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Friday, November 21, 2008, 10:00
Archibald "Archie" Jewell, who was born at King Street, Bude, in 1888, was a lookout on the Titanic on the night she hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic and went down, taking 1,523 lives with her, in April 1912.
He was also serving on Britannic, being used as a hospital ship, when it was hit by a mine that killed 30 in 1916.
Writing to one of his sisters in Cornwall 11 days after the Titanic disaster, 23-year-old Jewell describes the sinking of the liner and the immediate aftermath: "We was in the boat for six hours before the steam boat came to us – when it came daylight there was iceburghs all around us and about 20 miles stretch of small ice.
"I shall never forget the sight of the lovely big ship goin down and the alfull crys of the people in the water and you could hear them dying out one by one, it was enough to make anyone jump over board and be out of the way."
He writes tellingly of the shortage of lifeboats: "Had there been boats enough nearly every one would have been saved. If the watertight doors had worked she would not have went down."
Mr Jewell was the first survivor to give evidence at the British inquiry, during which he was interrogated mostly about his role in the manning of lifeboat number seven, the first to be lowered from the ship. His clear evidence earned rare praise from the commissioner, Lord Mersey.
Four years later he was serving on Britannic, a White Star Line ocean liner when it hit a mine in the Kea Channel.
In a description of the second tragedy to his sister, he tells how his head was cut open after an explosion: "I ran up the boat deck and then some one tied my eye up so I was like old Nelson.
"I was nearly done for – there was one poor fellow drowning and he caught hold of me but I had to shake him off so the poor fellow went under."
He died aged 28 while serving on SS Donegal which was sunk by a German torpedo in 1917.
The two letters penned by Mr Jewell are expected to fetch up to £20,000 at a Sotheby's literature sale on December 17.
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E D Walker's painting of the Titanic on her maiden voyage in April 1912
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