LANSING, MI — A rare life ring found after the Edmund Fitzgerald sinking will stay with its original owner after it was included in a Michigan police misconduct lawsuit settlement.

Larry Orr, 77, of Florida, is keeping the life ring after it was initially transferred to the state of Michigan as part of a settlement in a lawsuit that was unrelated to the famous shipwreck.

Orr’s attorney Shannon Smith said Friday, Nov. 14 that her client has received $600,000 from the state and will keep the life ring, which he found along with part of a lifeboat on the shore of Lake Superior in 1975 a week after the freighter sank with all hands .

The life ring was previously on display at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum for decades but is now back in Orr’s possession.

Orr told the Associated Press

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