TITANIC expert Steve Rigby experienced every emotion when his lifelong dream to see the wreck of the great ship came true.

The Lowton postman spent six hours examining every detail of the hulk he knows so well after winning a competition to dive to the wreck.

He astounded the organisers so much with his knowledge of the 1912 disaster that he has been invited to be the historian on their next trip in May.

Steve, aged 42, of Durrell Way, is secretary of the British Titanic Society, and has been studying the subject since he was eight years old.

He said: "The wreck was bigger than I expected, but as you see it every emotion goes through you.

"All the stories come to life, including the women and children boarding the lifeboats and leaving the men behind.

"Most poignant was seeing a pair of women's shoes in the debris, along with hundreds of tiles and pieces of crockery -- and the great bow featured in the film."

The day after setting sail, he got into the mini-sub Mir 1 with its Russian pilot and Philip Littlejohn, the grandson of a survivor, at the spot where the ship sank after hitting an iceberg in the North Atlantic.

It took them more than two hours to travel the two-and-a-half miles to the seabed.

Steve said: "We landed on the officers' quarters of the Titanic and moved to the bridge area.

"We had a look at the ship's wheel, moved over to the bow and then moved back along the centre line of the mast.

"We could see the crow's nest from where the iceberg was spotted and went back around one of the lifeboat davits which held lifeboat number two.

"Philip wanted to see where lifeboat 13 would have been.

"That was the boat which took his grandfather away from the sinking ship.

"I knew where it was so we went as close as we could. It was very moving for him.

"Hundreds of people have been into space, but I was only the 62nd person to dive that deep. Out of nine days, we only spent 11 hours in the sub but it was fantastic."