Ken Marschall's Lifebelt restoration

Ken Marschall asked me to make restoration improvements to his original Fosbery lifebelt, believed to be from Titanic, comparing it to all other recovered lifebelts.

On June 18, 2023, I made my way to Branson, Missouri, to the Titanic Museum Attraction.

The improvements that needed to be made included custom-cut pieces of foam to recreate the uneven, random sizing of cork. The linen thread also needed to be doubled over, rather than using a single strand.

Below are photos and side notes documenting my progress.

Pre-Restoration

It was stitched with a single thread instead of a double, before we learned that the lifebelts used double-threaded whip stitching. I also noticed the thread 'pulled' red when dyed—something I experienced myself when dyeing my thread with tan Rit.

A previous restoration had the seam flipped on one side. Of all the front halves I’ve seen, the folds point toward the back. Interestingly, the back halves of the life belts have been folded either inward or outward on both sides.

Using nothing more than swatches and a very small sample of the original linen thread, I dyed several lengths to achieve the closest possible match.

I recreated the neckline from photographs and produced this acrylic template. I was finally able to verify how accurate it actually was. The lifebelt was not cut evenly in half.