Violin from Titanic band found

London - The violin from the music band that continued to play even as the Titanic sank has been found. The instrument was handed over to the musician's fiancee after he died on the ship.

Tests are being conducted to check whether the violin actually belonged to Titanic band master Wallace Hartley, who died along with the rest of his eight-man band, the Daily Mail reported.

After the Titanic sank April 15, 1912, the band leader was reportedly found with the violin strapped to his chest.

But there has been no later mention of the instrument, and its whereabouts remained a mystery ever since.

Hartley's fiancee Maria Robinson was given the instrument after the ship sank.

The bodies of the band leader and two other musicians were pulled from the water by a search crew and taken to Nova Scotia, Canada.

Violinist John Law Hume from Dumfries, Scotland, and bass player John Frederick Preston Clarke from Liverpool were laid to rest in Halifax. Hartley's body was repatriated to Britain and buried at Colne, Lancashire, where he was born.

Possessions like his clothes, spare change, ring, pen, silver matchbox, gold cigar holder, watch and chain, collar stud and a pair of scissors were handed back to Hartley's father, but the violin was not found.

Maria Robinson never married and died in 1939. The unnamed owner now says Robinson retrieved the violin after Hartley's death.

Robinson left a 1912 diary where she had drafted a letter to authorities in Nova Scotia thanking them for having sent the violin to her.

The violin was stored in a brown leather case with the initials W.H.H stamped on it, and an inscription read: "For Wallace on the occasion of our engagement from Maria."