Timepiece of history

Titanic hero's watch sells for £1.3m

- TOM BEVAN

A POCKET watch given to a hero of the Titanic sinking has sold for £1.3million at auction.

Captain Arthur Rostron was skipper of the RMS Carpathia, a Cunard Line transatlantic passenger steamship that rescued more than 700 passengers and crew following the disaster on April 14 and 15 in 1912.

The 18ct gold Tiffany & Co timepiece bears testament to the regard he was held in by the widows of three of the most high-profile businessmen who died, John Jacob Astor, George Dunton Widener and John B. Thayer.