Sotheby’s is offering a rare first-hand account by a survivor of the sinking of the Titanic. The chilling descriptive piece is estimated at

£15,000-20,000. This is part of a sale in London by the auction house, titled ‘English Literature, History, Children’s Books and Illustrations’.

“Archie Jewell, who wrote of his experiences to his sister, was the watchman on the ship and was first alerted to the threat of ‘ice and growlers’ . He was relieved from his shift just 90 minutes before the ship struck the iceberg,” Matthew Weigman, Sotheby’s spokesperson, told ET in an email from London.

Jewell wrote: “...I shall never forget the sight of that 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 overboard and be out of the way... one boat picked up one of the sailors and he went mad in the boat and wanted to go overboard again but he died in the boat.”

Weigman said, “Jewell was the first survivor to give evidence at the British Inquiry into the sinking at Buckingham Gate. During this, he was interrogated mostly about his role in the manning of lifeboat No 7, the first to be lowered from the ship. Remarkably, Jewell’s evocative and moving accounts also include the description of his later survival of the sinking of Titanic’s sister ship HMS Britannic, which made him one of only three survivors of both sea disasters.”