This Thursday (3/23 at 7pm) the library is hosting Examining the Titanic, an informative lecture hosted by historian Greg Caggiano that will examine the story of the famous ill-fated passenger liner. Seventy-three years after it sank, the Titanic captured the attention of the world again when the ship’s wreck was discovered on the floor of the North Atlantic in 1985, and then again when the eponymous international blockbuster was released in 1997. If you are at all interested in this story, please check out one of the books listed below!
To sign up to attend Examining the Titanic, please click here.
First published in 1955, A Night to Remember remains a completely riveting account of the Titanic‘s fatal collision and the behavior of the passengers and crew, both noble and ignominious. Some sacrificed their lives, while others fought like animals for their own survival. Wives beseeched husbands to join them in lifeboats; gentlemen went taut-lipped to their deaths in full evening dress; and hundreds of steerage passengers, trapped below decks, sought help in vain.
In April 1912, six notable people were among those privileged to experience the height of luxury–first class passage on “the ship of dreams,” the RMS Titanic: Lucy Leslie, Countess of Rothes; son of the British Empire, Tommy Andrews; American captain of industry John Thayer and his son Jack; Jewish-American immigrant Ida Straus; and American model and movie star Dorothy Gibson. Within a week of setting sail, they were all caught up in the horrifying disaster of the Titanic‘s sinking, one of the biggest news stories of the century. Today, we can see their stories and the Titanic‘s voyage as the beginning of the end of the established hierarchy of the Edwardian era.
On a frigid April night in 1912, the world’s largest-and soon most famous-ocean liner struck an iceberg and slipped beneath the waves. She had scarcely disappeared before her new journey began, a seemingly limitless odyssey through the world’s fixation with her every tragic detail. Plans to find and raise the Titanic began almost immediately. Yet seven decades passed before it was found. Why? And of some three million shipwrecks that litter the ocean floor, why is the world still so fascinated with this one?
Using infographics and charts, presents important, fascinating, and bizarre facts about the ill-fated Titanic steamship, including how many millionaires were on board, the fastest speed the ship could sail, and how many pets were saved.
For questions about putting these or any other books on hold, or for more information about the Examining the Titanic event, please leave a comment below or call the reference desk at 732-873-8700 opt. 3.
Thanks for reading,
George, FTPL
