A gold watch rumoured to have been used as a bribe to gain a family’s spot on a Titanic lifeboat is set to fetch as much as £50,000 at auction.
The watch was handed to a crew member by a passenger during the sinking of the British ocean liner in 1912.
However, it remains debated to this day whether its owner used the timepiece to bribe a stoker for a lifeboat spot for his family – or merely gifted it in gratitude.
Now, the 19th-century watch is set for sale with auctioneers John Nicholson’s, and is expected to fetch between £30,000 and £50,000.
The gold watch remains at the centre of one of the most controversial tales involving the disastrous sinking of the Titanic on its maiden voyage.
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The ship sank in the early hours of April 15, 1912, five days into its journey from Southampton on England’s southern coast to New York across the Atlantic.
Of the 2,208 passengers and crew on board, around 1,500 died, making it one of the deadliest peacetime sinkings of a single ship.
The story of the Caldwell family
The circumstances surrounding the survival of the Caldwell family have been one of the most hotly debated tales in the aftermath of the ship’s sinking.
At the heart of the debate is whether Albert Caldwell bribed crew members with his watch to secure a place on one of the lifeboats.
The timepiece was definitely passed to a crew member, but the Caldwell family, once rescued, disappeared so quickly that they were left off the published list of survivors, having made their way home to Illinois.
In doing so, they also managed to avoid being picked up by an ambulance waiting for Sylvia Caldwell on the quay in New York, which had been tasked with assessing her state of health.
The Caldwells, having arrived on rescue boat RMS Carpathia, managed to give the waiting ambulance the slip before heading back west, where Albert secured a job as a school principal within days.
How the watch changed hands from Albert Caldwell’s to one of the ship’s stokers, however, has never been fully confirmed.
Mr Caldwell himself changed his account of his family’s rescue several times throughout his life, between 1885 and 1977.
In one recorded interview, he explained that lifeboats were initially being lowered and sent off only partially full, as passengers didn’t realise the ship was sinking and were reluctant to let their wives and children set off by themselves.
However, after descending to a lower deck and speaking with some of the ship’s stokers, Mr Caldwell said he learned the true state of affairs.
At that moment, Mr Caldwell claimed lifeboat number 13, which was only partially filled, was lowered past their deck.
He said one of the stokers shouted to the crew above to hold it in position while the stokers and the Caldwell family climbed in.
Some have criticised Mr Caldwell for ending up in the lifeboat as a man, but others hailed him as a hero.
A family photograph taken two days before the ship sank shows Mr Caldwell clutching ten-month-old Alden on the deck, with his wife standing next to them.
When the watch was previously sold in 1998, it had been assumed that ‘Elliot C’, the son of the crewman who signed a letter of provenance, was Elliot C. Everett.
However, it is now believed the signature ‘Elliot C’ indicates that his surname begins with C, meaning the watch could instead have been given to one of the engine room crew Albert had befriended.
The watch itself, originally the property of another relative before being passed to Mr Caldwell, is an 18ct gold-cased keyless half hunter pocket watch by Sutherland & Horne, Edinburgh, circa 1876.
It is engraved: ‘Presented to James Caldwell by the employees of the Pumpherston Oil Co. Ltd on his leaving to take charge of the Mining Department at Deans, June 3, 1896.’
Whether used as a bribe or a gift, the gold watch is estimated to sell for between £30,000 and £50,000 when it goes under the hammer later this month.
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