The Titanic, End Of A Dream

Description for THE TITANIC, END OF A DREAM by Wyn Craig Wade:

In 1912, 1,522 people drowned or froze to death when the Royal Mail Steamship Titanic struck an iceberg and sank in the North Atlantic. In the sixty-seven years that have passes, the world has never stopped speculating about the reasons for this appalling tragedy. There have been innumerable investigations, but in spite of exhaustive study, an aura of mystery continues to surround the tragedy.

Was it really inevitable, or could better seamanship and foresight have prevented it? Why was the ship hailed as practically "unsinkable" when in fact, she went to the bottom within two-and-one-half hours? Why did the British Board of Trade permit passengers to sail with less than half of the lifeboats they needed? Why did the vessel ignore radioed iceberg warnings? And why was J Bruce Ismay, Managing Director for the White Star Line, the owners of the ship, saved when so many male passengers went to an icy death?

Here for the first time is the story of America's in the Titanic disaster. Although the Titanic was a British ship, she was actually owned by an American conglomerate---headed by J P Morgan. Egged on by the American Press and the mourning public, the United States Senate launched an investigation. Despite jeers from the British press and government, the courageous determination of Michigan's Senator William Alden Smith forced answers to questions that the ship's owners and crew wanted to avoid. Why were lookouts' requests for binoculars in the crow's nest repeatedly refused? Why were one-third of the ship's survivors members of the crew? Why were some of the lifeboats filled to only on-half of their capacity?

This book recreates both the events of that fatal April night and the proceedings of the Senate investigation. Flashbacks from actual survivors take us from the sensational evidence of the Senate hearings to the Titanic's desperate last hours afloat---to provide the most detailed account yet of the sinking. We learn about the mass of false and misleading radio messages, the fatal defects in the design and construction of the vessel, and the tragic lack of adequate standards at the time for construction and lifeboat requirements.

The definitive book on the Titanic ---must reading for all those who loved Walter Lord's A NIGHT TO REMEMBER.