Last Hours of the Titanic
"...a completely riveting account of the Titanic 's fatal collision and the behavior of the passengers and crew, both noble and ignominious. Some sacrificed their lives, while others fought like animals for their own survival. Wives beseeched husbands to join them in lifeboats; gentlemen went taut-lipped to their deaths in full evening dress; and hundreds of steerage passengers, trapped below decks, sought help in vain.
"...Walter Lord's classic minute-by-minute re-creation is as vivid now as it was upon first publication fifty years ago. From the initial distress flares to the struggles of those left adrift for hours in freezing waters, this semicentennial edition brings that moonlit night in 1912 to life for a new generation of readers."
Also available on audio, and it was transformed into a 1958 film featuring Honor Blackman and David McCallum.
"In the early morning hours of April 15, 1912, the icy waters of the North Atlantic reverberated with the desperate screams of more than 1,500 men, women, and children--passengers of the once majestic liner Titanic . Then, as the ship sank to the ocean floor and the passengers slowly died from hypothermia, an even more awful silence settled over the sea. The sights and sounds of that night would haunt each of the vessel's 705 survivors for the rest of their days. Although we think we know the story of Titanic --the famously luxurious and supposedly unsinkable ship that struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage from Britain to America--very little has been written about what happened to the survivors after the tragedy. How did they cope in the aftermath of this horrific event? How did they come to remember that night, a disaster that has been likened to the destruction of a small town? Drawing on a wealth of previously unpublished letters, memoirs, and diaries as well as interviews with survivors' family members, award-winning journalist and author Andrew Wilson reveals how some used their experience to propel themselves on to fame, while others were so racked with guilt they spent the rest of their lives under the Titanic's shadow. Some reputations were destroyed, and some survivors were so psychologically damaged that they took their own lives in the years that followed. Andrew Wilson brings to life the colorful voices of many of those who lived to tell the tale, from famous survivors like Madeleine Astor (who became a bride, a widow, an heiress, and a mother all within a year), Lady Duff Gordon, and White Star Line chairman J. Bruce Ismay, to lesser known second- and third-class passengers such as the Navratil brothers--who were traveling under assumed names because they were being abducted by their father."
"The 'unsinkable' Titanic was a dream come true. Four city blocks long and a passenger list that included the wealthy and the immigrants. Her maiden voyage in April 1912 became a nightmare when the giant ship struck an iceberg and sank in the North Atlantic. More than 1,500 lives were lost in the disaster.
Dream of a dream: The largest ship ever built is christened in Ireland. Witness the disaster as numerous iceberg warnings go unheeded and the ship sinks.
The legend lives on: Lifeboats edge away from the crippled liner as futile SOS signals flare into the night - leaving 1500 passengers to perish in a watery grave. Also, witness the deep sea expedition to unearth Titanic's secrets.
Beyond Titanic: Explore the aftermath and legacy of this momentous shipwreck, and discover the popular phenomenon surrounding on the the most outsized event in modern history."
"Dead men tell no tales. Dead ships, however, do. Over seventy years after the great ocean liner sank, marine geologist Robert Ballard discovered the wreck of the Titanic 12,500 feet beneath the surface of the icy North Atlantic. Now Ballard presents the world with an opportunity to live the story of the famous ship through his amazing last great images, before Titanic 's remains are gone forever. This is a story told in rusted, twisted metal and debris, but it is also a human story told in a porcelain doll's face, an empty shoe, and an abandoned derby hat. Titanic: The Last Great Images maps the wreck of the ship from a variety of perspectives to give a completely new picture of the triumph and tragedy that was Titanic . This illustrated volume-and a National Geographic special-weave the strands of the ocean liner's story together in renderings done by the ship's original designers, charts of the debris field, and period illustrations. Robert Ballard provides the clearest, most accurate view of the ship we have ever seen. In crisply detailed underwater photography, disintegrating ruins and shattered pieces reveal pride of workmanship, a rigidly defined class system, and indelible images of terror and courage."
