A Russian passenger, Sinai Kantor, drowned on the Titanic’s fatal journey. His body was recovered eight days later, embalmed, identified, and then buried in New York. His wife survived the trip. At the time, he had an open-face pocket watch with Hebrew numerals in his pocket. It is 3 inches in diameter, unmarked, but it has a Swiss-made movement. The back of the watch has an embossed design of Moses holding the Ten Commandments. Besides the pocket watch, Kantor’s wife also recovered his clothing, passport, notebook, wallets, money, a telescope and a corkscrew. The watch, stained and not working, was sold at a Heritage auction for $57,500. The successful bidder owns several other watches that were retrieved after the Titanic disaster. The Kantor watch was accompanied by a letter of provenance from the descendant and other related papers.
The night the Titanic Sank, survivors spoke of a mystery ship that appeared in the distance but sailed away. That same evening the Norwegian sealing vessel, Samson, was harvesting seals off the coast of Newfoundland. The captain, fearful of breaking international law, warned his crew to watch for government vessels. When a large ship signaled them and then sent up flares, he extinguished his lights and sailed off. That ship was later re-named the City of New York and used by Admiral Byrd as his flagship for his Antarctic expedition. It was eventually wrecked off Yarmouth, Nova Scotia in the 1950s. The name plate from the ship, a bell and piece of rail are displayed at the Yarmouth County Museum in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia – artifacts that were unknowing witnesses to the sinking of the Titanic.