Titanic life jacket to go on sale in New York
An unused life jacket from the doomed Titanic ship will go under the hammer later this month in New York, Christie's auction house said on Wednesday.
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.
The liner sank during its maiden voyage from the British port of Southampton to New York in April, 1912 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 there was still huge public interest in Titanic memorabilia as the sinking of the ship, which had been billed as unsinkable, caused such a loss of life and was one of the first world-wide news events.
"The Titanic is really one of those bookmarks in time," he said during a press viewing of the item before the auction.
Dietrich said that after the London sale last year, Christie's was inundated with offers of what people thought were Titanic artifacts, but about 99 percent proved to be reproductions.
After getting a call in February from the Nova Scotia MacQuarrie family, who had kept the jacket safe for generations, Dietrich went to check its authenticity and found it had the correct dimensions and looked damaged by water.
He said the jacket -- believed to be one of six remaining -- appeared to have been unused because the shoulder straps were still intact whereas Titanic passengers tended to have had their life preservers cut off to avoid skin chafing.
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 the preservers when they hit the water after jumping from the ship.
The preserver will be the main item in Christie's Ocean Liner auction that also includes a second-class passenger list carried off by 12-year-old survivor Bertha Watt as well as her high school essay describing the night the Titanic went down.
Another item going on sale is a Marconi Gram sent by another survivor, Helen, to her family, estimated to fetch $7,000 to $10,000.
紐約克裡斯蒂拍賣行於本周三稱，「鐵達尼號」沉船上的一件未使用過的救生衣將於本月末在紐約被拍賣。
當年「鐵達尼號」客船在紐芬蘭島附近沉沒，這件救生衣是一位名叫約翰•詹姆斯•鄧巴的農民之後在紐芬蘭島的哈利法克斯海岸線發現的。這件填滿了軟木的救生衣除了個別部位有汙點和破損外，基本保存完好。
1912年4月，「鐵達尼號」從英國的南安普敦港口開往紐約，在其首航途中撞上冰山而沉沒，約1500人在這場災難中喪生。
據克裡斯蒂拍賣行估計，這件救生衣能拍到6萬至8萬美元。該拍賣行去年曾在倫敦拍出一件「鐵達尼號」救生衣，當時的拍價為11.9萬美元。
海事專家格雷格•迪特裡希說，如今仍有很多人對「鐵達尼號」的紀念品非常感興趣，這艘號稱「不沉之船」的沉沒導致很多人失去生命，是最早轟動全世界的新聞事件之一。
迪特裡希在拍賣前的媒體招待會上說：「『鐵達尼號』的確是時代的一大標誌性事件。」
迪特裡希說，在去年的倫敦拍賣會之後，克裡斯蒂拍賣行被自稱有「鐵達尼號」物品的顧客弄得應接不暇，但其中99%的物品被證明是複製品。
今年二月，迪特裡希接到了收藏該救生衣多年的諾娃•斯科莎•麥克卡利家族的電話，之後他專程前往查驗真偽，結果發現這件救生衣的尺寸與真品完全相符，而且看上去是被海水浸泡所損壞的。
他說，這件救生衣看似從未使用過，因為其肩帶還完好無損，而當時鐵達尼號上的旅客為了防止皮膚擦傷都把救生衣剪開了。這件救生衣被認為是目前僅存的六件鐵達尼號救生衣的其中一件。
迪特裡希說，由於救生衣裡填充的軟木太沉，以致於當年很多生還或遇難的乘客在跳船逃生時都弄折了下巴。
除救生衣這一「主角」外，克裡斯蒂拍賣行此次「鐵達尼號」主題拍賣還包括一名12歲的倖存女孩貝莎•沃特帶出的一份二等艙乘客名單以及她上中學時寫的一篇描寫沉船之夜的作文。
此外，另一位倖存者海倫發給家人的電報也將被拍賣，拍賣估價在七千到一萬美元。