LETTERS written by a Bude man who survived the sinking of the Titanic and her sister ship, Britannic, four years later are expected to fetch up to £20,000 at auction.

Archibald 'Archie' Jewell survived the two shipwrecks, only to die in a German torpedo attack in 1917.

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 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."

He wrote about the orchestra playing as the ship went down and 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 the 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.

Mr Jewell wrote to his sister of the second tragedy, describing 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 when the SS Donegal was sunk by a German torpedo.

The two letters penned by Mr Jewell are expected to fetch up to £20,000 at a Sotheby's English literature and history sale on December 17.