The gold jewelry was presented to him by the rescued passengers.
A gold pocket watch presented to the captain of the British steamship that saved more than 700 passengers of the Titanic was sold at auction for a record £1.56 million ($1.97 million) million).
The BBC reports this.
18-carat Tiffany & Co presented Sir Arthur Rostron, then captain of the passenger ship RMS Carpathia, with passengers he had rescued in 1912.
Auctioneers Henry Aldridge and Son of Wiltshire said it was the highest price ever paid for Titanic memorabilia and that it had been bought by a private collector in the US.
The sale demonstrates the “long-lasting fascination” with the hapless ocean liner.
Sir Arthur changed the Carpathia's course from New York to Europe after the ship's wireless operator received a distress call: “We have struck ice, come at once.”
He set off for full speed and reached the Titanic two hours after it sank in the North Atlantic on April 15, 1912.
The watch was presented to Sir Arthur by the widow of the Titanic's richest man, John Jacob Astor, and two other widows of wealthy businessmen who died when the ship struck an iceberg and broke apart, killing more than 1,500 passengers and crew.
It bears the inscription: “Presented to Captain Rostron with sincere thanks from the three widows of the Titanic survivors of April 15th, 1912.”
Sir Arthur received the gift from Astor's wife during a dinner at the family estate on Fifth Avenue in New York, the auction house reports.
“It was presented primarily as a token of gratitude for Rostron's bravery in saving these lives, because without Mr. Rostron these “700 people would not have survived,” said auctioneer Andrew Aldridge.
The previous record for Titanic memorabilia was set in April, when a gold pocket watch found on Astor's body sold for £1.175 million at the same auction in Devizes.
Prior to that, the violin played when the ship sank held the record for the highest price paid for a Titanic artefact for 11 years, after it sold for £1.1 million in 2013.
Recall that the oldest stone tablet with the 10 commandments will sell for $2 mln. It was used as paving slabs.
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