A life jacket worn by a passenger who escaped the sinking of the RMS Titanic sold for £670,000 ($906,000) at a Saturday auction. The flotation vest belonged to Laura Mabel Francatelli, a first-class passenger, and is inscribed by her and other survivors from the same lifeboat.
The item was the standout piece in a sale of Titanic memorabilia conducted by Henry Aldridge & Son in Devizes, western England, and exceeded its pre-sale estimate of £250,000 to £350,000 when an unidentified telephone bidder secured it. Prices reported include the auction house’s buyer’s premium.
Also sold was a lifeboat seat cushion, which brought £390,000 ($527,000). That lot was bought by the owners of two Titanic museums in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and Branson, Missouri.
Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said the strong results demonstrate the lasting public interest in the Titanic and a continued respect for the passengers and crew whose stories are preserved through such artifacts.
The Titanic, promoted as the world’s most luxurious ocean liner and described at the time as “practically unsinkable,” struck an iceberg off Newfoundland on its maiden voyage from England to New York and sank in the early hours of April 15, 1912. Of roughly 2,200 passengers and crew aboard, about 1,500 died.
The ship’s appeal endures in part because of the wide cross-section of people on board, from impoverished emigrants to wealthy elites. Francatelli was traveling with fashion designer Lucy Duff Gordon and her husband, Cosmo Duff Gordon. The three escaped in Lifeboat No. 1, which launched with just 12 people despite a 40-person capacity; the boat’s failure to return to pick up others in the water later sparked controversy.
The record price paid for Titanic memorabilia remains £1.56 million (nearly $2 million at the time), paid in 2024 for a gold pocket watch presented to the captain of the Carpathia, the ship that rescued about 700 Titanic survivors.