The Discovery of the Titanic.

In the original dustsheet. Navy cloth binding with gilt title on the spine.

A superb and well kept edition

I, Martin Frost, have two associations with the Titanic. The first is that Harland of the Belfast company, Harland & Wolff, who built the Titanic was born in Scarborough (where F.B.A. has its UK base) from a very distinguished Scarborough family. The second is that my family once owned Hingley's, the famous Dudley chain manufacturer, and the provider of the anchors and chains to the Titanic. More importantly, my eldest son still has Queen Victoria's Letters Patent for the world's first drop forge hammer upon which Titanic's anchors were forged along with the Titanic's 'seaworthiness certificate' both of which he has dumped in an old cupboard.

Reviews:

• Some years ago, I had seen some or all of the TV documentaries made respectively about the wrecks of the Titanic and the Lusitania, the latter a victim of WW1 three years later. I had recently purchased a copy of Robert Ballard's book 'Exploring the Wreck of the Lusitania', only then to discover that he had also written this. The story of the Titanic includes several never fully-resolved controversies and the repeatedly asked question was 'Was it truly an accident or did individual or corporate incompetence affect what happened?'. Related questions included why several earlier iceberg warnings were ignored and there were few lookouts, why it ventured so close to the Arctic Circle and within the ice belt at close to maximum speed, whether its Captain was as qualified for his role as he should have been and whether or not he was in full control immediately prior to its collision or had its designer and the owners' representative on-board been allowed to overrule him. These were all commonly expressed, and there were several others, but they are not Ballard's concern and appear in other writings.

• Bought this book as a father-in -law building a model but who doesn't like the mystery of the Titanic. Great book and well illustrated. My daughter loved reading about how the ship was discovered and the history of the building and fitting out of the ship and some of the passengers. Fantastic if you are doing a school project. Highly recommended.

• This is a superb book. Beautiful illustrations (mosaic images of the ship lying on the seabed) and wartime photos. Descriptions of the search and find are brilliant.

RMS Titanic was a British passenger and mail carrying ocean liner, operated by the White Star Line, that sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 as a result of striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United States. Of the estimated 2,224 passengers and crew aboard, about 1,500 died, making it the deadliest sinking of a single ship up to that time. The disaster drew public attention, spurred major changes in maritime safety regulations, and inspired many artistic works.

RMS Titanic was the largest ship afloat at the time she entered service and the second of three Olympic-class ocean liners built for the White Star Line. She was built by the Harland and Wolff shipbuilding company in Belfast. Thomas Andrews Jr., the chief naval architect of the shipyard, died in the disaster. Titanic was under the command of Captain Edward John Smith, who went down with the ship. The ocean liner carried some of the wealthiest people in the world, as well as hundreds of emigrants from the British Isles, Scandinavia, and elsewhere throughout Europe, who were seeking a new life in the United States and Canada.

The first-class accommodation was designed to be the pinnacle of comfort and luxury, with a gymnasium, swimming pool, smoking rooms, high-class restaurants and cafes, a Turkish bath, and hundreds of opulent cabins. A high-powered radiotelegraph transmitter was available for sending passenger "marconi-grams" and for the ship's operational use. Titanic had advanced safety features, such as watertight compartments and remotely activated watertight doors, contributing to its reputation as "unsinkable".

Titanic was equipped with 16 lifeboat davits, each capable of lowering three lifeboats, for a total of 48 boats. However, she actually carried only 20 lifeboats. Fourteen were regular lifeboats, two were cutter lifeboats, and four were collapsible and proved hard to launch while she was sinking. Together, the 20 lifeboats could hold 1,178 people—about half the number of passengers on board, and one-third of the number of passengers the ship could have carried at full capacity (a number consistent with the maritime safety regulations of the era). The British Board of Trade's regulations required 14 lifeboats for a ship of 10,000 tonnes. Titanic carried six more than required, allowing 338 extra people room in lifeboats. When the ship sank, the lifeboats that had been lowered were only filled up to an average of 60%.