#mytitanicbook

[antnich]

TITANIC: SUPERSTARS AND SCAPEGOATS BOOK REVIEW...

'This book was amazing!!! Anthony Nicholas did a fabulous job, and once again, those who perished on the Titanic are brought to life through the pages of a book.

We learn about the crew, and their heroic efforts to save as many as possible, mistakes that were made, and the band that played as the ship slipped beneath the waves. It is in many ways a profound read that is going to take readers back in time, with a fascinating look at those on board, rather than the sinking of the vessel itself.

Highly recommend this book!'

Reviewer: Rebecca Hill

Source: NetGalley

Reviewer's rating: Five Stars

TITANIC: SUPERSTARS AND SCAPEGOATS. A book by Anthony Nicholas

www.amazon.com

www.pen-and-sword.co.uk

208 pages. Seventeen chapters. Eight sides of black and white illustrations.

Global availability across e-book, hardback and kindle formats.

On sale from branches of Barnes and Noble, Wal- mart, Waterstones, and W.H. Smith.

Also available from Titanic Belfast, the Maritime Museum of The Atlantic in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and via the Titanic Historical Society of Indian Orchard, Massachussetts.

Seventeen Five Star ratings across Amazon and Goodreads.

[antnich]

SCHARNHORST...

A steel grey Tiger Shark, slicing through the icy chop of the North Sea at flank speed. Fully intent on severing the vital supply arteries that, alone, kept Great Britain alive and fighting in the darkest days of World War Two.

Nine eleven inch guns, housed in triple turrets faced with armour plating a full, fourteen inches thick. They wrought deadly work.

Her victims included an aircraft carrier, an armed merchant cruiser, two destroyers, and twenty-two British merchant ships. But she was always on borrowed time.

In February 1942, she led the desperate, daytime breakout from Brest that came to be known as the Channel Dash. Scharnhorst, with her sister ship, Gneisenau and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen 'succeeded where the Spanish Armada failed' in a subsequent lead page editorial in The Times.

Ultimately, the Scharnhorst died as violently as she lived, lashing out desperately at a relentless steel ring of thirteen British and Norwegian warships that finally brought her to bay.

Reduced to a slowly sinking pile of blazing, bloody scrap, she and the great bulk of her brave, fallen crew now lie forever entombed beneath a thousand feet of freezing Arctic sea water, some ninety-three miles away from the North Cape of Norway...

#battleship #kreigsmarine #navalhistory #scharnhorst #gneisenau #worldwartwo #militaryhistory #atlanticconvoys #battleofnorthcape #waratsea #penandswordbooks #mytitanicbook #titanicsuperstarsandscapegoats #Titanic #artoftravel #TWA #travelswithanthony #timetravel #schlachstiffscharnhorst #maritimehistory #thejourneymatters #tigershark #battleoftheatlantic #arcticconvoys #channeldash #hmsglorious #hmsdukeofyork #hmsbelfast #imperialwarmuseum #ssrawalpindi

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[antnich]

REVIEW FOR MY TITANIC BOOK...

'The author's style is engrossing and his descriptions can sometimes verge on the comedic, which helped make this book very enjoyable, easy to read and exceptionally informative.

Key Figures Aboard RMS Titanic is an absolute must read for anyone who has an interest in this modern day Flying Dutchman.

In my view if you want to read any book about Titanic this should be it.'

Official rating: Five Stars

Reviewer: Kirkz

Source: www.arrse.co.uk

#penandswordbooks #mytitanicbook #titanicsuperstarsandscapegoats #Titanic #belfastbuilt #titanicbelfast #titanicbelfastmuseum #titanicexperience #titanichotelbelfast #titanicquarter #harlandandwolff #whitestarline #artoftravel #TWA #travelswithanthony #timetravel #merseysidemaritimemuseum #seacitysouthampton #titanicexperiencecobh #titanicbranson #titanicluxor #titanicpigeonforge #titanichistoricalsociety #MMOTA #abooktoremember #maritimehistory #thejourneymatters #amazonbooks #waterstones #whsmith

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[antnich]

TITANIC: THE GRAND STAIRCASE...

