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History. Nonfiction. HTML:#1 New York Times Bestseller: The definitive book on the sinking of the Titanic, based on interviews with survivors, by the author of The Miracle of Dunkirk. At first, no one but the lookout recognized the sound. Passengers described it as the impact of a heavy wave, a scraping noise, or the tearing of a long calico strip. In fact, it was the sound of the world's most famous ocean liner striking an iceberg, and it served as the death knell for 1,500 souls. In the next two hours and forty minutes, the maiden voyage of the Titanic became one of history's worst maritime accidents. As the ship's deck slipped closer to the icy waterline, women pleaded with their husbands to join them on lifeboats. Men changed into their evening clothes to meet death with dignity. And in steerage, hundreds fought bitterly against certain death. At 2:15 a.m. the ship's band played "Autumn." Five minutes later, the Titanic was gone. Based on interviews with sixty-three survivors, Lord's moment-by-moment account is among the finest books written about one of the twentieth century's bleakest nights.… (more)
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In our time, a number of landmark events have been cited as turning points, the end of innocence, the time when doubt and cynicism took the place of optimism and faith. The bombing of Hiroshima. The
Before that, there was the Titanic.
Says Walter Lord in this work of nonfiction: "Overriding everything else, the Titanic also marked the end of a general feeling of confidence. Until then men felt they had found the answer to a steady, orderly, civilized life.... The Titanic woke them up. Never again would they be quite so sure of themselves. In technology especially, the disaster was a terrible blow. Here was the "unsinkable ship"--perhaps man's greatest engineering achievement--going down the first time it sailed.... If it was a lesson, it worked--people have never been sure of anything since. The unending sequence of disillusionment that has followed can't be blamed on the Titanic, but she was the first jar. Before the Titanic, all was quiet. Afterward all was tumult. That is why, to anybody who lived at the time, the Titanic more than any other single event marks the end of the old days, and the beginning of a new, uneasy era." (chapter 7)
The next big event would be the start of World War I.
Born five years after the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, Lord was writing in 1955. After two world wars. Before Sputnik, before Apollo, before home computers and cellphones. Before Vietnam, before JFK. Before Unabomber and TSA and amber alerts. When CD stood for Civil Defense, not certificate of deposit and not compact disc, and we practiced "duck and cover" under our desks at school. However it may look now, that was no age of innocence. At the time of publication, only 43 years had passed since that April night, and the sinking of the greatest of all ships was still a living memory. And Lord, looking back over the interval and reflecting the spirit of the time, sees the loss of the Titanic as the boundary marker. That, it seems to me, is one of the three main messages of this book.
The other two are directly related to the disaster itself and not its aftermath. One is the number of things that had to go wrong in order for the vessel and 1500 lives to be lost. And every one of them--messages not delivered, warnings not taken, lifeboats not filled--everything did.
And the other is the overweening hubris of the designers, builders, and owners themselves, those who thought they could create something indestructible. Nothing is indestructible.
Lord's documentary chronicles the events immediately leading up to the Titanic's collision with the iceberg and everything that occurred thereafter, through the arrival of the few hundred survivors in New York. Key moments in the sequence are laid out in a timeline, minute by minute. Public and private accounts of the catastrophe are catalogued.
The main thread of the narrative is actually many interwoven threads. Lord follows the stories of various passengers, crew members, and distinguished personages, including the captain, the naval architect who oversaw the plans for the ocean liner, and the managing director of the Titanic's parent company, the White Star Line. Some are barely sketches, and some are detailed vignettes with extensive chronologies. Source material included written records and numerous eyewitness accounts, among which there was much conflicting information. The author went to considerable lengths to try to separate fiction, false memory, and folklore from fact, acknowledging that with no way to verify stories there could never be more than partial success.
Lord's journalistic style keeps the account from veering over into sensationalism, but it's impossible to tell a story as dramatic as this one without some feeling. As Lord depicts the overconfidence, ill-preparedness, disbelief, denial, and fatal inaction that contributed to the tragedy, he expresses a sorrow that seems both universal and personal. There is also admiration, awe, and perhaps even pride as he recounts the noble acts, the honorable behavior, and the self-sacrificing strength of character to which so many of the survivors owed their lives.
