day 's voyage, only that I, with my friend Mr. Chute, sat before the mast in the hatchway with perspective and books . . . and no inconvenience to molest us, nor wants to trouble our thoughts, ... so that we came nearer to perfection of life than I was ever sensible of otherwise." Mr. Rousmaniere takes us only a little way down such enchanting byways, and one awaits eagerly another book which will prove those pleasures. PETER STANFORD Mr. Stanford, when younger, sailed in Fastnet and Bermuda races and across the intervening ocean, but likes best cruising with family and friends. Titanic: Triumph and Tragedy-A Chronicle in Words and Pictures, Charles A. Haas and John P. Eaton (W .W . Norton, New York, 3 l9pp, illus , $39 .95hb) . The Night Lives On: New Thoughts, Theories and Revelations About the Titanic, Walter Lord (Wm. Morrow & Co . , New York , 1986 , 272pp, illus , $15.95hb). On the 75th anniversary of her sinking , the Titanic's power as a symbol remains undiminished. To a world numbed by the death counts of massive atrocities , the loss of 1500 souls on an April night in 1912 has a relative intimacy that swells the imagination rather than defies it. Beyond that, her story is one of history 's great melodramas: the world ' s largest and most luxurious liner ... the " unsinkable" Titanic on her maiden voyage . . . carrying many celebrities of the day . . . the calm moonlit night . . . that grinding jar . . . the appalling realization . . . the final moments . . . and apotheosis. Two new books on the Titanic do credit to this great ship's mystery , as well as giving a historical context to the electrifying discovery of her remains off Newfoundland just two years ago . Titanic: Triumph and Tragedy, by John Eaton and Charles Haas, reports her story in exacting detail, from the formation of the White Star Line in 1867 to the myriad lawsuits and insurance claims still pending in 1915. The heart of the book is, as it should be, the account of the fateful voyage itself. In this lavishly illustrated volume, Eaton and Haas (President and Official Historian respectively of the Titanic Historical Association) have done a splendid job of capturing the mystique of the ship ' s brief life . Walter Lord ' s The Night Lives On: New Thoughts , Theories and Revelations About the Titanic , is less concerned with the story itself (so expertly told in his seminal work, A Night to Remember) than with the myths and mythic aspects SEA HISTORY , SPRING 1987
of the story. Lord explores anew some nagging questions: What actually gave rise to the widespread belief that the Titanic was unsinkable (it wasn ' t White Star Line advertising)? Why were there too few lifeboats? What was the true nature of the gash which doomed the ship? Were the traditions of the sea ("Women and chi ldren first") really observed? What did the band actually play on the listing deck? And , most perplexing of all , how could the steamer California, not twenty miles away, have ignored the Titanic's distress rockets? Lord does a commendable job of sorting through and demystifying the events of that famous evening so long ago , while at the same time paying genuine homage to the elements of the disaster which elevate it to true mythic stature. HAL FESSENDEN Mr. Fessenden is a frequent contributor to SEA HtSTORY and sits on the Publications Committee of the NMHS.
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