Book Review: The Night Lives On, by Walter Lord (1986)

More than thirty years after publishing his classic account of the sinking of the Titanic, 1955’s A Night to Remember, author Walter Lord returned to the subject for his 1986 book The Night Lives On. With the discovery of the wreck of the Titanic in 1985, interest in the ship was rekindled for another generation. I don’t remember hearing the news when the wreck of the Titanic was discovered, but I was soon obsessed enough with the Titanic to give a short presentation on it for show and tell in my kindergarten class during the 1986-87 school year.  

The Night Lives On is an excellent little book. It doesn’t aim to retell the story of the Titanic’s doomed voyage, but rather it explores incidents and controversies surrounding the ship. For example, what was the last song that the band on the Titanic played? It’s long been said that they played the hymn “Nearer, My God, to Thee,” but Lord sorts through the evidence and comes to the conclusion that it’s extremely unlikely.  

One of the most interesting chapters in The Night Lives On details the actions of the Californian, the closest ship to the Titanic that evening. The Californian had briefly been in contact with the Titanic before the collision with the iceberg, as the wireless operator sent a warning about the ice. But by the time the Titanic collided with the iceberg, the wireless operator on the Californian had gone to bed and shut off his receiver. The Titanic was in sight of the Californian, as there was much discussion on the bridge about the identity of the large steamer in the distance. The Californian even saw the distress rockets that the Titanic was firing but did nothing. It’s one of the tragic what ifs of that evening. What if, instead of doing nothing, the Californian roused its wireless operator and heard the Titanic’s distress call? The Californian was a slow ship, but even so, had they proceeded to the Titanic; they might have been able to assist in rescuing more survivors. What happened was that the Californian did nothing, and the Carpathia picked up the survivors in the lifeboats. The Californian did a cursory search of the area after the lifeboats were picked up, but they found only debris and wreckage.  

The saga of the Californian reads like something straight out of Joseph Conrad’s novels. Specifically, it reminded me of Lord Jim, and how the main character’s abandoning ship (when the ship ultimately doesn’t sink) and his dereliction of duty haunts him. We can only wonder if the crew of the Californian felt a similar pang of regret for their inaction that evening.  

The Night Lives On briefly covers the discovery of the Titanic in 1985, by Dr. Robert Ballard and his team. Ballard’s integrity and his desire to not exploit the wreckage of the Titanic shine through, even in this brief profile.  

The Night Lives On obviously ends before anyone was able to raise any of the wreckage from the Titanic, and the book highlights an anecdote showing Ballard’s opposition to any kind of souvenir hunting. When one of the submersibles came to the surface, a piece of cable from the Titanic had snagged on it. Without hesitation, Ballard threw the cable back into the sea. Future explorers of the wreck would view things differently, as many artifacts from the Titanic have been raised to the surface. Even a part of the ship’s hull itself, the so-called “big piece” has been raised and put on display.  

I saw one of the earliest exhibits of Titanic artifacts at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England in 1995. I remember long lines and buying a notebook with the Titanic on it, but honestly, I can’t recall much about the exhibit itself. I have stronger memories of an exhibit that came to the Science Museum of Minnesota in the early 2010’s. I have mixed feelings about salvaging objects from shipwrecks. Is it ethically correct to salvage anything from the Titanic, or any other shipwreck where lives were lost? I don’t have an easy answer to that question. I suppose I’d say that I’m happier that relics from the Titanic have been presented to the public in museums rather than just sitting in private collections of ultra-wealthy treasure hunters. But ultimately, the wreck of the Titanic itself will one day disappear, so do we have an obligation to salvage relics so future generations know this ship existed, and so we can continue to tell the story of this ship and the terrible tragedy that occurred? That’s a compelling argument. What I remember the most about the Titanic exhibit that I saw in Minnesota is a giant stack of dishes from the Titanic’s dining halls. It was massive, maybe 100 or more plates and dishes. And the mass of that pile of dishes stayed with me. It made me think about the sheer size of the ship, and how these dishes, even if they each represented a person who died on the Titanic, were but a fraction of all the souls that were lost that night. It was sobering.  Another Titanic artifact that stuck with me was a pocket watch that I saw in a museum in Sweden in 2023. The watch belonged to a Swedish man who died in the sinking. His body was recovered after the sinking, and his possessions returned to his widow. His watch had stopped at 2:34 AM, 14 minutes after the Titanic slid under the surface of the Atlantic. Items like a pocket watch give the tragedy of the Titanic a human dimension.  

