Hi All,

I thought you might enjoy seeing this pairing. It is an Elgin pocket watch mechanism recovered from the wreck of the Cunard Greyhound R.M.S. Lusitania in September of 1982 with papers from Peter Boyd Smith of Cobwebs in Southampton. IIRC he was involved with the recovery and/or the sale of these limited items to the public.This rare recovered artifact is now inside a walnut pocket watch holder made from interior paneling of sister and running mate R.M.S. Mauretania if 1907.

I have never seen this done before. The pocket watch mechanism might be more "common" that the walnut box, despite its underwater origins. On the other hand, nothing is allowed to be recovered from Lusitania so the number of recovered items will only go down or stay the same at best. I have seen these mechanism boxes cleaned to bare shiny metal, which is a horror to even type. I have also seen them opened, which reduces the value considerably. 

Here is mine, along with a very rare fragment of a watertight door from Shelter Deck, also from the 1982 expedition, from the Collection of Eric Sauder, who has the largest single holding of recovered artifacts from this ship in the world, including the triple chime whistle from her first funnel, window frames from the Boat Deck and more like unbroken glass skylights.windows etc. 

To the right of that in the white case is Titanic rust from The Big Piece and a complete set of Elkington sterling souvenir spoons from Lusitania (1909), Mauretania (1907) and Aquitania (1914). The spoon on the far  left is a Lord Kitchener spoon, many of which sank with the Lusitania. The black framed photograph shows the mass graves at Old Church Cemetery in Cobh (formerly Queenstown), County Cork, summer, 1915. On the left is a section of molding from the Grand Staircase of Mauretania which I purchased from Commodore Warwick, ex-Commodore of the Cunard fleet.