Titanic and other ships

by Charles Herbert Lightoller

The fascinating autobiography of the highest ranking surviving officer aboard the Titanic. This book was written during his retirement at the urging of his wife and details a life of huge interest for Titanic and naval enthusiasts

Why not read all about the incident in the following two books

The US Enquiry -

The British Enquiry -

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography

278 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 28, 2010

About the author

Charles Herbert Lightoller, DSC & Bar, RD, RNR (30 March 1874 – 8 December 1952) was the second officer on board the RMS Titanic and a decorated Royal Navy officer. He was the most senior member of the crew to survive the Titanic disaster.

Source: Wikipedia

Reviews

[Ben Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this for, I would imagine, much the same reason as most other people bought it. That is, the Titanic connection. As it happens, the Titanic story takes up just a few short chapters, but the rest of the book is pure gold.

There are uncomfortable moments. This book was written by a man born in the late 19th Century who was incredibly racist and quite misogynistic. That is unavoidable. However, reading it as history, rather than as some kind of celebration of the man, opens up an incredible story of rather a horrible eccentric who repeatedly got very lucky.

Charles Lightoller seems to have drifted from adventure to adventure throughout his life. Some are amusing, like being shipwrecked on a desert island, some are heartbreaking, like his chilling description of the sinking of Titanic, and some are quite sinister, like his veiled comments about not accepting 'that hands up business' from surrendering Germans in the first world war.

It's a complicated, shocking, and mind-boggling book. I just wish I could unread the bit about rats eating the toenails of sleeping sailors.

[Nick Guzan · Rating 2 out of 5]

tired: titanic
wired: titanic AND other ships

LOVE reading the adventures of a thrilling life lived at sea from a salty old mariner who determined at a young age that “sharks are cowards”

DO NOT LOVE reading said adventurer’s frequently racist commentary about those he encountered during said life at sea

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of the most enjoyable books I've ever read. Charles Lightoller has been a hero of mine since I first saw A Night To Remember (1958) as a seven year old. What he managed to achieve and survive in his life is incredible and highly entertaining. His writing style is enjoyable if a little 'Victorian' with the grammar, by which I mean many commas where perhaps there shouldn't be. I must criticize whoever transcribed and published this edition, as the quality is substandard. There are at least two to three errors per page at times, such as missing periods, the same word printed twice or the wrong word altogether (for example, 'or' instead of 'of'). Fortunately you can work out what the word is supposed to be and it doesn't detract from the overall experience too much, other than to make you think that this is such a wonderful account that it deserves a professional issue. I was a bit disappointed that his account ends before his Dunkirk adventure, but he states a couple of times that his intention was to only write about certain ships and perhaps the Dunkirk experience was still considered 'classified' when he was writing. I'd like to know when the book was first published. My issue doesn't even list the 'first published year' which is rare and curious. There's also a few minor errors, such as him declaring Titanic to be the first triple propeller screw ship, when Olympic was already active and also had three screws. The subtitle itself is wrong, as it claims Lightoller was the only surviving officer. He was the most senior to survive, but three others also survived (Pitman, Boxhall and Lowe). In conclusion, I cannot recommend this book highly enough, especially if you have any interest at all in the Titanic, life at sea or history.

Edit: I found out that Lightoller wrote this book in 1935 which is why his Dunkirk experience is missing. The confusion around Jack Phillips is also worthy of note since it's now assumed Phillips was not on board Collapsible B with Lightoller, despite the latter saying he was.

[Septima Severa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Frankly, I must say that my original notion for this purchase was none other than a pursue for Titanic story. But I would lie if I said it was the only thing that i liked on that book (about three chapters covering her Belfast trials, Southampton stay and sinking).
I consider Lightoller's life richer than most. The story of his life at sea, although incomplete in my opinion (it really seems rather shortened), is incredible and something that exists no more. His start under the sails, freelancing, then settling with one mercantile company, which ultimately led to wartime service? That nowadays seems like something from a steampunk-ish dream, perhaps. But as a lover of maritime stories, including those from WWI, I was far from disappointed by choosing this book. And if there were any more memoirs as exceptional as this one, I'd like to discover them for myself one day, too.

