Customer Reviews

The Night Lives on: The Untold Stories and Secrets Behind the Sinking of the "Unsinkable" Ship-Titanic!

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Calling this 'the sequel to _A Night to Remember_' is slightly misleading. Rather than the storytelling style employed to relate the story of the sinking of the Titanic, this is almost a collection of 17 1-chapter essays about various points of the disaster. Excellent stuff, but if you were expecting, say, the story of the Congressional and Parliamentary investigations of the disaster, you need to look elsewhere, e.g. Wyn Craig Wade's _The Titanic: End of a Dream_.

"Unsinkable Subject" - Overview of the popular fascination with Titanic.

"What's in a Name?" - The actual launching of Titanic from Harland & Wolff's shipyards.

"Legendary from the Start" - Titanic was indeed popularly supposed to be unsinkable, but the trend of sacrificing safety features for competitiveness had actually taken hold during her design.

"Had Ships Gotten Too Big for Captain Smith?" - Explores Smith's record, including a near-collision in harbor with Titanic's sister ship, the Olympic.

"Our Coterie" - The group of first class passengers, including Col. Gracie, mentioned in _A Night to Remember_.

"Everything Was Against Us" - Contrasts the ice warnings, lack of coordination between radio room & bridge, and lookouts, with the notion that the accident was a one-in-a-million chance.

"The Gash" - The collision itself.

"I Was Very Soft the Day I Signed That" - How and why ships the size of Titanic could legally sail while carrying so few lifeboats.

"What Happened to the Goodwins?" - Facts and figures about 1st class vs. 3rd, contrasting White Star's implication that those people down there couldn't understand English, with the Goodwin family (an electrical engineer and his family, emigrating from London to New York, all of whom were lost, including the 6-year-old).

"Shots in the Dark" - Explores the stories about Murdoch, one of the officers loading the lifeboats, and whether shots were fired.

"The Sound of Music" - An in-depth look at the "Nearer My God to Thee" myth, and the 2 bands on the Titanic. (I was aggravated to learn that that entire, touching sequence with the cornet in _Raise the Titanic!_, which I loved as a kid, was made up from whole cloth - the musicians were just as courageous as the movie made them out to be, but no cornet players.) And if you're a professional musician who thinks *your* agent is heartless, wait till you read this.

"She's Gone" - Compares the eyewitness accounts of Titanic's last moments with what we now know.

"The Electric Spark" Captain Rostron of the Carpathia, who picked up the survivors at great personal risk.

"A Certain Amount of Slackness" Discussion of Captain Lord (no relation to the author) of the Californian, in sharp contrast to the preceding chapter.

"Second-guessing" - The inquiries and subsequent litigation (Lord's treatment of Senator Smith should be contrasted with Wade's more detailed treatment, but then Wade has a whole book to play with).

"Why Was Craganour Disqualified?" What happened to some of the survivors. (Craganour, owned by a member of the Ismay family, was disqualified from winning a major British horse race.)

"Unlocking the Ocean's Secret" - The search for the Titanic, leading up to Robert Ballard's successful attempt in 1985 (written before others began plundering the ship for relics).

Walter Lord follows up his best seller of the fifties-A Night to Remember--with this eighties version on some mysteries about the sunken liner. One learns about the musicians (two groups actually) and what they played that night while the life boats were being loaded. Another story details the negligence of the freighter Californian for not answering the eight rockets of distress from the Titanic. Another story details the shootings and suicide near the end of the launch of the last life boats. Still another story details why there were not enough life boats on the Titanic and most other ocean liners of the day. Walter Lord clears the air about these mysteries with his well informed writing.
If you want to know more about the Titanic, read both Lord's books on the subject (A Night to Remember, The Night Lives On). They will help the reader understand this tragedy. I have seen the movie and I know the producers consulted these books when they made the movie.

This is a perfect book for anyone looking to learn more about the official determinations about the Titanic and the events of that fateful night. Walter Lord once again outdoes himself in details, going step by step over the controversial issues of the night, and giving the reader the official version, as well as the most widely believed version, and includes many of his own ideas of what may have occured where there is still mystery. A must read for all serious Titanic fans!

This book earns a '10' on all aspects. Walter Lord is an excellent writer whose style surpasses all others. He has packed more research from ballistics experts to research how far the sound of the distress rockets could be heard to hymnologists to dispell some popular myths about what the band really played. This book will hold you captive until the very last page (wishing there was more) even if you are not a Titanic historian.

A spell-binding, moment-by-moment review of the sinking of the White Star Liner, Titanic, on April 12, 1912. The author reviews all the evidence of that fateful night, including eyewitness accounts of survivors and testimony at both the U.S. Senate subcommittee on the disaster and at the court of the Board of Trade in England. The recent controversy of the discovery and photographing of the Titanic by Robert Ballard is also discussed. This is a remarkable book, written almost like a novel, following the events of that night very closely, but also with much respect given to the conflicting stories of survivors. Walter Lord pieces everything together, and comes up with startling, well-researched conclusions. The era, the people, and the entire tragedy are brought to life as if it had just occurred yesterday.

Being a fan of Walter Lord's impeccably researched book "A Night to Remember," I was instantly intrigued upon learning of "The Night Lives On." I had had several lingering questions for years: why was an order given to turn the ship starboard when the iceberg eventually hit starboard? How, specifically, was the matter of the Californian's involvement dealt with? Which theories about "the gash" don't pan out? All of my questions and more were painstakingly answered as if I had asked Mr. Lord for an explanation myself. His ingenius weaving of history, statistics, personal testimonies, and logic, blended into an easily understandable format, made my love of the Titanic's story grow even more. Anyone can buy one book and know the generalities of the ship. But this book goes above and beyond to educate those already acquainted with the story and wanting a much more in-depth look.

