Shadow of the Titanic: The Extraordinary Stories of Those Who Survived

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Shadow of the Titanic: The Extraordinary Stories of Those Who Survived

3.78 of 5 stars 3.78 · rating details · 421 ratings · 90 reviews

From an acclaimed biographer, a riveting account of what happened to the survivors of the Titanic—to be publishedin the lead-up tothe 100th anniversary ofthe ship’s sinking.April 14, 2012 willmark the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.While much has been written about the great ship, her shocking demise, and those who perished, very little has been devoted to...more

Hardcover, 416 pages

Published March 6th 2012 by Atria Books (first published January 1st 2011)

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Mar 25, 2013 Charles Pirate rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Everyone

Excellent, moving and much needed account of those who survived and highlighting that for some their lives too ended when the boat went down, never understanably being able to shrug it off. The eternal mystery of the first class male passenger who entered the lifeboat dressed as a woman is tantalisingly touched upon but never resolved though it wrecked the lives of several men who were probably wrongly pin pointed as being the man....if he ever really existed ior was it one of the many myths to...more

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Mar 12, 2013 Tony Ruffolo rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

From chapter six, page 209-210:
Excerpts from a letter from a young girl named Elsie Stormont to Bruce Ismay.

It hurt me when I read you wished you had perished. God would never have let your life be spared had he not work for you to do. I have thought sometimes it would be easier to die & be with mother & daddy than live without their love but we haven't to wish for the easiest have we & your life is a useful one, not like mine where I am of no real use to anyone.
I often wonder at G...more

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Jun 07, 2012 Socraticgadfly rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history

Good overall. There's no "Unsinkable" Molly Brown here, but there's plenty of stories about other Titanic survivors.

And, not all of them "survived" as well as Molly Brown. Many widows went through multiple post-Titanic marriages. Some survivors went heavily into debt, perhaps as a coping mechanism. And, several survivors committed suicide. Indeed, one survivor who did not commit suicide nonetheless said she had "died" on April 14, 1912.

There's a bit of a depressing angle to this at times, to be...more

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Oct 30, 2012 Girl with her Head in a Book rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012-challenge, non-fiction, history, titanic

So ... the Titanic. You'd need to be living under a rock to not know that we're coming up on the centenary and you'd need to have been hit on the head with a rock not to realise that the merchandising and general hoop-la that goes with the Titanic was always going to jump up a gear. There's something about that ship going down with everyone in their evening gear that just sends everybody bananas and several books out this year seek to explore why.

Andrew Wilson's book is very, very well done. He...more

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Oct 20, 2012 Taylor Osborne rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have read several books about the Titanic and this one is very haunting. I don't know why I find titanic so fascinating but this book doesn't talk of the ship as much as it tells the life stories of those who survived it. Many, many survivors could never get over surviving the disaster and felt like their lives ended that night as well. Many simply blocked it out and became sad shells of people. The chapter on Ismay was very interesting as history has labeled him a coward- this book shows you...more

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Jul 21, 2012 Shawn Thrasher rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I think this book suffers on two points. One, unfortunately, is the writing. It's soppy and overly romantic - at one point, Madeleine Astor's life is described as being "too far fetched for even fiction of the lowest kind." That sounded really dated to me - what exactly is "fiction of the lowest kind?" Quite frankly, this book could probably rightly be described as "nonfiction of the lowest kind." I understand the premise of the book - what happened after the Titanic sailed - but I think there i...more

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Apr 20, 2012 Ariel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction

I saw this book listed in Entertainment Weekly. It is one of a slew of books put out to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. I have read many books on the subject, the most recent being the fictional book The Dressmaker. The thing that I really liked about this book was how it covered the lives of people after they were rescued. I knew quite a bit about who was on Titanic but not too much much about how the sinking affected their lives after. As it turns out people...more I saw this book listed in Entertainment Weekly. It is one of a slew of books put out to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. I have read many books on the subject, the most recent being the fictional book The Dressmaker. The thing that I really liked about this book was how it covered the lives of people after they were rescued. I knew quite a bit about who was on Titanic but not too much much about how the sinking affected their lives after. As it turns out people's bodies may have been rescued but a lot of them had their souls go down in the north Atlantic.

Eighteen year old Madeleine was on her honeymoon with the richest man on ship, John Jacob Astor. She made into the lifeboat without her husband and although she survived the sinking she seemed doomed to live in the shadow of the disaster. Her story proves the old saying that money cannot buy happiness although she certainly tried with the purchase of a boy toy husband. Her marriages read like a Dominick Dunne novel. It all ended very sadly for her at the young age of 47.

