Author Description

The crewman's story opens with a rowdy postmortem held on the rescue ship, leaving all in confusion. Then comes a flashback to Titanic's departure from Belfast, her dubious coaling in Southampton, then the voyage itself, with a lively technical tour of the ship to set the scene. After hitting ice, strange things happen. Authentic revelations from crew members such as Beauchamp and Lightoller and experts such as Edward Wilding are pieced together to form a picture which failed to emerge properly in 1912, and has yet fully to emerge today. There is also a new debate about the final music.