'We leave the deck and pass through one of the doors which admit us to the interior of the vessel and, as if by magic, we at once lose feeling that we are on board a ship, and instead seem to be entering the hall of some great house on shore. Dignified and simple oak panelling covers the walls, enriched in a few places by a bit of elaborate carved work, reminiscent of the days when Grinling Gibbons collaborated with his great contemporary, Wren.

In the middle of the hall rises a gracefully curving staircase, its balustrade supported by light scrollworks of iron, with occasional touches of bronze, in the form of flowers and foliage. Above all a great dome of iron and glass throws a flood of light down the stairway, and on the landing beneath it a great carved panel gives its note of richness to the otherwise plain and massive construction of the wall. The panel contains a clock, on either side of which is a female figure, the whole symbolising Honour and Glory crowning Time. Looking over the balustrade, we see the stairs descending to many floors below, and on turning aside we find we may be spared the labours of mounting or descending by entering one of the smoothly gliding elevators which bear us quickly to any of the numerous floors of the ship we may wish to visit.

The staircase is one of the principal features of the ship, and will be greatly admired as being, no doubt, the finest piece of workmanship of its kind afloat.'

Text from White Star Line promotional brochure for S.S. Olympic and Titanic.

Modelling of the Grand Staircase is the work of Matthew LeWinkeler.

#penandswordbooks #mytitanicbook #titanicsuperstarsandscapegoats #Titanic #belfastbuilt #titanicbelfast #titanicbelfastmuseum #titanicexperience #titanichotelbelfast #titanicquarter #harlandandwolff #whitestarline #artoftravel #travelswithanthony #TWA #timetravel #merseysidemaritimemuseum #seacitysouthampton #titanicexperiencecobh #titanicbranson #titanicluxor #titanicpigeonforge #titanichistoricalsociety #MMOTA #abooktoremember #maritimehistory #thejourneymatters #amazonbooks #barnesandnoble #whsmith

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[antnich]

WINTERWATCH...

The snowfall reminds me of swirls of confetti, caught in the blast of some kind of wind machine. The daytime skies are sometimes a kind of pale, Robin's egg shade of blue.

Other days are wreathed in a pale, pearly mist. The air is almost cold enough to taste. The weak, midwinter sunlight waxes and wanes in subdued, borderline sullen fits.

Twilight is a tremendous celestial canvas. Brush strokes of burnt orange, lilac, pink, purple and flaring umber float across the skyscape, before an early, smothering darkness steals down like a guillotine blade. The crisp carpet of gently undulating snow is speckled with little trails of foot and paw prints. The weak glimmer of the street lamps is borderline anaemic.

The silence is stirred by the sporadic whispering of a car, beetling past with headlights glowing. They look for all the world like maddened, scurrying beetles. The winter wind is as cold as a witche's caress...

#winterwatch #wintersolstice #wintermelody #winterwonderland #naturalbeauty #halfmooneasingtonvillage #greatbritishpubs #pubfayre #dogfriendy #buffet #christmasfayre #northeastengland #princebishops #countydurham #useitorloseit #homefires #hearthandhome #realfires #historiccoachinginns #travelphotography #artoftravel #TWA #travelswithanthony #penandswordbooks #mytitanicbook #titanicsuperstarsandscapegoats #Titanic #thejourneymatters #dogsarefriends #publife

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[antnich]

BELFAST, DECEMBER 1911...

As Christmas approaches and the six weeks' worth of repairs to Olympic after her mid September collision are finally finished, work on completing the Titanic ramps back up to full speed.

The first three of her funnels have now been stepped into place. Scaffolding around the top of Number Three funnel has been rigged, in preparation for installation of the funnel ladder and the dummy steam whistles than can be seen in place on the first, two stacks.

