THE SERVICE record book of a Southampton Titanic crewman who survived the sinking of the ill-fated liner is expected to fetch up to £5,000 when it is auctioned by Sotheby's at the end of this month.

Frederick Sheath was a "trimmer" on board the White Star liner in 1912 and worked in the boiler room. The liner went down in the North Atlantic, claiming more than 1,500 lives.

The book is being sold by a direct descendant of Mr Sheath, who lived at 12, Bell Street, Southampton, at Sotheby's Marine Sale on May 29.

The discharge book was a replacement for the original which went down with the ship. A front-page entry on the book reads "Renewal Book. Original lost through shipwreck."

Mr Sheath was in lifeboat number one, which escaped with six other crewmen and just five passengers including Lord and Lady Cosmo Duff-Gordon.

The capacity of the lifeboat was 48 but it was decided not to return to pick up more survivors who were dying of hypothermia in the freezing water - mainly through fear of being swamped or overturned by people struggling to get on board.

Lord Duff-Gordon gave Mr Sheath and the other crewmen £5 each to buy new kit. But during the subsequent inquiry into the ship's sinking, many people thought that the money was a bribe to prevent the crew rowing back to pick up other passengers.

Lord Duff-Gordon's reputation was ruined following the infamous money gift in the lifeboat.

Mr Sheath's pay stopped the minute the Titanic went down and he depended on handouts while in America.

Later, he had a tattoo put on his right arm in the shape of the Titanic memorial in Southampton and the green, canvas-covered hardback book - known as a "certificate of discharge" - records this fact under "distinguishing marks".

After serving on Titanic's sister ship, Olympic, as well as the Majestic and Vauban as a fireman and a trimmer, he also served on the SS Galeka when the First World War broke out.

Reports of his character were "very good" but he slipped up in 1915 while on the SS Avon, when one entry reads: "late and indifferent".

The entries resumed as "very good" and in 1920 he married a Southampton girl, Mary Bushnell.

They moved in with the rest of the family at 12 Bell Street and had two sons and one daughter.

His health worsened after his marriage and Mr Sheath left the sea to become a docker at Southampton. The job did little for his asthma and he died in 1934 aged 41. His daughter, Maisie, who was nine when her father died remembered him as "a nice man - a little man."

- Originally published May 2002.