On April 14, 1912, the Titanic, a passenger liner traveling from Southhampton, England, to New York City, struck an iceberg. Its sinking brought the ship—mythological in name and size—into one-hundred years of infamy. Of the 2,240 people aboard the ship, 1,517 perished. While many accounts focus on the technical aspects of the Titanic's sinking, Voyagers of the Titanic follows the stories of the men, women, and children whose lives intersected on its fateful last day. Covering the range of first, second, and third class—from plutocrats and captains of industry to cobblers and tailors looking for a better life in America—Richard Davenport-Hines delves into the fascinating lives of those who ate, drank, dreamed, and died abroad the mythic ship. With magnificent prose, he also explores the politics behind the Titanic's creation, involving larger-than-life figures like J.P. Morgan, the ship's owner, and Lord Pirrie, the ship's builder. The memory of the ship's sinking still remains a part of the American psyche and Voyagers of the Titanic brings that clear night back to us with all of its drama and pathos.

It was 2:00 A.M. on April 15, 1912, in the middle of the icy Atlantic Ocean. Eventeen year- old Jack Thayer stood on the slanted deck of the RMS Titanic and weighed his options—Jump, or die, he thought. The huge ship had just struck an iceberg and was taking on water. Making matters worse, all the lifeboats were full. Jack closed his eyes for a moment. Suddenly, a noise like a train crash startled him. This was it—the Titanic was going down! Titanic’s Passengers and Crew is a compilation of compelling stories about the people aboard the luxurious—and supposedly unsinkable—ship. From wealthy first-class passengers like Jack Thayer to third-class travelers and crew, readers will meet and learn the harrowing tales of some of the most noteworthy people on the ship. Large-format color images, maps, and fact boxes bring the fear and panic the passengers and crew faced into clear, terrifying focus. Titanic’s Passengers and Crew is part of Bearport’s Titanica series.

One hundred and sixty minutes. That is all the time rescuers would have before the largest ship in the world slipped beneath the icy Atlantic. There was amazing heroism and astounding incompetence against the backdrop of the most advanced ship in history sinking by inches with luminaries from all over the world. It is a story of a network of wireless operators on land and sea who desperately sent messages back and forth across the dark frozen North Atlantic to mount a rescue mission. More than twenty-eight ships would be involved in the rescue of Titanic survivors along with four different countries. At the heart of the rescue are two young Marconi operators, Jack Phillips 25 and Harold Bride 22, tapping furiously and sending electromagnetic waves into the black night as the room they sat in slanted toward the icy depths and not stopping until the bone numbing water was around their ankles. Then they plunged into the water after coordinating the largest rescue operation the maritime world had ever seen and thereby saving 710 people by their efforts. The race to save the largest ship in the world from certain death would reveal both heroes and villains. It would begin at 11:40 PM on April 14, when the iceberg was struck and would end at 2:20 AM April 15, when her lights blinked out and left 1500 people thrashing in 25-degree water. Although the race to save Titanic survivors would stretch on beyond this, most people in the water would die, but the amazing thing is that of the 2229 people, 710 did not and this was the success of the Titanic rescue effort. We see the Titanic as a great tragedy but a third of the people were rescued and the only reason every man, woman, and child did not succumb to the cold depths is due to Jack Phillips and Harold McBride in an insulated telegraph room known as the Silent Room. These two men tapping out CQD and SOS distress codes while the ship took on water at the rate of 400 tons per minute from a three-hundred-foot gash would inaugurate the most extensive rescue operation in maritime history using the cutting-edge technology of the time, wireless.

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Downstairs Girl comes the richly imagined story of Valora and Jamie Luck, twin British-Chinese acrobats traveling aboard the Titanic on its ill-fated maiden voyage. Valora Luck has two things: a ticket for the biggest and most luxurious ocean liner in the world, and a dream of leaving England behind and making a life for herself as a circus performer in New York. Much to her surprise though, she's turned away at the gangway; apparently, Chinese aren't allowed into America. But Val has to get on that ship. Her twin brother Jamie, who has spent two long years at sea, is there, as is an influential circus owner, whom Val hopes to audition for. Thankfully, there's not much a trained acrobat like Val can't overcome when she puts her mind to it. As a stowaway, Val should keep her head down and stay out of sight. But the clock is ticking and she has just seven days as the ship makes its way across the Atlantic to find Jamie, perform for the circus owner, and convince him to help get them both into America. Then one night the unthinkable happens, and suddenly Val's dreams of a new life are crushed under the weight of the only thing that matters: survival.

This eleventh edition was developed during the encyclopaedia's transition from a British to an American publication. Some of its articles were written by the best-known scholars of the time and it is considered to be a landmark encyclopaedia for scholarship and literary style.

Violet Jessop's life is an inspiring story of survival. Born in 1887 in Argentina, the eldest child of Irish immigrants, at the age of 21 she became the breadwinner for her widowed mother and five siblings when she commenced a career as a stewardess and nurse on some of the most famous ocean going vessels of the day. Throughout her 40 year time at sea she survived an unbelievable series of events including the sinking of the TITANIC. “One awful moment of empty, misty blackness enveloped us in its loneliness, then an unforgettable, agonizing cry went up from 1500 despairing throats, a long wail and then silence and our tiny craft tossing about at the mercy of the ice field.” For most people one sinking would be enough. But four years later Violet, now a nurse with the British Red Cross, was on board the World War I hospital ship BRITANNIC when it struck a mine and sank to the bottom of the Aegean. To her, this disaster was even more horrifying-- “Just as life seeming nothing but a whirling, choking ache, I rose to the light of day, my nose barely above the little lapping waves. I opened my eyes on an indescribable scene of slaughter, which made me shut them again to keep it out." By the end of her story we have a met a woman who could handle whatever life threw at her with determination and good humor. She knew that only by her own strength of character would she survive. But Titanic Survivor is much more. A unique autobiography for those who want to know how it really felt, a story that could be told only by a Titanic Survivor.

The Titanic has one of the most famous stories of an ocean liner in modern history. Its tragic end in the Atlantic Ocean in 1912 affected many lives. This book examines what it was like to be a passenger on that fateful journey, man, woman, or child; rich or poor; young or old, and ways each tried to survive the night that the Titanic sank.