The Welin davits for the lifeboats, plus the boats themselves, are absent from the largely open Boat Deck. On the bow, the eight ton port and starboard side anchors have still to be reattached, but the anchor chains themselves are lowered down, almost to waterline level...

#penandswordbooks #mytitanicbook #titanicsuperstarsandscapegoats #Titanic #belfastbuilt #titanicbelfast #shipbuilding #titanicbelfastmuseum #Olympic #titanicexperience #titanichotelbelfast #titanicquarter #harlandandwolff #whitestarline #artoftravel #TWA #teavelswithanthony #timetravel #merseysidemaritimemuseum #seacitysouthampton #titanicexperiencecobh #titanicbranson #titanicluxor #titanicpigeonforge #titanichistoricalsociety #MMOTA #maritimehistory #abooktoremember #thejourneymatters #amazonbooks

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[antnich]

NEVER A TRUER PHRASE UTTERED...

Mark Twain got this so right, so long ago. These words have lost none of their potency or power with the passage of time. I cannot better them, simply because they can not 'be' bettered, let alone contested.

You have to remember the world of travel as pioneers like Twain would have experienced it. There was no commercial air travel of any kind. The big ocean steamship was more of an interesting, intriguing possibity than a proven globe shrinker.

His was a world of paddle wheelers, thrashing up and down the muddy, majestic Mississippi.They were like tiered white wedding cakes, trailing twin, black ribbons of smoke while the passengers sat on rocking chairs.

Stagecoaches that rattled and shuddered at a bone shaking, bracing clip of knots through still hostile Indian country. Twain would surely have experienced that, too. It must have concentrated that magnificent mind of his quite wonderfully.

And yet, for all of that, the scale of his vision, and the sheer, sweeping sense of cogent thought and tolerance that his collective travel experiences fostered, is truly a thing of wonder. Inspiration in an indifferent age of instant, self indulgent gratification...

#marktwain #huckleberryfinn #paddlewheeler #mississippi #deadwoodstage #stagecoach #ponyexpress #civilaviation #traveliterature #oceanliner #indiancountry #artoftravel #TWA #travelswithanthony #timetravel #thejourneymatters #elegantadventures #goodlife #elegantindulgence #backtothesea #seamagic #seamore #cruise #transatlantic #travelheritage #travelhistory #mytitanicbook #titanicsuperstarsandscapegoats #penandswordbooks #amazonbooks

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[antnich]

TESTIMONY OF JOSEPH SCARROTT, TITANIC ABLE SEAMAN, BOAT FOURTEEN...

Boat Fourteen, made ready for lowering from the Titanic at about 0130 on the morning of April 15th, was the first boat to be rushed by a wave of desperate steerage passengers, surging up from down below.

At the British Inquiry into the disaster, held before Lord Mersey in May of 1912, an Able Seaman named Joseph Scarrott described the mayhem that ensued around that boat...

'I myself took charge of No. 14 as the only sailorman there. The Chief Officer (Henry Wilde) ordered women and children to be taken in. Some men came and tried to rush the boat. They were foreigners and could not understand the orders I gave them, but I managed to keep them away. I had to use some persuasion with the boat tiller. One man jumped in twice and I had to throw him out the third time. I got all the women and children into the boat. There were fifty- four women and four children- one of them a babe in arms. There were myself, two firemen, three or four stewards and (Fifth Officer) Mr. Lowe, who got into the boat. I told him the trouble I had with the men and he brought out his revolver and fired two shots and said: "If there is any more trouble, I will fire at them." The shots fired were between the boats and the ship's side...'

#henrywilde #haroldlowe #josephscarrott #boatfourteen #penandswordbooks #mytitanicbook #titanicsuperstarsandscapegoats #Titanic #titanicbelfast #titanicbelfastmuseum #titanicexperience #titanichotelbelfast #titanicquarter #harlandandwolff #whitestarline #artoftravel #TWA #travelswithanthony #timetravel #merseysidemaritimemuseum #seacitysouthampton #titanicexperiencecobh #titanicbranson #titanicluxor #titanicpigeonforge #titanichistoricalsociety #MMOTA #maritimehistory #abooktoremember #thejourneymatters

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[antnich]

TITANIC; SUPERSTARS AND SCAPEGOATS BOOK. JAMES MOODY...

