It was getting late and 21-year-old Harold Cottam was thinking about going to bed. But just as he was about to leave the Cunard liner's wireless room he heard his radio pick up a series of Morse code messages.

Over the airwaves came the message "CQD". Immediately Harold knew it was a mayday alert, as this was Morse for "seek you, distress".

Behind this call for help in the early hours of the morning of April 15, 1912, a terrible event was unfolding in the freezing waters of the Atlantic.

The mayday, Harold had intercepted had been sent from a new White Star liner on her maiden voyage out of Southampton and the name of the vessel was Titanic, the "ship of dreams".

The supposedly unsinkable Titanic had been in service for just five days when the liner sank after striking an iceberg but her story was to become a maritime legend and still fascinates people 95 years later.

As part of this anniversary an exhibition, Titanic - Southampton Remembers, opened at the city's Maritime Museum in Town Quay Road yesterday.

Among the invited guests were a handful of people who have a direct connection with those involved in this most infamous of sea disasters.

Beneath the waves Sidney Sedunary, who is now 94, never knew his father, also called Sidney, who was a steward on Titanic and among the hundreds who died as the ship slipped beneath the waves.

"My father lived in Emsworth Road, Shirley, and he married my mother, Madge, in November, 1911," said Sidney. "They had only been married about six months when my father signed on with Titanic and although he never saw me he did know my mother was pregnant when he sailed.'' According to reports of the time, Sidney's father was last seen helping passengers put on their lifebelts rather than thinking of his own safety.

When his body was later recovered, his pocket watch was found to have stopped at 1.50am, the time he went into the water, approximately half an hour before Titanic sank.

The watch, still with its hands set at 1.50, is now one of the centrepieces of the exhibition, which also recounts that Sidney's widow received a pension of three shillings (15p) a week after the loss of her husband.

For 88-year-old Jean Wyatt looking round the exhibition, which features many personal items that once belonged to local Titanic crew members, was an emotional experience, as there on display is a photograph and details of her father, Dr Frank McGee.

"We were living in Bassett, Southampton, when my father took the position of medical officer on Carpathia, the liner which answered Titanic's distress call.

"My father never really talked about Titanic as he said the scenes of dead bodies floating in the water were just too horrible,'' said Jean, who now lives in Poole.

Survivors "I know my father gave up his cabin to Bruce Ismay, the chairman of White Star, because he was frightened the other survivors might attack him.

"Apparently he became so agitated, my father had to sedate him.'' The great-uncle of Sue Hill, of Bishop's Waltham, was Sir Arthur Rostron, master of Carpathia, who ordered his liner to turn around and pick up Titanic survivors.

"He organised Carpathia's passengers to donate clothes, blankets, in fact anything that would help keep the survivors, who had been in the open lifeboats for hours, warm,'' said Sue.

"My great-uncle died in 1940 and he is buried in the churchyard in West End.'' The museum's first floor has been transformed by the exhibition which tells the story of her crew, the majority of whom came from Southampton.

It aims to explain what life was like for Titanic's crew, what jobs they did, how they felt about the new super liner', their vivid recollections of that fateful night and the consequences for them and their families, which still reverberate in Southampton.

n The exhibition opens today at the Maritime Museum, in Town Quay Road. The museum is open Tuesday to Friday 10am-4pm; Saturday 10am-midday, 1pm-4pm; Sunday 1pm-4pm. Entry is £2, £1 concessions. Call 023 8063 5904.