Lost Voices from the Titanic

April 1, 2010
Barratt (columnist, "Daily Telegraph", London) begins by placing HMS "Titanic" in historical context with a brief history of the ship's owners and builders. The heart of the story, however, involves survivors' accounts of the voyage and wreck. Here Barratt relies on archival material, much from the UK's National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. This material is compelling to read in full, but Barratt's connecting narrative is uneven. He presents some primary sources without any analysis, while from others he derives baffling conclusions. Several easily avoidable mistakes and inconsistencies (e.g., the number of survivors, which does vary among sources, but Barratt fails to comment on this) are disappointing. The inclusion of excerpts from the official British and American inquiries but not from other authoritative sources further calls into question the book's claim to be comprehensive. And if this is meant to be about the "lost voices," some illustrations of the people featured, instead of the usual images of the ship, would have been enlightening. VERDICT This is not a "definitive" work, nor does it contain actual oral histories, nor were the sources (voices) in any way "lost." However, Barratt's transcripts of some lesser-known primary sources may make this a good companion piece to other books on this subject.Megan Fraser, Univ. of California Lib., Los Angeles

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2010
Barratts idea for distinguishing his version of the well-worked tale of the Titanic is this: to let stand verbatim, in all their contradictions and subjectivity, survivors and rescuers testimony about what happened on the night it sank. Eschewing a narrative, Barratt instead descriptively links such evidence with press articles, forming a chronicle of the fabled ocean liners brief history from construction to destruction. Likely to engage dedicated Titanic buffs, Barratts method reflects the great contemporary interest in the White Star Lines new ship, built to compete with the rival Cunard Lines Lusitania. Barratts volume includes the famous photographs of the Titanic, and of its officers, whose performance navigating the ship, then evacuating its passengers and crew, prompted controversy after the catastrophe. Whether Captain Smith sailed recklessly into an iceberg field; whether shipowner J. Bruce Ismay behaved cravenly; whether there was a panic; whether nearby vessels responded expeditiously to the Titanics distress callssuch debates arose from the differing survivors accounts that Barratt presents. Chock-full of information, this tome definitely has circulation potential.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)