"All of the horrors at sea seem to happen at night..."

James Paul Moody wrote those fateful words in a letter to his sister, just a few years before his appointment as Sixth Officer of the RMS Titanic.

Scarborough born James was just twenty- four years old at the time of the Titanic disaster. As a junior officer, he should by rights have left in one of the lifeboats to oversee the small, quietly bobbing armada as it evacuated the sagging ship.

Being all too conscious of just how few, trained seamen were left on board the fatally compromised Titanic, Moody instead stayed behind, labouring manically at the boats in a brave, doomed attempt to save every last life on board.

James Moody was last seen by surviving Second Officer, Charles Lightoller. He describes seeing Moody on the roof of the officer's quarters, attempting to cut the ropes on a brace of collapsible lifeboats that were kept in place there.

His body was never recovered. James Moody's sacrifice was needless and noble in the same, searingly poignant instance.

After writing my book, I gradually came to understand that the chapter on this incredibly selfless and heroic young man had affected me by far the deepest of them all...

[antnich]

THE FOUR SURVIVING TITANIC OFFICERS...

In this unique historical snapshot the four, surviving senior officers of the Titanic pose for an image truly destined for the annals of posterity.

From feft to right we see Fith Officer Harold Lowe, Second Officer Charles Lightoller, Third Officer Herbert Pitman seated below Lightoller, and Fourth Officer Joseph Boxhall on the far right.

As a junior officer, Lowe left the Titanic in Boat Fourteen at around 0130. He would later organise the most comprehensive and determined rescue effort of survivors left in the water after the ship sank.

Second Officer Lightoller supervised the loading and lowering of the port side lifeboats. He was still on the ship when she sank, but was washed clear. He managed to subsequently swim to a capsized, half submerged collapsible boat. Along with twenty-two others he stood on the upturned hull until another boat took them aboard.

Herbert Pitman was ordered by First Officer Murdoch to take charge of Boat Five. It left the Titanic at 0043 that night, with around thirty-six people on board. The boat and its occupants were eventually picked up by the Carpathia at about 0600 on the same morning.

Joseph Boxhall was ordered to take charge of Boat Two, which left the Titanic at 0145. The forty-seat boat contained just eighteen souls. It was the first boat to be sighted by the onrushing Carpathia at around 0400 that morning.

Their fellow officers- Chief Officer Henry Wilde, First Officer William Murdoch, and Sixth Officer James Moody, as well as Captain Edward Smith himself-were lost with the ship.

#titanicofficers #penandswordbooks #mytitanicbook #Titanic #titanicsuperstarsandscapegoats #belfastbuilt #titanicbelfast #titanicbelfastmuseum #titanicexperience #titanichotel #titanicquarter #harlandandwolff #whitestarline #merseysidemaritimemuseum #seacitysouthampton #titanicexperiencecobh #artoftravel #TWA #travelswithanthony #timetravel #titanicbranson #titanicluxor #titanicpigeonforge #titanichistoricalsociety #MMOTA #abooktoremember #thejourneymatters #travelhistory #charleslightoller #haroldlowe

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[antnich]

TITANIC'S OFFICERS; PAST LESSONS, RESURFACED...

In previous posts that touched on topics covered in my book, we considered the appalling predicament and pressures that were the lot of the ship's officers on that fateful night.

Here, I want to expand on that in two, particular cases. Namely, Second Officer Charles Lightoller and the young Sixth Officer, James Moody.

Lightoller's life had already been a roller-coaster by the time he came to the Titanic, at the age of 38.

He ran away to sea at the age of 13. When he was 14, Lightoller was working on a sailing ship called the Holt Hill. Storm damage obliged the ship to put into Rio for repairs. At that time, the city was in the midst of both a revolution and a smallpox epidemic.

