In October 2022 one of our contacts mentioned having seen a lifebelt in Plymouth, England, some years ago. Not having heard about a lifebelt in Plymouth we gladly accepted her offer to contact the owner and bring him in touch with us. He supplied us with new photographs of his lifebelt. After comparing these with the known ones we could certainly say this was another lifebelt previously unknown to us.

Sadly, not much could be told about its history. The current owner has had the lifebelt for about thirty years. He saved it from going to a landfill, having discovered it in a bin in an alleyway behind a charity shop. He took it at the time to the local museum and then the life boat station, the operators of which had little interest and couldn’t tell him much more about it than was obvious, that it was an old, obsolete cork and canvas lifebelt. Since there was no internet at that time the current owner couldn’t do much more with it and kept it in storage under his bed. About ten years ago he had an acrylic stand made for it, upon which it’s been displayed in his home since. 

The lifebelt appeared identical in every aspect to the ones saved from Titanic, but we could not be sure it was from the Titanic herself since Fosbery delivered their lifebelts to both British and foreign governments and not just to the White Star Line or Titanic. To help with further narrowing it down we did some more research into the Fosbery overhead-style lifebelts. In 1910 the company placed an advertisement in which they promoted their lifesaving equipment as being up to date with the 1908 Board of Trade rules. But it made no mention of the overhead lifebelt.

We know the design was supplied to Olympic, so they must have been manufactured in or before 1911. Fosbery’s "overhead" type were still mentioned in advertisements from 1914 and mid-1915 but no later. They were seemingly out of production by mid-1915.

Since it would not be practical to replace a ship's entire complement with new lifebelts every time a new or improved design was offered, we can assume this lifebelt had to have come off a relatively new ship built between 1911 and early 1915.

As Plymouth hosts the largest naval base in Western Europe, nearby in Devonport, it might have been assumed that the lifebelt originated from one of the naval vessels. But why would anybody save a lifebelt from a naval ship?

It became doubtful that anyone would keep and preserve a plain, unmarked lifebelt from back then unless it meant something to the person. It would likely only mean something and have some sentimental value if the wearer was in a serious incident and wore it for some time and not just during a brief lifeboat drill. After the shock of Lusitania's loss in the spring of 1915, wartime sinkings unfortunately became relatively commonplace. People who survived such calamities usually wanted to put the horrific experience behind them; it was wartime. We could assume that a lifebelt would only be kept and preserved if the owner went through a particularly notable or memorable disaster.

After being made aware that he owned a lifebelt that is identical to those worn off Titanic, the owner embarked on a quest to find out more about the artifact's provenance. He tried to go back to the charity shop which had been on Union Street, but it had closed years ago and he could not get any information about the previous owners of the building.

Knowing it might be a long shot, he decided to post flyers around town and on social media. Ken Marschall whipped up a colorful ad, sent it to the owner, who went to work. Perhaps a previous owner would recognize the lifebelt or somebody else could tell us more about its history.

Now all we could do is wait and hope that someone may come forward with helpful information.

To the surprise of all of us, several people contacted him. Three of them shared an interesting story.

A gentleman telephoned him and said this ‘life jacket’ – or one identical – was kept in a warehouse office where he worked which was on Bath Place just off of Union Street, the very street where the current owner later found it. This was in the late 1960s – early 1970s. Interestingly, the man added that in the same warehouse with the lifebelt was a woolen jumper with "White Star Line" written on the front, both kept in a large canvas laundry sack. He was in no doubt that other people who worked there would remember this too. 

Another gentleman contacted him who was involved in redeveloping the same area of Plymouth in the early 1990s. While clearing warehouses in that area he and his coworkers donated items found to the local charity shop on Union Street. He and a friend of his both remember taking this lifebelt, among other things, down to the very same shop in a wheelbarrow.  

Research on the lifebelt continued, and we corresponded about having salt-water diatom testing done to see whether it had been exposed directly to seawater.  Meanwhile, a third gentleman who had seen the ad came forth and contacted the current owner. He confirmed the warehouse story but also could tell us that a foot-long metal plate with “TITANIC” lettered on it accompanied the lifebelt and jumper. After showing him a photograph of a Titanic lifeboat nameplate the gentleman confirmed that it is exactly what he remembered. The nameplate was kept in a toolbox, he said, but since the premises closed in 1972 the whereabouts of this plate is currently unknown. It has seemingly been lost to history.

Curious about stamps on the lifebelt, we asked the current owner if he could make out any remnants of markings that might have faded away. He went outside and looked at his lifebelt in clear daylight more closely than he ever had before. He could see no indications that there had ever been any imprints on it, but he did notice for the first time what looked like some faint pencil inscriptions. He could just make out what appeared to be “TSS TITAN.” There was a smudge where an “I” and “C” might be. Ken Marschall urged the owner to have the cork pocket scanned in different directions for better visibility. After doing some blending and enhancements on the scans the complete inscription could be read for the first time in decades.

The best of the scans done in four cardinal directions (left), and Ken Marschall's tracing over the inscriptions he could just barely discern.

Now with these markings on one of the cork blocks of a lifebelt once stored in a linen sack with a woolen White Star Line jumper, accompanied by no less than a Titanic lifeboat nameplate, we have a case of overwhelming circumstantial evidence. Another surviving Titanic lifebelt had been rediscovered.

In the meantime, the results of the salinity test came back and proved that the presumed crewmember lifebelt had once been splashed with – or in – ocean water. So whoever wore this was actually in the icy sea at least briefly and was one of the lucky few to be able to crawl aboard and balance atop overturned Collapsible B or be rescued by a lifeboat.

Both Marschall and the owner have separately been able to barely make out the words "STRUCK ICE" in normal daylight wavelengths, and we are confident that this is what is written, in addition to the other markings which are more evident. Hoping to expose the faint pencil writing better, the cork panel was also examined under ultraviolet (UV) light which was of no help. The owner intends on pursuing further forensic exams under other light sources such as infrared in the hope that the inscriptions can be further enhanced.