Tonight was a beautiful night, 100 years ago

It was the night of April 14th into the predawn of April 15, 1912. The passenger line RMS Titanic struck an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, and sank on 15 April 1912, resulting in the deaths of 1,517 people in one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history.

It was the largest passenger steamship in the world at the time, owned by the White Star Line and constructed at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland, UK. After setting sail for New York City on 10 April 1912 with 2,223 people on board, she hit the iceberg four days into the crossing, at 11:40 pm on 14 April 1912, and sank at 2:20 am the following morning. The high casualty rate resulting from the sinking was due in part to the fact that, although complying with the regulations of the time, the ship carried lifeboats for only 1,178 people. A disproportionate number of men died due to the "women and children first" protocol that was enforced by the ship's crew.

Weather-wise, it was a beautiful night. Lawrence Beesley (1812-1967) wrote one of the finest and, probably, the most accurate and fairrest accounts of the disaster. His treatise is entitled The Loss of the Titanic and Lessons Learned. The author describes how, in the midst of this tragedy, the stars seemed especially brilliant, as viewed from a lifeboat he was fortunate enough to be on. As you listen to the recording I made of Beesley's words, imagine yourself sitting in that lifeboat, pulling away from the floundering ship, and, as you do, you look up at all the stars that filled the blackened sky.


AUDIO NARRATIVE: You can listen to the MP3 recording I made by clicking here. Some browser's require you to "right-click" on the link and select "open in new window." Use your browser's "back arrow" to return to this page.

The text of the book I'm reading from is from Project Gutenberg (www.gutenberg.org) and is listed by the project to be in the public domain in the United States. Gutenberg.org makes The Loss of the Titanic and Lessons Learned, the complete book, free in formats for the Kindle and in the EPUB format for the Nook. You can also download the book's text for reading on your computer screen or printing.

The background music I'm using behind my reading of the Beesley excerpt is a selection from the CD Weeping Angel, featuring Gary Lamb at the keyboards and Karen Bentley on the violin and is used here with permission. For more information on Mr. Lamb's royalty-free music CDs, go to www.GaryLamb.com 

Another book on the Titanic disaster that I consider one of the best from technical point of view, tracing the accident, its prelude and aftermath in great detail, is The Last Log of the Titanic by David G. Brown. You can order it from Amazon through the link below (it is also available for the Kindle):