In 1912, the biggest ship to be afloat, was the Titanic. She was 11 stories high and 4 city blocks long. She had a double bottom that was divided into 16 watertight compartments. She would be able to float with any 2 compartments flooded and since “no one could imagine anything worse than a collision at the juncture of 2 compartments”, she was labeled unsinkable, and yet, 2 ½ hours after hitting an iceberg, she was gone, as were over 1500 passengers. For many years, it was believed that almost the entire starboard side had been ripped open by the iceberg. However, in 1986, a diver discovered that the riveted plates to the hull had been scraped and bumped, allowing water to rush in.Although it’s been 100 years since this tragedy, people young and old alike, are still fascinated by this ill fated ship. The following books write about the people most closely associated with the ship from those who designed and created her to those who were her passengers. Many of these books have detailed accounts of this voyage because the stories are told by the survivors of this ship. Violet Jessop not only survived the Titanic, but 4 years later she survived when she was on the Britannic and that ship went down.
-Titanic: The Last Night of a Small Town
-Wreck and Sinking of the Titanic: The Ocean’s Greatest Disaster
-Titanic Survivor
-Titanic: An Illustrated history
-Voyagers of the Titanic: Passengers, Sailors, Shipbuilders, Aristocrats and the Worlds They Came From
-Down With the Old Canoe
-A Night to Remember
-The Discovery of the Titanic
Like I said before, the young are as intrigued about this ship as are the old. Many of the juvenile books are full of pictures, cutaway diagrams, and details that may be overlooked in other books. Did you know that you can smell an iceberg before you see it, that the biggest of the 3 anchors weighed over 17 tons, each funnel was big enough to fit two trains, that each of the two steam engines were the size of a three-story house, and that the cargo included such things as 30 cases of golf clubs and tennis rackets, 300 cases of walnuts, 50 cases of toothpaste, and 12 cases of ostrich plumes? The following books would help you learn more about this voyage:
-Titanic: Voices From the Disaster
-Titanic
-Titanic
-Exploring Titanic
-Escaping Titanic
-The Titanic: An Interactive History Adventure
-You Wouldn’t Want to Sail on the Titanic
-882 ½ Amazing Answers to Your Questions About the Titanic
-Iceberg Right Ahead
If you want to read a story of this voyage, you might enjoy these books from our adult collection:
-The Dressmaker
-Promise Me This
-The Company of the Dead
-Raise the Titanic
-From Time to Time
YA collection:
-Fateful
-Amanda/Miranda
-Titanic: The Long Night
Children’s collection:
-Unsinkable
-Tonight on the Titanic
-Voyage on the Great Titanic
-Titanic, April 14, 1912
-Titanic Crossing
-SOS Titanic
-Back to the Titanic
A DVD that shows all the mistakes that caused this tragedy is, Titanic: How It Really Sank and who can ever forget seeing Titanic and watching Jack and Rose as they stood, arms spread out, on the bow of the Titanic? This movie will be released April 6th in 3-D. James Cameron along with National Geographic, will be presenting the special, Titanic: the Final Word on April 8th. On April 9th, Bob Ballard, who discovered the final resting place of the Titanic, will be presenting another program, Save the Titanic. You will also be able to read about what “really happened” in the April printing of the National Geographic. With new technologies, it is possible to view the remains in a way that wasn’t possible before. There are quite a few pictures comparing the new ship to the one that now rests below.
Picture courtesy of Easicat
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