[Dio Day · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hero, war criminal, cowboy, proud owner of a banjo, and absolutely full of shit, Lightoller knew how to spin a yarn. As for writing, well, he never said that was one of his many trades. Expect to have a few tabs open to understand the nautical nonsense--he did not dumb it down or dial it back in his autobiography as he did for the American Senate Inquiry.

As others have said, if you're looking for Titanic, you might want to look elsewhere. I hear there's great biographies on Murdoch, specifically. But if you want to hear a first hand, undoubtedly exaggerated account of what at least one officer got up to before swapping to steamers, you really can't go wrong with And Other Ships. It's humanizing, simultaneously grounding Lights from the glory of the 1958 A Night to Remember film, and offering a more sympathetic look at the man that just wouldn't let Jack in the damn boat.

He was, of course, a product of his time, and about what you could expect from a proud English nationalist at the turn of the 20th century. But my god, was he interesting!

[Cristina · Rating 5 out of 5]

The way Lightoller writes makes for such entertaining reading, from his recounting of the Fort Denison incident to his description of the Oceanic's clock's "smug and friendly face".
This book has personality, that's for sure - and it tells the story of a life lived with awe-inspiring gumption and resilience.

[Jon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A rollicking great yarn

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is simply fantastic. The are only two drawbacks. One is that the author was a professional sailor and not a professional writer. There are instances throughout the book where I had to go back and reread certain passages, or whole pages, because it isn't completely clear what was going on. This is due mostly to the author's use of a lot of insider's language that land-lubbers will not easily understand the first time through, as well as a tendency to assume the reader has an experienced seaman's instinctive understanding of the situation making certain details unnecessary. The second is that the account of the Titanic could have been told in much more detail, particularly as he was the highest ranking officer to survive and his account was particularly useful to both the American and British inquiries (though he had nothing nice to say about the American inquiry, and for good reason). However, Lightoller hinted strongly as to why he didn't give more detail: namely that that particular experience understandably left him with a lot of bad memories and what would now probably be diagnosed as PTSD. That said, "Titanic and Other Ships" is absolutely worth the read. Lightoller saw and experienced a tremendous amount of adventure during his life at sea, certainly more than most seafarers will see in a lifetime. His survival of the Titanic disaster is simply miraculous. But he had many other adventures, including service hunting U-Boats in WWI as well as being shipwrecked and temporarily marooned on a distant island in the south seas. Lightoller even tells of an ill-advised adventure on land when he attempted to join the Klondike gold rush. Amazingly, Lightoller had another adventure after he wrote this book. In 1940, he took part in the evacuation of Dunkirk and rescued 127 soldiers. That story is lightly fictionalized in the film "Dunkirk" where his actions are performed by a character named Mr. Dawson (That name is almost certainly a hint to observant viewers that the character is really Charles Lightoller as Dawson was the name of Leonardo DiCaprio's character in the massively disappointing film "Titanic"). It would be nice if modern editions of this book contained an epilogue containing that story as it is mentioned on the back cover. Instead, readers will just have to go to Wikipedia to get that information. It would also be nice if the modern edition were annotated by a knowledgeable editor as there are references to things that a contemporary reader may have known all about, but today would require a specialized knowledge of history that most readers probably won't have. Overall, "Titanic and Other Ships" gets five stars on the sheer strength of the stories. In telling of his own life, Charles Lightoller wrote a fantastic seafaring adventure book.

[Lara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd like to give this 3.5 stars - I really liked most of it, but bits were hard to read, particularly the technical descriptions of naval battle in the first world war. Some sections seemed to read better than others, possibly having had more work?

I'd read another review of this book before I purchased it, and it was spot on - Lightoller's book tells an amazing story of a fascinating life, a life lived a century ago in a time and place where not all men were equal. It is peppered with references to other people which would be ofensive today, written at a time when they expressed the world (aka British) view. Having approached the book with this in mind, this did not bother me.

He describes an incident on the Titanic involving a group of men who did not speak english being forced off one of the life boats - he talks of their cowardice. Reading it now, I could only think how desperate it would have been, not only to be on a sinking ship, but to have no idea what was going on and what you should do, with nobody to explain what was happening in your own language. These men too are just as likely to have shown the same bravery of the 'english speakers' had they understood what they were being asked to do. Different times, and different points of view. This one has to go on my 'thought wall' for the next time someone asks me to do something totally outrageous and irrational.

