Life jacket worn by a passenger who survived the Titanic auctioned off for over $900,000

LONDON — A life jacket worn by a passenger on the RMS Titanic as she escaped from the sinking steamer on a lifeboat sold at auction on Saturday for £670,000 ($906,000).

The flotation device was worn by Laura Mabel Francatelli, a first class passenger on the ill-fated ocean liner, and was signed by her and other survivors from the same lifeboat.

It was the star among the items sold for Titanic memorabilia by Henry Aldridge & Son Auctions in Devizes, western England, and sold to an anonymous telephone bidder for well over its pre-sale estimate of £250,000-£350,000.

A seat cushion from one of the Titanic lifeboats was sold at the same auction for 390,000 pounds ($527,000) to the owners of two museums in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and Branson, Missouri.

Prices include the auction house fee known as the buyer’s premium.

Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said: “These record prices demonstrate the continuing interest in the story of the Titanic, and the respect for the passengers and crew whose stories are immortalized in these pieces of memorabilia.”

The Titanic, described as the world’s most luxurious ocean liner and being “virtually unsinkable”, struck an iceberg off Newfoundland during its maiden voyage from England to New York. She sank within hours on April 15, 1912. About 1,500 of the 2,200 passengers and crew died.

The Titanic remains a subject of global interest, in part because of the diversity of passengers on board, from the poor to the wealthy.

Francatelli was traveling with her employer, fashion designer Lucy Duff Gordon, and Lucy’s husband, Cosmo Duff Gordon. All three survived in Lifeboat No. 1, which was launched with 12 people on board despite its capacity of 40 people. His failure to retrieve survivors from the icy waters became a source of controversy.

The record auction price for a piece of Titanic memorabilia is £1.56 million (about $2 million at the time) paid in 2024 for a gold pocket watch given to the captain of the RMS Carpathia, the ship that rescued 700 Titanic survivors.