Man puts life ring from Edmund Fitzgerald up for auction in Detroit
A man who found a life ring and a plank from a lifeboat days after the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald will be auctioning off the items in Detroit.
According to Detroit auction house DuMouchelles's website, a live auction is set for Friday, Dec. 19, at 10 a.m. CST (11 a.m. EST) for the life ring that was discovered by Larry Orr in 1975.
Orr said that more than a week after the Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior on Nov. 10, 1975, killing all 29 men, he found the artifact and a piece of the lifeboat on shore in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
"There was an eerie feeling. Maybe someone had survived," he told the Associated Press in November 2025. "I looked around for footprints or any other sign of life for a while and never found anything."
Today, 50 years after the discovery, the relics are up for auction, with the starting bid at $11,250. According to DuMouchelles, Orr loaned the items to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum in Paradise, Michigan, in 1988, "until health and financial concerns necessitated its sale at public auction."
Joe Walker, president of the DuMouchelles, says Orr contacted them four months ago about wanting to sell the artifacts. DuMouchelles, which has been owned and operated by Walker's family since 1927, sits on East Jefferson across from the Mariners' Church of Detroit, which held a memorial service last month, honoring the 29 people who died in the Fitzgerald shipwreck.
Walker says he recalls growing up and hearing the bells ringing from the church every year on Nov. 10 to remember the 29 men. He says his family spent two weeks discussing before agreeing to sell the life ring.
"Our customers, a lot of them are ship owners, and we're gonna do what we can to see that it (the life ring) is in a proper place to spend the rest of its days, and hopefully, it ends up in a museum again," Walker told CBS News Detroit. "You can't predict the future, but I know that Mr. Orr owns it; he has the right to sell it, and we felt that if anyone was going to do it, it was going to be us."
The auction comes after Orr was in a lawsuit battle with the state of Michigan over the artifact.
The state agreed to pay $600,000 after Orr sued over police misconduct. He accused a Michigan State Police lieutenant of violating his rights during a sexual abuse investigation that was ultimately discredited, the Associated Press reported. Orr served five months in jail, in addition to house arrest, before charges were dropped against him in 2019.
Orr and his attorney claimed that the state suddenly became interested in the life ring during negotiations, and the lieutenant was aware that Orr owned it.
In the lawsuit settlement, Orr was able to keep the life ring, while taxpayers are paying the $600,000.
When asked why the state wanted the life ring, spokesperson Shanon Banner told AP in an emailed statement, "Upon learning the details of the settlement, we are not comfortable with the life preserver being included and will be reaching out to Mr. Orr's attorney."
In the meantime, Walker says the public preview for the life ring is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Dec. 12-13 and 16-17, allowing people to view the item.
"We're excited about it," Walker said.
Note: The video previously aired on Nov. 10, 2025.