A Night to Remember

My Rating: ★★★★★

Series: The Titanic Chronicles: Book 1

Publisher: Open Road Media

Release Date: March 6, 2012 (Latest Edition)

Genre: Historical Nonfiction

#1 New York Times Bestseller: The definitive account of the sinking of the Titanic, based on interviews with survivors.

At first, no one but the lookout recognized the sound. Passengers described it as the impact of a heavy wave, a scraping noise, or the tearing of a long calico strip. In fact, it was the sound of the world’s most famous ocean liner striking an iceberg, and it served as the death knell for 1,500 souls.

In the next two hours and forty minutes, the maiden voyage of the Titanic became one of history’s worst maritime accidents. As the ship’s deck slipped closer to the icy waterline, women pleaded with their husbands to join them on lifeboats. Men changed into their evening clothes to meet death with dignity. And in steerage, hundreds fought bitterly against certain death. At 2:15 a.m. the ship’s band played “Autumn.” Five minutes later, the Titanic was gone.

Based on interviews with sixty-three survivors, Lord’s moment-by-moment account is among the finest books written about one of the twentieth century’s bleakest nights.

My Review ♥️

Today marks the 107th anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Titanic, the most famous and largest maritime disaster in history. On April 14, 1912, late in the evening, the Titanic hit an iceberg going full speed with an estimated 2,224 passengers on board. In the early hours of March 15, 1912, the largest oceanliner of its time, dubbed the unsinkable ship, did the unthinkable, sinking, and with it over 1,500 people lost their lives in the icy waters of the North Atlantic Ocean.

107 years later and the fascination with the Titanic is still just as fresh as it was all those years ago. There are numerous books, documentaries and movies about the sinking of the famous ship, but many focus on the ship and the facts that surround the disaster, but do not focus on the people that were aboard on that fateful maiden voyage. A Night to Remember by Walter Lord gives a detailed account from the views of those who experienced the icy nightmare firsthand.

I was never a fan of James Cameron's Titanic and after reading A Night to Remember it solidifies my opinion. Walter Lord puts you on that magnificent ship, taking you moment by moment through the timeline, through the eyes of those that were actually aboard the ship that night. You feel the confusion from the passengers when many are awoken from their slumber to the sound of what many described as a scraping noise, and the panic that arose when everyone realized that the ship was going to sink.

The part that gripped my heart the most was reading about the passengers that jumped into the icy waters, knowing that they are jumping to their deaths, and the people that are in the life boats watching the magnificent ship sink before their very eyes. I cannot even begin to imagine the fear that gripped every person that had to experience this horrific tragedy first hand, and the choices that had to be made that sealed their fate.

Tears slipped down my cheeks as I neared the end of the book, thinking about the band that played as the ship sank, and as the light of morning hits the Atlantic, and those floating aimlessly are looking at all the wreckage and floating bodies around them. You want to believe that this was just a nightmare but it was so much more than that. It was a horrific tragedy that many now know could've been avoided if only a few things would've been done differently.

A Night to Remember is an incredible book and one that I would recommend to anyone who, like me, has a fascination with the Titanic, or the tragedy that surrounded the famous ship. If you want to see what it was really like aboard the ship on it's one and only voyage it is a must read!

Other Books in The Titanic Chronicles Series