Reading the 20th Century discussion

Having recently subscribed to History Hit, I have been watching a documentary about Titanic, featuring expert, Tim Maltin, This documentary is 'Debunking the Myths of the Titanic.' I have listed one of his books above, although I have to admit that I haven't read it.

I have a few historical obsessions and Titanic is one of them. Is anyone else interested, or have any reads about Titanic they wish to recommend?

Susan wrote: "Having recently subscribed to History Hit, I have been watching a documentary about Titanic, featuring expert, Tim Maltin, This documentary is 'Debunking the Myths of the Titanic.' I have listed on..."

A Night to Remember by Walter Lord gives a minute by minute account of the sinking. I gave it three stars which for me means it's good

I have read quite a few books about Titanic. There are lots of good non-fiction books, but less fiction. I think my favourite fiction about Titanic was The Watch That Ends the Night

I haven't read any books on the Titanic yet, but this one popped up in my news feed the other day and looks really interesting Titanic on Trial.

I've got a Titanic book I hope to read soon, The Darksome Bounds of a Failing World: The Sinking of the “Titanic” and the End of the Edwardian Era by Gareth Russell. I'm looking forward to getting to this one after enjoying a recent buddy read of Young and Damned and Fair: The Life of Catherine Howard, Fifth Wife of King Henry VIII by the same author.

I've been reading Titanic books for years and still have a couple

Archibald Gracie's The Truth About The Titanic, Tim Maltin's Titanic, First Accounts, The Titanic and The Californian by Peter Padfield and The Other Side of the Night: The Carpathia, the Californian and the Night the Titanic Was Lost by Daniel Allen Butler.

Possibly more.

Every Man for Himself by Beryl Bainbridge was a novel about the Titanic, and I rather liked it.

Thanks Hugh, I've been meaning to try Beryl Bainbridge for ages, I'll look out for this one.

I also liked Every Man for Himself, thanks, Hugh. Judy, I loved The Darksome Bounds... I think you will enjoy it.

As there were not enough Titanic books....

A new one coming out next August. I haven't added it to Goodreads, but it's called: Sinkable: Obsession, the Deep Sea, and the Shipwreck of the Titanic Kindle Edition
by Daniel Stone (Author)

From the national bestselling author of The Food Explorer, a fascinating and rollicking plunge into the story of the world’s most famous shipwreck, the RMS Titanic


On a frigid April night in 1912, the world’s largest—and soon most famous—ocean liner struck an iceberg and slipped beneath the waves. She had scarcely disappeared before her new journey began, a seemingly limitless odyssey through the world’s fixation with her every tragic detail. Plans to find and raise the Titanic began almost immediately. Yet seven decades passed before it was found. Why? And of some three million shipwrecks that litter the ocean floor, why is the world still so fascinated with this one?
In Sinkable, Daniel Stone spins a fascinating tale of history, science, and obsession, uncovering the untold story of the Titanic not as a ship but as a shipwreck. He explores generations of eccentrics, like American Charles Smith, whose 1914 recovery plan using a synchronized armada of ships bearing electromagnets was complex, convincing, and utterly impossible; Jack Grimm, a Texas oil magnate who fruitlessly dropped a fortune to find the wreck after failing to find Noah’s Ark; and the British Doug Woolley, a former pantyhose factory worker who has claimed, since the 1960s, to be the true owner of the Titanic wreckage.
Along the way, Sinkable takes readers through the two miles of ocean water in which the Titanic sank, showing how the ship broke apart and why, and delves into the odd history of our understanding of such depths. Author Daniel Stone studies the landscape of the seabed, which in the Titanic’s day was thought to be as smooth and featureless as a bathtub. He interviews scientists to understand the decades of rust and decomposition that are slowly but surely consuming the ship. (She’s expected to disappear entirely within a few decades!) He even journeys over the Atlantic, during a global pandemic, to track down the elusive Doug Woolley. And Stone turns inward, looking at his own dark obsession with both the Titanic and shipwrecks in general, and why he spends hours watching ships sink on YouTube.
Brimming with humor, curiosity and wit, Sinkable follows in the tradition of Susan Orlean and Bill Bryson, offering up a page-turning work of personal journalism and an immensely entertaining romp through the deep sea and the nature of obsession.

