Lost lifebelts
According to an inventory taken on December 11th, 1912, by the C.M. Lane Lifeboat company of New York, a total of 278 lifebelts were in storage alongside the contents of the remaining Titanic lifeboats brought to Pier 59 by the Carpathia earlier that April. Each lifebelt was valued firstly at $1.50 apiece, with that amount being later reduced to just $.50 each. Given the sheer number of surviving lifebelts inventoried at the time, it is probable, if not highly likely, that more Titanic lifebelts remain in existence with their whereabouts unknown.
Lucy, Lady Duff Gordon’s lifebelt
Lucy, Lady Duff Gordon was an occupant of Lifeboat 1, the famous “Money Boat." Lady Duff Gordon saved her lifebelt, but it has since been lost following her death and has not been found.[1]
A newspaper account stated that during the Titanic enquiries it was said that Lady Duff Gordon had her lifebelt signed by the occupants of Boat 1. It is well known that Lucy was an avid autograph collector. In her autobiography Discretions and Indiscretions she wrote, “After dinner, we went to the lounge where we met Mr. and Mrs. Edgar Meyer. I had my little autograph book with me and I got them to write in it.”
In her book it is also stated that she had her lifebelt signed by the occupants of Boat 1: “On our second day aboard Carpathia, Cosmo and I were discussing our terrible night in the boat when he said suddenly “Oh by the way I must not forget that I promised those poor fellows a fiver each towards a new kit. I shall write them checks and give them out tomorrow.” “Yes indeed, they deserve it for the way they kept their courage up.” I answered, “I am going to ask them all to write their names on my lifebelt before we get ashore for I should like to keep it in memory to our wonderful escape.”
The following day, April 17th, the crewmen who had manned Boat 1 received their checks, and Frank Blackmarr took a photograph of the group together. Lucy wrote after the men received their checks: “Then they came to say goodbye to me and wrote their names on my lifebelt, Symons, Hendrickson, Taylor, Collins, Sheath and Horswill. I have kept it ever since.”
[1] https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/discus/messages/5811/119449.html?1179333031
In 1932, when Lady Duff Gordon’s memoirs were published, her lifebelt was photographed by the London Daily Sketch (see right).
It can be seen that J. Taylor had signed one of the small pockets on Lady Duff Gordon's lifebelt. He wrote on fellow Boat 1 survivor Laura Mabel Francatelli’s lifebelt on the lower-right pocket on the back, as well as signing what is presumed to be Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon’s lifebelt in a similar fashion.
According to the family the lifebelt was no longer with her possessions at the time of her death.
-Photograph from the collection of Randy Bryan Bigham.
Above, article Sunday Times (Sydney) Sunday, June 30th 1912.
Lifebelt saved by Ned Farquhar
Here is a photograph showing former CS Mackay-Bennett crewman Ned Farquhar where he stands outside of his home in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia holding a framed portrait of Titanic and wearing a lifebelt recovered from the body of a victim of the disaster, circa 1955. More than four decades before, Farquhar had been one of the roughly seventy sailors who boarded the small cable ship at Halifax on April 17th, 1912, their vessel being the first of four hired by the White Star Line to recover the drifting dead at the site of Titanic’s loss. Over the course of a grueling, cheerless and physically difficult week at the scene, the men of Mackay-Bennett eventually recovered 306 of Titanic’s dead, a number of them found having drifted more than a hundred miles from the disaster site. The current whereabouts of this Titanic life vest are unknown.
Photo credit David Johnson
Another lifebelt lost to time
Almost two months after the Titanic disaster on June 8th, 1912, the steamer Ilford was travelling from the United States to Hamburg when it passed a body at sea. The ship stopped, the body was taken aboard and its lifebelt removed. According to items found on the body, it was identified as that of Chief Steward F. Chiverton. His body was buried at sea and his possessions were sent to his family. The lifebelt stayed aboard the Ilford as a relic of the Titanic disaster. What became of the lifebelt is unknown.
Left, an article from The Border Watch (Mount Gambier South Australia), Wednesday, April 23rd, 1913.
Missing cork fragments
While reading through numerous newspaper archives it can be seen that many lifebelts were being cut up for souvenirs. An article in The Barre Daily Times of Saturday, April 20th, 1912, stated that the crew of Mackay – Bennett “busied themselves for three hours yesterday cutting up life preservers that were brought aboard. These will be sold as souvenirs.” This would point to the prospect that there may be a lot of pieces of lifebelt around, their whereabouts unknown.
According to a copy of The Venice Daily Vanguard dated Thursday, May 16th , 1912, one of these souvenir pieces ended up in Venice, New York.
Furthermore, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer of Friday, August 23rd, 1912, another piece ended up in the hands of George C. Kirwin, transfer clerk of the Merchant and Miners’ Transport Company, based in Baltimore.
Another piece of cork measuring 3½ x 2½ x 2 inches was given to ferryboat Captain Abbot, living in Madison, Pensylvania, sent by his friend W.B. Waterman from Nova Scotia, who got it from a friend who was a boatswain on Mackay – Bennett, according to The Madison Daily Herald of March 3rd , 1916.
Maak jouw eigen website met JouwWeb