The Titanic Disaster Hearings

Merely a day afterTitanicsurvivors arrived in port in New York City, a United States Senate committee began an investigation into the wreck of the great "unsinkable" ship. For the first time in book form, here is the dramatic testimony of crew and passengers from all walks of life, as they recall the sights and sounds of the night of April 14, 1912.From the manners of the day to the conduct fo those boarding the lifeboats, from acts of kindness to palpable greed, here is an unforgettable portrait of human nature in the face of theTitanictragedy, in the words of the men and women who survived....J. Bruce Ismay,British officer of the White Star Line, who hopped into a lifeboat to save himself and never looked back to see her go down....Second officerCharles Lightoller'sharrowing plunge as the sinking ship's force of suction pulled him under water....On-duty lookoutFrederick Fleet'sadmission that the iceberg might have been avoided if the crew had been equipped with binoculars....PassengerDaisy Minahan,who recalled the refusal of an officer in her lifeboat to aid those adrift in the frigid waters...and many more witnesses to one of the most shattering events of our century. Illustrated with historical photographs, TheTitanic Disaster Hearingsis a vital piece of the puzzle that has sparked worldwide fascination.

Merely a day after Titanic survivors arrived in port in New York City, a United States Senate committee began an investigation into the wreck of the great "unsinkable" ship. For the first time in book form, here is the dramatic testimony of crew and passengers from all walks of life, as they recall the sights and sounds of the night of April 14, 1912. From the manners of the day to the conduct fo those boarding the lifeboats, from acts of kindness to palpable greed, here is an unforgettable portrait of human nature in the face of the Titanic tragedy, in the words of the men and women who survived....J. Bruce Ismay, British officer of the White Star Line, who hopped into a lifeboat to save himself and never looked back to see her go down....Second officer Charles Lightoller's harrowing plunge as the sinking ship's force of suction pulled him under water....On-duty lookout Frederick Fleet's admission that the iceberg might have been avoided if the crew had been equipped with binoculars....Passenger Daisy Minahan, who recalled the refusal of an officer in her lifeboat to aid those adrift in the frigid waters...and many more witnesses to one of the most shattering events of our century. Illustrated with historical photographs, The Titanic Disaster Hearings is a vital piece of the puzzle that has sparked worldwide fascination.

"Merely a day after Titanic survivors arrived in port in New York City, a United States Senate committee began an investigation into the wreck of the great 'unsinkable' ship. For the first time in book form, here is the dramatic testimony of crew and passengers from all walks of life, as they recall the sights and sounds of the night of April 14, 1912. From the manners of the day to the conduct fo those boarding the lifeboats, from acts of kindness to palpable greed, here is an unforgettable portrait of human nature in the face of the Titanic tragedy, in the words of the men and women who survived ... J. Bruce Ismay, British officer of the White Star Line, who hopped into a lifeboat to save himself and never looked back to see her go down ... Second officer Charles Lightoller's harrowing plunge as the sinking ship's force of suction pulled him under water ... On-duty lookout Frederick Fleet's admission that the iceberg might have been avoided if the crew had been equipped with binoculars ... Passenger Daisy Minahan, who recalled the refusal of an officer in her lifeboat to aid those adrift in the frigid waters ... and many more witnesses to one of the most shattering events of our century. Illustrated with historical photographs, The Titanic Disaster Hearings is a vital piece of the puzzle that has sparked worldwide fascination."--Back cover.

Report into the Loss of the SS Titanic is a complete re-evaluation of the loss of Titanic based on evidence that has come to light since the discovery of the wreck in 1985. This collective undertaking is compiled by eleven of the world's foremost Titanic researchers – experts who have spent many years examining the wealth of information that has arisen since 1912. Following the basic layout of the 1912 Wreck Commission Report, this modern report provides fascinating insights into the ship itself, the American and British inquiries, the passengers and crew, the fateful journey and ice warnings received, the damage and sinking, rescue of survivors, the circumstances in connection with the SS Californian and SS Mount Temple, and the aftermath and ramifications that followed the disaster. The book seeks to answer controversial questions, such as whether steerage passengers were detained behind gates, and also reveals the names and aliases of all passengers and crew who sailed on Titanic's maiden voyage. Containing the most extensively referenced chronology of the voyage ever assembled and featuring a wealth of explanatory charts and diagrams, as well as archive photographs, this comprehensive volume is the definitive 'go-to' reference book for this ill-fated ship.

The official reports of the 1912 American and British inquiries into the Titanic. "Report of the United States Senate Committee to Investigate the Causes of the Loss of the White Star Liner Titanic" and "The British Wreck Commissioner's Report on the Loss of the Titanic".

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. Today, one hundred years after that fateful voyage, Shadow of the Titanic adds an important new dimension to our understanding of this enduringly fascinating story.

Books have been written, films made, we have raised the Titanic and watched her go down again on numerous occasions, but out of the wreckage Frances Wilson spins a new epic: when the ship hit the iceberg on 14 April 1912 and a thousand men prepared to die, J Bruce Ismay, the ship's owner and inheritor of the White Star fortune, jumped into a lifeboat with the women and children and rowed away to safety. Accused of cowardice, Ismay became, according to one headline, 'The Most Talked-of Man in the World'. The first victim of a press hate campaign, his reputation never recovered and while other survivors were piecing together their accounts, Ismay never spoke of his beloved ship again. With the help of that great narrator of the sea, Joseph Conrad, whose Lord Jim so uncannily predicted Ismay's fate - and whose manuscript of the story of a man who impulsively betrays a code of honour and lives on under the strain of intolerable guilt went down with the Titanic - Frances Wilson explores the reasons behind Ismay's jump, his desperate need to make sense of the horror of it all, and to find a way of living with lost honour. For those who survived the Titanic the world was never the same again. But as Wilson superbly demonstrates, we all have our own Titanics, and we all need to find ways of surviving them.