The Night Lives On : The Untold Stories and Secrets Behind the Sinking of the 'Unsinkable' Ship—Titanic

The most awesome ocean-going vessel the world had ever seen, the mightly TITANIC struck an iceberg and sank on the night of April 14, 1912, carrying more than 1500 souls--and uncountable secrets--to the icy bottom of the mid-Atlantic. Why did the crew steam full speed ahead into dangerous waters despite six wireless warnings? How able was the doomed behemoth.s .superb seaman. Captain Smith? Why did the nearby ship Californian ignore Titanic.s distress signals? How could such a disaster ever have occurred?Author Walter Lord.s acclaimed classic __**A Night to Remember**__ is considered the definitive written work on the TITANIC tragedy. And now he returns to the scene of chaos and horror to explore--and answer--the untold mysteries behind the twentieth century.s greatest catastrophe at sea. Three decades after his landmark work A Night to Remember, Walter Lord revisits the TitanicYears after A Night to Remember stoked the fires of public interest in the doomed RMS Titanic, the clamor for details about April 14, 1912, has not abated. As die-hard professional and amateur historians--?rivet counters,? they are called--puzzle over minute details of the ship's last hours, a wealth of facts and myth have emerged. Revisiting the subject more than thirty years after his first study, Lord dives into this harrowing story, whose power to intrigue has only grown a century after the Titanic's sinking. Was the ship really christened before setting sail on its maiden voyage? What song did the band play as water spilled over the ship's bow? How did the ship's wireless operators fail so badly, and why did the nearby Californian, just ten miles away when the Titanic struck the iceberg, not come to the rescue? Lord answers these questions and more, in a gripping investigation of the night when 1,500 victims were lost to the sea In this New York Times bestseller, the author of A Night to Remember and The Miracle of Dunkirk revisits the Titanic disaster. Walter Lord’s A Night to Remember was a landmark work that recounted the harrowing events of April 14, 1912, when the British ocean liner RMS Titanic went down in the North Atlantic Ocean, a book that inspired a classic movie of the same name. In The Night Lives On , Lord takes the exploration further, revealing information about the ship’s last hours that emerged in the decades that followed, and separating myths from facts. Was the ship really christened before setting sail on its maiden voyage? What song did the band play as water spilled over the bow? How did the ship’s wireless operators fail so badly, and why did the nearby Californian , just ten miles away when the Titanic struck the iceberg, not come to the rescue? Lord answers these questions and more, in a gripping investigation of the night when approximately 1,500 victims were lost to the sea. Three decades after his landmark work A Night to Remember, Walter Lord revisits the Titanic Years after A Night to Remember stoked the fires of public interest in the doomed RMS Titanic, the clamor for details about April 14, 1912, has not abated. As die-hard professional and amateur historians—"rivet counters," they are called—puzzle over minute details of the ship's last hours, a wealth of facts and myth have emerged. Revisiting the subject more than thirty years after his first study, Lord dives into this harrowing story, whose power to intrigue has only grown a century after the Titanic's sinking. Was the ship really christened before setting sail on its maiden voyage? What song did the band play as water spilled over the ship's bow? How did the ship's wireless operators fail so badly, and why did the nearby Californian, just ten miles away when the Titanic struck the iceberg, not come to the rescue? Lord answers these questions and more, in a gripping... The most awesome ocean-going vessel the world had ever seen, the mightly TITANIC struck an iceberg and sank on the night of April 14, 1912, carrying more than 1500 souls--and uncountable secrets--to the icy bottom of the mid-Atlantic. Why did the crew steam full speed ahead into dangerous waters despite six wireless warnings? How able was the doomed behemoth.s .superb seaman. Captain Smith? Why did the nearby ship Californian ignore Titanic.s distress signals? How could such a disaster ever have occurred? Author Walter Lord.s acclaimed classic A Night to Remember is considered the definitive written work on the TITANIC tragedy. And now he returns to the scene of chaos and horror to explore--and answer--the untold mysteries behind the twentieth century.s greatest catastrophe at sea. The most awesome ocean-going vessel the world had ever seen, the mighty Titanic struck an iceberg and sank on the night of April 14, 1912, carrying more than 1500 souls - and uncountable secrets - to the icy bottom of the mid-Atlantic. Why did the crew steam full speed ahead into dangerous waters despite six wireless warnings? How able was the doomed behemoth's superb seaman Captain Smith? Why did the nearby ship Californian ignore the Titanic's distress signals? How could such a disaster ever have occurred?Author Walter Lord.s acclaimed classic A Night to Remember is considered the definitive written work on the Titanic tragedy. And now he returns to the scene of chaos and horror to explore - and answer - the untold mysteries behind the twentieth century's greatest catastrophe at sea. Overview: The most awesome ocean-going vessel the world had ever seen, the mighty TITANIC struck an iceberg and sank on the night of April 14, 1912, carrying more than 1500 souls-and uncountable secrets-to the icy bottom of the mid-Atlantic. Why did the crew steam full speed ahead into dangerous waters despite six wireless warnings? How able was the doomed behemoth's superb seaman Captain Smith? Why did the nearby ship Californian ignore Titanic's distress signals? How could such a disaster ever have occurred? Author Walter Lord's acclaimed classic A Night to Remember is considered the definitive written work on the TITANIC tragedy. And now he returns to the scene of chaos and horror to explore-and answer-the untold mysteries behind the twentieth century's greatest catastrophe at sea The most awesome ocean-going vessel the world had ever seen, the mightly Titanic struck an iceberg and sank on the night of April 14, 1912, carrying more than 1500 soulsand uncountable secretsto the icy bottom of the mid-Atlantic. Why did the crew steam full speed ahead into dangerous waters despite six wireless warnings? How able was the doomed behemoths superb seaman Captain Smith? Why did the nearby ship Californian ignore Titanic 's distress signals? How could such a disaster ever have occurred? Author Walter Lord's acclaimed classic A Night to Remember is considered the definitive written work on the Titanic tragedy. And now he returns to the scene of chaos and horror to exploreand answerthe untold mysteries behind the twentieth century's greatest catastrophe at sea. Unsinkable subject What's in a name? Legendary from the start Had ships gotten too big for Captain Smith? "Our coterie" "Everything was against us" Gash "I was very soft the day I signed that" What happened to the Goodwins? Shots in the dark Sound of music "She's gone" "Electric spark" "Certain amount of slackness" Second-guessing Why was Craganour disqualified? Unlocking the ocean's secret Gleanings from the testimony Acknowledgments and selected sources Index. Sheds light on the sinking of the "Titanic," with new evidence and theories on, and revelations about, the disaster.