The Night Lives On is an excellent book, and an essential one for anyone interested in the stories and tragedy of the Titanic.  

Book Review: A Night to Remember, by Walter Lord (1955)

Walter Lord’s 1955 book A Night to Remember, about the sinking of the Titanic, is a classic about the doomed ocean liner. Lord interviewed numerous survivors and highlighted their stories in brief vignettes. At around 160 pages long, A Night to Remember is a quick and propulsive read. A Night to Remember is well-written, and Lord did a marvelous job of threading together so many different accounts and points of view.  

Lord starts the book as the fateful iceberg is sighted. The limitation of Lord’s decision to start the book at that moment is that we lose the opportunity for more scene setting. The reader can’t really differentiate very much between the characters, and there’s less of a connection to the characters, since you don’t meet them until the disaster starts. This kind of scene setting was perfected with 1970’s disaster movies, where you learn before the disaster starts who’s on the brink of getting divorced, and which adorable elderly ladies have stowed away without a ticket.  

In comparison, I just read Jonathan Mayo’s 2016 book Titanic: Minute by Minute, which begins 24 hours before Titanic hit the iceberg, so there’s plenty of time to soak up the rhythm of life on the ship before the tragedy ensues. And learn crazy little facts like the bugler played the song “The Roast Beef of Old England” in all three dining rooms to announce that meals were being served.  

Lord’s writing style is straightforward and highly readable, but A Night to Remember is quite dated in how women’s names are handled. Married women are referred to only by their husband’s name, so the unsinkable Molly Brown becomes Mrs. J.J. Brown. It’s very outdated, and honestly, the women’s names should just be updated. I know, that’s changing what the author wrote, but A Night to Remember is now 70 years old, and times change. And I’d like to know what these women’s first names were.  

Curiously, in A Night to Remember, Lord did not depict the Titanic breaking apart as it sank. (Survivors’ testimony differed on this account, but the discovery of the wreck, 30 years after Lord’s book was published, proved definitively that the ship broke apart.) Survivor Jack Thayer’s privately printed account of the sinking stated that the ship broke apart. Lord must have read Thayer’s account, so I’m not sure why Lord didn’t at least raise the possibility of the Titanic breaking apart.  

One section where A Night to Remember is very strong is Lord’s understanding of the class issues surrounding the sinking of the Titanic. He writes: “the New York American broke the news on April 16 with a lead devoted almost entirely to John Jacob Astor; at the end it mentioned that 1,800 others were also lost.” (p.91) I’m not sure who was more clueless, the New York American or the Evening Sun who ran a headline: ALL SAVED FROM TITANIC AFTER COLLISION. “The story reported all passengers transferred to the Parisian and the Carpathia, with the Titanic being towed by the Virginian to Halifax.” (p.139) If only Titanic had been so lucky.  

Lord writes: “the Titanic also marked the end of a general feeling of confidence...For 100 years the Western world had been at peace. For 100 years technology had steadily improved...Before the Titanic, all was quiet. Afterward all was tumult.” (p.95) That might be an overstatement, but it’s hard not to feel as though the sinking of the Titanic was the last gasp of the Victorian and Edwardian Age, a harbinger of the chaos that would erupt when World War I broke out in 1914. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1934 novel Tender Is the Night, the main character Dick Diver says while exploring a World War I battlefield, “All my beautiful lovely safe world blew itself up here with a great gust of high-explosive love.” (p.72) The post-World War I era would bring about a time of great uncertainty and many changes, as Fitzgerald chronicled in his writings.  

It’s hard to imagine future generations displaying the sangfroid of millionaire Benjamin Guggenheim, who helped numerous women and children into lifeboats, and appeared on the boat deck in full evening dress with his secretary. Guggenheim said, “We’ve dressed up in our best, and we are prepared to go down like gentlemen.” He told a steward, “If anything should happen to me, tell my wife in New York that I’ve done my best in doing my duty.” Guggenheim died in the sinking, and his body was never recovered.  

A Night to Remember is an excellent book about one of the great tragedies of the 20th century.