The Titanic Disaster

The Titanic Disaster, based on a major collection of contemporary newspaper cuttings, gives a rare insight into the tragedy in which more than 1500 passengers and crew died, from the moment when the news first broke right through to the findings of both the American and British Inquiries several months later. The reports, primarily from Britain's Daily Sketch and The Times, have an immediacy, pathos, and wealth of human interest that still fascinate more than 80 years later. We read for example that J.C. Middleton, Vice President of the Akron-Canton Railway of Ohio, had cancelled his passage following two warning dreams - verified on oath - in which he saw the liner sinking. Not so lucky were Mr. and Mrs. Sage and their nine children who were travelling third class to Jacksonville, Florida, to buy a fruit farm: they all perished. Many column inches were devoted to Colonel J.J. Astor's fortune. Would it go to his beautiful young widow Madeleine or to the family he left to make this new liaison which had been much frowned upon in wealthy New York circles? And so the coverage continues, in absorbing detail.