That sinking feeling! The 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic fell on April 15th. Calgary Public Library has just received some wonderful new books to add to our collection of titles about this storied and fateful voyage.
"Late in the night of April 14, 1912, the mighty Titanic , a passenger liner traveling from Southampton, England, to New York City, struck an iceberg four hundred miles south of Newfoundland. Its sinking over the next two and a half hours brought the ship'mythological in name and size'one hundred years of infamy. Of the 2,240 people aboard the ship, 1,517 perished either by drowning or by freezing to death in the frigid North Atlantic waters. What followed the disaster was tantamount to a worldwide outpouring of grief: In New York, Paris, London, and other major cities, people lined the streets and crowded around the offices of the White Star Line, the Titanic 's shipping company, to inquire for news of their loved ones and for details about the lives of some of the famous people of their time. While many accounts of the Titanic 's voyage focus on the technical or mechanical aspects of why the ship sank, Voyagers of the Titanic follows the stories of the men, women, and children whose lives intersected on the vessel's fateful last day, covering the full range of first, second, and third class?from plutocrats and captains of industry to cobblers and tailors looking for a better life in America. Richard Davenport-Hines delves into the fascinating lives of those who ate, drank, reveled, dreamed, and died aboard the mythic ship: from John Jacob Astor IV, the wealthiest person on board, whose comportment that night was subject to speculation and gossip for years after the event, to Archibald Butt, the much-beloved military aide to Theodore Roosevelt and William Taft, who died helping others into the Titanic 's few lifeboats. With magnificent prose, Voyagers of the Titanic also brings to life the untold stories of the ship's middle and third classes'clergymen, teachers, hoteliers, engineers, shopkeepers, counterjumpers, and clerks'each of whom had a story that not only illuminates the fascinating ship but also the times in which it sailed. In addition, Davenport-Hines explores the fascinating politics behind the Titanic 's creation, which involved larger-than-life figures such as J. P. Morgan, the ship's owner, and Lord Pirrie, the ship's builder. The memory of this tragedy still remains a part of the American psyche and Voyagers of the Titanic brings that clear night back to us with all of its drama and pathos." (Catalogue summary)
"Fascinating firsthand accounts of the Titanic --in a deluxe package with gorgeous graphic cover art. Historic firsthand accounts and testimonies by survivors and eye- witnesses including Lawrence Beesley, Margaret Brown, Archibald Gracie, Carlos F. Hurd and many more." (Catalogue summary)
"This is a book unlike any other. Rather than offering simply a detailed retelling of the Titanic sinking on her maiden voyage, John Maxtone-Graham devotes his considerable knowledge and impeccable prose to a discussion of salient, provocative, and rarely investigated components of the story, including dramatic survivors' accounts of the events of the fateful night, the role of newly in-vented wireless telecommunication in the disaster, the construction and its ramifications at the famous Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, and the dawn rendezvous with the rescue ship Carpathia. Richly written and vividly detailed, this is the book Titanic buffs have been waiting for." (Catalogue summary)
"On the 100th anniversary of the Titanic′s sinking, a prominent Titanic researcher offers a final chance to see the ship before it disappears forever.
The Titanic was the biggest, most luxurious passenger ship the world had ever seen; the ads proclaimed it to be unsinkable. When it sank in April 1912 after hitting an iceberg, killing more than 1,500 people, the world was forever changed and the public has been spellbound ever since. Now, a century later, the Titanic is about to disappear again: its infrastructure is set to collapse in the next few years. In this book, scientist Charles Pellegrino offers what may be the last opportunity to see the ship before it is lost to the seas for eternity. The last book to be written while survivors were still alive and able to contribute details, Farewell, Titanic includes many untold stories about the sinking and exploration of the unsinkable ship." (Catalogue summary)
"April 14, 2012, marks the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. The 'unsinkable' subject, the story of the giant ship that sank on its maiden voyage, has become one of our most potent modern parables and enduring metaphors. The image of the ship's plunging stern is an icon, and expressions like 'rearranging the deck chairs' and 'hitting the iceberg' need no explanation. Yet on a cold, clear April night the disaster happened to real people - stokers, millionaires, society ladies, parsons, parlourmaids - people who displayed a full range of all-too-human reactions as the events of the night unfolded. With new research,R.M.S. Titanicweaves the dramatic story of that fateful crossing with compelling portraits of the people on board -those who survived, and those who tragically lost their lives - allowing us to place ourselves on that sloping deck and ask, 'What would we do?"(Catalogue summary)
To find more great reads on the Titanic, just enter "Titanic" in the search box of our catalogue.
If you are travelling to Halifax in Nova Scotia, be sure to visit the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic to see their permanent exhibit on the Titanic. While you are there you can also view the exhibit on the Halifax Explosion of 1917, a horrendous wartime collision between a Norwegian vessel and an ammunition ship that devastated the city. This is a very interesting museum and well worth the visit.