I find it difficult not to judge historical people by today's standards. I understand that they are products of their time and place. They've grown up with different sets of values in a different era with different ideas and different points of view. I still think Lawrence Beesley is kind of a dick.

Beesleys book about the disaster was one of the first to come out, and his story from his point of view obviously could not fill up a whole book (especially since he left out every day of the journey except the first and last). This meant a good portion of the last part of the book was Beesley waxing philosophically about the disaster, it's implications, the legislation that should be enacted because of it, and lots of boat nonsense I didn't care about.

He also goes into numbers and percentages about the survivors, and suggests that more crew members should have stayed on the ship and died so that passengers could have been saved. He also theorized that a well behaved intelligent Englishman (such as himself) had more right to be on a lifeboat than a drunken stoker.

I understand that right after the disaster Mr. Beesley and his book must have seemed like a calm, British, voice of reason. He dispelled rumors (although he adamantly argued the ship did not break in half), and told a matter-of- fact story that placed little blame except on the deceased captain.

Beesley comes off as elitest, self-important, biased, and dull.

I definitely don't have as much to say about Beesley's account as I did about Gracie's, and in this case, that's a good thing.

If someone has never read a first-hand account of the wreck of the R.M.S. Titanic, I would easily suggest to start here. Beesley leaves out both the flowery prose and the hyperbolic assumptions and instead gives us his recollection of what happened both before, during, and after the event. I stress the word his here because he, thankfully, does not try to speak for everyone or pull the classic if I didn't see it, it didn't happen shtick (see p1).

He also does a good job at placing blame on certain groups, while also expressing sympathy for what might have contributed to those mistakes unbeknownst to those groups (ex. Captain Smith and the senior officers).

Finally, Beesley's includes an important, albeit very extensive, chapter at the end that stressed the importance of what civilization can learn from the mistakes made that night and leading up to it.

I enjoyed this account immensely and would recommend it to anyone interested in the subject.

This is an account of the sinking of Titanic written by one of the survivors only two months after the event. For that reason alone, it's fascinating. But Beesley also gives us a snapshot of the 1912 mindset: where in the 21st century, most of us would seek therapy after such trauma, Beesley remarks that there is no sense dwelling on tragedy, and that it's best to put the whole thing out of our minds. In fact, Beesley says the only reason he's writing the book is to make sure that necessary changes are put in place so no such tragedy happens again. He's quite passionate about this responsibility, which he says we all share. As a example of personal and societal response to horrifying events, Beesley's book shows us we are not so very different, even 100 years later.

Beesley makes some very excellent points, and it's amazing to consider how much was already known in 1912, only to be sensationalized until people pretend we didn't know it 100 years later.

Think you know all about the sinking of the Titanic? Read the first 50 pages of this short book and you'll learn first-hand details that you didn't know. The second half wasn't as interesting to me, but the first half is the author's vivid account, full of details I'd never heard. He observed that the ship listed very slightly to port while they were underway and speculated from later reports that the coal may have been loaded too much on the port side. This has no bearing on the sinking itself, but it is an interesting detail. He describes shipboard activities and vignettes of families and friends. His tribute to Mr. Carter, a vicar of uncommon care, must have been greatly comforting to his parish.

Highly recommended.

I've always been interested in the Titanic and I try to read anything I can in it. This was the 1st book I've read where it was just straight information in a story, with no extra plot. I also really enjoyed the narrative of it. I am interested in reading the rest of the series.

This was a really eye opening book specially when you have a completely different idea of what the sinking of the Titanic realy was.
The curiousity of the sinking of the Titanic comes to me every time i watch the movie Titanic of 1997 with Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio as protagonists, or by watching a documentary about the discovery of the wreckage under the sea and that's when i found out about this book.
The reality of it is almost unthinkable, to know what really happened and that what we know by the movies isn't true.
It is a superb book with much detail and that every curious about the sinking of the Titanic should have the pleasure to read.