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4.05 AVERAGE
4.05 AVERAGE
Some truly shocking facts. 4 ice warnings recieved before the crows nest where even notified, 2hrs after the 4th and 12hrs TWELVE hours after the 1st!! Only 2hrs to "fill" the lifeboats!! Only 1 of 20 lifeboats actually returned for more survivors!! The thing that really blew me away was the class discrimination and the normality it, even among the lower classes themselves!! Brilliant read!!
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
This story of Titanic's final night was sincere and honest. No extra flourishment and dramaticism so common when discussing this tragedy. The tale itself with all of its facts is powerful enough without the use of exaggeration. I love the detail about the response of the surrounding ships, the countless personal accounts given by survivors, the issues that The Carpathia faced after rescuing the survivors from the water, and the world's response to the tragedy in the days following. I have always been intrigued by the Titanic disaster, and by the end of the book, I feel like I had new perspective about why I and so many others are so interested in this story. Like the author says, there are so many elements that could have prevented the death of so many people that it's almost astonishingly more tragic because of this.
I think I've heard the story of Titanic over a hundred times (if you include the number of times I've seen the movie, all the documentaries I've watched, and how many books I've read), and every time, without fail, I find myself hoping for a different ending. As though I could change the outcome if I learn enough of the facts. It's such a sad story, but one that will never lose its fascination.
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
I can't for the life of me figure out why it took me so long to read this account of Titanic. Full review to come.
++++++++++++++
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I am not sure what else can be said about this account of the sinking that has not already been said - aside from something personal for me in that I have no idea why it has taken me so long to read this one. I mean seriously, I have owned it for ages, at least a year. And really there is no excuse even before that, for someone who claims to be such a Titanic-enthusiast. Okay, that sounds terrible, to be an enthusiast of some a tragedy of such proportion. But if you have ever read a single other review of any book about Titanic tat I have read, I think you understand what I am awkwardly trying to get at. Basically, I should have read this one a long time ago.
There are several reasons this remains the classic account of Titanic's final hours. Lord is a very good writer and at the time this was written - in 1955 - he was able to interview over sixty survivors. That in itself is amazing to me. To gain insight and recollections from people firsthand, not simply reading their memoirs or diaries later, but straight from their own mouths.
The shifting of points of view is important to the story as well. This is not an account of the entire voyage, but begins immediately in the crow's nest with Fleet spotting the iceberg. There's no need for superfluous prose, we are at the heart of the matter within moments and there the iceberg looms. For those of us having the luxury of reading about the event 100 years on, we can do nothing but helplessly read as the minutes tick by as the ship slowly meets her fate.
We also see the events as they occur from the perspectives of both the Carpathia and the Californian. Just an aside, the lack of response from the latter ship will never cease to be infuriating. If they knew the ship steaming past them was Titanic, something the crew even discussed among themselves apparently, then they also thought they saw the ship stopped, trying ti signal with Morse code, and firing several flares after midnight WHY WOULD THEY THINK EVERYTHING WAS OKAY??!!
The actions in those early morning hours of the Carpathia and her crew are also deserving of attention, but in a much more positive way. Too full steam ahead into an ice field, faster than the ship has ever sailed before, preparing for survivors, passengers giving up clothing, bedding, toiletries, etc. I also have always found the account particularly worthy of a mention in that when Carpathia finally reached New York, she did not dock at the Cunard pier first. Instead, Captain Rostron guided his ship to Pier 59 where the White Star Line ships were docked and returned the company's property - the lifeboats. What a wholly heartbreaking sight that must have been, when those on-shore realized what was happening.
Here we get all the standard Titanic accounts we are used to - Ida Strauss unwilling to leave her husband after so many years together, J.J. Astor inquiring if he might join his pregnant wife in the lifeboat but his request being decline, Guggenheim and his personal attendant dressing in their best to go down like gentlemen, Thomas Andrews in the smoking room in those final terrible minutes, and so on. We HAVE those stories BECAUSE of this book. Without this account, we might not know of these stories, or others detailing cowardice or bravery on the part of many crew and/or passengers.
If you only ever read one book about Titanic, it should be this one. Highly recommended.
++++++++++++++
http://allthebookblognamesaretaken.blogspot.com
www.facebook.com/AllTheBookBlogNamesAreTaken
www.twitter.com/SarahsBookNook
I am not sure what else can be said about this account of the sinking that has not already been said - aside from something personal for me in that I have no idea why it has taken me so long to read this one. I mean seriously, I have owned it for ages, at least a year. And really there is no excuse even before that, for someone who claims to be such a Titanic-enthusiast. Okay, that sounds terrible, to be an enthusiast of some a tragedy of such proportion. But if you have ever read a single other review of any book about Titanic tat I have read, I think you understand what I am awkwardly trying to get at. Basically, I should have read this one a long time ago.
There are several reasons this remains the classic account of Titanic's final hours. Lord is a very good writer and at the time this was written - in 1955 - he was able to interview over sixty survivors. That in itself is amazing to me. To gain insight and recollections from people firsthand, not simply reading their memoirs or diaries later, but straight from their own mouths.
The shifting of points of view is important to the story as well. This is not an account of the entire voyage, but begins immediately in the crow's nest with Fleet spotting the iceberg. There's no need for superfluous prose, we are at the heart of the matter within moments and there the iceberg looms. For those of us having the luxury of reading about the event 100 years on, we can do nothing but helplessly read as the minutes tick by as the ship slowly meets her fate.
