The 10 Best Titanic Survivor Stories: Firsthand Accounts by Jack Thayer, Archibald Gracie, Charlotte Collyer, Lucy Duff-Gordon, Fred Barrett, Charles Joughin, Lawrence Beesley, Daniel Buckley & More

Lawrence Beesley

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• The 10 best firsthand accounts from survivors of the sinking of the TITANIC.

• Illustrated with over 60 period colour and black and white photographs and illustrations.

• Includes a detailed chronology of the 12 hours following the collision with the iceberg, illustration captions explaining the key locations in the ship referred to in the firsthand accounts, a glossary of nautical terms used and a who’s who of the key players in the disaster.

Over 1,500 passengers and crew drowned when the TITANIC sank on the fateful night of 14/15 April 1912. However, over 700 survived to tell the tale – and many of them did just that. When the survivors arrived in New York on the evening of Thursday 18 April hundreds of journalists were waiting – some fought to get aboard the CARPATHIA before it had even docked to secure the best scoop.
The world’s newspapers ran literally hundreds of individual stories supposedly based on interviews with named surviving men, women and children, crew and passengers alike. Even though the real story of what transpired aboard the sinking ship, in the freezing Atlantic waters and the lifeboats was sensational, rather unsurprisingly the press embellished – and downright lied. Myths were created that survive to this day.
THE 10 BEST TITANIC SURVIVOR STORIES drawing on the latest research and over a century of published and unpublished firsthand accounts , filters out the baseless testimony and reproduces the ten most accurate eyewitness accounts to prove the old adage that truth is stranger than fiction.
This book is generously illustrated with over 60 period photographs and illustrations chosen the to complement the vivid descriptions of heroism and tragedy on the high seas.

ABOUT THE 10 AUTHORS

FRED BARRETT the stoker working in the bowels of TITANIC when the iceberg ripped through the hull, showering him with water and flooding the boiler room he was working in.
HAROLD BRIDE the valiant Marconi wireless operator who remained at his post until water flooded the wireless shack as TITANIC sank.
LAWRENCE BEESLEY the English school master who wrote letters to THE TIMES and NEW YORK TIMES within days of surviving the sinking plainly laying out what had happened in stark contrast to much of the sensationalist coverage.
DANIEL BUCKLEY a 21-ear-old Irishman who provided a rare 3rd class passenger perspective, reporting locked gates barring steerage passengers access to upper decks & who stowed away on a women & children only lifeboat.
CHARLOTTE COLLYER whose experience epitomised the drama & tragedy of TITANIC, she & her young daughter were saved but her husband was lost & they were left destitute.
LUCY DUFF-GORDON original ‘It girl’ & leading fashion designer whose husband Cosmo was lambasted as the TITANIC coward’ for bribing the lifeboat crew.
ARCHIBALD GRACIE the amateur historian who wrote the most in-depth firsthand account after surviving in the water after TITANIC sank which he started to research the day after on board the rescue ship CARPATHIA.
CHARLES JOUGHIN chief baker aboard TITANIC & famed for getting drunk before surviving in the freezing waters for two hours.
WILLIAM MELLOWS the only survivor to live to tell the tale of being amongst the hundreds of passengers & crew in the water just after TITANIC sank. His tale is perhaps the most horrific of all.
JACK THAYER a millionaire’s teenage son who jumped into the freezing Atlantic & survived clinging on to an upturned lifeboat.