Life jacket of Titanic survivor sold for $900K at auction
A life jacket from a survivor of the Titanic tragedy sold at auction on Saturday for $906,000, and was among a collection of other artifacts from the doomed ocean liner. Photo courtesy Henry Aldridge & Sons
April 18 (UPI) — The only life jacket worn by a person who survived the sinking of the Titanic ever put up for auction was sold for $906,000 on Saturday.
The jacket, which was worn by Laura Mabel Francatelli, a passenger in first class who boarded lifeboat number 1, sold for nearly twice the roughly $473,000 it was expected to sell for., and reported.
The life jacket, sold during an auction that also included a handful of other Titanic artifacts, was sold by Henry Aldridge & Sons in Britain to the Titanic Museum and Attraction in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., and Branson, Mo., auctioneer Andrew Aldredge told The BBC.
Aldridge said that the life jacket is the only one from a survivor that has been offered for auction since the ill-fated ship set sale 114 years ago.
“It reflects the ongoing interest and passion for the story of the Titanic, and its passengers and crew,” he said, calling the opportunity to buy it a “once in a lifetime opportunity for collectors.”
Francatelli, who at the time of the sinking was husband of Sir Cosmo Edmund Duff-Gorden, a Scottish landowner and the 5th Baronet of Halkin, was the sister of novelist Elinor Glyn, and herself a famous dress designer who ran several famous salons in London, Paris and New York, according to Aldridge & Sons’ auction listing.
Her survival has carries slight controversy because the lifeboat that her husband shepherded several people onto as the Titanic was going down – for reasons that remain the subject of questions – lowered from the ship with only 12 people aboard, despite having room for 40.
The Titanic Museum and Attraction, which The Independent also reported purchased the life jacket, has since March 2025 had on display five of the 14 known life jackets to have survived the sinking, it said.
Most recently, the life jacket has been on display not only at the Pigeon Forge museum, but also at Titanic Belfast, a museum in Ireland.