I prefer my history straight and not served up as infotainment, so I appreciate the amount of objectivity that Lord brings to the task, as well as the conscientious research. At the same time, the very things that make this a faithful history also take off a few points for readability: the quantities of corroborating detail, the occasional choppiness, the inevitable loose ends and unfinished stories. The book is worth a reader's attention, however, not just because, a century after the fact, that night to remember ought not to be overshadowed and forgotten but also because the lessons of the Titanic and its disastrous fate are just as applicable today. Innocence may have been lost a long time ago, but we have not learned to avoid the trap of overconfidence or truly come to terms with our collective vulnerability.
I dread to think what it would take.
An interesting footnote comes from Wikipedia: "In 1997, Lord served as a consultant to director James Cameron during the filming of the movie Titanic."
(Kindle edition)
Note to self: No more books or movies about the Titanic. The ending will always be the same!
Wow. I was again on the verge of tears. This is such a sad story.Very well written. After I read it I immediately wanted to watch The Titanic. I thought I had the movie, but guess I was wrong. ;)Now I know what to buy next.
I found this book engaging,
I would not hesitate to recommend this book to anyone interested in the story of the Titanic.
Most readers are likely to know many of the details and recognize the names of people involved from the popular films and many documentary programs. On an April night in 1912 the "unsinkable" ship sunk less than two hours after hitting an iceberg. There weren't enough life boats for all the 2,207 passengers and crew. Few among those who went into the below freezing waters of the North Atlantic survived to be picked up by the Carpathia that came to the rescue a couple of hours after the ship went down. There are a lot of striking individual stories of heroism and cowardice, chivalry and ignobility. Reading this reminded me of what Viktor Frankl, a psychiatrist, said of his experiences in a concentration camp. He said Freud was wrong that people under stress act the same--Frankly said that rather their individual character, for bad and good, is just magnified.
It's also quite a picture of a lost age. As Lord put it, "the Titanic was also the last stand of wealth and society in the center of public affection. In 1912 there were no movie, radio or television stars; sports figures were still beyond the pale; and cafe society was completely unknown. The public depended on socially prominent people for all the vicarious glamour that enriches drab lives.” Never again would those in the different classes of travel be treated differently in such a situation--yet back then not even the steerage passengers were outraged over how they were, if not pushed to the side by policy, then not just a second thought, but last. Mostly yes, it was "women and children first." But you still had a better chance of surviving if you were a first class male than a third class child--and Lord explains why.
However, after reading "A Night to Remember" by Walter Lord, I have found the Titanic tale I have been
I recommend this book to anybody interested in the historical documentation of the disaster, and whom want to further investigate the Titanic.
I liked this book. It is well written for the style, but does include minor details about various things to give one a sense of the times and the event. (I didn't really need to know all the variations of how people dressed for the disaster, yet these are things that the survivors apparently remembered in detail. More interesting were the things left behind.)You learn what happened and how the survivors were rescued. The rescue part including what could have happened and why it didn't is very interesting. One can easily see there should have been more survivors.
It still seems unbelievable that this accident happened. I guess that is why people get obsessed with this.
On April 15, 1912, the greatest ship to ever sail struck an iceberg and sank in the North Atlantic. This is a chronological tale of what the people aboard the Titanic recall of that night’s events.
This is a re-read. I first read it before I joined either Shelfari
It’s a gripping story, and Lord does a great job of bringing all these people to life. I get a real sense of the confusion and disbelief when the ship first strikes the iceberg. And later, of the chaos and panic when it is clear she will go down, and there are not enough lifeboats for everyone aboard to safely get away.
Lord used transcripts of testimony given by many people during the inquiry following the disaster, as well as personal interviews with survivors and relatives of those lost at sea, as well as people who were aboard the Carpathia which picked up all the lifeboats and returned with them to New York. The text edition I had included some photographs, as well as a full list of the passengers.
Walter Jarvis does an okay job of reading the audio version, but I really disliked his voice. Still, he did convey a sense of urgency as he related the events of that horrible night.
The class distinctions and the morals of the people involved are on full display and Lord also really makes a good case that