Ghosts of the Titanic [Mass Market Paperback]

Charles R. Pellegrino (Author), James Cameron (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 3, 2001

What really happened on that unforgettable April night in 1912?

Even after nearly a century, many facts about the sinking of the "unsinkable" ship, Titanic, remain a mystery, as potent and perplexing as ever. But now, Dr. Charles Pellegrino -- whose New York Times bestseller, Her Name, Titanic, is considered one of the preeminent books on the unparalleled catastrophe -- returns to an icy, mile-wide graveyard two and a half miles beneath the surface of the ocean to set free the ghosts that linger among the twisted wreckage. Using surviving first-hand accounts, remarkable new evidence, cutting edge technology and latest oceanic findings, he gives us the most vivid, poignant, shocking, and compelling re-creation yet of the doomed liner's horrific final moments -- and offers stunning, never-before-revealed truths about the great, tragic leviathan's history, fate, and breathtaking legacy.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In his introduction to this book, James Cameron, the director of the hit movie Titanic, remarks that the 1912 sinking of that great ship has yielded more books than all but two other historical events--the life of Christ and the death of John F. Kennedy. Considering that vast ocean of print, it may come as a surprise that there's much left to say about the unfortunate vessel and the iceberg that sent it to the bottom of the Atlantic.

But Charles Pellegrino finds an unexplored niche with Ghosts of the Titanic, which mixes the memoirs of survivors with learned speculation on the fate of certain of the ship's passengers--some of them shot to deter a rush on the few lifeboats--to reconstruct just what happened on that fateful April night. Pellegrino also offers an intriguing look at the science behind recent forensic investigations of the Titanic, which have enabled scholars to model the minute-by-minute disintegration of the ship as it slipped into the depths--for, he argues, instead of the "traditional (and mythical) 300-foot-long 'gash' or 'split,' the Titanic was felled by a series of punches, stabs, and bullet hole-like punctures" that allowed 24,000 metric tons of water to enter the ship within minutes of its collision. Along the way, Pellegrino offers asides on such strange phenomena as the deep-ocean bacteria that are slowly devouring the wreckage, and glimpses of the odds and ends (including the well-preserved remains of a last lamb supper) that the ship has turned up.

While it's almost certainly not the last word on the subject, Pellegrino's book should appeal to Titanic junkies everywhere. --Gregory McNamee --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Pellegrino's sequel to his 1996 bestseller, Her Name, Titanic, is a tour de force incorporating new information about the shipwreck and the nightmarish human dramas of survivors, reconstructed from letters, diaries and oral histories. An oceanographer, paleontologist and space scientist, Pellegrino draws on his 1996 deep-sea expedition to the Titanic as well as other marine scientists' recent research. Contrary to the popular notion that the ship succumbed to a gigantic gash after it hit an iceberg, he shows that the Titanic, which sank on its maiden voyage in 1912, was felled by a series of ice stabs and bullet-hole-like punctures adding up to just 12 square feet of openings through which tons of water poured. The Titanic's Grand Stairway, all five stories of it, probably broke free and floated out of the disintegrating ship, he concludes. According to survivors' testimony, the accident occurred because the ship was traveling at a reckless speed: its owners decided to arrive in New York a day early as a publicity coup, and this meant lighting extra boilers, which led to an out-of-control bunker fire. The ship didn't simply run up against a lone icebergDit encountered a field of icebergs over 10 miles wide. By correlating eyewitness accounts, Pellegrino establishes that many shootings did occur on the ship, as crew and officers armed with guns prevented third- and fourth-class passengers from boarding the lifeboats. His fresh re-creation of the Titanic's final hours provides an eerie and astonishing adventure, a time capsule gracefully wrapped in elegant prose, deserving a place alongside Walter Lord's classic A Night to Remember.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Avon (July 3, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380724723
• ISBN-13: 978-0380724727
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,142,593 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Titanic still has many lessons to teach, July 2, 2000

By 

"grimover" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ghosts of the Titanic (Hardcover)

James Cameron asks in the Foreward to this book,"...Titanic ranks third on the list of events about which the mosthas been written, behind the life of Christ and the death of JFK...as I gaze over the rows of shelves stuffed full of my own research materials, what is there to say that hasn't been said? Plenty. And this book is proof."

Pellegrino takes the reader through the Titanic expeditions since his previous book, "Her Name, Titanic," including the 1996 RMS Titanic expedition the author participated in as biopaleontologist and marine archaeologist. He also introduces readers to more never before published survivor accounts, including Chief Baker Charles Joughin (whose survival despite more time spent in the water than any other survivor is still a mystery), Michel Navatril ("The Titanic Waif") and stoker Jim Mulolland (who reports on the fate of the ship's cat).

