Worn by first class passenger Laura Mabel Francatelli, this is the only life jacket used by a Titanic survivor that's ever been sold.
Henry Aldridge & SonsThe life jacket worn by Laura Mabel Francatelli during the 1912 sinking of the Titanic.
On the night of April 14, 1912, Laura Mabel Francatelli was getting ready for bed aboard the RMS Titanic when she heard a great crash.
She soon made her way to the ship’s deck, where she got into a lifeboat and watched in shock as the Titanic sank into the cold, dark waters of the North Atlantic. Now, the life jacket that Francatelli was wearing on that infamous night more than a century ago has sold at auction for $906,000.
Though there were more than 3,000 life jackets on the Titanic that night, most of them have been lost to history, while the handful that survived have made their way into museums. Francatelli’s is the only life jacket from a Titanic survivor to ever be sold at auction, and it stands as a haunting artifact from one of the most infamous disasters in modern history.
The Story Behind Laura Mabel Francatelli’s Titanic Life Jacket
Laura Mabel Francatelli was a passenger on the maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic as it made its way from Southampton, England to New York City. Francatelli was traveling in first class with her employer, the famous fashion designer Lady Lucy Duff-Gordon, and Lucy’s husband, Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon.
Encyclopedia TitanicaTitanic survivor Laura Mabel Francatelli, pictured shortly after her rescue.
As Francatelli later wrote in a letter, she felt the Titanic strike the iceberg as she prepared for bed on the night of April 14, 1912. There was a “crash,” she wrote, which “shook me, as well as everything else in my room.”
Francatelli left her room and was told that the ship had hit an iceberg — but that there was no danger. However, the mood on the ship suggested otherwise. People were running up and down the stairs, and, as Francatelli made her way to her employer’s cabin, she noticed water in the corridors.
ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty ImagesThe Titanic at Southampton, shortly before the beginning of its maiden voyage. April 10, 1912.
As Lucy Duff-Gordon got dressed, a man came by and instructed them to put on life preservers. According to Henry Aldridge & Son, which oversaw the recent sale of the life jacket, this rare relic “comprises of twelve cork-filled pockets of canvas with shoulder rests and side straps.” To Francatelli, putting it on drove home the peril of their current situation. “I felt myself go like marble,” she wrote in her letter, “but Madame [Duff-Gordon] and I prayed together for God to look after us and keep us safe, if it was his will.”
Then the three of them made their way to the ship’s deck, where many people were already being ordered into lifeboats.
“I said to Sir Cosmo, ‘I believe we are sinking,'” Francatelli recalled in her letter. “He said, ‘Nonsense, come away.'”
How Laura Mabel Francatelli Survived The Sinking Of The Titanic
National ArchivesOne of the Titanic lifeboats, much like the one carried Laura Mabel Francatelli.
As Francatelli recounted, she and Lucy Duff-Gordon were offered a spot in the lifeboats, but they refused to leave Cosmo behind. The three of them were ultimately ordered into one of the last lifeboats to leave the ship — Lifeboat No. 1 — alongside “two other American gentlemen” and seven crew members. And it was from this perspective, about 200 yards away from the Titanic, that Francatelli watched as the great ship sank into the ocean.
“We saw the whole thing, and watched that tremendous thing quickly sink,” Francatelli recounted in her letter. “There was then terrible, terrible explosions, and all darkness. Then followed the awful cries and screams of the 1,600 dear souls, fighting for their lives in the water. Oh, never shall I forget that awful night, floating about the ocean in this little boat, freezing cold, and listening to this terrible suffering.”
Francatelli and the others in her lifeboat, however, did not row back toward the scene to rescue others, even though their boat could have taken more aboard — a decision that later sparked some controversy. Ultimately, some 1,500 people died in the sinking; Francatelli and the other survivors were rescued by the RMS Carpathia a few hours later.
Henry Aldridge & SonsLaura Mabel Francatelli’s life jacket from the Titanic has now sold for $906,000.
Aboard that ship, Francatelli and seven other survivors from Lifeboat No. 1 all signed her life jacket. Their faded signatures are still visible to this day.
The life jacket itself had been kept out of the public eye for decades. It wasn’t until 20 years ago that a private collector acquired the life jacket from Francatelli’s family.
Now, this rare life jacket has become yet another remarkable artifact from the sinking of the Titanic to fetch an astonishing price at auction.
After reading about the Titanic life jacket that sold at auction for almost $1 million, learn about the wreck of the Titanic. Then, read about Edward Smith, the captain of the Titanic, who some blame for the ship’s catastrophic sinking.