I read this book during my summer vacation and I thought it was really interesting. This book was so great, as soon as I bought it i couldn't stop reading it. All the facts are true and at some parts it made me kind of sad to see that so many people had died and there was plenty of room on the life boats. I guess some people were very stubborn in those times. The fact is if you enjoy the Titanic then this is the type of book you would enjoy because it gives you the perspective of some of the survivors.

In 1955, Walter Lord's A Night To Remember was published and instantly became the definitive book on the sinking of the ocean liner Titanic in April 1912. Just over thirty years later and following the discovery of the Titanic two and a half miles below the surface of the North Atlantic, Lord's follow-up to it was published. The Night Lives On goes beyond that "night to remember" to look at the events that came before, during and after it.

To do this Lord brings a lot of focus to the book. While A Night To Remember focused very much on the sinking itself by wandering from person to person and place to place, The Night Lives On uses each of its seventeen chapters to focus on any single particular aspect of the Titanic story. The opening chapters of the book look at what led up to the sinking ranging from the ship's legacy, its launching in 1911, a look at Captain Smith's record prior to taking command of the Titanic and the actions of the crew leading up to the collision with the iceberg. This is of course prelude to the main event: the sinking.

Chapters seven through twelve focus on the sinking itself. Topics range from the collision with the iceberg, the reasons for the lack of lifeboats and the question of why so many third class passengers died in relation to others on the Titanic (including the entire Goodwin family for whom the chapter is named for) and why some passengers saw the ship sink intact while others saw it break in two (a long held belief shattered when the wreck was found in 1985). The highlights of this section, and perhaps the entire book itself, are the chapters that cover two of the biggest ongoing controversies of the sinking: did an officer shoot at passengers before committing suicide himself and what song did the band play before the Titanic began its final plunge? Those two chapters, indeed all of the chapters in this section, are not only fantastic and informative reading but they show Lord at his best: well researched yet highly accessible.

Chapters thirteen and fourteen compare and contrast two ships that were nearby when the Titanic sank: the Carpathia and the Californian. Both ships played supporting roles in the drama of A Night To Remember, the Californian featuring at the end of almost every chapter of that earlier book, but in these two chapters each ship takes center stage. Lord looks at how the Carpathia and her captain Arthur Rostron covered around fifty miles of dark, ice filled ocean to rescue the Titanic's passengers in approximately four hours, Rostron and the crew becoming heroes in doing so. The Californian and her captain Stanley Lord sat somewhere near the Titanic (within visual range according to Lord's research) and became the infamous ship that stood still. Lord examines what occurred aboard the Californian during those pivotal hours and tries to answer why that happened. While the chapter obviously doesn't take into account the findings of the British Government's Marine Accident Investigation Branch about the Californian a few years later, the chapter raises some intriguing and lingering questions nevertheless.

The final three chapters cover the aftermath of the sinking. Chapter fifteen gives a brief overview of both the American Senate and British Board Of Trade inquiries into the sinking plus how those inquiries effected the attempts to claim damages from the White Star Line. Chapter sixteen follows up on the fates of some of those who had their footsteps on the Titanic retraced by Lord in both books. The final chapter goes through the various attempts (and schemes) to find, if not raise, the Titanic before her eventual discovery in 1985. The paperback edition of the book contains follow-up information about the 1986 expedition that first explored the wreck site and corrects a goof made in the original hardcover edition as well. With these chapters Lord brings the Titanic story full circle, or as much as was possible at the time.

While it might not contain the drama of A Night To Remember, The Night Lives On is an indispensable companion to it. With its ability to focus on a particular topic at a time rather then floating from person to person or place to place, this book helps to illuminate many aspects that the original book was only able to touch upon. As a result it is every bit as well researched and accessible as its predecessor and perhaps even more useful for those exploring the sinking of the Titanic.

The Night Lives On by Walter Lord

I bumped into my copy of the book in a library give away rack. Take a book, make a donation. I rarely read anything over 2 nights, but I did read this one in 2 nights. I have not read the Lord's first book "A Night to Remember." Like everyone in the country I had seen the "Titanic" movie, watched specials on the tragic boats discovery, and knew a few facts about this tragic event. This book has lots of neat facts and facts on debatable issues of the great tragedy. The writer organizes the work along the lines of the production of the ship. He addresses the hugeness of the ship and the way that may have caused her captain to not know how to handle her. He then simply recounts the awful night the Titanic sank. He then goes on to speak to many of the issues that that the sinking brought up. While going through each issue he lines them up from the sinking to the present discovery. He allows his readers to decide from evidence many of the issues for him or herself. He covers the heroic action of the Carpathia. He discusses in detail the details of the California's apparent refusal to acknowledge the nearby distress rockets fired by the Titanic. He discusses the legal suits by many involved. He even brings up details about the famous band and what they played and how long they played. He does some wonderful writing on the whole number of lifeboats. He just delves into a whole lots of issues that will never be totally settled. As an armchair historian, I wish I could write a book as succint but detailed as this. End result: I will submit this review and look for the first book. SWT

This book is a MUST for any Titanic fan! Even if you've read numerous other accounts of the sinking to the Titanic, you will learn something new from Lord's account of that fatefull nignt in 1912. Lord did his research well and wrote this book in a way to make you feel as though you were on the ship, not just on April 14th, but from the time it sailed. I enjoyed this book very much! Please read it.