A WITNESS account of the launch of the Titanicat the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast has emerged to coincide with the famous liner’s centenary.

Hugh Robinson, a retired architect living in Co Antrim, has made public a postcard sent by his father on May 31st, 1911, which records his brief description of the Titanic’s descent down the slip into Belfast Lough less than two hours after the event.

Mr Robinson’s father, Hugh Allen Robinson, was just 19 at the time of ship’s launch, which he witnessed from the quayside on Belfast docks.

He posted it to his sister Alice in England, dropping his card in the letterbox of the former General Post Office in Belfast’s Royal Avenue. A black and white picture on the card shows the White Star liner, minus its distinctive funnels and surrounded in scaffolding, before its launch. He wrote: “It glided beautifully into the water. The “Olympic” is going across to Liverpool today. The weather is beautiful here now. . .”