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JOHN SAWYER, 82, of West Kirby, was aboard the next Cunard liner, Franconia, to follow Lancastria into St Nazaire.
A former QE2 executive hotel manager, Sawyer recalls: 'We knew that Lancastria had gone down that afternoon. We were dive-bombed as we approached the harbour and the shock waves from several near-misses put our engines out of action.
'There were 127 ships around us in Quiberon Bay. Next morning they had all gone. Our engineers worked up to their necks in water trying to get things going.
'At 10am a British destroyer pulled alongside and hailed us, saying, 'The position is out of hand. Goodbye and good luck'. We could see gun fire in the distance. Then, suddenly at 1pm, Franconia began moving and we limped back to Liverpool at five knots.'
Sawyer started his sea-going career on Lancastria, aged 14, as a bell-boy, in August, 1935. He says: 'I was only 4ft 10ins and got the job probably because I looked small and cute.
'Lancastria was a poor sea boat. Winter transatlantic crossings were awful, so she mainly cruised in calmer waters. My pay was pounds 2 a month, but on my first six-day cruise, I made pounds 9 in tips. A few cruises later, I bought my mother a pounds 22 fur coat in Bold Street.'
Poor Capt Sharp, rescued from the Lancastria, later transferred to the Laconia, which was torpedoed off Freetown, west Africa. This became the second greatest British WWII merchant loss, with at least 1,641 souls dead including her captain.
In wartime's black humour, John Sawyer remembers Capt Sharp was nicknamed 'the Nazi' among Cunard crews, because he lost two big British liners thereby inadvertently aiding Germany's war effort
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