The Titanic

This title contains firsthand accounts of the "Titanic" s fateful voyage, interwoven with a specially written commentary.

When the RMS "Titanic" was launched in Belfast in 1911, she was the most luxurious liner of her generation and the largest moving object ever built. In April of 1912 she sailed from Southampton en route for New York on her maiden voyage with 2,228 passengers and crew on board. On April 14, at twenty minutes before midnight, sailing at almost full speed, she struck an iceberg and sank in just two and a half hours. Over 1,500 lives were lost.

This is the story of a great tragedy described by the surviving passengers, officers, and crew who were on board that night. It is a story of misplaced confidence in technology over nature and of personal heroism and self-sacrifice. Firsthand accounts help to explain why so few of the passengers took to the lifeboats and later describe the miraculous survival of those forced to jump into the icy waters of the North Atlantic. The story of the "Titanic "is ultimately one of simple human loss, and these laconic Edwardian voices bring it vividly to life. The hold that these events have on our imagination is as strong now as it ever has been in the one hundred years since the great ship went down."