Titanic's unsinkable stoker's watch sells for nearly £4k

A pocket watch belonging to a stoker who survived four shipwrecks, including the Titanic and its sister ship Britannic, has sold at auction for nearly £4,000.

The watch was gifted to Arthur John Priest who was nicknamed the "unsinkable" stoker after he survived the sinking of four ships in just five years.

Described as "quite a rare, amazing find", Bespoke Auctions' senior auctioneer Nicholas Granger said the watch had attracted quite a lot of interest from prospective buyers ahead of the auction.

With a starting bid of £3,000, it went under the hammer at Sudeley Castle in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire and was sold for £3,800.

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According to accounts of his life, John Priest worked his entire life as a member of the so-called "black gang", shovelling coal in the boiler rooms of steam-powered ships.

Between 1912 and 1917, he survived multiple sinkings including the RMS Titanic in 1912, RMS Alcantara in 1916, HMHS Britannic in 1916 and SS Donegal in 1917.

When the Titanic sank he was in the bowels of the ship but despite the odds of surviving being against him, he was rescued from the sea suffering from frostbitten toes and an injured leg.

The inscription on the pocket watch suggests it was presented to Priest as a thank you for saving the life of a man when the Britannic sank after striking a mine in the Aegean Sea in 1916.

A year later, after sustaining a head injury when SS Donegal sank in 1917, Priest retired from his life at sea and died in Southampton on 11 February 1937.

"He got a bit of a name for himself as the unlucky sailor, and some people actually didn't want to sail with him in the end," said Granger.

"Auctioneering is a bit like a treasure hunt, and when these things come along, it's amazing the amount of interest we get, because these are parts of history."

Priest's watch is not the only object at the auction that survived the Titanic - a silver cigarette case, recovered from the body of a steward on board, sold for £5,700.

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