The reader is also treated to detailed pencil sketches of the wreck as he saw it, an archaeological map of the Stern debris field, the diagrams of the new consortial life form dubbed "Rusticalus Titanics" by Pellegrino and Cullimore on the '96 expedition, and for the first time anywhere, annotated drawings of the actual deck plans of the Titanic drawn in India ink (one of the many Titanic myths debunked by Pellegrino in this book is that the plans went down with Andrews - at the advice of their lawyers the White Star Line led authorities to believe that in order to shut down the design defect argument).

Among the forensic reconstructions in the book are a complete reconstruction on the sequence of events on the the Titanic and the Californian from eyewitness accounts, showing at each stage how the Californian was viewing the lights and distress rockets of the Titanic, and likewise the lifeboats on the Titanic were viewing the lights of the Californian. Pellegrino notes that even Captain Stanley Lord of The Californian finally admitted during his libel law suit against the account of his ship in "A Night To Remember," that it was the lights of the Titanic his crew saw that night of April 12th (its amazing that some authors *still* refer to the "mystery ship"). But Pellegrino further damns Captain Lord by showing that under the atmospheric conditions and due to the immutable laws of curvature of the earth, the lights observed on both sides bracket the distance between the ships as between 5 and 7.5 miles (instead of the 20 miles the captain claimed to american investigators or the 30 miles he later claimed to british investigators or the 40 miles he claimed to reporters after that), which meant the Californian could have reached the titanic, allowing for caution, less than one hour after seeing the first distress rockets, a time when lifeboats were still lowering, well in time to save hundreds at least from freezing to death in the cold waters, possibly all 1500! Pellegrino even adds a new indictment from Third Officer Groves of the Californian, during the brief search the Californian did that morning, Groves saw moving figures on the ice which he believed to be human beings, only to have this dismissed by the Captain as Seals as he ordered the ship to turn around and head for Boston!

Pellegrio also describes the scientific discoveries Pellegrino participated in on the '96 RMS Titanic expedition. He and microbiologist Roy Cullimore discovered that Bob Ballard's "Rusticles" are a new consortial life form, Rusticalus Titanicus, a 3.5 billion year evolutionary throwback that could provide new antibiotics and other medicines. Pellegrino and Cullimore also noted a tremendous increase in deep-ocean "sea snow" between Titanic expeditions which is evidence of "The Zooplankton Crisis," a massive bloom of animal plankton caused by reductions in the North Atlantic fish population, which threatens the phytoplankton population in the top few inches of the ocean, which are responsible for converting more far carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than rain forests. The reader is reminded of the warning Titanic survivor Eva Hart gives to Pellegrino in this book, "...if you scientists, engineers and industrial geniuses don't learn to temper arrogance with wisdom, and to pay very close attention, then I'm afraid there will be an even bigger Titanic in your future - for the whole world, maybe. And next time there may be no lifeboats - for anybody."

I'd rate this book as a great read for any reader interested in history or science, and a must-have for any true Titanic enthusiast, no matter how many books you own!

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Magificent book, July 21, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Ghosts of the Titanic (Hardcover)

I've read many books on the Titanic but never one quite like "Ghosts of the Titanic". Dr Charles Pellegrini's magnificent book had me spellbound from the very first chapter as the author presents the events of the night of April 14th/15th 1912 in a totally fresh and compelling manner.

Be warned: This book grips the reader like a steel trap!

In "Ghosts of the Titanic" you will learn of:

The very first victims of the Titanic's collision with the iceberg.

The steward who set a new world record for the high dive.

How Major Peuchen's wallet came to be lying where it was in Titanic's debris field and the importance of finding the wallet.

Why Thomas Andrews, Titanic's designer, stayed on board the stricken liner and made no attempt to leave the ship.

What damage the iceberg inflicted on the Titanic and then what Titanic did to the iceberg.

The words whispered by Captain Smith when he saw the flooded mail room.

How close the iceberg was to Titanic when it was first sighted.

Where the California really was in relation to the Titanic.

The meaning of the very last message transmitted from Titanic's radio room.

This list is only a portion of the startling revelations to be found in this book.

There have been many fine books written on the Titanic distaster. In this writers humble opinion "Ghosts of the Titanic" is the best, the winner in a photo-finish from the excellent works of Walter Lord. A "must read" for any lover of history and science and an "absolute must read" for those fascinated by the Titanic disaster.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ghosts and reality, July 2, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Ghosts of the Titanic (Hardcover)

Before you are through with chapter 1 you are hit with uncomfortable details, facts that other authors (and filmmakers) politely left out, realisms of human existence, examples of human frailty in action - and it is continued throughout. Although the bulk of Pellegrino's experience is with the technology of the "final frontier," his complete honesty serves this subject no less. Never having heard of him before, I am - as of now - an avid fan.

This author is unflinchingly honest, too honest for comfort, but authentic. This version of what happened is not for kids, but this is a book like no other, and WELL worth the price. This is the best book on Titanic, ever, for anyone who can deal with humanity on its own level.