Customer Reviews

Titanic: Legacy of the World's Greatest Ocean Liner

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Gorgeous 205 page, hardcover library volume. Beautiful full color and black and white large photos. Provides insight into the maiden voyage, terror at sea, in search of the Titanic, anatomy of the disaster, the trail of time, and an epilogue. Beautiful never before published photos. One of the best books on the topic to be found. Full color pictures of much Titanic memorabilia. A great addition to a Titanic fan's library.

Overall, this is a nicely-designed and illustrated book that would make a great gift. Many of the artifact photos (of which there are plenty) are unique to this book. The issue of salvage haunts every page of this book. On numerous occasions author Susan Wels makes the case for RMS Titanic, Inc. and their salvage operations. That may or may not be fine to you, depending upon your view of the whole salvage thing, but you'll probably find that it gets kind of annoying and repetitive after a while. Much is made of the fact that Titanic-finder Robert Ballard initially supported some salvage operations (he is now opposed to them).

All of that aside, the rest of the book is nice to look at and worth reading. The text plays second-fiddle to the photographs, but that's fine for a book such as this.

I was a bit surprised at one error in the text- in describing Captain Smith's safety record, Wels notes that he was captain of the Germanic when it `capsized' in 1899. Well, the Germanic sank upright at its pier because of an ice storm; it was quickly re-floated and spent another 51 years in service; the captain and crew were found not at fault by White Star; and the captain at the time was Edward McKinstry, not Edward J. Smith.

I found this volume satisfying and very well done. I have ordered the James Cameron book too, but really this volume stands well on its own. As I probably won't get to see the traveling exhibit, I especially appreciated seeing the actual artifacts "strewn" throughout the book, much as they appeared on the ocean floor.

As a graphic designer, I thought the design was admirable--contemporary, not overdone, yet sensitive of the period. I have several Titanic books, and consider this to be the most comprehensive visual assortment of information I have seen. To me, what was really special about this book were the computer illustrations mixed in --the opening sequence has a beautiful illustration of the bow coming into contact with the berg. The computer recreations of the ship's interior are also of high artistic quality and give the volume a dreamlike feeling. This together with informative charts and graphs give the reader a sensitive, nicely balanced account of the event--a true keepsake volume.

While a lot of Titanic books seem to focus only on the voyage, the disaster, and the immediate aftermath, this book goes into more uncharted territory. As it points out, in a way, the tragedy at sea was just the beginning of the story. It covers the construction of the ship, what sea travel was like before the Titanic (very dangerous even for first-class passengers because of the shoddily-built ships, crowded living quarters, bad food, and lack of ventilation), all of the wonders on the Titanic, at least for the first-class passengers (such as a gymnasium, a café, beautiful staircases, and a reading room), some of the people who were on the voyage, how and why the ship sank (a decades-old mystery that was finally solved in 1996 through cutting-edge modern technology), the long but finally successful quest to locate the Titanic on the bottom of the ocean, how the tragedy might have been prevented, the types of robots and undersea vehicles used to explore the wreck, the myriad of artifacts recovered from the sight, the stabilisation process used on the artifacts immediately after they come out of the deep water, and how much longer the Titanic will remain before it's totally eaten away by rusticles. Besides the in-depth text, there are also a lot of amazing pictures, many of them of the artifacts salvaged from the wreck (such as playing cards, personal letters and postcards that are still very much readable, cigarettes, dishes and pots, clothing, chandeliers, a bottle of olives, jewelry, razors, and money), as well as some great diagrams illustrating such things as the ship's layout, the anatomy of the disaster, and the various parts of the undersea robots and ships used in the salvage. It's a shame such a great book is currently out of print, since it paints such an in-depth and multi-faceted picture of the Titanic and the cross-section of humanity that was on board.

What Bill C. said is completely off topic this is a book about the greatest sea disaster that changed the world the Titanic. NOT the Lusitania which was sunk even after americans were warned by the german embassy in the US to travelers that any ship flying the british flag would be sunk. Bill C obviously needs to learn his history cause hes really showing how little he knows, The book is great it covers just about every major point of Titanic. If you want to read about the Lusitania which was on her last voyage from the start and was to be scrapped after she returned to england go read bob ballards book about the Sinking of the Lustiania. If you want to read a book about the greatest sea disaster that was foretold 14 years before by a writer and one that changed how things were done from having the wireless systems up 24 hours a day to ensure that distress messages would be receved to lifeboats for everyone regardless the tonnage which was how Titanic was required by law to carry 16 boats cause it stated anyship over 16,000 Tons is required to carry 16 boats even though Titanic was 57,000 Long Tons.

I would recommed this book to anyone that wants a well put together book or anyone that is a Titanic buff.

Accurate, up to date, treatment in one volume of what happened to the Titanic. Also with excellent coverage of the discovery of the remains seventy years later, with copious pictures and illustrations. Students needing a short one-volume outline of the tragedy will find it here. Sensitivity and intelligence characterise this fine volume.

I found this book to humanize the Titanic tragedy. It put a face on the words "Titanic." As far as scavangering, I feel that by bringing up remnants will assure that the world will never forget April 14,1912. Items of persons i.e. letters, clothing, jewelery, and toiletry items left me with a very haunted yet respectful feeling. Definitly "brings you there". Very hard to put down, yet at times it was so intense that I had to put it down and give myself a chance to absorb what I had read.

TITANIC: Legacy of the World's Greatest Ocean Liner is a (if not the) definitive book on the Titanic. It has lots of facts and text and is almost grotesquely overwrought with pictures.

In the beginning and end of this book, there is a complete list of RMS Titanic's passengers and crew which is very useful.

Scattered about the book, it contains points of views of different survivors. Two facts are incorrect, the gross tonnage was 46,328 and the cruising speed was 21 knots.

This book is worth all you pay for it, and Titanic buff should add it to his/her library.

Susan Wels' brilliant volume TITANIC Legacy of the World's Greatest Ocean Liner must rate among the top ten books on this renowned ship. What does set it apart from most other books is the wealth of high-quality photographs of artefacts salvaged from the wreck site. These objects were painstakingly restored to their almost original pristine conditions -- and viewing them makes the whole drama come alive. A shoe brush, a steward's jacket, a jar of olives -- all amazingly intact after more than 80 years on the ocean floor. The story of the ship's ill-fated maiden voyage will be old hat to most Titanic enthusiasts and so will the photographs of the ship and the wreck be. But there are some amazing illustrations of the ship's interior that are a credit to the artist. If you're a Titanic fanatic like me, this is a must. If you're only mildly interested in that Great Ship, get it anyway -- it's worth every cent!

The illustrations are beautiful. Fascinating artifacts collected from the ocean floor are displayed throughout the pages here. The recent salvage operations are described extensively. The wreck may be decaying but it will never disappear completely with books like this one around. It is a most valuable contribution to Titanic salvage studies.

My primary interest is the infamous maiden voyage, not salvage or discovery. Having read so much on the subject one would expect little new here. I was most pleasantly surprised. Wels supplied details new to me and succeeded in placing me back on the Atlantic in 1912. I knew, for instance, about the wireless breakdown but didn't know just when it took place, learning it was in fact fixed early on the 13th. This is not a terribly long book and many pages are taken up with pictures so I hadn't expected such attention to detail.