Survivors Lady Duff Gordon and her husband Cosmo are also profiled. Cosmo was reviled for having made it into a lifeboat when so many women and children perished. It was even rumored that the couple paid the crew in their lifeboat to not go back for the dying people in the water. I wanted to read a more factual account of them because I had read Kate Alcott's new book The Dressmaker where they feature prominently. I can't say that either book painted a particularly flattering portrait of them although this book provided a more complete picture. What was really strange was the story of Lady Duff's kimono that she wore on the night of the sinking. Fascinating stuff.

Speaking of reviled, Bruce Ismay embarked from the Carpathia as arguably the most hated man in the world and strangely he seemed to like it that way. People rested the blame of the sinking of the Titanic squarely on his soldiers and were quite upset that he did not go down with the ship as so many husbands and fathers did. He continued a regiment of self punishment that would last the rest of his life.

One thing I found very surprising from this book was that ten survivors committed suicide. You would think that having cheated death they would embrace living but some of them chose to end their lives. People didn't understand post traumatic stress or counseling and therapy as is the norm today. Some survivors chose to never speak of the disaster and instead locked it inside of them where it ate at them like a cancer. Other survivors like Eva hart and Millvina Dean, young children when the Titanic sunk, chose to embrace the notoriety that came with the title of survivor. When the wreck of the Titanic was located by Robert Ballard in 1985 it renewed interest in the story again and the last two survivors were called upon to relate their stories countless times. A rivalry sprung up between Eva and Millvina as to who was the ultimate authority. Ultimately Millivina outlasted Eva and when she passed in 2009 the last living link to the direct survivors Titanic was severed.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about the people on the Titanic and what life was like for the survivors. If you were a man who survived it seemed to be much better for you if you tried to go down with the ship and somehow found your way to a boat once you were in the water like seventeen year old Jack Thayer as opposed to actually seating yourself in a lifeboat like Cosmo Duff and Bruce Ismay. Either way the survivors were haunted by what they saw and heard the night the Titanic sunk and they carried the memories like a weight for the rest of their lives. This is a fascinating book perfect for the hundred year anniversary of the disaster. (less)

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May 12, 2013 Jim rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history, non-fiction, seafaring_tales, true_adventure, biography

This book, as the title indicates, is intended to inform the reader of the post-shipwreck lives of what are presumably the survivors most worthy of note. The problem with writing a tale of this nature is that the most interesting people perished with the ship; the survivors were mostly first class passengers, and the bulk of these were women and children. There is really little to commend these people to anyone: the children are blameless, of course, and the women for the most part were passive...more This book, as the title indicates, is intended to inform the reader of the post-shipwreck lives of what are presumably the survivors most worthy of note. The problem with writing a tale of this nature is that the most interesting people perished with the ship; the survivors were mostly first class passengers, and the bulk of these were women and children. There is really little to commend these people to anyone: the children are blameless, of course, and the women for the most part were passive creatures herded onto the lifeboats by the men on the ship. Of the men who made it into the lifeboats it could fairly be said that many were cowardly, or at least occupying a seat that could have been used by a child. It is noted that many of the upper crust pulled away right heartily in lifeboats that were not even close to being at capacity, ignoring the cries of their fellow passengers who were perishing in the cold waters close by.

The author makes an interesting point when he reveals that males of British heritage were most likely to perish in the wreck, this because of their upbringing, their willingness to patiently form queues, and their reverence for the British code of ethics that required the manly man to ensure the safety of women and children before looking to their own security. Several references are made to instances where a father would escort his wife and child to a boat and, having seen them safely aboard, turned to join the press of men awaiting their doom upon the deck. Compare that to the German gentleman who actually injured a woman by jumping on her as she sat in a lifeboat! Proportionately higher numbers of American and continental European males survived than did their English counterparts. It would be interesting to see how this would play out today...I can envision little old ladies brained by skateboards and trampled by the baggy-pants crowd...but perhaps I have a jaded view of humanity. My point is that the most interesting passengers, the most gallant and courageous, went down with the ship and consequently left no story to tell.

Of the survivors, Mr Wilson takes a number of the most newsworthy and details how their experiences during and subsequent to the sinking affected their lives after they were safely ashore. I won't spoil the book by elaborating, but I will tell you that the book is nicely written and thoroughly researched. Definitely worth a read.

