Titanic: The Last Night of a Small Town [Paperback]

A century after her sinking, social historian John Welshman reconstructs the fascinating individual histories of twelve of the passengers aboard the doomed liner, including a minute-by-minute account of the ship's last tragic hours.In his famous bookA Night to Remember, historian Walter Lord described the sinking of the Titanic as 'the last night of a small town'. Now, a hundred years after her sinking, John Welshman reconstructs the fascinating individual histories of twelve of the inhabitants of this tragically short-lived floating town.They include members of the crew; passengers in First, Second, and Third Class; women and men; adults and children; rich and poor. Among them are a ship's Captain, a Second Officer, an Assistant Wireless Operator; a Stewardess, an amateur military historian, a governess, a teacher, a domestic servant, a mother, and three children. What were their earlier histories? Who survived, and why, and who perished? And what happened to these people in the years after 1912?Titanic: The Last Night of a Small Townanswers all these questions and more, while offering a minute-by-minute depiction of events aboard the doomed liner through the eyes of a broad and representative cross-section of those who sailed in her - both those who survived and those who didn't.List of PlatesGlossaryCast ListIntroductionChapter 1 'The Biggest Anchor in the World'Chapter 2 'Like a Big Expectant Family'Chapter 3 'A Wonderful Passage Up To Now'Chapter 4 'Ice, Flat Like a Pocket Watch'Chapter 5 'We Have Collision with Iceberg'Chapter 6 'Latitude 41? 46' N., Longitude 50? 14' W'Chapter 7 'She's Gone, Lads; Row Like Hell'Chapter 8 'A Dark Speck on the Horizon'Chapter 9 'Arranged for Your Exclusive Story'Chapter 10 'Mr Beesley's Simple Narrative'Note on SourcesNotesFurther ReadingIndexList of PlatesGlossaryCast ListIntroduction1. 'The Biggest Anchor in the World'2. 'Like a Big Expectant Family'3. 'A Wonderful Passage Up To Now'4. 'Ice, Flat Like a PocklCÞ