Shadow of the Titanic: The Extraordinary Stories of Those Who Survived [Hardcover]

Andrew Wilson (Author)

Book Description

Release date: March 6, 2012

We think we know the story of the Titanic—the once majestic and supposedly unsinkable ship that struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage from Britain to America—but very little has been written about the vessel’s 705 survivors. How did the events of that horrific night in the icy waters of the North Atlantic affect the lives of those who lived to tell the tale?

Drawing on a wealth of previously unpublished letters, memoirs, diaries, and interviews with their family members, award-winning journalist Andrew

Wilson brings to life the survivors’ colorful voices, from the famous, like heiress Madeleine Astor, to the lesser known second-and third-class passengers, such as the Navratil brothers, who were traveling under assumed names because they were being abducted by their father.

More than one hundred years after that fateful voyage, Shadow of the Titanic adds an important new dimension to this enduringly captivating story.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Wilson’s fresh angle convincingly explores the strain on survivors.”

-- New York Times Book Review

“This is a captivating read that begins where most other Titanic books end.”

--The Library Journal (Starred Review)

"With this survival tale, Wilson has carved out a fascinating slice of the [Titanic] story."

-- USA Today

“Andrew Wilson’s eloquent chronicle of the dark side of survival offers fresh information, fascinating insights, and masterful storytelling. A spellbinding voyage into the uncharted depths of the Titanic tragedy.” -- Deborah Davis, author of Strapless: John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madame X

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Andrew Wilson is the author of Beautiful Shadow: A Life of Patricia Highsmith; Harold Robbins: The Man Who Invented Sex; and the novel The Lying Tongue. He has written for The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, and the Daily Mail. He lives in London.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Atria Books; Reprint edition (March 6, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1451671563
• ISBN-13: 978-1451671568
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (60 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #182,257 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

70 of 70 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't put it down......... March 8, 2012

By Lora Lee Sorth

Format:Kindle Edition

This is well researched and written study of "survivors" of the Titanic, before there was such a thing as a diagnosis of PTSD. It makes for very interesting reading although tragic in many cases. The book chronicles the lives of many of the survivors of the Titanic long after the ship went down. I had no idea that 10 survivors committed suicide in the years after the ship wreck. This book takes any "romance" out of the Titanic story....this was a tragic event that scarred the survivors for the rest of their lives long before there was counseling and antidepressant drugs. Well worth the time to read.......

45 of 45 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars The legend is unsinkable March 19, 2012

By Hande Z

Format:Hardcover

Is there still interest in the S.S. Titanic (the description used in the book and from Lawrence Beesley's 1912 book "Loss of the S.S.Titanic") now that 100 years have lapsed since the vessel sank? Andrew Wilson's "Shadow of The Titanic" may be proof that there is. This book tells the story of the Titanic from an examination of the lives of some of the people who had survived the vessel. Shadow of the Titanic is more than a collection of biopics of survivors - the reader might be forgiven in thinking he was reading a book of fiction; a catastrophe thriller. There is so much about the vessel and its crew and passengers that another book (or two) may not tire the reader. The name Violet Jessop was mentioned only in passing in Wilson's book although her life could well have added a few pages of interest since she not only survived the Titanic, she went on to serve as a nurse in the Titanic's sister ship, the "Britannic" which had been converted into a hospital ship during World War I. The Britannic was sunk by the Germans - and Jessop survived again (See Tim Maltin's 101 Things You Thought You Knew About The Titanic"). This book is different from the 1960 Dover edition "The Story of the Titanic as Told by Its Survivors" in that the latter was a compilation of the accounts from four persons who survived - Commander, Lighttoller, Archibald Gracie, Harold Bride, and Lawrence Beesley. The writing styles thus varied and the stories in the Dover edition were written within a year or two after the event, but perhaps carried too much detail. Wilson's book thus covers more ground, and is more riveting.

