The watches belonged to Thomas & Ada Hewitt. You can see the couple in the photograph. They lived in the Orrell Park area of
Liverpool. These watches were gifts to each other on their wedding day in 1902. You may be able to see that Ada is wearing
hers on her shirt in this photo. The back of Tom's watch was engraved with, 'From Ada to Tom 16-9-02'.
Thomas served on ships that sailed from Liverpool. However when he got a job as a bedroom steward on RMS Titanic the family planned to move to Southampton, Titanic's homeport.
As part of his journey from home to his ship he would take the train from Orrell Park into Liverpool city centre, each time taken to the station by Ada and their son and daughter. On his last train journey from Orrell Park station, on his way to Southampton to meet up with Titanic, he waved to his family until they were out of sight. After the disaster, Ada wondered whether he had had a premonition, as it was the only time he had waved to them like that.
When Titanic sank, after being hit by an iceberg at 11:40pm on 14th April 1912, Tom was one of over 1500 people who lost their lives.
Tom's body was recovered, but Ada was now a widow with two children to raise and could not afford to have him shipped back
to Liverpool. He is believed to be buried in Halifax, Nova Scotia (on the east coast of Canada).
It is said that Thomas managed to pass his watch to a stewardess who was leaving Titanic. She later returned it to Ada and
their two children in Liverpool.
Yes, there is a special gallery at the Merseyside Maritime Museum which looks at the Titanic, plus two other shipping disasters; the Lusitania and the Empress of Ireland.
There you can see this model of RMS Titanic. It is a unique 1:48 scale, full builders' model of the ship. It is 20 feet long and weighs over a ton.
The White Star Line, owner of RMS Titanic, commissioned the model from Harland & Wolff Ltd, the Belfast shipyard that built the full size ship. It was completed in 1910-12, before RMS Titanic had set sail on her maiden voyage.
It was altered twice by Harlands, first to represent RMS Britannic and then RMS Olympic (both sister ships to Titanic). It was given to World Museum Liverpools in 1951 by the Lancashire Aircraft Corporation, and restored as RMS Titanic for the Merseyside Maritime Museum in 1982. It now retains features of each of the three ships it has represented.
This model was used at Pinewood Studios in 1957 for research during production of 'A Night To Remember', starring Kenneth More.