In 1889, the Holt Hill was wrecked on an island in the Indian Ocean in an accident that killed her first mate. Lightoller and the other survivors were marooned ashore for eight days. He was just 15.

In 1898, a bout of malaria almost ended him. He tried his luck as a rodeo rider in Calgary, and as a gold prospector in the Yukon. When these failed to pan out he rode across Canada by rail, hobo style, and hitched a ride on a steamer bound back to Great Britain.

"All of the horrors at sea seem to happen at night..."

Thus wrote James Moody, soon to be Sixth Officer of the Titanic, in a letter home to his sister, Margaret. After the early death of his mother, he went to sea at the age of 15.

The specific horror he was hinting at was an accident on board the Boadicea, a sailing ship he was seconded to.

One day, three of the ship's sails were torn away in a storm. Soon after, one of the crewmen fell from the topmast during a storm. He landed on the deck, next to where Moody was standing. He died the next day...

#charleslightoller #jamesmoody #penandswordbooks #mytitanicbook #titanicsuperstarsandscapegoats #Titanic #belfastbuilt #titanicbelfast #titanicbelfastmuseum #titanicexperience #titanichotelbelfast #titanicquarter #harlandandwolff #whitestarline #merseysidemaritimemuseum #seacitysouthampton #titanicexperiencecobh #artoftravel #TWA #travelswithanthony #titanicbranson #titanicluxor #titanicpigeonforge #sostitanic

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[antnich]

WHAT COMES BACK...

In writing 'Titanic; Superstars and Scapegoats' I tried to create something best perhaps described as a level of informed empathy.

All of the individuals and groups I write about had families, fears and flaws. They were not supermen. Yet they were confronted with a supreme test of courage and selflessness that any normal person would have buckled and broken under.

I tried to evaluate how their previous life experiences fuelled key decisions made, and how those same experiences played out in their actions that night. Confronted with a raft of sobering, selfless acts of gallantry, I was left both saddened and stunned.

Andrews. Bride and Phillips. Lightoller. Moody, Murdoch and all the rest. I felt the heft and weight of their collective gaze quite keenly. Things had to be set out as clearly, as concisely and, above all, as fairly as my abilities would allow.

This was not an easy book to write. Nor should it have been. For this is not 'Jack' and 'Rose'. These were very real people. They had aspirations. Dreams. Hopes. All of them scythed down in short order, for the most part.

In a very real sense, this is not 'my' book at all; it is theirs. It is all the dedication I can devote to those desperately embattled, twentieth century Spartans of the RMS Titanic...

#Titanic #anighttoremember #penandswordbooks #mytitanicbook #titanicsuperstarsandscapegoats #belfastbuilt #titanicbelfastmuseum #harlandandwolff #whitestarline #timetravel #titanicexperience #titanichotel #titanicquarter #merseysidemaritimemuseum #seacitysouthampton #titanicexperiencecobh #titanicbranson #titanicluxor #titanicpigeonforge #titanichistoricalsocity #MMOTA #TWA #artoftravel #travelswithanthony

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[antnich]

TITANIC: SUPERSTARS AND SCAPEGOATS BOOK...

Titanic. Regal as the Ritz. A 20th century version of The Alamo, re-enacted on the Atlantic. A ship as proud as Pompeii, and every bit as imperilled.

Seventeen chapters of virtual engagement are like time travel set in print. You feel the chill of a night that is as cold as a banshee's breath. Hear the crack, hiss and roar of distress rockets, clawing at the starlit sky. See the pathetic handful of lifeboats, tottering down that floodlit, sagging flank in a series of random, convoluted jerks.