Wilson recounts some famous passengers including John Astor IV who built the Astor Hotel next to the Waldorf Hotel built by his cousin.... Astor divorced his wife and later married Madeleine Force, He was 47 and she was 18. Many condemned Astor because divorce was a social taboo then. Wilson's account showed a sweetness in Astor in the final moments when he persuaded her into a lifeboat. Astor himself died on board. Wilson went on to tell the rest of Madeleine's story - how she became a bride, a widow, a mother, an heiress, all in the same year. And that story didn't end there. She gave up her vast inherited fortune to marry a childhood sweetheart, only to divorce him and marry an Italian boxer who boxed her.

The accounts of heroism were balanced by accounts of cowardice. The romantic stories of Marion Wright and Arthur Woolcott, and that of Karl Howell Behr and Helen Newsom contrast with that of Bruce Ismay, the chairman of the White Star Line that built the SS Titanic and her sister ships the "Olympic" and the "Britannic" in response to the rival Cunard Line's SS Lusitania and SS Mauritenia. His survival made him the "whipping boy" of a public out to find scapegoats in the disaster. Ismay survived after being picked up by the SS Carpathia - from the Cunard Line.

Between the clear accounts of heroism and otherwise, there were murky, grey ones like the story of Washington Dodge who survived under suspicious circumstances (rumour had it that he disguised himself - the tall big man with a moustache - as a woman). He was later to be involved in an insider trading scandal, and eventually shot himself in the head.

100 years, and the Titanic still yields stories of immense fascination. The reason might be encapsulated in the words of survivor Jack Thayer, "We are a mass of hopeless, dazed humanity... attempting to keep our final breath until the last possible moment." Stories of the lives in the Titanic thus have a grip on us. Read more ›

39 of 40 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Shadow of The Titanic March 20, 2012

By Peter

Format:Hardcover

I just finished the book and enjoyed it immensely.

"Shadow of the Titanic" brought a different point of view to the tragedy - how the surivors coped with the fact that they were still alive and how haunted by their experience many of them were.

In fact, the number of suicides was quite suprising...whether or not they were directly related to survivor's guilt or not, it raised interesting questions about the so-called "survivors".

When I was about 12 years old I lucked into Walter Lord's A Night To Remember and it has been all downhill after that.

So fascinated that one day, I looked up Walter Lord on the Internet and gave him telephone call...I do not remember exactly when I did it, but it must have been early in the current century and just before he died. Mr. Lord, who sounded very elderly , and not at all well, was nice enough to take my call and we had a pleasant conversation - all based on his books (most importantly A Night to Remember).

Lord set the standard and Wilson has carried the banner quite well, writing an entertaining book that will enthrall non-Titanic "fans" as well as newcomers to the tragedy.

I recommend it to all people who may or may not have an interest in the Titanic's sinking.

44 of 48 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable and Informative, but Flawed March 17, 2012

By English Teacher

Format:Hardcover

I enjoyed reading this book. It was well-written and I learned quite a bit about the survivors.
The major problem that I had, however, is when the author ascribes thoughts to the survivors who later committed suicide. In the case of the Titanic stewardess who two years later threw herself overboard from another ship, how does the author know what she was thinking? Obviously we would all know that she was depressed, but he tells us her final thoughts in a very specific manner...."she felt she could be in heaven," or "she finally felt free of the Titanic." I found this attempt to speak for her quite jarring.
I also am not a fan of how Ismay's post-Titanic pyschological state was described. I've read several books about Ismay and I think the author is stretching here when he describes Ismay as someone who was a masochist and needed to be humiliated. There is no way of knowing this and it's pure speculation.
Although this kind of speculation was common throughout the book, I did for the most part find the stories of the survivors to be fascinating. Someone else might do them more justice the next time, but this was interesting.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The personal stories behind the disaster are no doubt what has kept so many people so fascinated with this historic event March 28, 2012

By Bookreporter

Format:Hardcover

The newly-built Titanic was a vast and luxurious ship. To have the opportunity to sail on its maiden voyage must have been considered a wonderful adventure. Neither the passengers nor the crew could possibly know that the highly-anticipated initial ocean crossing on the luxury liner was doomed from the start.

