Titanic Tragedy: A New Look at the Lost Liner

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.

"With the century mark nearing for the Titanic's sinking into the frigid Atlantic waters, Maxton-Graham (The Only Way to Cross), a leading authority on maritime matters, dissects the underlying elements of the mythic ocean disaster in this richly detailed new book. Rather than rehashing the already well-known events of the Titanic's doomed maiden voyage on April 14, 1912, he chooses to sort through the essential pieces of the grim puzzle, pointing out the building of the liner at the renowned Harland and Wolff shipyard and the important role of wireless communication after the ship's fatal collision with a huge iceberg. The carefully choreographed narrative includes the national coal strike that began that spring and almost delayed the Titanic's voyage, and Capt. Stanley Lord, piloting the Californian, which stopped near the sinking ship but ignored its distress rockets. Bolstered by survivor tales, Maxton-Graham's take on the Titanic will be catnip to the ship's dedicated buffs." Publishers Weekly Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

The dean of ocean liner historians uncovers fascinating and unknown aspects of this epic disaster.

John Maxtone-Graham has written numerous works, including The Only Way to Cross—“the bible of the ship buffs"—Normandie, and France/Norway. He spends six months lecturing aboard ships. Ashore, he lives in New York City.