The gripping catastrophe that was the sinking of the Titanic continues to fascinate us even as the actual event fades more than a century into history. So great was the human loss that the stories are seemingly endless. This is about the bandmaster of the Titanic, Wallace Hartley, who with his colleagues continued to play as a solace to doomed passengers. Hartley and his fellow musicians died with those still aboard when the ship broke in two and disappeared. Now the violin that Hartley was playing that night in 1912 has been auctioned off in London for the equivalent of $1.5 million. At the left is the actual bidding. At right, an excellent story from CBS done before the auction in which the story is told in full, including how the violin survived, and how the instrument’s authenticity was established.
