[.ca] The Last Log of the Titanic (ISBN 0071364471)

Hmmmmmm....:
As one of the archaeologists who has visited the Titanic site, piecing together a forensic analysis of the liner's final minutes, I am happy to report that Captain Brown's book forces me to go back to my own analysis with new questions. We all know, for example, that some minutes after the collision, Mr Shephard fell through an open hatch in the tank top - and until this book, I don't think anyone has really taken pause to ask what might have compelled the men in the forward boiler rooms open those floor hatches in the first place. Into this question Brown brings the process known as "hogging," which sheds new and credible light on some of the phenomena observed that night, ranging from the odd cracks and leaks reported by Charles Joughin, to Richard N. Williams' out-of-line door frame and the flood from below that caused the evacuation of boiler room 4. There is much to agree with, and much to disagree with in this book. One small nit arises from Samuel Hemming's (page 124) recollection of carpenter Hutchinson's statement, approximately 10 minutes after the collision: "The ship has half an hour to live, from Mr. Andrews." This clearly contradicts Brown's hypothesis that the ship was not already doomed before it resumed steaming; but at least the author is honest enough to present multiple views even when some of those eyewitness accounts contradict his interpretation of events. A less honest author would have tried to sweep the Hemming account under the rug. I happen to agree with Brown that steaming forward shifted multi-ton masses of water in Boiler Room 6, producing damaging inertial effects that, to one degree or another, sank the ship faster. Agree or disagree, this is (along with the works of Paul Quinn and Walter Lord)one of those truly rare books that, far from being another amongst hundreds of rehashes on an old subject, breathes new life into it.

A CRACKING GOOD READ:
I first read this book in 2000 and found it to be one of the more plausible explanations of the damage suffered by TITANIC when she hit the berg, as well as what happened afterward. Captain Brown has brought what is so lacking in many TITANIC books into LAST LOG OF THE TITANIC--actual shiphandling experience. Captain Brown had also produced an eminently readable text, one which I think most people will have little trouble understanding. I cannot reccommend LAST LOG OF THE TITANIC too highly to everyone, TITANIC buff or not.

Crazy About the Titanic:
Wonderful book. Makes you think!! There is more than the Titanic than most people know.

An exceptionally interesting analysis:
Relying on his own experience of ships, David G. Brown has attempted both to reconstruct the last few pages of the Titanic's log and also to closely analyse the happenings of that night. His interpretation of the impact as being more akin to a grounding has the advantage of closely matching the actual observations of the persons on board that night, much more so than the "grazing collision" described universally elsewhere. Several years ago Walter Lord pointed out in his "The Night Lives On" that there was apparently lethal damage to the bottom of the ship, and Brown's analysis confirms this. Brown also usefully describes how ships actually handle and points out that First Officer Murdoch, just as he told Captain Smith immediately after the crash, tried to "port around" the berg - first putting on starboard helm to turn the bow away from the berg, then port helm to clear the ship's midsection and stern, explaining succinctly why the damage to the ship was limited to the first 200-300 feet. Brown also theorizes on the actual visibility from the crow's nest that night and suggests that the berg may have been sighted as a "dark mass" looming in the distance several minutes before it was seen to be an iceberg and suggests that First Officer Murdoch may have mistaken the "dark mass" for a safe path through ice. One suggestion Brown makes that I tend to disagree with is his contention that the Titanic had been manuevering through ice for some time before the impact. Even a gentle turn in a ship the size of the Titanic will cause the ship to heel noticably, particularly in a ship, like the Titanic, that lacks stabilizers. Passengers should have noticed the ship manuevering instead of maintaining a straight course, but there appears to be absolutely no testimony from anyone that night that the ship was doing anything other than steaming straight ahead. That, however, is a minor issue; this book is extremely interesting, a very valuable contribution to the literature on the subject, and I recommend it highly.

A must-have addition to any Titanic library:
It's not often that one finds a book on Titanic that encourages the reader to evaluate the actions of Titanic's crew from a fresh perspective. Dave Brown challenges the reader with assertions based on practical nautical experience and in so doing, stimulates a reappraisal of the conventional wisdom surrounding the immediate cause and subsequent impact of Titanic's collision with the iceberg. A must-read for any Titanic enthusiast or historian, in my opinion.