Book Recommendation – On a Sea of Glass

I have to give a huge “thank you” to my buddy Max from the Power Pop Blog for recommending the book I just finished – On a Sea of Glass. He is a Titanic buff like me, and he told me that this was the most thorough book on the subject. He was SO right.

I listened to the audiobook. It took me a while to get through it, as the audio book is 32 hours long! Most audio novels are around 8-10 hours long, so that should tell you how detailed it is.

There are hundreds of books on the subject of Titanic available. So what made this one different? It examines the story from every angle. It tests the things that have been handed down through the years as “fact” and sees if they hold water (pardon the pun). Here is the Amazon Synopsis:

On the night of 14/15 April 1912, a brand new, supposedly unsinkable ship, the largest and most luxurious vessel in the world at the time, collided with an iceberg and sank on her maiden voyage. Of the 2,208 people on board, only 712 were saved. The rest either drowned or froze to death in the icy-cold waters of the North Atlantic. How could this ‘unsinkable’ vessel sink and why did so few of those aboard survive?

The authors bring the tragedy to life, telling the story of the ship’s design, construction and maiden voyage. The stories of individuals who sailed on her, many previously known only as names on yellowing passenger and crew lists, are brought to light using rarely-seen accounts of the sinking. The stories of passengers of all classes and crewmembers alike, are explored. They tell the dramatic stories of lives lost and people saved, of the rescue ship Carpathia, and of the aftermath of the sinking. Never again would a large passenger liner sail without lifeboats for all.

Despite the tragedy, the sinking of the Titanic indirectly led to untold numbers of lives being saved due to new regulations that came into force after the tragedy. Profusely illustrated, including many rare and unique views of the ship and those who sailed on her, this is as accurate and engrossing a telling of the life of the White Star Line’s Titanic and her sinking as you will read anywhere. Made special by the use of so many rare survivor accounts from the eye witnesses to that night to remember, the narrative places the reader in the middle of the maiden voyage, and brings the tragic sinking to life as never before.

The book truly is an unbiased look at the Titanic from her birth to her maiden voyage and then from the tragedy and beyond. After presenting the story of the ship, the authors present numerous appendixes that each focus on an aspect of the story that may be the subject of unanswered questions. Did Captain Smith actually go down with the ship? Were passengers shot by Titanic officers for trying to get to lifeboats? Did an officer commit suicide as the ship went down? How did Thomas Andrews meet his end? Were the steerage passengers really “trapped like rats” in the lower part of the ship? Why do accounts of the ship breaking in two differ? What was the deal with the Californian and why didn’t she help Titanic?

Each of those questions is examined by comparing all the evidence available. Are all of the questions answered definitively? Well, naturally, there are some things that can just be speculated on. However, the variety of possibilities are presented and sometimes, there isn’t enough evidence to answer for certain.

I admit this was a very long read, but to me, it was fascinating and worth it. There were so many things that I was unaware of. One example is the general temperature on the ship. In all the books that I have read, none of them ever really mentioned how many passengers complained that their rooms were cold. I really walked away from this with more knowledge about the tragedy and some questions that I had always asked, answered.

Thanks again, Max!

5 out of 5 stars