All in all, a really good read, if a little technical on the nautical side, and a fantastic journey back into the not so distant past.

[peachrings · Rating 5 out of 5]

Titanic, while tragic and famous, is only one of many wild things that happened to this guy. Although, phrasing it as things happening to him makes it all sound very passive, which he definitively is not. It takes a lot for a book to make me laugh out loud or outwardly react, but he achieved it with his sly, dry sense of humor, more common in older books than the "zany" comedy more prevalent today. He has a unique and at times contradictory personality that I enjoyed piecing together throughout his tales - fun-loving, adventurous, impulsive, and fond of legendary pranks I wouldn't have believed had there not been news articles to prove it, but also stubborn to a fault and unwilling to deal with bullshit. (Other people's bullshit, that is, not his own brand...) This book has everything: shipwrecks, cowboys, gold prospecting, train-hopping, fleeing Brazilian police boats, pranking an entire city into thinking it's under attack, and using the bridge of an ocean liner as a slip-n-slide. I was sad when I finished, I can only imagine the heaps of other tales that didn't make it into the book!

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first page in the book sums up what I was going to expect “Dedicated to my persistent wife who made me do it.”
Pros: It is a first-hand account of a high ranking officer on the Titanic. Many of his adventures on the Titanic and other ships he worked on were entertaining to read and at times would earn a chuckle out of me. His immaturity in his early life wasn't annoying to read, it was actually my favourite section in the book other than the Titanic.

Cons: I will say this about this edition only, there are many spelling mistakes. Chapters could be as short as one page. Some inaccurate information that the editor didn't pick up and correct as they did with others. He doesn't hold your hand when it comes to sailor lingo, which could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your knowledge. Another is racism, this book is of its time so I will warn you some pages use racial slurs.

[R.J. Southworth · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading this book, one imagines that when Charles Lightoller realised the Titanic was sinking, he must have thought, “Well, here we go again.” His life contained plenty of dramatic events besides that, and is definitely a story worth reading. I liked his writing style (aside from getting a bit lost in the nautical terminology sometimes), which really makes you imagine an old sailor telling stories in front of the fire. However, given how much his zoological observations stretch credulity (an albatross with a thirty-foot wingspan, really?), you have to wonder how much else he might exaggerate.

[Thomas Warger · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book recounts the early years of an astonishing life at sea and in many exotic settings and circumstances. Lightolloer was the senior surviving officer on the Titanic. That story would have been enough, but it is not even the most remarkable in his life.

There is an intriguing mystery behind the book. It was published in 1935 but was withdrawn several years later following the threat of a lawsuit by the Marconi company. I won't spoil that story.

Well written. A fast and easy read.

[Wilbur Force · Rating 3 out of 5]

I only gave this a 3 star review for 2 reasons. one, it is very light on Titanic, something that is fair enough when the book is called Titanic and other ships, but I am sure many will be drawn here by the Titanic aspect and there's likely little here for them that's not already in their heads. The other reason was that at times I felt a little gaslighting going on that somehow niggled me. 30 foot Albatross and a sawfish punching a hole in a wooden boat for example? Googling both brought up the wingspan of an albatross at 11 feet and the sawfish using its protrusion in a sideways movement for defence, though learning that an albatross will attack humans in the water in reality was a surprise discovery. But the writers initial 'exaggerations' make you start to doubt some of the tales and yarns spun here. All that said, it was a book I happily read end to end and would say it covers a fair chunk of the mans life at sea well enough to be an enjoyable read. It is a book of an era, so some of his descriptions of the people from other countries may not fit the sensibilities of the modern times, but they were common words of the day. For the first few chapters that detailed ships with sails and rigging, I found myself having to google a few terms to better understand some of the more used terms in the book such as "t'gallant", (the topgallant sail way up high of the mast pronounced "t'garns apparently). All in, this book covers a seaman's life from a boy on a sailing ship through occasional times on land and through the first world war on the water (and in it) and on through to his last ship. There were only a couple of chapters that kind of stalled a little and were a bit of a reading chore, but on the whole, and forgetting his propensity to over exaggerate at times, it was a book to remember about the life of a man from a historical moment that few know anything about. His views as the last surviving officer of the Titanic sinking alone made for an interesting enough read and could alone justify the read. I hate to think what kind of treatment he received as a male survivor as for some this was a stigma they carried forwards for a long time. To sum up, at its core, this is a book about a mans life on a number of disparate ships and a couple of land experiences with a couple of chapters about Titanic.