We also see the events as they occur from the perspectives of both the Carpathia and the Californian. Just an aside, the lack of response from the latter ship will never cease to be infuriating. If they knew the ship steaming past them was Titanic, something the crew even discussed among themselves apparently, then they also thought they saw the ship stopped, trying ti signal with Morse code, and firing several flares after midnight WHY WOULD THEY THINK EVERYTHING WAS OKAY??!!
The actions in those early morning hours of the Carpathia and her crew are also deserving of attention, but in a much more positive way. Too full steam ahead into an ice field, faster than the ship has ever sailed before, preparing for survivors, passengers giving up clothing, bedding, toiletries, etc. I also have always found the account particularly worthy of a mention in that when Carpathia finally reached New York, she did not dock at the Cunard pier first. Instead, Captain Rostron guided his ship to Pier 59 where the White Star Line ships were docked and returned the company's property - the lifeboats. What a wholly heartbreaking sight that must have been, when those on-shore realized what was happening.
Here we get all the standard Titanic accounts we are used to - Ida Strauss unwilling to leave her husband after so many years together, J.J. Astor inquiring if he might join his pregnant wife in the lifeboat but his request being decline, Guggenheim and his personal attendant dressing in their best to go down like gentlemen, Thomas Andrews in the smoking room in those final terrible minutes, and so on. We HAVE those stories BECAUSE of this book. Without this account, we might not know of these stories, or others detailing cowardice or bravery on the part of many crew and/or passengers.
If you only ever read one book about Titanic, it should be this one. Highly recommended.
A quick and vivid 1955 account of the sinking of the Titanic. Lord was able to interview dozens of survivors and pieced together as best a timeline as he could. I would be very interested to read some of the congressional testimony in the inquiry he mentions.
Some things that interested me:
*Lord refers to this as the major disillusioning event of the 1900s, which is fascinating given that at this later date we tend to refer to WWI as the birth of modernity, entry into a new age, etc. Lord dates it as 1912 and cites the piercing of the veil of invulnerability so many had. The legend of the Titanic as unsinkable was so persistent that even those who learned about it in the hours afterwards thought they had to be mistaken.
*Lord doesn't get into this as much as a writer today would, but the levels of hierarchy and class sorting were insane. So many people died because the third class passengers were essentially blocked from lifeboats, and they insisted on only seating women and children first, leaving tons of others standing around. Lord does mention that inquiries and hearings focused only in the first class passenger experience, meaning that we still don't know a lot about what happened with 3rd class, who died at much higher rates. I'd like to think it would be a national scandal today.
*Edwardian New York social circles were extremely small and passage on the Titanic's maiden voyage was almost a group trip, meaning that lots of people from a close knit group of powerful families died. This has led to conspiracy theories about the Federal Reserve etc.
*It seems like we're overdue for a retelling with all the research 2023 can muster. We know so much more now and I feel like the social aspect can be tackled. I'd be interested to read something from this decade about it.
*I've read a lot of disaster narratives and it's wild how similar disasters are. Often they are a mix of an unnaturally long string of things going wrong (reassuring?) + faulty logic about how to handle/interpret it (pervasive). With the Columbia shuttle disaster, the Titanic, and other disasters you often see a lack of preparation or appropriate response because *something hasn't been an issue BEFORE* (IE, foam strikes, multiple watertight compartments being stowed in, etc). This fallacy of logic tends to crop up in so many disasters and is something I think about a lot in risk assessment.
Some things that interested me:
*Lord refers to this as the major disillusioning event of the 1900s, which is fascinating given that at this later date we tend to refer to WWI as the birth of modernity, entry into a new age, etc. Lord dates it as 1912 and cites the piercing of the veil of invulnerability so many had. The legend of the Titanic as unsinkable was so persistent that even those who learned about it in the hours afterwards thought they had to be mistaken.
*Lord doesn't get into this as much as a writer today would, but the levels of hierarchy and class sorting were insane. So many people died because the third class passengers were essentially blocked from lifeboats, and they insisted on only seating women and children first, leaving tons of others standing around. Lord does mention that inquiries and hearings focused only in the first class passenger experience, meaning that we still don't know a lot about what happened with 3rd class, who died at much higher rates. I'd like to think it would be a national scandal today.
*Edwardian New York social circles were extremely small and passage on the Titanic's maiden voyage was almost a group trip, meaning that lots of people from a close knit group of powerful families died. This has led to conspiracy theories about the Federal Reserve etc.
*It seems like we're overdue for a retelling with all the research 2023 can muster. We know so much more now and I feel like the social aspect can be tackled. I'd be interested to read something from this decade about it.
*I've read a lot of disaster narratives and it's wild how similar disasters are. Often they are a mix of an unnaturally long string of things going wrong (reassuring?) + faulty logic about how to handle/interpret it (pervasive). With the Columbia shuttle disaster, the Titanic, and other disasters you often see a lack of preparation or appropriate response because *something hasn't been an issue BEFORE* (IE, foam strikes, multiple watertight compartments being stowed in, etc). This fallacy of logic tends to crop up in so many disasters and is something I think about a lot in risk assessment.
Educational and very interesting - about the sinking of the Titanic
I loved this book. I admit I am a total sucker for stories about the Titanic. The appeal to me is the glory, the hope, the chaos, and something really being too good to be true. Nothing in life is 100% certain and the Titanic was a perfect example. Time and time again my heart is broken by the stories of the steerage passengers that were never afforded the opportunity to save themselves....and that theme continues to this day in all aspects of life.
adventurous
informative
sad
medium-paced
For anyone interested in the tragedy of the Titanic this is a must read. It is the original book written after the sinking of the Titanic. Its value comes from it nearness to the original event. Some of the information that is listed has since been proven to be inaccurate.