Titanic

Zusatztext An absorbing! crisp chronicle of the Titanic ! from its conception through the discovery and exploration of the wreckage on the sea floor. Los Angeles Times Informationen zum Autor Michael Davie was a leading British journalist. He was a reporter, columnist, and editor for the London Observer and the Melbourne (Australia) Age , and wrote books on topics as varied as Lyndon B. Johnson, California, and cricket. He died in 2005. Dave Gittins lives in Adelaide, South Australia. He is the author of Titanic: Monument and Warning and co-author of Report into the Loss of the SS Titanic: A Centennial Reappraisal. Klappentext To be published on the 100th anniversary of the ship's sinking! Davie's classic book is a gripping well-researched account of one of the greatest maritime disasters in history and was the first work to do justice to the many interwoven stories. 1 The Evil Dream In the 1860s, British industry was entering the most expansive and prosperous era it has ever known or is ever likely to know. In particular, shipbuilding and transatlantic traffic were growing in volume year by year. It is impossible to understand the genesis of the Titanic without looking at the men who conceived the idea of a giant ship; and impossible to understand them, and the reasons why they ever imagined such an extraordinary vessel, without some notion of the tortuous and ruthlessly competitive international shipping businessBritish, German, Americanof which they were part. The man behind the Titanic, as it happens, was Canadian. He was born in Quebec in 1847 as William James Pirrie, the son of A. J. Pirrie, an Ulsterman of Scottish descent. His mother was also from Ulster, a member of the Montgomery family. After the father died, mother and son returned to Ireland, where the boy was apprenticed at the age of fifteen to the shipbuilding and engineering firm of Harland & Wolff. Pirrie was a partner in Harland & Wolff by the time he was twenty-seven. During the next half century, largely thanks to his leadership, it became the greatest shipyard in the world and the birthplace of the Titanic. People these days are inclined to think that the Titanic was a freak, a huge ship of unique size and luxury. This misunderstanding underrates the scale of the enterprise. Pirrie's idea, conceived in 1907, was that his firm, in partnership with the White Star Line, would build not one but three monster transatlantic liners. They would sweep the opposition off the seas. The first would be named the Olympic; the second the Titanic; and the thirdthe Britannic. All three were built. The Olympic had an illustrious career, carrying more troops than any other vessel in World War I. The Britannic was sunk by a German mine in 1916 while serving as a hospital ship. Nowadays, nobody outside the passionate fraternity of lovers of old ships remembers this useful pair. But the Titanic became, as she has remained, the best known of all ships to the man in the street, her name springing to mind more readily than the Golden Hind, the USS Arizona, or HMS Victory. It is odd that Pirrie, the bold prime mover, has disappeared so completely from the story. Had he sailed in the Titanic on her maiden voyage, as he fully intended, he would have been better known. He would either have drowned, in which case he would have been as closely associated with the ship as her skipper, Captain Smith, and her richest passenger, Colonel J. J. Astor; or he would have escaped, in which case he would have been as universally reviled as the chairman of White Star who got away in one of the last lifeboats, J. Bruce Ismay. As it was, his doctor forbade Pirrie to take the trip because of prostate trouble; he did not testify in the much-publicized official inquiries that followed though by June his health was much improved; and after...

ldquo;An absorbing, crisp chronicle of the Titanic, from its conception through the discovery and exploration of the wreckage on the sea floor.” 
—Los Angeles Times

Auteur

Michael Davie

Texte du rabat

To be published on the 100th anniversary of the ship's sinking, Davie's classic book is a gripping well-researched account of one of the greatest maritime disasters in history and was the first work to do justice to the many interwoven stories.

Résumé
Newly updated on the hundredth anniversary of the tragedy by Titanic expert Dave Gittins to reflect the latest facts and theories about the ship's sinking, Titanic: The Death and Life of a Legend will fascinate Titanic experts, amateurs, and newcomers alike. 

In this gripping, deeply researched exploration of the Titanic's tragic sinking, journalist Michael Davie investigates the events, controversies, and legends that have surrounded the disaster. Sifting through historical documents and survivors' accounts, Davie details the nineteenth-century origins of the White Star Line, narrates the story of the "unsinkable" ship's deadly voyage, and describes the dramatic discovery of the Titanic's wreckage in 1985. Davie offers insightful portraits of the protagonists and dramatizes the confusing and terrifying hours that passed from the moment the ship hit the iceberg until its survivors were picked up by the USS Carpathia a full day later.

Échantillon de lecture
1

The Evil Dream

In the 1860s, British industry was entering the most expansive and prosperous era it has ever known or is ever likely to know. In particular, shipbuilding and transatlantic traffic were growing in volume year by year. It is impossible to understand the genesis of the Titanic without looking at the men who conceived the idea of a giant ship; and impossible to understand them, and the reasons why they ever imagined such an extraordinary vessel, without some notion of the tortuous and ruthlessly competitive international shipping business—British, German, American—of which they were part.

The man behind the Titanic, as it happens, was Canadian. He was born in Quebec in 1847 as William James Pirrie, the son of A. J. Pirrie, an Ulsterman of Scottish descent. His mother was also from Ulster, a member of the Montgomery family. After the father died, mother and son returned to Ireland, where the boy was apprenticed at the age of fifteen to the shipbuilding and engineering firm of Harland & Wolff. Pirrie was a partner in Harland & Wolff by the time he was twenty-seven. During the next half century, largely thanks to his leadership, it became the greatest shipyard in the world and the birthplace of the Titanic.

People these days are inclined to think that the Titanic was a freak, a huge ship of unique size and luxury. This misunderstanding underrates the scale of the enterprise. Pirrie’s idea, conceived in 1907, was that his firm, in partnership with the White Star Line, would build not one but three monster transatlantic liners. They would sweep the opposition off the seas. The first would be named the Olympic; the second the Titanic; and the third—the Britannic.

All three were built. The Olympic had an illustrious career, carrying more troops than any other vessel in World War I. The Britannic was sunk by a German mine in 1916 while serving as a hospital ship. Nowadays, nobody outside the passionate fraternity of lovers of old ships remembers this useful pair. But the Titanic became, as she has remained, the best known of all ships to the man in the street, her name springing to mind more readily than the Golden Hind, the USS Arizona, or HMS Victory.

It is odd that Pirrie, the bold prime mover, has disappeared so completely from the story. Had he sailed in the Titanic on her maiden voyage, as he fully intended, he would have been better known. He would either have drowned, in which case he would have been as closely associated with the ship as her skipper, Captain Smith, and her richest passenger,…