REAL-LIFE TITANIC LOVE STORY REVEALED

REAL-LIFE TITANIC LOVE STORY REVEALED

A real-life romance which blossomed abroad the Titanic is revealed today as bearing remarkable similarities to the love story in the blockbuster film. Roberta Maoini, 21, was a lady's maid travelling in first class, who fell for a young steward employed on the Titanic during its doomed maiden voyage in 1912.

When the vessel struck the iceberg the steward, whose identity has never been revealed, sought Roberta out, helped her into a lifeboat and, as a final gesture, pressed his White Star brooch into her hand.

Like the lovers played by Kate Winslet and Leonardo Di Caprio in the hit film, Roberta survived the disaster but her sweetheart was one of the 1,513 who lost their lives.

Roberta, with her employer, Countess Lucy Rothes, was among those rescued by the Carpathia and travelled on to New York. Within hours of her arrival she wrote a moving poem, which will be auctioned next month.

Later, in 1926, she also wrote a poignant seven-page account of that traumatic night. It tells how, in the final moments, groups of men and women stood on the Titanic's decks "looking gaunt and fearful" and of how, from the safety of a lifeboat, she heard "the terrible last cries of the fourteen hundred men, women and children left" as it sank.

Roberta, who later married wealthy Yorkshire businessman Cunliffe Boland, died in the 1960s and the memorabilia was bequeathed to her relatives.

Her niece, who has asked not to be named, said: "Roberta fell madly in love with a steward and he with her.

"On deck on the night the iceberg struck, her officer gave her a badge in the shape of a star.

"After the survivors were picked up from the lifeboats and all were safely on board and attended to, she put her hand in her pocket and there it lay in the palm of her hand, the Titanic star. She always wore the star very proudly."

The poem, her gripping account of the sinking, the brooch and a photograph of Roberta are expected to fetch at least £10,000 when they are auctioned on March 16.

Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge, of Aldridge and Son's, in Devizes, Wiltshire, said: "The poem is a dark and sombre recollection of Roberta's trauma. "The account she wrote is an important eye-witness report. But the brooch is the most touching souvenir, a love token from the courageous young man she had grown close to."

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