Titanic A Night Remembered

In a night of unforgettable tragedy, the Titanic, the world’s largest liner on its maiden voyage, struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic at 11.40 p.m. on 14 April 1912 and sank at 2.20 a.m. the following morning. Over 1500 people died. Whose fault it was, and how the passengers and crew reacted, has been a subject of dispute ever since the first news of the disaster broke. Titanic: A Night Remembered, as well the story of the ship and its only voyage, is an account of ten of those who died: among them Titanic’s captain Edward Smith and builder Thomas Andrews, John Jacob Astor, the richest man on board, and the bandmaster, Wallace Hartley, who played as the ship sank. Stephanie Barczewski traces their lives and careers and what brought all of them together on that fatal night. Many of those who died were treated as heroes (in contrast to men such as J. Bruce Ismay and Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon, who used their influence to get places in lifeboats). How these men and women were remembered in both Britain and America says much about contemporary values of manhood, heroism, chivalry and national pride. Titanic: A Night Remembered also sets the Titanic in the context of three ports: Belfast, where it was built; Southampton, which lost 600 citizens as members of its crew; and Queenstown in Ireland, its last port of call.