellow passenger.
His body was recovered from the Atlantic Ocean seven days after the sinking of the ship, which hit an iceberg on its maiden voyage to New York, and his 14-carat gold Waltham pocket watch, engraved with the initials JJA, was found.
Mr Astor was thought to be one of the richest people in the world at the time of the Titanic‘s sinking, with a net worth of about $87m – equivalent to several billion dollars today, auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said.
“At first, Astor did not believe the ship was in any serious danger but later it was apparent she was sinking and the captain had started an evacuation after midnight, so he helped his wife into lifeboat four,” Mr Aldridge said.
Mrs Astor survived. Her husband’s body was recovered not far from the sinking.
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The watch was passed by Mr Astor’s son Vincent to the son of his father’s executive secretary, William Dobbyn.
The previous highest price paid for Titanic artefacts was £1.1 million at the same auction house in 2013 for a violin that was played as the ship sank.
The case for the violin was sold in the same auction as the pocket watch at Henry Aldridge & Son for £360,000.
Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said that the prices fetched by the Titanic memorabilia at the sale were “absolutely incredible”.
The Titanic leaves Southampton on her maiden voyage. Pic: AP
He said: “They reflect not only the importance of the artefacts themselves and their rarity, but they also show the enduring appeal and fascination with the Titanic story.
“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.”
The government has been temporarily blocked from concluding the Chagos Islands deal by a late-night High Court injunction.
Ministers had been expected to complete a deal that would have seen the UK hand over sovereignty of the archipelago to Mauritius in the coming hours.
But in an emergency injunction granted early on Thursday, brought against the Foreign Office, Mr Justice Goose allowed “interim relief” to Bertrice Pompe, who had previously taken steps to bring legal action over the deal.
Ms Pompe is a Chagossian woman who sees the deal as a betrayal of their rights.
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The order, granted at 2.25am, states the government may take “no conclusive or legally binding step to conclude its negotiations concerning the possible transfer of the British Indian Ocean Territory, also known as the Chagos Archipelago, to a foreign government or bind itself as to the particular terms of any such transfer”.
A hearing is taking place at the High Court this morning, with crowds gathered in support of the block.
The location of the Chagos Islands
The government insisted this morning the Chagos Islands deal is the “right thing” for the UK.
A spokesperson said: “We do not comment on ongoing legal cases. This deal is the right thing to protect the British people and our national security.”
It was expected that Sir Keir Starmer would attend a virtual ceremony today to formally hand over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, despite heavy criticism from the Conservatives and Reform UK.
The government has argued international legal rulings in favour of Mauritius mean this handover is necessary.
As part of the deal, the UK will lease back a military base on the archipelago for 99 years.
Robert Jenrick, the former justice secretary, told Sky News that the Chagos Islands deal is a “sell-out for British interests”.
He said: “You’re seeing British sovereign territory being given away to an ally of China and billions of pounds of British taxpayers money being spent for the privilege.
“So, if this group can force the government to think twice, then all power to them.”
With this injunction in place, Sir Keir can no longer legally complete the deal.
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Ms Pompe, who filed the application for interim relief, believes the British government is acting with disregard for the human rights of the Chagossian people.
She has argued completion of the deal would amount to a breach of the Human Rights Act and the Equality Act.
Chagossians are the former residents of the Chagos Islands, who were removed from the islands, predominantly to Mauritius, between the mid-1960s and early-1970s.
Those born on the islands and their children hold British nationality, but subsequent generations born outside British territory have no entitlement to it.
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