Most Helpful Customer Reviews
58 of 64 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating and a Great Read, October 6, 2008
This review is from: Titanic's Last Secrets: The Further Adventures of Shadow Divers John Chatterton and Richie Kohler (Hardcover)
I found this book thoroughly researched and historically important; it brings out details about the Titanic saga which have previously been unknown or ignored, and it places the entire story within the larger context of the cutthroat turn-of-the-century shipping industry. It's a well-told story that's a great read.
In the interest of full disclosure, I'm a documentary filmmaker who has worked with John Chatterton and Richie Kohler for over 11 years on multiple projects, including the 2005 Titanic expedition described in this book. I wrote and produced two television documentaries about their discoveries at the Titanic wreck site and subsequent investigations. During that time, I had extensive contact with many of the protagonists in Brad Matsen's account, including former Harland & Wolff employee Tom McCluskie and naval architect Roger Long.
I take issue with a previous review by Daniel Allen Butler, and note that in his review he fails to divulge that he is not exactly a disinterested party, but rather an author with a competing book about Titanic. Mr. Butler also recently panned Jennifer McCarty's book as "yet another book where the authors attempt to attach themselves to the Titanic story..." I have not read Ms. McCarty's book. But it appears that Mr. Butler, whose own Titanic book was published in 1998 (just as the James Cameron film was appearing in theaters), believes he should be the last writer allowed "to cash in on the disaster and the public's apparently insatiable appetite for all things Titanic" (his snide first-line dig at Matsen).
I might be tempted to agree - if there were no new evidence. But new evidence is precisely what Matsen's book is all about. And it delivers a whopper.
While Butler's chief complaint is that Matsen's story lacks "supporting evidence," he completely ignores the two massive pieces of Titanic's double bottom hull that Chatterton and Kohler discovered (and extensively documented) in their final dive to the wreck site in August 2005.
I have spoken to a number of Titanic experts who have scrutinized Chatterton and Kohler's underwater video footage, and they unanimously agree that the 2005 double bottom find is the most significant new evidence since Robert Ballard found the wreck in 1985.
This is physical evidence, previously never analyzed, that we now know comes from the exact point where the ship broke. As Matsen explains, to someone who can read the signs, the edges where the steel fractured tell the tale of how the ship came apart. This leads Roger Long and others to the conclusion that Titanic did not rise high in the air (as shown in the famous scene in the Cameron film), but rather broke apart while still relatively horizontal.
To experts, a low-angle breakup raised an ominous question: should a ship built for service on the stormy North Atlantic have been able to withstand the angle at which Titanic broke? In other words: was the ship strong enough? To me, Matsen makes a convincing case that in light of the newest evidence, this is this is at least a legitimate question to ask.
Mr. Butler attacks Matsen's premise that "there were design flaws and engineering compromises which were known and accepted by Harland and Wolff while Titanic was being built." Matsen offers ample evidence to support this argument: contemporary accounts that Thomas Andrews originally called for thicker steel in his design, proof that Titanic's sister Olympic suffered cracking in early service (and that Harland & Wolff added additional steel to correct the problem), and additional evidence that Chatterton and Kohler uncovered during an expedition to the third sister Britannic in 2006.
Engineers with whom I've spoken make the point that compromises are part of every design. It's easy to make something excessively strong but commercially impractical; the challenge is finding the smart compromise, making it just strong enough yet still affordable to build and operate in the real world. That involves trade-offs. And that is where Matsen says Titanic's builders cut it just a little too close.
Mr. Butler also assails Matsen's treatment of Tom McCluskie. In my experience, Tom is a man of pronounced good humor, with a sharp ironic wit. Tom has told me of his health difficulties following his stroke, and various restrictions imposed by his doctor as a result. I don't find Matsen's account to unfairly paint a picture of "bitterness" toward Harland & Wolff, nor to depict what Tom has said as a "deathbed confession."
As dramatic as Tom's assertions are, Matsen has not relied on McCluskie as his only source; he has done historical homework. (How many non-fiction books for the popular market include End Notes these days? "Titanic's Last Secrets" does, and they are extensive and scrupulously detailed).
To me, Brad Matsen makes a compelling case that, whatever the actual structural strength of Titanic, in 1912 Harland & Wolff had every reason to believe that their ship had broken because it was too weak - and that, acting on that belief, they covered up what they thought about the breakup. That's certainly what Tom McCluskie told me and others, and what Harland & Wolff's actions after the sinking seem to indicate.
I urge anyone interested in Titanic, or history in general, to read this book. In my career I've been fortunate to talk with men who walked on the moon, men who sailed U-boats in Hitler's navy, men who created Mission Control - and men who dive shipwrecks. And there's one thing I've learned: "history," even about a subject as familiar as Titanic, is a work in progress; there's always more to be learned - sometimes a lot more. Matsen's excellent book is a powerful reminder of that enduring truth.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Inaccurate and disappointing, April 21, 2010
The best way to ruin a good expedition is to publish a bad book, after producing a mediocre television program. The reality is that the author and his protagonists used the Titanic as a branding tactic for themselves, and this book is nothing more than a way to promote "The Further Adventures of Shadow Divers...." as it says in the subtitle.
