Rare Titanic lifejacket goes on display in Southampton

A rare Titanic lifejacket, which is likely to have been worn by one of the survivors of the sinking, has gone on public display at the SeaCity Museum

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A Titanic lifejacket is now on display at the SeaCity museum in Southampton.

Made of linen and cork, the jacket is around 105 years old.

It is unclear whether it was used by a survivor of the Titanic or was part of the debris collected following the sinking of the liner in the North Atlantic.

All the debris was supposed to be taken to a warehouse in New York and destroyed.

However, many of the lifejackets were taken as souvenirs of the disaster, including the one now on display at SeaCity.

A lifejacket from the Titanic

The Titanic lifejacket. Credit: SeaCity Museum/Southampton City Council

It is thought the jacket was kept by the unknown warehouse worker until he died.

It was then auctioned and eventually bequeathed to Ashley Noakes, who has lent the artefact to the SeaCity Museum.

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Titanic sank in the early hours of the morning on 15 April 1912 after hitting an iceberg.

The ocean liner only carried a total of 20 lifeboats, not enough for the 2,224 passengers and crew on board.

As a result, more than 1,500 passengers and crew died in the North Atlantic.

Those who were lucky enough were rescued by the crew of the RMS Carpathia, which arrived around four hours after the White Star liner first struck the iceberg.

The survivors were taken to New York, Titanic’s original destination.

Titanic was on its maiden voyage from Southampton when the disaster happened.

It left Berth 44 at the White Star Dock, later known as Ocean Dock, on 10 April 1912.

The liner called at Cherbourg in France and Queenstown (now Cobh) in Ireland before heading west to New York, where it sank in the North Atlantic.