Title: The Last Log of the Titanic
First published: October 3, 2000
Description: "Absolute fascinating--it fills a huge void in the literature of the subject... . Brown's familiarity with the technical aspects of shipdriving, based on his own career at sea, gives him enormous credibility... . The Last Log of the Titanic has more surprises than any book I've seen on the topic in the past 23 years." --Thomas C. Wingfield, Lieutenant Commander, U.S. Naval Reserve  A ship's logbook is like an airplane's "black box" in which all the specifics of a voyage are entered--the full nautical record of the journey. Imagine how fascinating the log entries from the Titanic's last hours would be. Of course, the actual log of the Titanic went to the bottom with the ship and has never been recovered. The Last Log of the Titanic, the first Titanic book written from the perspective of an expert ship handler, subjects the sinking of the Titanic to the brand of professional analysis that until now has been conspicuously missing from the literature on the great liner. Captain David G. Brown reconstructs the events leading up to the disaster, working from eyewitness accounts. He meticulously examines the official testimony given before the U.S. Senate and the British Board of Trade, as well as original newspaper accounts, allowing logic and the rigorous standards of good seamanship, rather than bias and tradition, to reveal the facts of the case. In the process he exposes the many false assumptions, obfuscations, and outright lies that were propagated by surviving crewmembers and passengers, and by White Star officials, as he unearths long-buried truths.
Subjects: Nonfiction, Sports & Recreations, Chronology, Shipwrecks, Titanic (Steamship), Navigation, history