Overview
Main 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.
Table of contents
Introduction. Coal and Ice. Parallel Tracks. A Dark Mass. Cool Hand Murdoch. A Narrow Shave. Blind Faith. Streaming to Oblivion. Time for Us to Leave Her. A Shortage of Women. Illustrations. Notes. Select Bibliography. Acknowledgements. Index.
Author comments
David G. Brown holds a U.S. Coast Guard Master's License, 100 Gross Tons, with Commercial Assistance Towing and Auxiliary Sail endorsements, and teaches professional-level U.S. Coast Guard licensing courses. He also is an instructor for a firm specializing in safety risk assessment, crew training, and license instruction, builds epoxy-composite boats, and restores vintage wooden boats. He was captain of a high-speed ferry serving the western Lake Erie islands and currently owns a harbor tour company on the Maumee River in Ohio. He has worked as a television news producer, and won an Emmy in 1979 for his coverage of the Agent Orange story. He writes monthly columns for Boating World and Offshore magazines and is a regular contributor to many other marine publications. This is his fifth book.
Back cover copy
"Absolutely fascinating - it fills a huge void in the literature of the subject. ...Brown's familiarity with the technical aspects of shipdriving, based on hiw own career at sea, gives him enormous credibility...The Last Log of the Titanic has more surprises that 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 of 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 outrights lies that were propagated by surviving crewmembers and passengers, and by White Star officials, as he unearths long-buried truths.
