HE survived the Titanic, managing to board one of the last remaining lifeboats with moments to spare.

Altrincham author Stanley Hyman said his grandfather never spoke to family members about his terrifying experiences.

But Stanley was recently contacted by a relative in America, who sent him a copy of an interview Joseph Abraham Hyman gave to the New York Herald, in which gives a harrowing and vivid account of one of the world's most notorious shipping disasters.

Joseph, who went on to open a chain of kosher butcher and delicatessen shops, was on his way to visit his brother in New Jersey.

He recalls going to bed just after 10pm on that fateful night and being awakened by what he described as "a terrible shock." There was "a bang and a rip - lasting a couple of seconds."

As he lay listening in his bunk he could hear doors banging and the sound of people asking what had happened. Joseph said he heard a voice say there was no need for alarm and this sentiment was widespread among those on board a vessel that was supposed to be unsinkable.

After leaving his cabin he encountered a group of passengers putting on lifejackets but believed it to be an "extra precaution."

He said: "I saw several people climbing up the stairs to a sort of house on the deck just in front of me and I thought I would see what was the matter up there. I asked several officers if there was any danger, and they said no, no, just keep calm.

"I climbed up the stairs and there were a lot of men and women standing about a lifeboat. The women were being helped in, but the men didn't seem to want to get in. Then I noticed it was the next to last boat in that part of the ship."

The ship had struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage and Joseph said as the lifeboat pulled away, he noticed "the portholes forward were lower than aft" making him realise the vessel could be sinking.

Then he saw the iceberg.

He said: "It was black and was about 50 yards astern of the Titanic."

"We pulled away about half a mile and them rested and watched. One by one I saw the forward portholes go out, just like someone was walking back through the ship and turning out electric lights. Then we heard a small explosion and a terrible cry. The cry was blood curdling and never stopped until the Titanic went down.

"We sat silent, we were terror stricken. In less than 10 minutes there came a terrible explosion and I could see men, women and pieces of the ship blown into the air from the after deck. Later I saw bodies partly blown to pieces floating around.

"At the second explosion the lights went out all at once. When my eyes got used to the dark I could make out the Titanic, still with the front part down in the water. That was about half past one, I think.

Finally the ship seemed to right itself, then suddenly the front end plunged down and she sank like a stone."

In the bitter cold, Joseph and his fellow survivors came across others who had survived the maritime horror, including men clinging to tables and chairs in the icy sea.

They were finally rescued and taken aboard a ship called the Caparthia.

He said: "The Caparthia then came back to where the Titanic sank. You could tell the place by the corks, boxes, bottles and chairs floating around on the water, and now and then a big cloud of bubbles would come up. Then we turned around and made for New York."

A year later, Joseph launched his business, JA Hyman (Titanics) Ltd, a Kosher butchers and delicatessen that has an outlet Altrincham. The other shops are in Cheadle and north Manchester.

Stanley Hyman, who worked in his grandfather's business, recalls life behind the counter in his humorous book, Is Anything Alright?

* Is Anything Alright? is available from stellarbooks.co.uk.