100 years ago this month

On the night of April 14-15, 1912, the "unsinkable" Titanic hit an ice burg and sank in the northern Atlantic.  It's a piece of history we are all familiar with, even if all you know is Rose and Jack from James Cameron's Titanic.  But, it is a true historical event.  A tragic, preventable historical point in history.  In the coming weeks, the Titanic will once again be front and center in the news as the world commemorates the 100th anniversary of its sinking. 

I'll admit, I'll be adding to that because the Titanic fascinates me.  I didn't have family on board, I'm not connected to any of the players involved, but it has always been an interest.  So, mixed in with running/health/race stuff this month will be Titanic stuff. 

I was at Target yesterday looking for a couple things and as I was checking out I saw this.  Being the avid Titanic person I am, I threw caution to the wind and purchased on cover alone.  I didn't honestly think there would be much more in here that I didn't already know, but I have a hard time ignoring anything Titanic.

Overall, I thought it was pretty good.  I'll agree with others critique that it's a tad flippant at times (The Building The Boarding Chapter - "Okay, statistics fans, here we go!" pg. 15), but in the 144 pages the coffee table-like book tells the story from beginning to end.  From the building of the ship, to the describing the opulence of first class, to the hitting of the ice burg, to the sending off the life boats, to the rescue, to the court hearings, to telling select stories of passengers - a brief overview of everything in 144 pages.

I'll admit to learning a few things I didn't know before and seeing some photographs I haven't seen.  I'm no Titanic expert.  I'm sure there are people who have seen these images before or knew these facts before, but I was impressed to learn something new.  I was also impressed that LIFE mentioned The White Star line was owned by International Mercantile Marine, an American company.  So few people realize that while The White Star line was a British shipping company and Harland and Wolf an Irish architectural and ship building company, the whole thing was bank rolled by J.P. Morgan's American company. 

There were a few things I was disappointed in:

* While there is mention that Third Class accommodations were better on Titanic than any other ship sailing ("Only recently, Third Class passengers had been forced to bring their own food on such immigrant journeys, and what the Titanic offered them was by and larger better than what they had eaten at home only yesterday." pg. 52), there are no photographs of the Third Class accommodations.  When there were no images of First Class accommodations for the book, they used images from the Olympic (Titanic's sister ship).  Could they not have done the same for Third Class? Or for that matter, Second Class?

* Some of the information LIFE chose to include tends to be too detail oriented.  On page 25 LIFE tells the story as to why in 1912 the Titanic left from the city of Queenstown, which is today called Cobh.  A mention of the name change would be pertinent so people can find the city on a current map, though this is such a minor detail in the telling of the history of the Titanic.  It did not need an entire half page explanation.

* I was disappointed that while a mention of a change in maritime law occurred after the hearings in the United States ("[Senator William Alden Smith]'s subcommittee's report led to reforms in international maritime safety." pg. 92), there was no mention of specifics.  I understand that a listing of all changes would be impossible, but a few would have been helpful to show the impact the sinking truly had - impacts that we still feel today.

* Impressively, LIFE took the iconic Titanic tragedy down to the human level with multiple pages dedicated to the individual story.  Some stories of people not so famous.  What I was disappointed in was the lack of  one particular story, that of Violet Jessup. Ms. Jessup sailed on all three White Star ships - The Olympic, The Titanic, and The Britannic and survived collisions and sinkings on all three.  How does this amazing woman get missed in the Titanic story?

If you're interested in the Titanic and want to see some amazing photographs, I would say the $12.99 cover price is worth it.  Any book trying to cover the scope of the Titanic would be hard-pressed to include every facet of its history.  While I personally believe things are missing from this telling, there is enough covered that the average reader is going to come away with a good over view of the ship, its history, it's tragic end, and the aftermath.