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: Titanic: Minute by Minute, by Jonathan Mayo (2016)

Ever since I was a little boy, I’ve been fascinated by the Titanic. I wasn’t old enough to remember when the wreckage was discovered in 1985, but soon after that my fascination began. One of my favorite VHS tapes to watch was the National Geographic special Secrets of the Titanic, which documented Dr. Robert Ballard’s discovery of the wreckage.  

I recently picked up a copy of the 2016 book Titanic: Minute by Minute, by Jonathan Mayo at a bookstore, and flipping through it was so addictive that I knew I had to buy it and read it. The book is a fantastic read, and I would recommend it to anyone fascinated by the Titanic. The book began as a radio program for BBC Radio 2, and Mayo then expanded his radio script into a book. The book is written in the present tense, which gives it a tremendous narrative drive and forward momentum. Despite the fact that we obviously know the outcome of the tragedy, we read breathlessly, eager to see what the next moment will bring.  

The book takes us through the events of Sunday, April 14, 1912. The day begins as just another one on the maiden voyage of a sparkling new ship, with calm seas and not a trouble in sight. The day is largely uneventful, until the very end, when at 11:40 PM, Titanic collides with an iceberg. 

There are many what ifs with the Titanic disaster, and one of the obvious questions that was running through my mind as I read the book was, why on earth was Titanic barreling through ice fields in the dark at her top speed of 22.5 knots? I know, Bruce Ismay wanted the ship to get to New York on Tuesday night instead of Wednesday morning, and everyone thought there was no way the ship could sink, even if it did collide with an iceberg. But still, the fact that they increased speed after dark seems quite foolish. Another what if question is, what if the night hadn’t been so still? There were no waves on the calm Atlantic that evening, making the icebergs all but impossible to see. And then what if the Titanic didn’t try to avoid the iceberg, but instead hit it dead-on? The ship still might have sunk, of course, but there’s the possibility that in a head-on collision maybe only two of the watertight bulkheads would have been breached, thus still allowing the ship to stay afloat.  

One of the other what ifs that kept running through my mind as I read the book was, what if the lifeboats had all been loaded to capacity? Of course, there were many reasons why this didn’t occur, from a crew that didn’t trust that the lifeboats could be fully loaded, (and the crew wasn’t well trained on how the launch the lifeboats) to passengers who were wary of leaving the perceived safety of the huge ship, to the idea that lifeboats were for women and children only.  

There are many harrowing anecdotes and narratives to be found in Titanic: Minute by Minute. As I read through the book and was introduced to a new character, it was hard to resist the temptation to skip to the last section and see if they survived the sinking or not. One of the most interesting people was Major Archibald Butt, an aide to President William Howard Taft. Butt was returning to the United States after a European vacation with his friend, the artist Frank Millet. Butt and Millet shared a home in Washington, D.C. I suspect they may have more than just friends and roommates. Both Butt and Millet went down with the ship, and there is a fountain dedicated to them in Washington, D.C., just south of the White House. Despite spending a semester in D.C. during college, I was not aware of this fountain until I read this book.  

There are not many photographs in Titanic: Minute by Minute, but the one that held my attention the longest was of survivor Charlotte Collyer and her daughter Marjorie, who was 8 years old in 1912. Charlotte’s husband, and Marjorie’s father, had died in the sinking. The photo, taken in June of 1912, shows Charlotte and Marjorie sitting side by side. Marjorie looks directly at the camera, her gaze direct, but with sorrow in her eyes. Charlotte’s eyes do not meet the camera; she is staring into the distance. Even without the caption telling us, you can tell Charlotte has suffered some unspeakable loss. It’s a haunting photo. Even more so when you read that Charlotte will die in 1914, just two years later.  

One of the quotes that I made note of was this one, from Alexander Carlisle, the managing director of Harland & Wolff, the shipyard that built the Titanic. He said, “We spent two hours discussing the carpet for the first-class cabins and 15 minutes discussing lifeboats.” (p.189) That one sentence says so much about the tragedy of the Titanic.  

Titanic: Minute by Minute is an excellent, fast-paced recounting of one of the enduring tragedies of the 20th century. I would highly recommend it.