NetGalley ARCs | OF COURSE THERE ARE NEW TITANIC BOOKS COMING OUT IN APRIL!

             

I received both of these books from Pen and Sword via NetGalley in exchange for honest reviews.

I will never not be a sucker for a book about Titanic. This mindset has even infected my child (big surprise!) and she constantly laments how the school library makes her check out fiction books. She told me just the other day how many Titanic books they have that she wants to read, but can't because they only get one non-fiction at a time. Honestly, it's a really stupid rule. There is no danger of my child never reading. She has TONS of books at home, so many not read yet because of our never-ending love affair with the library where we find even more fiction and non-fiction treasures. Regulating a child's reading in this way is unacceptable.

But I digress.

Titanic Day by Day ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Titanic Day by Day is not a book to be read in a few sittings. It is as much a reference book about the great liner, her passengers, and crew, as anything else, given all of the exhaustively researched details it contains.

The author is the great grandson of Robert Hichens, one of Titanic's quartermasters who was at the helm of the great ship when she struck the iceberg. Hichens would survive the sinking by manning one of the lifeboats and I think this book is a wonderful tribute to not only him from his grandson, but a greater tribute to EVERYONE who lived and died that night.

This book is incredibly unique in that we are given a look at every single person who set foot on the ship during her maiden voyage. Starting on January first, the author lists events on that day related to every passenger and crew member - those who were born that day, and those who survived the sinking but died on that particular day later on. The author also includes news articles from the day, quotes from survivors, and an assortment of facts about the Ship of Dreams. As a result, we get quite a bit of information on both the American and British inquiries in the days following Carpathia's arrival in New York with the exhausted and traumatized survivors.

I truly appreciated that the author sought out information on everyone. So often we only hear about the first class passengers who lived and died, because that is the information most readily available. But second- and third-class passengers were no less important and deserve to have their stories told as well.

This book is nothing short of a labor of love and I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in learning a bit more about those who lived and died that awful night.

Why the Titanic was Doomed ⭐⭐⭐

Full discloser, it annoys me when people say 'the Titanic'. That was not her name. Her name was Titanic, so refer to her properly please and thank you.

There are so many factors at play for why Titanic sank, that solely blaming the iceberg that tore her open is a bit silly. Over the years so much information has been discovered and made public, that chances are you have heard about everything the author discusses (if you are obsessed like I am) even if all of that information has not been confined to one book/article/etc.

There are a myriad of reasons why Titanic sank and the author posits that she was doomed before she even left Southampton on April 10th, 1912. We know about the lack of lifeboats, the rivets and sub-standard metal, the lack of wind, the missing binoculars, the lack of true watertight bulkheads (since they did not actually go all the way up to the deck above), the ignored ice warnings, Captain Smith's decision to maintain speed, and so on.

What the author has done is taken every single issue, devoted a whole chapter to its discussion, and broken down piece by piece every part of the puzzle that lead to 1,500 senseless deaths. That is the core of what the book is about, and he does not spend time recounting the disaster itself minute by excruciating minute, because that has been done several times over already. He focuses on each issue that contributed to the sinking.

The author also looks at the reasons as to why some would live while so many others would die. Specifically of course, in third class, where the majority would not make it to the decks in time to get a seat in a lifeboat.

One issue that is not often discussed is the fact that Titanic should not have even set sail in April. The original date was March 20th. However, when Olympic collided with HMS Hawke in September of 1911, many resources being used to build Titanic were shifted to making repairs to Olympic, thus pushing back her launch date. Given the weather conditions, this is huge, because warmer weather of course meant that icebergs were drifting farther south at that point than they would have been in March.

Given all the positives I have discussed, you might be wondering why only three stars. I have thought about it a lot and my reasoning for this is that there was not any new information here. I liked reading the book, it was well-researched and each flaw was given its fair share of ink. But I do not consider it a 'new and unique' look at why Titanic sank.

Even so, I do believe this would be a good book for anyone interested in looking specifically at each failure that lead to Titanic's sinking. It is clear and concise, while still offering thorough explanations.

Recommended.