1,517 people lost their lives when the great ship hit an iceberg, suffered catastrophic damage, took on water, broke apart, and sank to the ocean floor. Because there were insufficient lifeboats and due to the fact that many that were launched were not filled anywhere near to capacity, countless lives that surely would have been saved were tragically lost. Those 705 suriviors who secured a spot in a lifeboat or who jumped off the ship as it was slipping down into the ocean --- and were later rescued by a lifeboat --- were witnesses to the horror of the screams of the dying and the sight of the great ship disappearing beneath the water. For countless passengers and crew, the sounds and sights of that night haunted them for the rest of their lives.

Eighteen-year-old Madeleine and her much older, wealthy husband, John Jacob Astor, were returning home on the Titanic after an extended honeymoon abroad. Madeleine was pregnant and did not want to be separated from John, but he convinced her to enter the lifeboat by telling her he would be along shortly. Of course, that did not happen, and within one short year Madeleine became a bride, an heiress, a widow, and a mother. She gave up the Astor fortune to marry her childhood sweetheart and bore two more sons. She seemed happy enough, but that did not last long.

Madeleine was restless and ended up divorcing her second husband before embarking upon another ocean voyage supposedly to calm her nerves.... This trip also brought her endless grief. She met and was immediately attracted to an Italian prizefighter 15 years her junior who had a wife and child back home. Their attraction was immediate but flawed. Enzo was attracted to her wealth and celebrity, while Madeleine was obsessed with Enzo's youth and looks. Eventually they divorced, freeing Enzo to marry the older woman. But their marriage was a disaster from the beginning as Enzo physically abused his wife.

What a sad life Madeleine endured. If she lived during current times, her life story might have been made into a movie. For a young woman who should have led such a charmed existence, instead Madeleine found life to be extremely difficult. No matter what choices she made, they always seemed to be the wrong ones.

Jack Thayer was a 17-year old traveling with his mother and father. Young Jack refused a spot in a lifeboat --- the law of the sea was "Women and children first" --- and instead chose to jump feet first into the freezing water as the ship was sinking. He surfaced near a lifeboat, and a stoker pulled him aboard. When Jack was reunited with his mother, Marian, on the Carpathia, she was stunned that he had not seen his father. Mr. Thayer's body was never recovered. His widow dabbled in the occult in an effort to communicate with her late husband, while Jack went on to lead an exemplary life. He fought in the first World War and became a successful businessman and highly respected family man. But when his son died in the second World War and Marian passed away a few months later, Jack fell into a deep depression. He was one of the 10 Titanic survivors whose lives were ended by their own hands.

Reputations were made or lost, depending upon how the passengers who survived behaved during the ordeal. J. Bruce Ismay, chairman of the White Star Line, was never able to overcome the stinging scandal that followed him his entire life. And Lady and Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon also lived under a cloud of ill will and scorn because of their inexcusable behavior. Being a Titanic survivor gave one instant celebrity. Margaret "Molly" Brown, a first-class passenger, became well known when a movie and a musical were produced about her life. Had she not been aboard the Titanic, she just might have been any wealthy woman, totally unknown to the world.

The Titanic sailing was to be the final voyage, and a triumphant one at that, for Captain Smith before he retired. Two young boys, who spoke no English, aboard the ship were being kidnapped by their father. Were it not for the publicity surrounding the tragedy, would they ever have been reunited with their mother? So many questions linger, and most of them will remain unanswered.

Does it seem strange that the events that occurred on one single night an entire century ago still reverberate down through the years? The personal stories behind the disaster, as recounted by Andrew Wilson, are no doubt what has kept so many people so fascinated with that horrific event. That the history of the tragedy has remained alive for so long is in part a testament to how strongly we are sometimes affected by dramatic human events, current or historic.

Reviewed by Carole Turner Read more ›