I have to disagree with the review of Mr. DeNooyer, my colleague on the 2005 expedition. This book is not "thoroughly researched," and it could have been "historically important," but it is not. In fact, the book is riddled with inaccuracies.
The original purpose of the 2005 expedition was to explore a new section of the Titanic wreck site discovered on an earlier expedition. The "ribbons of steel" angle came in later when the television producers felt the need to follow the "Deep Sea Detectives" formula and prove or disprove a "grounding theory" mistakenly attributed to me in the television program, but which actually originated with Parks Stephenson and David Brown in a white paper they published in 2001. See [...]. The "ribbons of steel" are actually sections of the Titanic's hull plating, not seen on the first dive because the submersible took a different path to return to the new debris field. Due to the inherent difficulties of exploring 2.5 miles below the ocean's surface, particularly limitations on lighting and your field of view, if you travel 50 feet in either direction of the path you took on a previous dive, you will never see the same thing twice. After being used to hook the reader and disparage me, the "ribbons of steel" angle is abandoned in favor of the discussion of the "newly discovered" double bottom hull sections.
Unfortunately, as the author and his protagonists have always known, the 2005 expedition did not "discover" the large double bottom hull sections. These artifacts were well known to veterans of prior Titanic expeditions; they even appear on a map in the book "Titanic: Legacy of the World's Greatest Ocean Liner," by Susan Wels, Time-Life Books; 1st edition (1997) ISBN-10: 0783552610, on page 137. I had this book in my collection eight years before the 2005 expedition was ever planned, and I had seen these hull sections on my second Titanic dive in 2000. Anatoly Sagalevitch and I decided to send the subs to the location of the double bottom hull sections on the final dive day to appease the producers and save their show. Billy Lange was given credit for this decision in the book. More importantly, Roger Long and I warned the producers and protagonists after their final dive not to take credit for "discovering" the double bottom hull sections because they had been featured by the Discovery Channel on television and in Ms. Wels' book in the late 1990s. Mr. Matsen was advised of this when he was writing the book, and he was given contact information and other information so he could check his facts. His notes indicate that he never did so. Apparently, this information did not fit with the "further adventures" theme of his intended book, so the information was either discarded or ignored. Unfortunately, this lack of objectivity and emphasis on sensationalism infects the rest of the book, with predictable results.
The point is, if you are going to call yourself an "explorer," don't take credit for other people's work. If you are going to write a book that is supposed to be "thoroughly researched" and "historically important," consider all of the facts and explain them. And, most of all, listen to your mother. She probably told you not to build yourself up by tearing other people down and, if so, this was good advice that you should have followed.
The book is a disappointment. The expedition produced sufficient information to publish an interesting account of deep sea exploration not burdened by Titanic egos and the desire for self-promotion. If you want the real story behind the 2005 expedition, read the last chapter of Gary Gentile's book "Shipwreck Heresies," Bellerophon Bookworks (2009) ISBN-10: 188305639X. Otherwise, save your money.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
28 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The fascination about the Titanic continues, September 26, 2008
This review is from: Titanic's Last Secrets: The Further Adventures of Shadow Divers John Chatterton and Richie Kohler (Hardcover)
Titanic. All one has to do is utter the name of the world's most infamous unsinkable ship and imagery, myth, and legend-sans James Cameron-pops into mind.
The world was mesmerized when Dr. Robert Ballard and his team located the wreckage in 1985. And not since Charles Pellegrino's 1990 classic, Her Name Titanic: The Untold Story of the Sinking and Finding of the Unsinkable Ship, has there been a great book about the Olympic-class ship. On the other hand, since Ballard et al., first glimpsed the rusting wreckage there had been nothing thing new to report. Until now. Get ready to unearth one of the greatest historical cover-ups of the twentieth century.
It's not clear how author Brad Matsen came to be involved with writing a completely absorbing narrative of the divers' adventures and findings. Regardless, Matsen's new book, Titanic's Last Secrets: The Further Adventures of Shadow Divers John Chatteron and Richie Kohler can take its place as the definitive answer to the world's most unanswerable question: Why did Titanic sink as quickly as she did?
In 2005, Deep Sea Detectives John Chatteron and Richie Kohler stacked their finances and reputations on the report of one man who claimed to have seen new evidence that the majestic ship's last hours were not at all what we had imagined and that it did not sink exactly as we have come to believe. David Concannon had seen "ribbons of steel that looked like they had been peeled from the ship" in Titan's debris field. He had no real proof, only what he had seen. Chatteron and Kohler took a plunge (no pun intended) in an effort to discover, once and for all, how and why Titanic sunk.
The book's subtitle is a little misleading. Chatteron and Kohler almost take a back seat to Titanic's mesmerizing personality. The book is divided into three sections: "Shipwreck," "Dreams," and "Secrets." From what Chatteron and Kohler discover, Martsen weaves the mystery effortlessly that results in an amazing work.
I'm dying to tell you what they learned, but I hate reviewers who spoil an ending. A little hint though: the biggest scene in the movie is wrong.
Armchair Interviews says: If the Titanic has always intrigued you, this is a must-read.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192250339_.gif){kind=small}
