The Ladies’ pocket watch discovered on Titanic sufferer that also bears the scars of the catastrophe precisely 113 years on

A ladies’ pocket watch found among the possessions of one of the victims of the Titanic disaster could sell for up to £50,000 at auction.

Danish second-class passenger Hans Christensen Givard, 27, was one of 1,517 passengers and crew who died when the luxury liner sank after hitting an iceberg.

The tragedy occurred exactly 113 years ago, on April 15, 1912, during the Titanic’s maiden voyage from Southampton to New York.

Mr Givard was travelling to the US 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.

The gilded ladies’ pocket watch still bears the scars of the disaster, in the form of salt water corrosion.

Also found in Givard’s pockets was a savings book, keys, a wallet with cash in, a silver watch, a compass and a passport.  

All his belongings were returned to his brother in Denmark, and it is his descendants who are selling the watch.

A ladies’ pocket watch found among the belongings of one the passengers who drowned on the ill-fated maiden voyage of the Titanic could sell for up to £50,000 at auction

Danish second-class passenger Hans Christensen Givard, 27, was among one of the 1,500 who died when the vessel struck an iceberg in 1912

Givard, a well-travelled bachelor, had first gone to New York in 1907. Records show he later went back to Denmark and then to Argentina.

In 1912, he embarked on the Titanic – which stopped in Cherbourg in France, and Queenstown, Ireland, before heading towards New York – after visiting Norway.

His family are said to not have known that he was on the Titanic, because he could not bear to say goodbye to his mother.

The ill-fated story of Mr Givard inspired curator Jesper Hjermind and his niece, journalist and US resident Mette Hjermind McCall, to write the book Titanic – De Danske Fortaellinger (Titanic – The Danish Stories), in which the 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.

Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said: ‘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.

‘It was one of the centre pieces of the display of Titanic memorabilia in the Tivoli in Copenhagen in 2012 which illustrates its importance.

The watch was found when Givard’s body was recovered from the North Atlantic and he was later buried in Halifax, Canada

The gilded ladies’ pocket watch still bears the scars of the disaster, in the form of corrosion from coming into contact with salt water

‘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 Titanic on April 15 1912.’

The sale comes as a service in Belfast – where the Titanic was built – was held today to remember the victims of the sinking.

Lord mayor Micky Murray led the annual commemoration, which was attended by relatives of those who died, along with members of history group the Belfast Titanic Society. 

Marjorie Wilson, 84, whose grandfather William McQuillan, 26, from north Belfast had been working in the boiler room of the ship, was among the attendees.

She said: ‘He really shouldn’t have been there, but his mate’s wife was having a baby so my grandfather took his place.

‘He was washed ashore in Nova Scotia, the 183rd body to be brought ashore to Canada.’

She said she was about 12 and saw his name on the memorial, and her mother confirmed that was her grandfather.

They had all believed he was lost at sea until comparatively recently, when a local journalist discovered he had been buried in Canada and told Ms Wilson.

‘Most of my relatives died thinking he was at the bottom of the sea, even my own mother was surprised when I went up to tell her the BBC had found his grave – in those days there had been no communication,’ she said.

‘It gave her comfort to know that there was a grave.’

At just before midnight on April 14, 1912, the RMS Titanic hit an iceberg while travelling on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York. Within three hours, the ‘unsinkable’ ship had slipped beneath the waves of the freezing Atlantic Ocean, killing more than 1,500 people

DISASTER IN THE ATLANTIC: HOW MORE THAN 1,500 LOST THEIR LIVES WHEN THE TITANIC SUNK

The RMS Titanic sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on April 15, 1912, after colliding with an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York.

More than 1,500 people died when the ship, which was carrying 2,224 passengers and crew, sank under the command of Captain Edward Smith.

Some of the wealthiest people in the world were on board, including property tycoon John Jacob Astor IV, great grandson of John Jacob Astor, founder of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.

Constructed by Belfast-based shipbuilders Harland and Wolff between 1909 and 1912, the RMS Titanic was the largest ship afloat of her time

Millionaire Benjamin Guggenheim, heir to his family’s mining business, also perished, along with Isidor Straus, the German-born co-owner of Macy’s department store.

The ship was the largest afloat at the time and was designed in such a way that it was meant to be ‘unsinkable’.

It had an on-board gym, libraries, swimming pool and several restaurants and luxury first class cabins.

There were not enough lifeboats on board for all the passengers due to out-of-date maritime safety regulations.

After leaving Southampton on April 10, 1912, Titanic called at Cherbourg in France and Queenstown in Ireland before heading to New York.

On April 14, 1912, four days into the crossing, she hit an iceberg at 11:40pm local time.

James Moody was on night watch when the collision happened and took the call from the watchman, asking him: ‘What do you see?’ The man responded: ‘Iceberg, dead ahead.’

By 2.20am, with hundreds of people still on board, the ship plunged beneath the waves, taking many, including Moody, with it.

Despite repeated distress calls being sent out and flares launched from the decks, the first rescue ship, the RMS Carpathia, arrived nearly two hours later, pulling more than 700 people from the water.

It was not until 1985 that the wreck of the ship was discovered in two pieces on the ocean floor.