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A ladies’ pocket watch found among the belongings of one of the passengers who drowned during the ill-fated maiden voyage of the Titanic could sell for up to £50,000 (US$66,000) at auction.
Danish second-class passenger Hans Christensen Givard, 27, was among the 1,500 people who died when the vessel struck an iceberg in 1912.
Givard was travelling to the United States with two of his friends who also died in the disaster.
The watch was found when Givard’s body was recovered from the North Atlantic and he was later buried in Halifax, Canada.
In his pockets were a savings book, keys, some cash in a wallet, a silver watch, a compass and a passport.

Also recovered was the gilded ladies’ pocket watch, which bears traces of saltwater corrosion.
All his belongings were returned to his brother in Denmark, and it is his descendants who are selling the watch.
The ill-fated story of Givard directly inspired curator Jesper Hjermind and his niece, journalist and US resident Mette Hjermind McCall, to write the book Titanic – De Danske Fortællinger (Titanic – The Danish Stories), where the pocket watch is mentioned.
It was also exhibited by Claes Goran Wetterholm, the leading authority globally on the Scandinavian element of the Titanic story in Copenhagen in 2012.
The watch is going under the hammer at Henry Aldridge and Son, of Devizes, Wiltshire, on April 26.
“This piece is documented in the official list of Hans’s effects compiled by the authorities in Halifax, Nova Scotia in the weeks after the Titanic disaster and has remained in his family ever since,” said auctioneer Andrew Aldridge.
“It was one of the centre pieces of the display of Titanic memorabilia in the Tivoli in Copenhagen in 2012 which illustrates its importance,” he added.
“The watches movement is frozen in time at the moment the cold North Atlantic waters consumed not only its owner but the most famous ocean liner of all time.”


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History

Titanic passenger’s pocket watch tipped for US$66,000 sale

The Titanic leaves Southampton, England, on April 10, 1912, for her ill-fated maiden voyage across the Atlantic. Photo: Southampton City Council/AFP

The gilded ladies’ pocket watch, which bears traces of saltwater corrosion, was found on Titanic passenger Hans Christensen Givard’s body. Photo: Henry Aldridge and Son

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Recovered from the icy North Atlantic after the 1912 disaster, the ladies’ timepiece is going under the hammer in the UK


Recovered from the icy North Atlantic after the 1912 disaster, the ladies’ timepiece is going under the hammer in the UK.


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