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Life ring and piece from Edmund Fitzgerald shipwreck sell at auction for $150,000

   Detroit, MI – A life ring and a piece of a lifeboat from the Edmund Fitzgerald were sold at auction Friday for $150,000, a month after the 50th anniversary of the famous ship’s sinking in Lake Superior with 29 men aboard.
   The relics were discovered by a carpenter in 1975 along the shore in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. There were no survivors when the ore carrier perished in a tremendous storm and plunged 535 feet to the lake bottom.
   “I’m dumbfounded,” longtime owner Larry Orr, 77, said. “I never believed in a million years it would go for that much money. Shocked.”
   Orr was curious about the shipwreck and found the life ring and a wooden piece from a lifeboat while taking a break from his job, eight days after the “Fitz,” as it was known, went down.
   The sale was handled by DuMouchelles, a Detroit auction house and art gallery that sits a block away from Mariners’ Church, where a bell solemnly tolls on each anniversary of the sinking. The name of the buyer was not disclosed.
   Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot memorialized the ship in 1976 with an iconic ballad, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”
   For decades, Orr, who lives in Yulee, Florida, had allowed a Michigan museum to display the artifacts. He said he decided to sell them because he needed money.
   “We did think it was going to take off, but, of course, this far exceeded my expectations,” auctioneer Robert DuMouchelles said. “You never know though.”
   The Great Lakes maritime relics sold to an undisclosed buyer included a wooden plank from Life Boat No. 1 that bears “No. 1” in black paint, and an orange life ring with white stenciled lettering reading “SS Edmund Fitzgerald,” along with four black reinforcing bands holding a nylon rope. The life ring is 29 inches wide and 3½ inches thick. The piece of wood measures 4 inches tall, 1 inch thick and 50½ inches long.
   The pair of items were initially valued from $15,000 to $20,000, according to the auction house catalog.
   DuMouchelles said he was not aware of the buyer’s plans for the items.