An interesting story from the Guardian. When the RMS Titanic struck an iceberg and sank on 15 April 1912, approximately 1,500 died. The RMS Carpathia, under the command of Captain Arthur Rostron, rescued 706 passengers and crew from the Titanic‘s lifeboats.

A gold pocket watch, presented to Captain Rostron by Madeleine Astor and two other widows of high-profile and wealthy businessmen, was sold at auction over the weekend for a record £1.56m, the highest amount ever paid for Titanic memorabilia, according to auctioneers Henry Aldridge & Son of Devizes, Wiltshire.

The 18-carat Tiffany & Co timepiece bears an inscription reading “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”.

Rostron received the gift from Mrs Astor at a lunch at the family’s mansion on Fifth Avenue, New York, according to the auction house.

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 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.

Astor was 47 when he went down with the ship in 1912, after seeing his new wife Madeleine on to a lifeboat.

Gold pocket watch becomes most expensive piece of memorabilia linked to Titanic

Thanks to Alaric Bond for contributing to this post.