“I went to fill up Boat 13 and got about 35 women and children into it. We shouted for more women but there were none forthcoming. We had a few First Class male passengers in. An officer ordered two of us to get in and help row the boat, and I happened to be one of the fortunate ones to be ordered in.“

“We could see the Titanic sinking by the head. Her forward ‘E’ deck ports were under the water and we could see the lights gradually go out on the ‘E’ deck as she settled down. All her other lights were burning brilliantly and she looked a blaze of light from stem to stern, we watched her like this for some time, and then suddenly she gave a plunge forward and all the lights went out. Her stern went right up in the air; there were two or three explosions and it seemed to me the stern part came down again and righted her itself. Immediately after there were terrible cries for help. They were awful and heartbreaking.“

Alexander Littlejohn sailed on the maiden voyage of both the Olympic and Titanic. The ex-publican, whose wife had died in 1910, left his three young children, for a career at sea. Despite the trauma of surviving the sinking of the Titanic, he returned to sea in October 1912, finishing his career with the White Star Line on the Olympic, in 1914