A pocket watch that was thought to be lost to the depths of Lake Michigan has finally returned home to the UK.
British journalist and Liberal politician Herbert Ingram was on board the Lady Elgin, when it sank after colliding with a schooner in September 1860.
After the sinking, Ingram’s body was recovered, and he was returned to England, and buried in his hometown of Boston in Lincolnshire.
However, his pocket watch was long thought to have been lost forever until this year when it was recovered and is now on display in his hometown of Boston in Lincolnshire.
The watch was recovered from the shipwreck
WikICommons/Boston Guildhall Museum
Co-founder of the Michigan Shipwreck Research Association Valerie Van Heest said that the pocket watch needed to return to the UK.
She told Fox News: "Back in 1992, when my team was documenting the remains of the Lady Elgin scattered over more than a mile of lake bottom, other divers were visiting the site.
"The location had leaked, and a trio of divers I have just recently learned, came upon a pocket watch. A gold pocket watch, an extraordinary discovery."
"I very quickly came to the realization it doesn’t belong in America. It belongs in Boston where Herbert Ingram was from, where a statue of him still stands."
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Co-founder of the Michigan Shipwreck Research Association Valerie Van Heest with the pocketwatch
Boston Guildhall Museum
In an unveiling session on May 24, a spokesman from the museum said the watch had finally returned home.
In a post on social media, they said: "Today, Boston came together to honour the life and legacy of Herbert Ingram — journalist, reformer, and one of our town’s most influential figures, as his long-lost gold watch, recovered from the wreck of the Lady Elgin, was officially returned home.
"From a private tribute at his grave, to the ceremonial handover at the Ingram Memorial, to the powerful stories shared at Boston Guildhall — every moment was filled with reflection, pride, and awe."
The museum added: "Thank you to everyone who joined us today — in person and in spirit. Boston history is alive and ticking."
Boston Guildhall's arts and heritage manager Luke Skerrit said in statement: "This find is truly a once-in-a-lifetime discovery.
"It's the sort of thing you read about in textbooks and not something you expect to read in an email on a mid-week working day.”
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