IT was bravery beyond duty, performed by a ship's officer who ironically might have perished at sea only a few months earlier.

David Blair had been due to serve on Titanic's ill fated maiden voyage but a last minute reshuffle of officers led him to being transferred to another of White Star Line's ships, the Majestic.

On May 6, 1913, Blair, acting as second officer, was lying down in his cabin when he heard a furore on deck, with cries of 'Man overboard' from horrified passengers. Hastily dressing, he rushed to see what had happened and learnt a trimmer had jumped from the promenade deck intent on suicide.

The captain, John Kelk, apparently heard the splash and ordered the liner, some two days away from New York on her run from Southampton, to be turned around. However the Majestic had sailed a further two miles before that could be achieved.

The chances of finding the seaman, William Keoun, appeared remote in thick fog but Kelk's masterly seamanship and judgement brought him with two lengths of his ship to the seaman whose position had been also marked by a calcium flame attachment to a Holmes buoy that had been flung into the sea after he had jumped.

His feeble cries for help were heard and instinctively Blair dived into the icy water from the promenade deck railing with a life buoy.

Reports vary as how close to death the trimmer was. One says he was lying face down, another claimed he was bobbing up and down. However, what is accepted is that Blair was within almost touching distance when a lifeboat, manned by eight crewmen, drew alongside and both men, exhausted, were pulled aboard.

Passengers, who had been transfixed by the drama, gave Blair three hearty cheers and subscribed £50 for specifically inscribed binoculars.

Keoun, who had been floundering the water for more than half an hour, was kept under guard in his cabin while the captain determined his fate.

However, It was accepted that Keoun had been driven temporarily insane by the intense heat in the stoke hole and though he could have been charged with attempted suicide and brought before a court in Southampton as the Majestic was a British registered vessel, no action was taken against him.

For his conspicuous bravery, Blair, who was born on the Isle of Wight and lived at Rossmore in Norham Avenue, Shirley, was first presented with a silver medal and later awarded the OBE.

Sadly, his reputation was tarnished the following year when he was serving on the Oceanic which had been converted for military purposes in the First World War. The liner was wrecked after running aground off the Shetland Isles and Blair, the officer on watch, was severely reprimanded at a court-martial for navigational errors.

He died in London in 1955, aged 80.