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A Night to Remember

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Product Info

  • EAN: 9780786112890
  • Manufacturer: Blackstone Audiobooks

Spotlight customer reviews:

  • Customer Rating: Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5
  • Summary: Memorable
  • Comment: Walter Lord's book may not contain the very latest findings on the Titanic sinking but it is well written and a quick read well worth the time spent. There is a good reason this book is still in print and considered a classic account. Timeless writing from an author who personally spoke with many of the people who survived the "Night To Remember".
  • Customer Rating: Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5
  • Summary: "God himself could not sink this ship"
  • Comment: Sunday, the 14th of April, 1912. The Titanic, on her maiden voyage, struck an iceberg at 11:40 p.m. By 2:20 a.m. she had slipped under the sea. There were unheeded ice warnings from other ships. Her lifeboats were lowered, each far from filled to capacity. As she was listing to port and sinking at the bow, the crew of the Californian watched the strange ship's flares from only ten miles away, their wireless set shut down for the night. When her lights disappeared for good, the Californian decided she had steamed away. There were over one thousand five hundred souls lost.

    Those are the facts you do know. Author Walter Lord delves deeper than just the historical facts in this spellbinding account. He successfully recreates the feeling of what it was like that tragic night on the ill-fated ship. There was gallantry, bravery and contemplation that fateful night. Mr. Guggenheim changing to evening dress. Mr. Ryerson insisting his wife's maid take his life belt. The firemen manning the boilers until the last possible second. Mr. Andrews, the ship's builder, alone and motionless in the smoking room, absorbed in his thoughts, his life belt tossed aside. The band played ragtime.

    Mr. Lord has pieced together a fascinating account of the fateful events via painstaking research that brings us the events as they happened, minute by minute, from before the initial collision through the rescue by the Carpathia. His account is based on personal interviews with dozens of survivors, both passengers and crew, with whom he had "haunting conversations," making his vivid reconstruction of the events possible. The author also examined several thousand pages of official testimony given to the U.S. and British enquiries, as well as seeking out passengers' memoirs and periodical interviews.

    And yet a bit of mystery remains. Mr. Lord notes, "The words quoted are given exactly as people remember them being spoken. Yet, there is a margin for error." Often, various people will remember a shared event somewhat differently, and Mr. Lord makes note of these discrepancies in his book. However, one thing is certain: the Titanic changed history in many ways. At the time, many saw the Titanic disaster as the end of an era. People felt small again. The Titanic had been declared unsinkable. Some felt man had become too big for his britches, and that this tragedy was a wake-up call for humanity. A unique legend was born that momentous night, one that has fascinated for generations. Walter Lord has created a classic and has done an admirable job of recording that fateful night's events for all to remember.
  • Customer Rating: Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5
  • Summary: A Great Read For Titanic Fans
  • Comment: This book relives the sinking of the Titanic in a way that makes the reader feel they are right there on board ship. It is a fast paced book that can be read in one day. (At least I couldn't put it down) I highly recommend this book to anyone wishing to learn about the unsinkable Titanic.
  • Customer Rating: Average rating of 2/5Average rating of 2/5Average rating of 2/5Average rating of 2/5Average rating of 2/5
  • Summary: A Book To Forget
  • Comment: This book comes across like a listing out of Who's Who of the era. Extremely light on technical detail, it has almost no information about the building of the Titanic, or about the hearings held after the sinking.

    Lord takes great pains to avoid offending the reputation of anyone on the ship, including the captain, the designers, and the builders of the Titanic, even though their collective and individual negligence was responsible for the disaster. The captain is portrayed as a stalwart, steady individual, though he was ultimately the individual most responsible for the sinking and deaths of quite a number of people. There's no mention of why he was running full steam through an icefield, despite half a dozen radio warnings concerning ice in the area. Incidentally, Lord's description would lead you to believe the Captain was chosen because of his popularity, not ability, and he bears no blame because the rich people liked his affable personality.

    The construction of the Titanic is described as 'watertight compartments'. No, they were *not* watertight, or the ship wouldn't have sunk. There were watertight bulkheads between compartments, essentially dams until the water level rose higher than the top of each bulkhead. Maybe the captain believed that 'watertight' description was accurate, and didn't bother to look himself. Maybe that's why the disaster happenned.

    Lord doesn't do anything to clarify the 'why', only the 'who'.
  • Customer Rating: Average rating of 3/5Average rating of 3/5Average rating of 3/5Average rating of 3/5Average rating of 3/5
  • Summary: STAR Book Project
  • Comment: Major Conflict
    The biggest conflict in the book was that the Titanic was considered unsinkable by "Shipbuilder Magazine" and many other people and sources. One of the officers even said "Even God himself could not sink this ship." So everybody was positive that the boat could not sink, because of this they were unprepared if the ship did sink. One example of them not being prepared is the lifeboats. There were sixteen life boats on the Titanic, all together the life boats could hold 1,178 people, on that Sunday night there were 2,207 people onboard the Titanic.

    Character Comparison
    Tobias McIvey(from Land Remembered) and Captain Smith could help each other. One way is Captain Smith has a boat so Tobias could ride up the Kissimmee River to trade. Captain Smith thinks everything will be ok, like Tobias, but Captain Smith knows when something is not right or when he shouldn't do something. I think these two people would get along because Tobias is a very nice person and I think the relationship between them would be a lot like Tobias and Skillet's (former slave from Land Remembered) relationship.

    Jacket Blurb
    The author did fantastic job on writing this book. He had referred to sources like magazines that had considered the ship unsinkable and he had many quotes from the crew and passengers aboard the ship. One of my favorites is when someone asked if the ship was really unsinkable one of the crew members said "Even God himself could not sink this ship". He also told the reader just about everything that happened even down to when they shot the flares up and how many lifeboats there were and how many people they could hold. Another thing the author put in the book was a labeled map and timeline of the ship. This was very helpful because he talks about certain thing that happen in specific rooms so it helps you see exactly what flooded first and when they flooded.

    Recommendation
    Would I recommend this book to others? Yes and no. Yes because it is extremely vivid. No because I found it hard to get interested in the book. I think one of the problems for me was that it seemed like more of a list. A list of like what people wore and what people did. Almost as if it was too vivid or had too much description. Someone who would like this book is someone who likes history or someone who enjoys reading about history.

    Theme Application
    One theme of this book is that the crew did not prepare the boat for the correct amount of people going on the Titanic's maiden voyage. One example of this is that they only brought enough life boats for 1,178 people. Considering that there were 2,207 people on the Titanic's trip. There were obviously not enough life boats for all guests on the ship. One reason they did not bring enough life boats was because everybody insisted that the ship was unsinkable. Something I have learned from this situation is to always bring enough or more than needed. Also to never say never and always expect the unexpected.