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A life jacket worn by a Titanic survivor sold for more than $900,000 at auction Saturday, far exceeding expectations and highlighting the enduring fascination with the doomed ship.
The flotation device — believed to be one of only a handful of Titanic life jackets still in existence — was used by first-class passenger Laura Mabel Francatelli during the ship’s 1912 sinking and was the only one of its kind ever offered at auction.
It sold for 670,000 pounds, or roughly $906,000, including fees, at Henry Aldridge & Son auctioneers in Devizes, England, to an unidentified telephone bidder.
The final price far surpassed its estimated range of about $339,000 to $475,000.
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A Titanic life-preserver, belonging to a survivor is shown in London, Wednesday, May 16, 2007. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)
Other items sold at the auction included a seat cushion from a Titanic lifeboat, which fetched about $527,000 and was purchased by the owners of Titanic museums in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and Branson, Missouri.
“These record-breaking prices illustrate the continuing interest in the Titanic story, and the respect for the passengers and crew whose stories are immortalized by these items of memorabilia,” auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said.
Francatelli wore the life jacket as she boarded Lifeboat No. 1 with 11 others after the Titanic — described at the time as “practically unsinkable” — struck an iceberg just before midnight on April 14, 1912, off Newfoundland during its maiden voyage from England to New York.
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A rare Titanic artifact, a survivor’s life jacket, sold for more than $900,000 to a private bidder, auctioneers said. (BNPS)
She and seven other survivors from the same lifeboat later signed the item.
Francatelli, then 22, had boarded the Titanic in France while working as a secretary to fashion designer Lady Lucy Duff Gordon and her husband, Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon.
She later recalled being helped into a life preserver and directed to the deck as lifeboats were lowered. Lifeboat No. 1, which had a capacity of 40, became controversial for failing to return to pick up additional survivors from the freezing Atlantic waters.
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Francatelli wore the life jacket while boarding Lifeboat No. 1 after the Titanic hit an iceberg shortly before midnight on April 14, 1912. (BNPS)
The cream-colored life jacket, made of canvas with cork-filled sections, has been displayed at museums in the United States and Europe.
While the item fetched a high price, it fell short of the record for Titanic memorabilia. In 2024, a gold pocket watch given to the captain of the RMS Carpathia — the ship that rescued more than 700 survivors — sold for 1.56 million pounds, or nearly $2 million at the time.
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Titanic passenger Isidor Straus and his gold pocket watch that is up for auction (Bettmann/Getty Images)
Saturday’s auction took place 114 years after the Carpathia arrived in New York with Titanic survivors on April 18, 1912.
Digital’s Kelly McGreal and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
