IT IS the final piece of the jigsaw puzzle. Staring solemnly at the camera are the six survivors from the wreck of a steamship that had struck rocks in a snowstorm just a few miles from the safety of the French port of St Malo.

SS Hilda had been on a routine voyage from Southampton when fate took hold, leaving 50 children in the English port without fathers and a further 18 women widows.

In all 131 people perished - at least 27 of the crew were from Southampton, with many of the passengers French.

The events surrounding the tragedy in November 1905 were documented in detail in the Daily Echo last year.

Several articles about the doomed crossing prompted a number of readers to send in photographs of relatives who died in the disaster.

But, until now, the picture of the six men who cheated death that dreadful night has not been seen by the public at large.

These men endured the most horrific of experiences, clinging on to the ship's mast in freezing temperatures for more than ten hours, just a few feet above the raging sea.

They had entered Hell; people drowned around them, or suffered hypothermia in the water, or froze to death on the rigging.

More were taken when Hilda's boiler exploded on impact.

Others were smashed against the rocks. Sixty victims, some in lifebelts, were washed up on the shores, including the man in charge, Captain William Gregory, of 78 Tennyson Road, Portswood, Southampton.

His last words were reported: "Launch the boats; look out for yourselves."

Samuel Grinter did just that.

Grinter, of 10 Fredrick Street, Newtown, Southampton, clambered up to the mast-head light that offered salvation.

He was one of the six men pictured here, although it is not recorded which one. The other "survivants" were French.

Grinter recalled: ".....the mate grasped the rigging and called me to climb up with him and cook followed us up.

"We had just got to the eyes of the rigging when we heard a crash, that was when she broke in two, and she heeled over, the sea washing over us.

"At that time the starboard rigging was crowded with people, but most of them were washed off.

"She the ship canted back again to an angle of about 45 degrees but kept rolling all night."

Some ten hours later, at about 6am, the steamer Ada came to the rescue.

Hilda's story, with some previously unpublished pictures of the stricken vessel, has just been told in this month's edition of The South Western Circular, which is devoted to the heritage of local railways, including the ships owned by the rail companies. Fifty spare copies are available price £2 including P&P from Eric Penn, 422 Walton Road, West Molesey, Surrey, KT8 2JG.