[Mervyn Whyte · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the most exciting of reads. Even the chapters on the Titanic are lacking in any kind of insight or penetration. Often this is down to the writing, which is much too technical and archaic. Not sure when the book was written, but there's no mention of Lightoller's involvement in the evacuation of Dunkirk. Must've been written before then. There're plenty of chapters about his exploits during the First World War, which I'm sorry to say are among the dullest in the book. And he passes quickly over his machine gunning of unarmed German submariners following the sinking of UB-110. There's some interesting stuff about his time in South America and his shipwrecking on St. Paul Island. And about his prospecting in Canada. But given all these adventures, the book still manages to lack any kind of spark. I was bored about halfway through.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

Trust Lightoller to make even the dedication section laughable. First off, Lightoller can't write a book, the structure of the book is very off with a lot of spelling mistakes. But the book makes up for it with his sailor humor. Lightoller does come up with some tall seaman tales. such animals that he encounters at sea being over exaggerated to the point of making them either unrecognizable or impossible. He does fail on one extra thing for me, only because a non-sailor such as myself noticed. He trusts everyone to know many of the sailor lingo. Another note that should be mentioned is parts in the book consists of activities we consider racist now, this part of the book can be used for a inside of the culture that used to plague the 19 century.

[César F. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gran historia! Creí ingenuamente que abordaba la experiencia del Comandante Lightoller más durante el naufragio del Titanic que en otros barcos donde sirvió. Pero en realidad es 15 % Titanic y 85 % "other ships". Aún así no decepcionó. Ha sido una historia de aventuras en el mar a inicios del siglo 20 pasando por la transición entre barcos a vela y a vapor, el contexto histórico de la época y la primera Guerra mundial. Recomendada sólo para quienes les interese el Titanic y/o el mar.

[Rebekah · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3.5 rounded up)

Interesting book! Was fascinated that it ended after WW1- but I suppose he wrote it before WW2, haha. (That does also explain why he just called it The War.) A bit racist- a product of its time, I guess, but still made me uncomfortable. Still, he had interesting stories (if a bit unbelievable at times).

[David Cozens · Rating 4 out of 5]

The entertaining career of the highest ranking surviving officer of the Titanic, from sailing ships to the White Star Line to destroyers in WWI.

[mads · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Jennifer Quail · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely delightful for those who enjoy a good sea story. Or a good land story! My only disappointment is he omits the Australia run on which he met his future wife. But reading it is like sitting and listening to an old sailor telling tales-maybe not all true, but still good stories. For Titanic scholars, a genuine must-read in a sea of accounts, though like any survivor recounting it's limited to what he witnessed firsthand and clearly at certain critical moments such as the breakup he didn't have the best vantage point ("almost drowning in near-freezing water" is not the best place to get a technical eyewitness account.) But as he was the highest-ranking survivor, serious scholars need to read it. And those interested in the Royal Naval Reserve in World War I would also do well not to skip this.

How much do I like this book? I read this in Kindle format. It's the only e-book I've ever read beginning to end.

[Charlie Zizza · Rating 3 out of 5]

A valuable primary source, despite probably not being the most reliable. However, Lightoller was not a writer and this isn't exactly the most compelling read. I would skip this (unless you are deeply interested in Titanic or maritime history) in favor of some secondary sources which reference this book.

[Alyssa Calhoun · Rating 5 out of 5]

Honestly, I only read the part about the Titanic--but it was so, so good. A must-read for Titanic lovers.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a little dry at first with all the sailing terminology but once it got going wow what a life.

[Wendy]

Referenced in Walter Lord's "A Night to Remember", "mirrors his fine mixture of humor and bravery".