Meet the hopelessly embattled engineers in the tilting steel chasm of the engine room as they strive to stem the unstoppable. And the small, desperate cadre of ship's officers, struggling to save the huddled masses on deck, even as their own chances of salvation sink with every lowered lifeboat...

www.amazon.com

www.pen-and-sword.co.uk

#penandswordbooks #mytitanicbook #titanicsuperstarsandscapegoats #Titanic #pompeii #thealamo #belfastbuilt #titanicbelfast #titanicbelfastmuseum #titanicexperience #titanichotelbelfast #titanicquarter #harlandandwolff #whitestarline #artoftravel #TWA #travelswithanthony #timetravel #merseysidemaritimemuseum #seacitysouthampton #titanicexperiencecobh #titanicbranson #titanicluxor #titanicpigeonforge #titanichistoricalsociety #MMOTA #maritimehistory #abooktoremember #thejourneymatters #travelheritage

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[antnich]

ANTHONY WOOD FROST, TITANIC GUARANTEE GROUP...

Anthony Frost was an outside foreman engineer at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast. In 1912, he was regarded as sufficiently capable to be head hunted by Thomas Andrews to become a member of the nine strong 'guarantee group' assembled to make the maiden voyage of the Titanic.

Hull born Anthony began working for Harland and Wolff at Belfast in 1888. He worked first as a machine boy, before becoming an apprentice the year after. In 1901 he became a leading hand, and was again promoted to outside foreman engineer when his father retired in 1907.

His 1901 marriage to Elizabeth 'Lizzie' Hamilton resulted in the birth of four children; Robert John, Walter Stanley, Marjorie Wood and Doreen Abernathy.

Regarded as extremely capable and able, Anthony went on to oversee the installation of the main power plants on both the Olympic and the Titanic. As part of the guarantee group on the ill starred maiden voyage of the latter ship, he was accommodated in a second class cabin.

Anthony Frost lost his life in the Titanic disaster. His body was never recovered...

#anthonyfrost #foremanengineer #harlandandwolff #queensisland #thomasandrews #guaranteegroup #Belfast #penandswordbooks #mytitanicbook #titanicsuperstarsandscapegoats #belfastbuilt #titanicbelfast #titanicbelfastmuseum #titanicexperience #titanichotelbelfast #titanicquarter #whitestarline #artoftravel #travelswithanthony #TWA #timetravel #merseysidemaritimemuseum #seacitysouthampton #titanicexperiencecobh #titanicbranson #titanicluxor #titanicpigeonforge #titanichistoricalsociety #MMOTA #maritimehistory

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[antnich]

OLYMPIC'S MAIDEN ARRIVAL...

On the afternoon of June 21, 1911, the brand new Olympic rounds the 'knuckle' of Manhattan's Pier 59 at the triumphant conclusion of her maiden westbound crossing.

Some 1, 311 passengers had boarded the Olympic at Southampton, Cherbourg and Queenstown for the voyage. Among them was Joseph Bruce Ismay, Chairman of the White Star Line and Thomas Andrews, the chief architect for both Olympic and the upcoming Titanic. The big liner was under the command of Captain Edward Smith.

Despite some bad weather on the way over, the Olympic had proved herself to be a superb sea boat. Some paint has been stripped from her waterline by the speed she attained en route. The first bow lines can also be seen to have dropped in this shot.

Manhattan accorded the world's largest liner the usual noisy, triumphant firefloat and siren reception. But in an extraordinary snub, the Cunard liner Lusitania- bound downstream for the coronation celebrations for King George V- declined to join in with the choruses of salute to her new rival...

#lusitania #kinggeorgethefifth #coronation #britishmonarchy #penandswordbooks #mytitanicbook #titanicsuperstarsandscapegoats #Olympic #Titanic #belfastbuilt #titanicbelfast #titanicbelfastmuseum #titanicexperience #titanichotelbelfast #titanicquarter #harlandandwolff #whitestarline #artoftravel #TWA #travelswithanthony #timetravel #merseysidemaritimemuseum #seacitysouthampton #titanicexperiencecobh #titanicbranson #titanicluxor #titanicpigeonforge #titanichistoricalsociety #MMOTA #maritimehistory

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