And later, of the chaos and panic when it is clear she will go down, and there are not enough lifeboats for everyone aboard to safely get away. I get a real sense of the confusion and disbelief when the ship first strikes the iceberg. So this is my third reading.It’s a gripping story, and Lord does a great job of bringing all these people to life. If memory serves, I re-read it at about the time the movie was released.

I believe it was in the 1980s I know it was long before the hugely successful movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. I first read it before I joined either Shelfari or Goodreads, so I have no record of when I read it. This is a chronological tale of what the people aboard the Titanic recall of that night’s events. Read moreīook on CD read by Walter JarvisOn April 15, 1912, the greatest ship to ever sail struck an iceberg and sank in the North Atlantic. the ship’s band played “Autumn.” Five minutes later, the Titanic was gone. Based on interviews with sixty-three survivors, Lord’s moment-by-moment account is among the finest books written about one of the twentieth century’s bleakest nights. And in steerage, hundreds fought bitterly against certain death. Men changed into their evening clothes to meet death with dignity. As the ship’s deck slipped closer to the icy waterline, women pleaded with their husbands to join them on lifeboats. In fact, it was the sound of the world’s most famous ocean liner striking an iceberg, and it served as the death knell for 1,500 souls. In the next two hours and forty minutes, the maiden voyage of the Titanic became one of history’s worst maritime accidents. Passengers described it as the impact of a heavy wave, a scraping noise, or the tearing of a long calico strip. #1 New York Times Bestseller: The definitive book on the sinking of the Titanic, based on interviews with survivors, by the author of The Miracle of Dunkirk.Īt first, no one but the lookout recognized the sound.

The Night Lives On by Walter Lord