Gold watch owned by hero of Titanic rescue up for auction

By Ed Chatterton

A gold pocket watch presented to an unsung hero of the Titanic rescue mission 114 years ago is set to fetch $125,000 at auction.

The luxury 18-carat gold timepiece was given to the engineer of a steamship which rescued more than 700 passengers from the sinking ship.

John Richardson was the sixth engineer aboard the RMS Carpathia, a Cunard Line transatlantic passenger ship which saved survivors from the Titanic’s lifeboats.

The Carpathia, on its way from New York for Europe, changed course after the ship's wireless operator picked up the distress call "we've struck ice, come at once."

It set off at full speed and reached the doomed ocean liner two hours after it had sunk in the North Atlantic on April 15, 1912, with the loss of 1,500 lives.

The watch, hallmarked 1912, is engraved “Presented to J. Richardson as a mark of appreciation for conspicuous services rendered R.M.S. Titanic, 15th April 1912.”

It is expected to fetch between $62,500 and $125,000 when it goes under the hammer at Hansons Auctioneers in Penshurst, Kent, on April 22.

Hansons director Justin Matthews said: “When I first held it in my hand I had goose bumps – it was spine-tingling to know its connections to one of the most famous, and tragic, events of the 20th century.

"It is an honor to offer it for sale.”

Richardson, then aged 26, was one of several engineers honored by the Liverpool-based Carpathia Engineers’ Presentation Fund—whose founders believed the vital role the below-deck crew played in the rescue had been woefully overlooked.

The engineers’ neglect was, they said, “a reproach which, in Liverpool at least, had to be wiped out.”

One of the biggest contributions came from Mrs. John Jacob Astor, the widow of John Jacob Astor IV, one of the wealthiest men in the world, who died in the disaster.

Her donation of $200 ($7,500 in today’s money) helped galvanize interest in the fund, which counted Liverpool’s Lady Mayoress, the Countess of Derby, and municipal leaders among its supporters.

John Richardson was one of three engineers, with the others at sea, presented with the Hunter pocket watch at a ceremony on Dec. 14, 1912, by the mayor of Liverpool.

Following the disaster, a number of fundraising initiatives were set up by both Titanic survivors and members of the public, all keen to honor its heroes.

Six weeks after the rescue, the Carpathia’s Capt. Arthur Rostron and the crew were honored in New York City, with gold medals going to senior officers, silver to junior officers, and bronze to the crew.

A pocket watch Rostron received from Mrs. John Jacob Astor sold at auction for a then record-breaking $1.95 million in 2024.

Matthews added: “While the captain of the Carpathia took most of the plaudits for the rescue of those 705 men, women, and children adrift in the Titanic’s lifeboats, it was workers in the engine room, like John Richardson, who were high on the list of heroes.

"Their work wasn’t visible to passengers, or survivors, but without it, the rescue simply wouldn’t have happened.”

When Rostron received Titanic’s distress call, he ordered maximum speed, meaning the engine room crew had to keep multiple coal-fired boilers running at peak output with stokers shoveling coal in intense heat.

Matthews said: “The engineers turned the Carpathia from a passenger ship into a high-speed rescue vessel under emergency conditions.

"Their skill, endurance, and judgment directly translated into lives saved.”

Richardson, the son of a Scottish master mariner, was born in Carlisle on May 26, 1885.

By 1901, the family had moved to Birkenhead, with Richardson described as working as an apprentice mechanical engineer.

His name first appears on crew lists in February 1907 when he was senior fourth engineer aboard the Campania.

By the time of the Carpathia rescue, he was a married man and father of two.

After the fateful trip, little is known apart from that in the 1930s the family moved to New York.

The watch stayed in his family for almost a century before first being offered for sale in 2003.

Matthews said: “Collectors and the public’s interest in the Titanic shows no sign of diminishing.

"In fact, on the contrary, even more than 114 years later, recent prices achieved at auction testify to our ongoing fascination.”

The watch went on public display at Southampton Maritime Museum’s exhibition to mark the 80th anniversary of the Titanic disaster.