In September 2001 an anonymous UK-based collector bought some White Star Line items from another collector in Liverpool. Among them were several items from the Arabic which sank in 1915 during the First World War. In this collection was a Fosbery lifebelt, so it was assumed that the lifebelt also came from the Arabic.

Sometime after the initial publication of the lifebelt article in Titanic Post, I was introduced to a woman whose friend had a lifebelt in his collection. After having received some photographs for studying, I shared them with Ken Marschall who had assisted with the first article. It was he who, in the first low-resolution photos I had received, noticed faint writing on some of the cork blocks. He could not read all of it, but he could see the number 15 in two places of the inscriptions. I took another look at the photographs and instantly recognized one of the markings. It reads, “Saved 15 April, J. Taylor, Fireman, Oarsman”. I had seen this very wording before, so I looked for the photographs of the Francatelli and the Lady Duff Gordon lifebelts, where I saw it again, the same name and the same handwriting.

If this was correct this wasn’t an Arabic lifebelt at all but another one that was in lifeboat No. 1 of the Titanic. Taking a closer look at new, higher-resolution photographs, I noticed another name – "R. Pusey" – Robert Pusey, a Titanic crewmember. Mr. Marschall had partially recognized another inscription on the top left cork block reading, “Saved 15 April, 1912, rowboat 1.” But under that I noticed a name, none other than Francatelli herself. All survivors of the Titanic disaster. It had to be a Titanic lifebelt. All the inscriptions were written in pencil which would have stood out more prominently when the linen was new and almost white.

Without telling the contact about our findings I enquired about the backstory of this lifebelt and was told the collector had bought it from a Liverpool military and maritime collector who had purchased it about twenty-five years prior, about 1976, from a London house clearance.

After hearing this, I decided to check the background of all occupants of boat 1. Did anyone connected live in London during the 1970s?

We found two possible owners for the lifebelt which could have resulted in such a house clearance around 1976:

Crewman Charles Hendrickson, also in boat 1, had been living in London after the Titanic disaster. His widow died there in 1979. The second possibility was none other than Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon’s stepdaughter Esme, Dowager Countess of Halsbury, who died there in 1973. Could she have had Sir Cosmo’s lifebelt in her possession?

We needed to find out if Sir Cosmo had saved his lifebelt. Randy Bigham, a leading expert on the Duff Gordon family, was contacted to ask for his input. He found a letter[1], assumed to be written to Elinor Glyn, sister of Lady Lucy Duff Gordon, from their attorney Bainbridge Colby. It reads:  

“...We had a period of great anxiety here until their names appeared on the list of survivors. I met the Carpathia on its arrival. It was a most solemn and tense moment when its gangplank was thrown ashore. Sir Cosmo and her Ladyship sauntered off in apparently excellent condition of health and courage. Their baggage consisted of two lifebelts which they are preserving as mementos of their terrible experience...”  

Now we knew Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon had indeed saved his lifebelt.

Mr. Bigham went on to say, "… the possibility that this lifejacket belonged to one of the members of Boat 1's crew, I think, is a slim one. I know of no mentions that Titanic crewmen Symons or Hendrickson kept their lifejackets or that they asked the others to sign them. I feel they would not have asked the Duff Gordons to sign them, although I am sure the couple would have done so if asked.”  

Günter Bäbler also did some background research into Mr. Hendrickson's widow, and found that the couple had been living apart since the 1930s, so it is unlikely that she had kept Charles Hendrickson's lifebelt.

It would therefore be improbable to include Hendrickson’s widow as the possible source for this lifebelt. Therefore we can assume it was worn and belonged to Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon who had probably willed it to his stepdaughter who kept it until she herself passed away in London in 1973.

Interestingly, this lifebelt differs from other ones as the stamp markings appear in dark blue ink instead of purple. Previously, Ken Marschall had also noticed that there was some variation in the letters and word spacing in other Titanic lifebelts' stamp markings when compared to one another. This indicates that that slightly different stamps were used throughout production, either newer or older. The stamps were no doubt being remade quite often.

[1] The It Girls, 1986, Meredith Etherington Smith.