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Title: Voyagers of the Titanic
Subtitle: Passengers, Sailors, Shipbuilders, Aristocrats, and the Worlds They Came From
Author: Richard Davenport-Hines
Narrator: Robin Sachs
Format: Unabridged
Length: 11 hrs and 18 mins
Language: English
Release date: 03-06-12
Publisher: HarperAudio
Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 115 votes
Genres: History, 20th Century
Publisher's Summary:
Late in the night of April 14, 1912, the mighty Titanic, a passenger liner traveling from Southampton, England, to New York City, struck an iceberg four hundred miles south of Newfoundland. Its sinking over the next two and a half hours brought the shipmythological in name and size100 years of infamy.
Of the 2,240 people aboard the ship, 1,517 perished either by drowning or by freezing to death in the frigid North Atlantic waters. What followed the disaster was tantamount to a worldwide outpouring of grief: In New York, Paris, London, and other major cities, people lined the streets and crowded around the offices of the White Star Line, the Titanics shipping company, to inquire for news of their loved ones and for details about the lives of some of the famous people of their time.
While many accounts of the Titanics voyage focus on the technical or mechanical aspects of why the ship sank, Voyagers of the Titanic follows the stories of the men, women, and children whose lives intersected on the vessels fateful last day, covering the full range of first, second, and third classfrom plutocrats and captains of industry to cobblers and tailors looking for a better life in America.
Richard Davenport-Hines delves into the fascinating lives of those who ate, drank, reveled, dreamed, and died aboard the mythic ship: from John Jacob Astor IV, the wealthiest person on board, whose comportment that night was subject to speculation and gossip for years after the event, to Archibald Butt, the much-beloved military aide to Theodore Roosevelt and William Taft, who died helping others into the Titanics few lifeboats. With magnificent prose, Voyagers of the Titanic also brings to life the untold stories of the ships middle and third classesclergymen, teachers, hoteliers, engineers, shopkeepers, counterjumpers, and clerkseach of whom had a story that not only illuminates the fascinating ship but also the times in which it sailed. In addition, Davenport-Hines explores the fascinating politics behind the Titanics creation, which involved larger-than-life figures such as J. P. Morgan, the ships owner, and Lord Pirrie, the ships builder.
The memory of this tragedy still remains a part of the American psyche and Voyagers of the Titanic brings that clear night back to us with all of its drama and pathos.
Members Reviews:
Thorough, panoramic
"Voyagers of the Titanic," as its title implies, focuses on the people rather than the technical aspects of the wreck. Davenport-Hines organizes the stories into groups: among them the shipbuilders, the ship's officers, and the first, second, and third class passengers. I was particularly pleased to see so much attention being given to second class, which was given short shrift in the movie "Titanic" and in many other accounts of the disaster.
Up to the point where the iceberg strikes, each chapter is filled with interlocking mini-biographies of the people involved. The narrative is organized loosely in a kind of "six degrees of separation" style: branching out through the passenger list and giving a vivid sense not only of the people but of the world they inhabited.
The author reaps the benefits of this careful preparation in his narration of the disaster itself.
