Titanic life-jacket fetches $68,000 in auction

NEW YORK: A life-jacket from the doomed transatlantic cruise ship "Titanic," which struck an iceberg in 1912 and sank, has fetched $68,500 at auction at Christiae's in New York.
   
It is one of only six life-jackets still known to exist from the Titanic, which fetched $68,500 at auction on Wednesday and had been kept in a trunk by a Canadian family.
   
Some 1,500 passengers and crew aboard the Titanic died when the White Star line luxury ship sank in the frigid northern Atlantic ocean on its maiden voyage.
   
About 700 people are believed to have survived the sinking, one of the worst maritime disasters ever.
   
hristie's said earlier that a similar life-vest sold in London in 2007 for $119,000, and put the value of the vest at between 60,000 and 80,000 dollars.
   
It is the first Titanic life-jacket to go on sale in the United States, and Christie's says the ties have not been cut, meaning it was probably not taken from a body but found on an isolated beach after the disaster.
   
The Christie's auction, dedicated to the history of transatlantic ocean liners, included 257 lots of items that included dish sets, maps, ship logs and various objects related to navigation.
   
A 1935 lithograph of the French passenger ship "Normandie" by Adolphe Mouron Cassandre was sold for 22,500 dollars.
   
A 1935 scale model of the "Normandie" went for $10,625, while a pair of lamps from the deck of the ocean liner" France" went for $625.