Lost Voices from the Titanic: The Definitive Oral History by Nick Barratt
| Lost Voices from the Titanic: The Definitive Oral History by Nick Barratt | |
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| Category: History | |
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Reviewer: John Van der Kiste
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| Summary: It's books like this which vividly bring home to us the human element, the individual tragedies of those who boarded the ship, many never to leave it alive, some denied the final dignity of burial as their bodies were never recovered from the bottom of the ocean. Highly recommended. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 352 | Date: June 2010 |
| Publisher: Arrow Books Ltd | |
| ISBN: 978-1848091511 | |
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As Barratt points out in the opening pages, there are literally thousands of titles available about the sinking of the Titanic, at the time the largest, most expensive and most luxurious ship ever built. His aim in this volume is to bridge the gap between another forensic examination of how it sank, and yet another re-run of what he calls the familiar stories of heroism and tragedy from literature in the public domain to provide the human story behind the disaster.
In the process, he provides a very well-organised history, dividing everything into separate sections. Part 1 examines the background and construction of the ship, Part 2 the maiden voyage and sinking, and Part 3 the aftermath of the tragedy, setting it into context with a look at the world in 1912. Air travel was still in its infancy, and journeys overseas were still very much the preserve of the shipping companies. There is a considerable amount of information on the background history of the White Star Line which built it, in addition to several pages on the technical specifications of the ship itself, its construction, machinery and structure, and initial tests. I did find myself skimming over some of these.
We are nearly through one-third of the book before we reach the maiden voyage, breakdown of the passenger list and the setting sail from Southampton on 10 April 1912. Disaster was narrowly averted when she came close to collision with the liner New York while sailing to Cherbourg to anchor at the end of the first day before proceeding to Queenstown, Ireland, and then on to New York. From there, the pace of the narrative quickens until the ship entered freezing waters and struck ice shortly before midnight on 14/15 April.
It is at that stage that we reach the human voices, passengers and crew all involved in a desperate struggle for survival against the odds. 2.207 people were on board at the start of the voyage, and 1,517 perished. A full breakdown of passengers and crew is given, from aristocrats who were travelling first-class taking a short break, to families in third-class and steerage, some of them looking forward to what they hoped would be a better way of life in the New World. There are several poignant eyewitness accounts by survivors that bring home to us the ghastly reality of what happened in those hours as the ship went down and the few lucky survivors entered the lifeboats. One particularly chilling description is of a stoker who walked up to the passengers in agony, all the fingers of one hand cut off, with blood running from the stumps and blood spattered over his face and clothes before he screamed and collapsed on the deck in agony. Another is of a terrified schoolboy who made it into a lifeboat and was then ordered back into the sinking ship at gunpoint by an officer, who told him to be a man, as there were also women and children to think of. The boy was never saved. As another survivor wrote, there was scarcely anyone who had not been separated from husband, child or friend.
The section on the aftermath looks at the official boards of enquiry’s investigations and conclusions, such as design flaws which failed to prevent flooding, the changes to maritime law that would avoid the repetition of such a tragedy. There are also notes on what became of some of the survivors, notably the youngest passenger, Millvina Dean, who was a babe in arms of nine weeks and died at the age of 97 in 2009. Her father was among those who were lost, and she returned to England with her mother. Everything is supplemented by two eight-page sections of black and white plates, of photographs and artists’ impressions.
It is books like this which vividly bring home to us the human element, the individual tragedies of those who boarded the ship, many never to leave it alive, some denied the final dignity of burial as their bodies were never recovered from the bottom of the ocean.
Our thanks to Arrow for sending a review copy to Bookbag.
For another naval disaster, although from a much earlier era, you might also enjoy Kamikaze: History's Greatest Naval Disaster by James Delgado. For an excellent history of a ship, try The First Atlantic Liner: Brunel's Great Western Steamship by Helen Doe.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Lost Voices from the Titanic: The Definitive Oral History by Nick Barratt at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Lost Voices from the Titanic: The Definitive Oral History by Nick Barratt at Amazon.com.
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