Recent re-visit to Belfast and its famous "Titanic" museum (built on the very same docks where original ship was built) inspired me to check out this classic book published in mid-1950s and still unsurpassed document of this unforgettable tragedy. It was my second time in Belfast's "Titanic" museum and this time I noticed details that I somehow missed first time around - it is truly fascinating exhibition, focused not only on "Titanic" artifacts but more on the whole story: Belfast of the time (one of the biggest, if not the biggest shipyard of the world, hordes of poor people working around ship building industry, barefoot children and so on), how the ship was designed and built, cabins and furniture reconstructed, wireless messages preserved, original recordings with survivors stories, the whole chilling story displayed in full glory - it affects me probably more than ordinary, curious visitor as I am seaman myself and in fact have somehow visited four main places connected with "Titanic" story - Belfast (where the ship was built), Southampton (where the crew and passengers embarked), St.John's (where they first caught SOS signal) and Halifax (where bodies were buried) so naturally for me this is not a Hollywood spectacle or gory melodrama but a story close to my heart. I personally see both crew and passengers on daily basis and could easy imagine how any of them might behave in danger.
"A Night to remember" was not the first - nor the last - book about sinking of "Titanic" (in fact, there was, famously, a fictional novel called "Futility" written some fourteen years earlier and it described huge trans-Atlantic cruise ship that hit the iceberg and sunk, the name of that fictional ship was "SS Titan" - how about creepy coincidence) however it is remembered as the best non-fictional account of what exactly happened, since author Walter Lord bravely attempted to separate facts and fiction, interviewing survivors himself and in fact his writing style is curiously detached: decidedly he is not taking any sides and almost like journalist reporting about some incident, he is satisfied with merely informing us this is how, where and what happened. What appears at first as perhaps dry description, soon works out miraculously because we get involved in a story by the sheer power of storytelling - by quoting words, names and places, Walter Lord manages to appear completely truthful and we understand this is not some fictional account but a exact description of survivors accounts. However, he is also aware that even survivors remember things differently (perhaps from shock) and of course most of survivors would not admit being selfish and thinking about themselves when for example half empty lifeboats would not turn back to collect people still crying for help in a freezing sea. Walter Lord does not go so far as to criticise what is obvious now - that first class passengers had always different treatment and were given places in life boats, while third class crowd drowned mercilessly, even the whole families - we are to understand this was different time (described by many as "glorious era" but in fact cruel world with disgusting class distinction based on money, bank accounts and privileges) and accepted social behaviour means "gentlemen" bowed hats to ladies as women and children escaped to lifeboats first, while real gentlemen stayed behind facing sure death. Hollywood movie extravaganza naturally wrapped scripts around fictional love stories which historically were not possible as class distinctions kept passengers absolutely divided and people wouldn't even attempt small talk if they were not properly introduced first and assumed they belong to the moneyed class. (Best example is famous "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" who proved to have been brave, admirably capable and heroic person but was not liked by other first-class passengers because she was "new money" and did not belong to any of old wealthy families.)
This gripping book (it took me exactly two days to read it and this is with all my non-stop working hours, read mostly on dinner breaks and after midnight) interested me to the point of obsession - there is just so much of details about human behaviour, survival instinct, how we face large issues and naturally the whole idea of huge ship disaster that I might re-read it again from different perspective eventually. Even now I see the way passengers communicate with each other and I am aware that certain people think about themselves only, while others show more compassion. Where on "Titanic" there were servants trained to be submissive (and gladly gave their places in lifeboats to wealthy gentlemen because they considered them to be more worthy of survival), I doubt that any of crew today would put anybody else before themselves but who knows, I might be wrong, perhaps compassion and care for others is as strong and natural as any other instinct. One thing I know for sure is that I could never live with myself if I found myself in situation that I am in a lifeboat and there is possibility we could turn back and save even one life - this actually happened during sinking of "Titanic" and life boats did not turn back from fear that they all might sink - I would probably risk my own life just to get somebody out of the water. It is a truly fascinating story and well worth reading - several times.
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