Rare Titanic lifejacket fetches $715,000 in historic sale

A lifejacket belonging to a passenger of the cruise liner Titanic has been sold at auction for $715,000 (over 54 million rubles), TASS reports, citing the auction house Henry Aldridge & Son.

It is one of the few surviving life jackets from the ship that sank in the Atlantic Ocean. It was first put up for auction in the town of Devizes in Wiltshire, England.

According to the agency, the lifejacket belonged to first-class passenger Laura Mabel Francatelli. She wore it when boarding a lifeboat after the Titanic struck an iceberg. She later signed the lifejacket along with other surviving passengers who were with her in the lifeboat.

The Francatelli family kept the item for decades before it was acquired by a private collector.

In addition to the lifejacket, the auction also included a newspaper photograph showing Francatelli surrounded by other lifeboat passengers, as well as a photocopy of her letter describing the disaster.

By Jeyhun Aghazada