Titanic: Fortune and Fate : Letters, Mementos, and Personal Effects from Those Who Sailed on the Lost Ship

by Mariners' Museum

More than 80 years after her renowned maiden voyage, stories of the Titanic continue to intrigue us. Now this elegant gift book offers an intimate and unique look at the motivations, feelings, and personal stories of the people involved with the unsinkable ship. Based on the wildly popular expedition of the same name at the Mariners' Museum, Titanic: Fortune and Fate displays more than 200 photographs of authentic artifacts and portraits that illuminate such astounding personal narratives.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, 20th Century, Historical

192 pages, Hardcover

First published September 2, 1998

Reviews

[Christy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This turned out to be good for unexpected reasons! I was first excited to read about the mementos from Titanic passengers; but it ended up being that part of the story was only slightly touched upon. As a reader I didn't care one bit about the many reproductions that were represented in this book; and can't possibly fathom why they would have been included. What was fascinatingly interesting was the beautiful pictures of passengers lost and saved and little snippets of information and lovely quotes I would have missed had I not read this book.

[Erika Schoeps · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars
A Titanic book for younger readers or adults completely unfamiliar with the historical events of the Titanic. The chapters begin with a brief paragraph, often with the most basic information. After that, the reader is shown a pretty spread of photographs, items, articles, portraits, etc... This is mostly enjoyable, expect one aspect that really annoyed me; there are quite a few pictures of replica pieces from the 1997 movie Titanic . Whose idea was it to throw movie props in a sentimental historical picture book? Despite that shortcoming, the best part of this book is that parts of the Titanic's manifest and passenger status (saved or lost) are printed on every page. The age, class, gender, and whether that person lived or died quietly tells its own story as you gaze at relics of the past.

I'd recommend this one for children.

[Ruth · Rating 2 out of 5]

c1998: The most moving part of this book are the pages that consist of the passenger list of the Titanic with the information of what class of passage they were on and their age. Certain assumptions can certainly be made but I was surprised at the number of steerage passengers that did survive. Clearly not as many as in First Class; in fact there was a note that mentioned that only one child travelling in First Class was 'lost' compared to many children lost from the lower levels. I have read and watched a lot about the Titanic but although I vaguely recall the first lifeboat was launched only partially full, I did not realise that the passengers consisted of a Lord and Lady Duff-Gordon " self-absorbed Scottish aristocrats, both boarded Lifeboat 1. Though it could accommodate forty, the lifeboat was lowered with only twelve people aboard; seven crew members and five first-class passengers. Sir Cosmo tipped the lifeboat crew £5 apiece for their efforts." He is reported as saying, "I have said that I did not consider the possibility - or rather I should say, the possibility of being able to help anybody never occurred to me at all." This man had been a silver medal winner at the 1906 Olympics for fencing and therefore I would imagine that he still would have been quite fit at the time of the actual sinking. What was he thinking???? In having a look around the Internet, I can see that this was a well known incident and the Lord in question lived a very reclusive life afterwards. Despite being not being found at fault in any way by a subsequent enquiry, its hard to understand how they could not at least of heard all the screams etc and noises to realise that some people needed help. Later evidence revealed in 2007 came in the form of letters that the Duff-Gordons wrote that are supposed to vindicate their actions. The Telegraph has a great article on this discovery but as the documents were written by the Duff-Gordons, I can't see how they are vindicated. But the book did stimulate my interest and made me look for further details which is always a sign of a good book. The book does cheat by including photographs of replicas or items that appeared in the most recent Titanic film and there are not many items and personal effects shown. But the correspondence is thought provoking.

[Nathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very wonderful coffee-table style book, with artifacts and photos smattering the pages in ways that allow of a process of discovery for the reader. Items pulled from the water in the following days, items belonging to survivors and found on the bodies of the deceased, are mixed in with similar items from the Olympic or other White Star ships to create a full picture of the Titanic and her passengers. Rounding this out of course are photos, artist recreations, scans of letters and other related documents, recreations made for and used in the 1997 movie, etc.

The most chilling of which is an alphabetical handwritten list of all the ship’s passengers that weaves itself throughout the images, listing who lost their lives and who was saved. (Although it only makes it to the letter F —and also returns to A on page 106?—, with no mention of any crew, but it does get the point across. The full list of both passengers and crew is at the back of the book).

Where the book falls short is in how what little text their is, is devoted to captions. Which is to be expected from a book of this type, but has also created a space for over simplification of information, which results in some misinterpretations and some falsities. Such as stating that SOS was used for the very first time at sea on the Titanic, or just simply stating that Lawrence Beesley “boarded” a life boat when it would be better described in other ways, etc…

I won’t get bogged down in the details nitpicking about each fact that I’ve read differently about elsewhere, after all, I’m no expert. These bits of information could also very well be attributed to the fact that this book is a good 20+ years old now, and new findings have emerged since.

On a side note, I wish transcripts of the letters within had been included. Some handwriting is very difficult to read, or photos of the letters are printed much too small on top of that.

Over all though, it is still an extremely vast and effective collection of artifacts from the sinking, and I’m very glad for the time I had to explore it’s pages. Despite the few mishaps here and there, Titanic: Fortune and Fate is truly a museum in a book.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A picture book about the world's most famous cruise ship. It has a lot of photographs of passengers and crew along with snippets of stories, most of which I had heard before. There were a few stories I had not heard before though, so there were some interesting tidbits, like two small boys who were considered "Titanic's Orphans:" their father did not survive the sinking. The boys were being kidnapped by their father and taken to America on the Titanic, fortunately (?) fate intervened. Their mother found them when their pictures were posted in newspapers. An interesting picture book for sure.

[Monique · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have always been fascinated by the story of the Titanic, even before it was discovered by Robert Ballard and his exploration crew. This collection of items are from the personal effects, letters and mementos are one of the most interesting I have ever read about. The presentation of the book is really lovely, including a somber ghost like list of all the passengers and crew who were aboard the fateful trip.

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25

[Bettina Bier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very emotional to read, with all the names of the people who lost their lives. Interesting for Titanic Enthusiasts.

[Margaret]

Wow, this was an interesting book - even though the sinking was almost 100 years ago now the quotes and pictures of actual artifacts make the tragedy horribly real again. I did not know a lot of the details of the event and the personal stories were a fascinating mix of courage and despair. This book made me cry a little. I found I could not read the "lost" names so I concentrated on the "saved". If anything good came of this disaster, it was the awareness and improvement of ship safety.

[Rick Vickers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read with lots of pictures I had not seen before.