The Story of the Titanic as Told by Its Survivors (Dover Maritime)

[Terri M. LeBlanc]

I have been fascinated with the Titanic since I was in first or second grade. I was really excited join the book club at the local library and read these autobiographies in honor of the 100th anniversary of the ships maiden voyage and subsequent sinking.

There are 4 separate stories in this book. The first one contains some quite elaborate prose. The author goes into great deal about the individuals he met on the voyage and the rundown of what happened on the ship until is sunk. Overall, the story is well told, but the author tends to over tell what was going on the ship, and what the weather was like that night. After awhile you wish he would just get on with it. It felt like the ship was never going to sink.

The second story is a much more simplified telling of the sinking. It contains some of the same details as the first telling, but without the elaborate, over abundance of detail. However, after the rescue the author shares some of the detail about the British and American inquiries into the disaster which after the first two or three summaries becomes very repetitive and boring. I would recommend just skimming this section, but make sure to read Molly Brown's (Ms. J.J. Brown) account of the accident. It was probably one of the most entertaining.

The third and fourth accounts were quite brief. Both of the men were officers and as a result, it would be helpful to have some knowledge of shipping terms because they often focus on these details. In the end, I skimmed both of these sections because after two accounts with a good level of detail, these accounts did not add much to knowledge already gained from the previous accounts in the book.