6:00pm Sunday 30th November 2008
By Lizzie Anderson
A RARE first-hand account of the Titanic tragedy written by the great-uncle of a South Lakeland resident is expected to fetch more than £15,000 when it is sold at auction.
Having always been interested in the voyage of the ill-fated vessel, Joyce Ireland from Burneside read with interest an article previewing the sale of Titanic memorabilia at Sotheby’s in London.
However, as she read on, her interest turned to surprise and amazement when she discovered that a letter by her great-uncle Archie Jewell was the one of the most lucrative lots on offer.
Mr Jewell, who was from Bude in Cornwall, was a watchman on the Titanic and it was he that first alerted officers to the threat of “ice and growlers.”
He was relieved from his shift just 90 minutes before the ship struck the iceberg.
“I am Archie’s great-niece,” explained Mrs Ireland, 81, who moved to the South Lakes more than 50 years ago with her husband. “I was born in Bude in the same street as Archie. I never met him as he died before I was born but my mother told me all about him and gave me newspaper stories about him from the time.”
The letter, which will be sold on December 17, describes in detail the tragic events of April 14 1912.
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