Customer Reviews
Extraordinary reading - By: K. M. Lees, 24 Jun 2007 
I'm a bit sceptical when it comes to reading items on the most famous linerin the world, after watching the films that Hollywood churned out during the years about the disaster. I was pleasantly surprised by this book, it is gripping, enthralling & gives you an, often sad, insight into the last hours if the Titanic.
The eyewitness accounts by the survivors are well written, & are accompanied by very good illustrations. At times the book is a little too detailed, but I would recommend it to any Titanic enthusiast.
Superb starter for 10 - By: M. Sunderland, 25 Jan 2007 As a researcher for a tv show I needed the titanic history fast. This provided itin a very entertaining way. Now I am trawling through the court transcripts but the book gave me a good soundingin the disaster. Well worth the read. I would also recomend A Night To Remember which is a fantastic book & sets out the tone of multiple narratives so well all would be cinema fans should look to the book for inspiration.
compelling, enthralling - By: , 24 May 2004 i've been into all things titanic since seeing the film & this is a must read. it tells the story of what happened the night titanic sank through the eyes of the survivors. the details are incredible & it really brings home the scale of the tragedy.
Compelling accounts of tragedy! - By: , 16 Aug 1999 
This book gives four informative, exciting, compelling accounts of the Titanic tragedy. The Lightholler report, being the only survivor amongst the senior officers & quite liberally mentioned by the other authors, is particularly interesting. The stoic response by the vast majority of obviously doomed male passengers to the prospect of drowningin sub-zero temperature water, as they stood orderly by, or assistedin the loading of women & childrenin the life-boats, is quite staggering. One of the storytellers has a sad, old-fashioned tendency to describe many of the non-English speaking survivorsin very disparaging terms. Indeed, Gracie quite often comes across as annoyingly pompousin his descriptions. On the other hand the short report of the surviving wirelessman is totally unstuffy & hugely readable. The inquiries' treatment of Ismay, the President of Titanic's Company & a survivor against all the odds for single males, is particularly interesting . The book also highlights some of the movie's mistakes, especially the breaking off of the stern section prior to sinking. On the whole a good book & worth buying.
riveting, but sometimes hard to read - By: , 22 May 1999 Overall, this book was virtually impossible to put down. To hear the story of the Titanic as told by some of its survivors, puts you right there in the water with them. There are only two drawbacks to this book. The first one is that the English writtenin 1912's vernacular is sometimes a bit cumbersome. The second one is that Archibald Gracie's book, while interesting, sometimes gets bogged downin details. However, despite some minor drawbacks for the 90's reader, I would recommend this book for anyone with even a slight interestin the story of the Titanic beyond what we got to seein James Cameron's movie.
