Titanic survivor reveals the one souvenir he kept from the tragedy that stunned the world in 1912

It has been over a century since the Titanic sank in the depths of the Atlantic Ocean. Over 1500 lives on board were lost, making the 1912 tragedy one of the worst accidents in maritime history. One of the survivors, Frank Prentice, shared his experience and recalled how he survived the sinking ship but continued to have nightmares about it. His interview was recorded by BBC in 1979 for their documentary series "The Great Liners" and has been shared on YouTube.

Prentice was 23 when he survived the sinking of the magnificent ship. He worked at the luxury cruise as an assistant purser who would handle money and supplies aboard the ship on its first voyage. Talking about the impact of the iceberg that struck the ship, Prentice said, "There was no impact as such." He went on to describe how the initial crash felt, "It was just like jamming your brakes on the car and that was that – she stopped. We had a porthole open and I looked out and the sky was clear, stars were shining, the sea was dead calm and I thought, I couldn't understand it."

In his interview, Mr Prentice described how he left his cabin to go out on deck to investigate and said that he saw some ice but there was no sign of the iceberg or any damage above the waterline. However, he revealed that the ship had dealt irreversible damage underneath the surface and had no other option but to sink to its death. As soon as the ship was dealt a huge blow, Prentice said that there were orders for women and children to get into the lifeboats, but he said there were two reasons why many were reluctant. The first was a 70-ft (21.3m) drop into the water, and second was the fact that the ship authorities never thought the ship would sink.

Prentice mentioned that the Titanic had 16 lifeboats, each of which could carry 50 people. He described the whole scenario, "Don't forget we had 16 lifeboats and they each carried 50, and if they'd been filled we could've saved 800 whereas we only saved 500."

On the other hand, Titanic was swiftly plunging into the depths of the Atlantic and created an air of panic and chaos among people. Prentice reported that he and some other men were instructed to carry some provisions for the lifeboats, which they had to go back under the ship to get. Once they got back up, the ship broke in two. Prentice described how he failed to make it to the lifeboat but fortunately had put on a lifebelt - which turned out to be decisive for his survival, as he said, "I had a lifebelt on and I hit the water with a terrific crack." However, he revealed that he did get saved by a lifeboat eventually and was one of the 700 survivors of the sunken ship.

Prentice passed away in 1982 at the age of 93. Since the tragedy, he had held on to a keepsake that was a vivid reminder of the tragedy. It was the watch he wore that night that remained frozen in time and had stopped at exactly 02:20 AM after lasting for a couple of minutes in the freezing water. During the BBC interview, he was asked whether talking about the Titanic bothered him and he replied, "I shall probably dream about it tonight; have another nightmare."