Ghosts Of The Abyss: A Journey Into The Heart Of The Titanic [Hardcover]

Don Lynch (Author), Ken Marschall (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 8, 2003

In the late summer of 2001, James Cameron, the director-producer of the highest-grossing picture in Hollywood history, led a new deep-diving expedition to the wreck of the lost liner Titanic. With him was a team of underwater explorers that included the artist Ken Marschall, the historian Don Lynch, and two actors from the movie, Bill Paxton and Lewis Abernathy (who played Brock Lovett and Lewis Bodine). Their equipment included state-of-the-art digital 3D cameras, a pair of Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs), and a specially built deep-water lighting platform that illuminated the fabled ship as never before. In a series of historic dives they filmed deep inside the ghostly liner, obtaining haunting, never-before-seen images.In spring 2003, this remarkable journey into the heart of the Titanic will be presented coast-to-coast in a digital 3D giant screen film, Ghosts of the Abyss. For those who will be drawn anew to the story of the Titanic, as well as for those who have never stopped being fascinated by the ship's tragic fate, James Cameron's "Ghosts of the Abyss" will be a revelation in pictures and words. Cameron compellingly describes just what keeps him returning to the Titanic, and the meticulous journals kept during the dives form a dramatic adventure narrative. But what will truly astonish are new, incredibly vivid images from within the ship's staterooms and public rooms, matched with archival images from 1912 and new paintings and diagrams-a "then-and-now gallery" that captures as never before the history, the drama, and the legend of the Titanic.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The Titanic looks like, well, a wreck in this lavishly illustrated coffee-table companion to Titanic director Cameron's 3-D undersea documentary. Titanic historian Lynch and artist and Titanic buff Marschall recap the story of the ship's doomed maiden voyage, describe the technology and logistics of undersea film-making, and ponder the parallels between the Titanic tragedy and the 9/11 attacks, which occurred during filming ("both events were met with outrage and disbelief-and the tragedies would remain indelibly etched on the collective memory of the world"). But the book's raison d'etre are the photos, and here it runs up against the fact that, unlike architectural ruins, nautical ruins are not very picturesque. Cameron's sonar imaging, lighting rigs and robot cameras yield not much more than visually similar images of gloom and rot, rendered in the deep-sea palette of blue-green and rust washed out by the glare of submarine floodlights. The authors juxtapose archival images of the ship's Edwardian luxury decor and furnishings with photos of their waterlogged remains, and it is here-and in the viewer's imagination-that the pictures become haunting.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Offers eerie pictures of the changes that nine decades have wrought on the legendary liner...a feast for Titanic enthusiasts." -- Reader's Digest May, 2003

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (April 8, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0306812231
• ISBN-13: 978-0306812231
• Product Dimensions: 10.5 x 10.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #629,421 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #15 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Earth Sciences > Geology > Geomorphology

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Incredible Companion to the DVD, December 28, 2004

By 

Allen J. Venezio (Minneola, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ghosts Of The Abyss: A Journey Into The Heart Of The Titanic (Hardcover)

Let me preface this review by stating that I have been studing the TITANIC for over 20 years and have just about every book imaginable on the subject in my personal library.

After watching the "Ghosts from the Abyss" DVD, I simply HAD to get a copy of this book. The photos are outstanding, the commentary is fresh and the way it ties into the DVD makes it even better.

This is the best TITANIC book since "Titanic: An Illustrated History", which coincidentally was also written by Don Lynch and Ken Marshall. It is simply a MUST HAVE for anyone interested in this fascinating story. I would highly recommend buying this AND the DVD for the full effect!

You WILL NOT be disappointed with this book. Buy it with 100% confidence!

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars AWESOME!, May 13, 2003

By 

James "James" (Melbourne, VIC Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ghosts Of The Abyss: A Journey Into The Heart Of The Titanic (Hardcover)

It may be just me, but there is something intriguing about seeing a bowler hat that has survived nearly 100years on the ocean floor, or a cup standing upright on a dresser liked it had just been put there after plunging 2.5km to the ocean floor.

Ghosts of the Abyss will blow your mind with exactly how beautiful the inside of the Titanic still remains. Incredible pictures of inside staterooms, the reception room, wireless room, landing vestibules, the Dining Room, Cpt Smith's bathroom and other rooms deep withing the wreck of the broken ship.

Some sheer horror will also be met with pictures of the boat deck collapsing slowly into A deck; a testament to the power of age.

The only downside to the book is there is not enough photos of inside the wreck - you really just want MORE.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Sea of Secrets and Emotion, April 20, 2003

By 

Randy Bryan Bigham - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ghosts Of The Abyss: A Journey Into The Heart Of The Titanic (Hardcover)

That Don Lynch and Ken Marschall have produced yet another great Titanic title is not a surprise but the beauty of this volume surpasses any book on the subject previously published and the sensitive approach the authors take is matchless. The incredible undersea photos, culled from James Cameron's 2001 expedition, are at once stunning and disturbing, revealing the unexpected, illuminating not only the life of this once proud vessel but the lives of the men, women and children who sailed on and were lost with her. Titanic has in fact never been seen in such an intimate, immediate way.

The text is Don Lynch at his story-telling finest. His comparison of the 1912 sinking to the disaster of September 11, which occured while the Cameron dive was in full swing, is especially powerful.

This book is likely the best that will ever be published on Titanic as she is today - alone, rusted and dead on a seabed, yet wonderfully alive, lost but fantastically found, inhabitated now only by ocean life and, yes, as one is convinced from the extraordinary images, by a great many ghosts.