IT’S about time someone spoke up for the engineers who sailed on the Titanic.

There were engineers looking after the deck winches etc, there were dozens of engineers looking after the accommodation, a refrig engineer, dozens of electrical engineers, so there must have been more than 60 of them.

And at boat drills there were at least two engineers designated to each lifeboat to look after the lifting gear, bilge pumps etc.

At least 30 of them had nothing to do with the engine room. Yet only one engineer survived.

The only recognition they got was a monument for them in a park in Southampton.

In 1959 when I went to sea, my first ship was the Shaw Savill ship SS Suevic. The Titanic I knew very little of.

The history of the company was quickly absorbed. Shaw Savill took over all the passenger-cargo and cargo ships of the White Star Line while Cunard took over all the passenger ships.

The SS Suevic history was that the original SS Suevic in 1911 had run aground on rocks in Scotland and ended up on top of a reef right in the middle of it. The weight caused the ship to snap in half.

Both halves were towed to Southampton, while a 50ft section mid joining piece was built in Glasgow and towed down. And the two sections and the joining piece were towed into drydock for welding to repair the ship.

Preparations were made to publicise this great feat of engineering when the Titanic arrived and sailed, ruining the story. The Suevic crew were the only people who had no pity for the fate of the Titanic.

When the Titanic sank, what was the tune played by the band?

It was Autumn. In the history book The Night Lives On by a Mr Lord, on page 141 it states that Autumn was an alternative setting for the Episcopal hymn Guide me oh Thou Great Jehovah – yes, Bread of Heaven.

On the Suevic we had a fireman greaser from Southampton named Frederick Fleet. He was a bid mad. When he signed the engine room logbook it looked like ‘Twit Fudd’ so that was his nickname.

When we got to Port Said the first mail came aboard. All the ‘first trippers’ were crying when they had no letter. Fred Fleet comforted them with "Cheer up lads, no letters is good news!" It was two years later that the first book by Lord came out and revealed that the A B on Iceberg watch who spotted the iceberg was Fred Fleet. I wonder if he said "One iceberg is bad news!"

Fred was put into an orphanage when he was four years old and brought up by Barnardo’s and trained to be an A B Seaman.

After the Titanic sinking, Fred was given the franchise to sell newspapers in Southampton centre, but he gave this up after ten years, probably saying "No newspapers is good news".

He tried going back to sea, but was treated by owners as a ‘Jonah’ so he did labouring jobs. He may have realised that engine room jobs were unconnected to all other jobs, and applied and got a job.

When Fred was 79, he was living with his sister, who was orphaned with him, and her husband. His sister died and her husband gave Fred notice, so that he could sell the house.

This devastated Fred and he went out, got drunk, went back to the house and hanged himself on the clothes line, with a suicide note that read "No Fred is good news".

For the last two years I’ve been to Southampton. The first time was during a snowstorm, and walking through the snow in the car park, which had not been salted, I got a layer of ice on the soles of my shoes.

When I entered the hotel the temperature was 80F; I walked across the glossy floor and the ice on my shoe soles suddenly melted, and my feet just went from under me and I flew into the air and landed on my hip, which put me on crutches for eight weeks.

I’d been ‘Titanic-ed’.

The following year I returned, only to find that the museum had been closed for renovation for the centenary. I went to the wrong graveyard, so I couldn’t sing Bread of Heaven at Fred’s grave, so I’ll try again this year.

Sorry Fred – ‘No visit is good news!’ James Evans Owain Court Glyndwr Avenue St Athan