LETTERS written by a Bude sailor who survived the sinking of the Titanic and her sister ship, Britannic, four years later were last week auctioned for £17,500.

Born at King Street in 1888, Archie 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.

Four years later, he was serving on Britannic, which was being used as a hospital ship, when it was hit by a mine that killed 30.

In the first of two letters which were up for auction, Mr Jewell wrote to his sister 11 days after the Titanic disaster saying he would "never forget the sight of that big lovely ship going down and the awful cry 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."

Mr Jewell wrote to his sister four years later when the Britannic, a White Star Line ocean liner hit a mine. He described 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."

Archie died in 1917, aged 28, when the SS Donegal was sunk by a German torpedo.

The two letters penned by Mr Jewell were sold to an unknown bidder at a Sotheby's English literature and history sale on December 17.