A life jacket worn by a survivor of the Titanic has sold for £670,000, or roughly $906,000, at an auction in Devizes, England, far outstripping its pre-sale estimate, according to CNN.
The flotation device belonged to Laura Mabel Francatelli, a first-class passenger who wore it while escaping the sinking ship on Lifeboat No. 1. It went under the hammer at Henry Aldridge & Son on a Saturday in April 2026, more than a century after the Titanic went down, and the sale was to be a momentous occasion as per multiple reports.
A rare survivor’s artifact
The jacket had been estimated to fetch between £250,000 and £350,000, or approximately $339,000 to $475,000, but sold for nearly double that figure to an unidentified telephone bidder, as reported by Fox News. It is believed to be one of only a handful of Titanic life jackets still in existence, and reports note it was the only one belonging to a survivor ever to be offered at auction.
Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge called the item a “once in a lifetime opportunity for collectors,” noting that it was “the only life jacket from a survivor to emerge at auction in 114 years.” Speaking to CNN ahead of the sale, Aldridge said the jacket was “without doubt one of the most iconic items from the Titanic ever to be offered for auction.”
Who was Laura Mabel Francatelli
Francatelli, 22 at the time of the disaster, boarded the Titanic in France while working as a secretary to fashion designer Lady Lucy Duff Gordon and her husband, Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon, as per CNN. She later recalled being helped into a life preserver and directed to the deck as the lifeboats were lowered.
Reports note that Francatelli was also the sister of novelist Elinor Glyn and went on to run fashion salons of her own in London, Paris and New York. The life jacket carries her signature along with those of seven other survivors from the same lifeboat.
The lifeboat controversy
Lifeboat No. 1 had a capacity of 40 but launched with only 12 people aboard, and it became a source of lasting controversy for failing to return and pick up additional survivors from the freezing Atlantic waters, as per CNN and the Jerusalem Post.
The boat carried approximately 710 of the roughly 2,220 people who were aboard the Titanic when it struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage and sank in under three hours, killing about 1,500 passengers and crew, according to reports.
The jacket had previously been on display at Titanic Belfast, a museum built on the former site of the shipyard that constructed the ship, and at the Titanic Museum in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, as per CNN. Aldridge told CNN that the seller “has decided it’s time to pass on the baton to another collector.”
Other Titanic memorabilia at the sale
The life jacket was the standout lot in a wider sale of Titanic artifacts. A seat cushion from one of the ship’s lifeboats, estimated at £120,000 to £180,000, sold for £390,000, or about $527,000, according to CNN. It was reportedly purchased by the owners of the Titanic museums in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and Branson, Missouri, who are expected to display it at their respective venues, as per Branson Today.
The record prices reveal an enduring public fascination with the Titanic even more than a century after its sinking. Reports point to other recent high-value sales of Titanic-linked memorabilia, including a gold pocket watch given to the captain of the RMS Carpathia, the ship that rescued more than 700 Titanic survivors, which sold for a record $1.97 million in 2024, according to Moneywise.