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Apr 10, 2012 Niamh Mcmahon rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have to say I was a little bit disappointed in this book. While I definitely enjoyed it, and some of the survivors stories were amazing, I felt the writing was a bit flowery in spots and the author linked everything that subsequently happened the survivors and every decision they made in their lives to the sinking of Titanic. If they made a bad decision in their lives or ended up with an unsuitable partner then according to the author, it was because they were subconsiously punishing themselve...more

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Nov 28, 2011 Sarah (Head Stuck In A Book) rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: review-copy, titanic, non-fiction, historical, owned-and-read

I've said before that I read anyhting to do with the Titanic and this book was so good.
We all know that the Titanic sank on the 15th April 1912, we know that 1,500 men, women and children died that night, but what we don't really know is what happened to the survivors after the ship sank.
This is one thing I've always been interested in, peoples lives afterward and they're not really happy stories.
A tremendous amount of people refused to speak of the Titanic ever again, some people ended up killi...more

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Jan 11, 2013 Suzy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

Outstanding writing. Fascinating topic.

This book covers in detail what happened on that fateful night, as experienced by the survivors. The temperature in the air, the music, the attire, the events, the attitudes... this book makes you feel like you are on the ship amongst the passengers. That alone is a story, as we all know. What we don't know is what happened to those survivors. How did the sinking of the titanic affect them? What happened to them in the years afterwards? What lives did they...more

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Mar 21, 2012 Kathleen Hagen added it · review of another edition

Shadow of the Titanic: The Extraordinary Stories of Those Who Survived, by Andrew Wilson, Narrated by Bill Wallis, Produced by Audiogo ltd. Downloaded from audible.com.

This book takes us beyond the sinking of the Titanic itself. Here we see that night from the standpoint of the passengers who survived, and then we witness the aftermath for some of these passengers whose lives were changed. None of them ever forgot that night, the horrible yelling of 1,500 people drowning as the ship went down, t...more

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May 20, 2012 Terry rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

As 2012 is the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the "Titanic," I thought it was time I should read some actual books about the events of April 15, 1912. So, like my summers with Doris Day, the Roosevelts and the Civil War, 2012 will be the summer of the "Titanic." This was the first book I read on the subject and it’s really quite good. The first two chapters are so well written, they gave me nightmares. The book is very well researched, almost to a flaw – it really bogs down when several pag...more

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Apr 22, 2012 Grace rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012-all, 2012-new, nonfiction, library-brooklyn

So this was a much better organized book than the other I just recently read and all the information about what happened after the sinking was interesting. I'd say about half of it was information I already knew, although in spite of that fact (particularly as it relates to Madeleine Astor, Ismay, Cosmo Duff Gordon) I don't think I'd ever realized how many of the survivors ended up living fairly depressing lives. But this still felt incomplete, or at least somewhat lacking.

There was a heavy focu...more

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Apr 16, 2013 Jennifer rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: autobiography-biography, historical-non-fiction, non-fiction

An incredible collection of survivor stories that have been blended with biographical research into an addictive and highly readable tale of what happened to those who survived the sinking of the Titanic. Andrew Wilson has taken the stories of the survivors that we know and thoroughly details inconsistencies, realities, and the motivations/reasons of the survivors. Some of these stories are beyond tragic while others provide hope in the determination to survive and live life for those who had pe...more

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Apr 22, 2013 Nancy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

For the most part this was a well done account of the lives of a selected group of Titanic survivors after this tragic event. However, I rated the book only as 3 stars because of the liberties the author took in providing the final thoughts of some individuals at the ends of their lives. I found it especially egregious when he described the dying thoughts of several suicides as if he were working from a transcript of their last musings. This is not a novel; it is a work of nonfiction. As such, t...more

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Apr 16, 2012 Stephanie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Anything Titanic related will get at least 2 stars from me. In the case of this book, I liked the new angle of starting with the sinking and then finding out what became of those lucky passengers that were given a second lease on life. Some of these stories are so interesting and wacky that you'd find them improbable if they were in fiction.

The only real complaint I have is the interpretive license the author uses, particularly when addressing the psychological state of the survivors. I felt th...more

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Aug 22, 2012 Haley rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorite-nonfiction-books

I love the premise of the book: Wilson explores the legacy--often haunting--of the Titanic on those who survived the disaster. Of particular interest is J. Bruce Ismay, who was probably the most haunted as a first-class man who survived when so many others did not and who held great responsibility as the ship's owner.

The only aspect that I didn't like is that, occasionally, Wilson presumes to know what some of the survivors were thinking when they died years later. He devotes one chapter to tho...more

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Jun 03, 2012 Craig rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Interesting book. The story of selected survivors "post-sinking" lives is intriguing and frequently very compelling. My biggest problem with this book is the inability of Wilson to resist the temptation to play psychiatrist and mind reader. He continually tells us what people were thinking about at various times in their lives post Titanic, when there is really no way he, or anyone, could know this. I almost threw the book away when he told me what one person was thinking just be a suicide. Enou...more

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Apr 15, 2012 Amy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is an interesting read as it takes the passengers past Carpathia to what happened in their lives after the sinking of the book. He does a good job of telling the stories of the individuals. My biggest complaint of the book is that the author tries to hard to link things in a survivors life back to the Titanic tragedy. Also as reporter, he completely ignores know facts that eye witnesses remember evens differently than other eye witnesses and that eye witnesses testimony will be influen...more

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May 26, 2012 Melody rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I've always been interested in survivor stories about Titanic so naturally I really enjoyed this collection of what happened to those that survived.