Ooh, sounds good!

Seems like there is no end to books on Titanic and I agree, it does sound interesting.

Had been thinking about going to Belfast this summer, but as nobody had realised our passports had all run out, etc. have decided to book The Titanic Exhibition in Easter in case that trip has to wait. Think RC mentioned this one a while ago.

https://titanic.eu/en/

Will let you know what I think when I go there.

Went to the Titanic Exhibition today. You have to download an app and then there is a very interesting commentary as you go through the exhibition. The only problem is it's quite detailed so you go fairly slowly and that means that people tend to congregate.

Anyway, there are nice recreations of first and third class cabins as well as a corridor of the ship and plenty of items from the ship or sister ship, Olympic. It is closing soon, so there were only a few, sad items for sale at the end. Anyway, it was interesting, we enjoyed it and I am pleased we went.

I have recently downloaded Understanding J. Bruce Ismay: The True Story of the Man They Called 'The Coward of Titanic'
Anyone else planning to read this one?

That sounds so good, Susan - I've wanted to go but with Mr RC away, none of my friends fancied it.

Did your kids enjoy it? Did you learn anything new?

I don't think I learnt anything new, but the kids enjoyed it, although my son struggled with the audio download (mine worked fine but he wouldn't use mine for some reason). It was good to go out - we're going to see the new Fantastic Beasts movie tomorrow as well, so they'll like that.

Susan wrote: "Went to the Titanic Exhibition today. You have to download an app and then there is a very interesting commentary as you go through the exhibition. The only problem is it's quite detailed so you go..."

I wonder if it (the book) is much different from How to Survive the Titanic: or, The Sinking of J. Bruce Ismay?

The exhibit sounds interesting. Other than the app, it sounds reminiscent of the Tut exhibit that I saw years ago at Chicago's Field Museum. They didn't have apps then.

I saw the Tut exhibition too, Jan, in Dec 19. It was pretty much the last such exhibition we went to for quiet a while and was set out in a very similar way, so you might be right. Lots of black drapes and rooms leading one into another.

I did read How to Survive the Titanic and would like to compare the two.

I've bern reading Sinking of the Titanic: Eyewitness Accounts. The original edition was released just a few months after the disaster and was based on the survivors stories so is full of inaccuracies and inconsistancies, but it does have a real sense of immediacy to it. The edition I read had a very good introduction explaining the errors in the book and there ate extensive footnotes throughout the book telling us what is true and what we now know. It is published by Pen & Sword and is coming out in March. (Available now on Netgalley). A fascinating read.

Thanks, Tania. I have also come across a new title coming out soon in April. 11:40: Analysis of Evasive Manoeuvres & Damage Assessment on RMS Titanic

At 11:40pm on 14 April 1912, Titanic collided with an iceberg in the middle of the North Atlantic and began to sink. From the moment the iceberg was spotted, the ship was on a collision course with destiny, with the immediate aftermath of the collision becoming a race against time for those on board to inspect the damage and determine Titanic’s fate. In this new study, the events of both the evasive manoeuvres and the subsequent damage assessment are broken down, order by order, moment by moment, giving a forensic analysis of these crucial events. In doing so, with the backing of an exhaustive collection of both historical and modern data, along with over twenty years of personal research by Brad Payne, facts are separated from myths and the most accurate truths about what really happened aboard Titanic during these critical moments are revealed.

Just finished The Triumvirate: Captain Edward J. Smith, Bruce Ismay, Thomas Andrews and the Sinking of Titanic

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Thanks Susan - very interesting


I hope to listen to The Rest Is History episodes on the Titanic

Yes, such a great podcast. There is also a US addition to The Rest is Politics podcast on a Friday which should be interesting.