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Big price for Titanic life jacket
26/06/2008 13:03 - (SA)
New York - An unused life jacket from the doomed Titanic ship sold for $68 500 in New York on Wednesday, Christie's auction house said.
The cork-filled life preserver - still largely intact, but
stained and torn in parts - was thought to have been found by
farmer John James Dunbar on the Halifax shoreline after the
passenger ship sank off Newfoundland in April, 1912.
The liner sank during its maiden voyage from the British port
of Southampton to New York when it hit an iceberg, causing some
1 500 people to die.
Christie's, which estimated that the life preserver would
sell for $60 000 to $80 000, sold another Titanic life jacket
last year in London for $119 000.
Maritime specialist Gregg Dietrich said the jacket -
believed to be one of six remaining - appeared to have been
unused because the shoulder straps were still intact. Titanic
passengers tended to have had their life preservers cut off to
ease removal from their damaged skin.
Dietrich said that the cork filling the jackets was so
heavy that many of the survivors and victims of Titanic were
found to have broken their jaws on them when they hit the water
after jumping from the ship.
- Reuters
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South Africa
