A life ring from the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald was sold for $150,000 at a Dec. 19 auction after spending decades on display at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum.
The auction, which took place at DuMouchelles in Detroit, followed more than a week of online bidding, according to WXYZ. Besides the life ring, a wooden plank thought to be from lifeboat number one was also auctioned. The outlet did not disclose how much the wooden plank was sold for. The artifacts were recovered along the shores of Lake Superior after the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald sank during a storm in November 1975, killing 29 people.
Larry Orr, 77, sold the maritime artifacts. He discovered the life ring on his 27th birthday.
“It made the hair on the back of my neck stand up, and it still does to this day,” Orr explained to WXYZ.
Although he sold the artifacts, he hopes they will one day return to public display.
“Ideally, I would like to see someone purchase it and loan it back, ideally to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum in Whitefish Point,” Orr said.
The artifacts were initially valued at $15,000 to $20,000, according to the Detroit Free Press. The sale was more than seven times the pre-auction estimate.
The artifacts were sold to an undisclosed buyer, the outlet reported. The buyer’s plans for the items are unknown.
Auctioneer Robert DuMouchelles said the sale “far exceeded [his] expectations.”
“We did think it was going to take off, but, of course, this far exceeded my expectations. You never know though,” DuMouchelles told the Detroit Free Press.
Steve Lehto, an attorney at Michigan Lemon Law, expressed a similar sentiment, saying he was “stunned” the items sold for more than their initial value.
“The auction hit $140,000, then $150,000 and I said, ‘Oh my God.’ I was stunned,” Lehto, who bid $20,000 on the items, shared. (RELATED: The Sinking Of The Edmund Fitzgerald)
“The S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald was conceived as a business enterprise of the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin,” according to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. The insurance company contacted the Great Lakes Engineering Works of Ecorse, Michigan, to construct the ship, which launched in June 1958.
The Daily Caller contacted DuMouchelles for comment but has not heard back as of publication.