I loved how the author summarized their last moments on the ship leading up to the rescue by the Carpathia and eventual docking in NYC.

I had never read about what happened to the survivors after the wreck and was surprised at how many where plagued the rest of their life.

The only reason I didn't give a full 5 stars was I found the survivor stories...more

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Mar 21, 2012 Nancy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history, non-fiction

Andrew Wilson tracked some of the survivors of the Titanic and tells their story in this book.
As in any tragedy, there is a certain amount of survivor guilt. There are those who cannot stop talking about the wreck, others who cannot talk about it at all and others who find the trauma too much and take their own lives.
The story starts with the sinking and the experiences of some of the passengers in the lifeboats and continues to what happens on board the Carpathia rescue ship. After that, doc...more

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Apr 26, 2013 Eddy Allen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: arts-and-historical

April 14, 2012 will mark the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. While much has been written about the great ship, her shocking demise, and those who perished, very little has been devoted to the hundreds of survivors. In Shadow of the Titanic, Andrew Wilson offers a moving look at how their lives were affected by living through this catastrophic event.

For the first time ever, those who lived to tell the tale reveal how they coped in the aftermath. Using archival research and interv...more

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May 02, 2012 Amy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, biography, best-books-of-2012

I thoroughly enjoyed this book -- there wasn't a bad or boring spot in the whole book!

It literally is the stories of those who survived this terrible ordeal. Also, there is a chapter about those who survived the initial disaster, only to die by suicide or other circumstances before their time.

It is amazing the number of people who survived the Titanic disaster who passed away in later years on the date that the ship hit the iceberg (April 14th) or actually sunk (April 15th).

I highly recommend t...more

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May 13, 2012 Robert Simpson rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

While some of the author's prose is a tad speculative, this is an engaging book which takes the Titanic story beyond the night of the disaster and the immediate aftermath. It serves to remind us that there were real lives and families impacted by the disaster, and some of their stories are as fascinating as those of the Titanic itself.

The overall balance probably suggests that the shadow of the Titanic was an ominous one for those who experienced the disaster, but there are some glimmers of posi...more

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Jul 05, 2012 Kirsti rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Wow! What an engaging and fresh view of the Titanic! Many of the books I've read in the past focused on those who died, and if they mentioned the survivors, it was never beyond their voyage aboard the Carpathia. This was a fascinating look into their lives after the disaster, and how sad some of them were. So many people died on the Titanic, but the loss of life continued on long afterwards, with suicide and depression, as well as other mental illnesses, taking the survivors years later.

I think...more

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Apr 13, 2012 Carien rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is both a fascinating and emotional read.

Just the introduction alone had me crying I will confess.

The chapters after that follow the lives of several survivors, telling not only about the sinking and what came after, but also telling about the lives these people had before the Titanic.

It's amazing and sad to read about how the sinking of the Titanic changed the lives of these survivors (mostly for the worst although some found strength and even love) and how even years later they still can'...more

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Jan 17, 2012 Paul Pessolano rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

“Shadow of the Titanic” by Andrew Wilson, published by Atria Books.

Category – History/Maritime

The three most recognized words in the world at supposedly, God, Coca-Cola, and Titanic.

“Shadow of the Titanic” is not a story about the sinking of the “unsinkable” ship, but rather a study of those who survived. April 14, 2012 will be the 100th anniversary of the sinking and on May 31st, 2009 the last remaining survivor, Millvina Dean died. She was only 3 months old when she and her mother were rescued...more

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Sep 16, 2012 Rachael Hewison rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: history-titanic

Having read many Titanic books previously, I can safely say that this is definitely one of the greatest. Instead of rehashing the same information about the sinking over again, Wilson has gone for a novel approach, an area that we often neglect to consider; what happened in the lives of the survivors after that fateful night?
Wilson has chosen his subjects well and selected an interesting and varied cross-section of survivors to discuss and each has their own incredible life story. In fact all co...more

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Apr 29, 2013 Marissa rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was actually an amazing read. Everyone is familiar with the Titanic, from the sinking to the Carpathia rescuing the people in the lifeboats and it's arrival in New York. But, for the most part, that's where the story seems to stop. This book was basically a follow up on some of the survivors and their life after the Titanic. Some I have heard of, like Bruce Ismay and Madeleine Astor, but there were plenty that I haven't heard of before. It was interesting to see the impact such an event had...more

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