Titanic Survivor's Life Jacket Fetches £670,000 — Linked To Lifeboat No. 1 That Left Dozens Behind

A life jacket worn by a first-class passenger as she fled the sinking Titanic was sold for £670,000 ($906,000) at an auction on Saturday, nearly double its pre-sale estimate and among the highest prices ever paid for an artefact from the 1912 disaster.

The flotation device belonged to Laura Mabel Francatelli, who was 22 when the ship went down. She boarded Lifeboat No. 1 with her employer, fashion designer Lady Lucy Duff Gordon, and Lady Lucy's husband, Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon. That lifeboat could hold 40 people. However, it was lowered into the North Atlantic with just 12 aboard, leaving 28 places unfilled, according to The Irish Times.

An anonymous telephone bidder won the lot at Henry Aldridge & Son in Devizes, western England. Auctioneers had expected the jacket to fetch between £250,000 and £350,000 ($338,000 to $474,000). It had never previously been offered at a public sale, making it a first-of-its-kind lot, the auction house said.

Made by Fosbery & Co, the cream-coloured vest is constructed from canvas panels stuffed with cork, divided into 12 individual pockets with straps at the sides and padded rests across the shoulders. It remains one of a small number of surviving Titanic life jackets where the original wearer can be identified. Eight fellow survivors from the lifeboat added their signatures to it after the rescue, including firemen Charles Hendrickson and George Taylor and able seaman James Horswill, according to the auctioneers.

Why Lifeboat No. 1 Became the Titanic's Most Controversial Boat

Francatelli was working as Lady Lucy's secretary when the Titanic hit an iceberg shortly before midnight on 14 April 1912, during its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York. She later recalled being helped into the life jacket and guided to the deck as the crew prepared the boats.

What happened next drew public fury that persists to this day. The 12 occupants of Lifeboat No. 1 did not turn back to pull people from the water after the ship disappeared beneath the surface. Formal inquiries in both Britain and the United States later examined the decision. Around 1,500 people died that night.

The jacket has since been exhibited at museums in the United States and across Europe.

Lifeboat Cushion and Drowning Victim's Watch Among Other Titanic Lots

The sale featured 344 lots in total. Around 15 came directly from the ship itself, and roughly half of all items in the catalogue were connected to the Titanic story in some form, The Irish Times noted.

A canvas seat cushion pulled from one of the ship's lifeboats, still fitted with an original Titanic plaque in the shape of the White Star Line's burgee flag, went for £390,000 ($527,000). The Titanic Museum Attraction, which runs locations in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and Branson, Missouri, purchased the cushion and plans to put it on public display, according to Fox News.

An 18-carat gold pocket watch taken from the body of first-class passenger Frederick Sutton fetched £180,000 ($243,000). Sutton, 61, was a property developer from Suffolk who had settled in New Jersey. He had been in England for health reasons and was sailing home when the ship went down. His body was buried at sea, but his personal effects were recovered by the MacKay-Bennett, the cable ship dispatched to collect the dead. The watch remained with his descendants until this sale.

'These record-breaking prices reflect the ongoing interest in not only the Titanic story, but also her passengers and crew,' Andrew Aldridge, managing director of the auction house, said after the sale.

The life jacket did not, however, set a new record for Titanic memorabilia. That distinction belongs to a gold pocket watch once presented to Arthur Rostron, captain of the rescue ship RMS Carpathia, which picked up more than 700 survivors after the sinking. The Rostron watch sold for £1.56 million ($2 million) in 2024, according to Fox News.

Saturday's auction fell on the 114th anniversary of the Carpathia's arrival in New York harbour on 18 April 1912, with survivors onboard. All final sale prices included the buyer's premium.