The captain's watch from the Titanic sold for £1.56 million.

The captain of the ship who saved passengers from the Titanic sold a gold watch for £1.56 million. This is a record amount at auctions for Titanic memorabilia. The sum was paid by a private collector from the USA. The previous record was made in April this year when a watch belonging to John Jacob Astor was sold for £1.175 million. In both cases, the figures include commissions and taxes.

Captain Rostron received the watch from Madeleine Astor during lunch in New York. This watch was found on the body of the lost ship along with Arthur Rostron, Madeleine Astor, and George Widener. The watch had an inscription that spoke about its presentation to Captain Rostron with words of gratitude from the three survivors.

The auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said: «It was given as a token of gratitude for Rostron's bravery in saving these lives, because without Mr. Rostron, these 700 people would not have been able to do it».

This reflects the «ongoing interest» in the story of the Titanic, as the auctioneer Aldridge says. He mentions that scholars are interested in the ship's mechanism, but collectors are interested in the people, the stories, and the memorabilia that tell those stories.

This watch has become the most expensive Titanic artifact, breaking a record that had stood for 11 years. Over the past year, the demand for Titanic artifacts has risen, and prices are increasing.

We have new information about the discovery of the Titanic wreckage only 73 years after its sinking. The debris was successfully retrieved since proper technologies were not available before for this task.